Fear Not, I AM With You
Notes
Transcript
This morning is the third in a series of four messages entitled Fear Not. The command to not fear is the most common command found in Scripture. I believe there are two reasons for this. The first is our propensity to give in to fear and the second is God’s fatherly love for His children. Just as a human parent’s heart is broken when they see their children in fear, so our Heavenly Father is broken hearted when He see us in fear.
God had given Isaiah a crystal clear into the future, because of Israel’s apostasy, God was going to send first the Assyrians and then the Babylonians. Many would die, cities would be destroyed, the Davidic dynasty would be dethroned, and the Temple would be razed to the ground. This was the message that Isaiah brought to the people, through him God called the people to repentance, but the people would not repent. Isaiah saw this and I am sure the tiny remnant of true believers saw it as well. Their hearts must have been filled with fear about the future.
It is in this context that God gave Isaiah a second Word: “Fear not, I am with you.”
As heirs to the promises and members of the true “Israel of God” (Gal 6:16), this is the message that God has for you today. Our hearts too are filled with fear concerning the future. It will probably be two years of more until there is a vaccination for the coronavirus, our nation and world cannot remain on lockdown much longer. Already we are seeing economic and civil unrest. The world’s economy must be opened up again and when it does there will be additional outbreaks. The question is not if we will contract the coronavirus, but when and God is here today speaking this word of comfort to you:
But you, Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the offspring of Abraham, my friend;
you whom I took from the ends of the earth,
and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, “You are my servant,
I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
In verse ten, God tells believers not to fear because He is with them. Last week I established that the Apostle Paul teaches us that New Covenant believers are heirs to all the Old Covenant promises and that in Christ every one of those promises is YES! Consequently, this is a word not just to the people of Isaiah’s day, but it is a word to us!
The first thing I want you to notice in this passage is that God is with us because He has chosen us. The debates about how we are elected have gotten so decisive that many Christians have totally written off the doctrine of election and consider it bad form to even speak of it. This to too bad, because regardless of how God elects us, it is without question that believers are called “the elect”. Moreover, God calls us “the elect,” because He wants to comfort us, not divide us.
The comfort is this, God is with His elect in a way that He is not with unbelievers. Our text says that it is from the four corners of the earth, from all the nations, God has gathered the elect to Himself. This show us how much He cares for us. No matter how far you feel you are away from God, God is with you and He has come to gather you in!
What does a little child cry when they are afraid, “I want my mommy!” or “I want my daddy!” It does not matter how kind, strong and caring the other adults around them are, they want their mommy or daddy. In this passage God is saying to you, “I am your daddy and I am with you. Don’t be afraid.”
Another comfort of being elect, is that we share in the promises of Abraham. I have already spoken of this, but I want you to notice what verse 8 says:
But you, Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the offspring of Abraham, my friend;
Why does God tell the people of Isaiah’s day this? It is because all the good promises of God are dependent upon a person being a "offspring” of Abraham. This is why Galatians 3:29 is such an important verse. We looked at it last week, but I want to read it again, so you will not miss it.
And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
Notice that Paul is using the exact same words as Isaiah, “Abraham's offspring.” When we are in a situation that causes us to fear, we need to remember all the good promises that God has promised us.
A third comfort of being chosen by God is that fact that God has a purpose for our lives. We not only share in the promises of Abraham, but also in the purpose of Abraham. God’s purpose for Abraham was that He would be a blessing to others and that is God’s purpose for your life. Do not imagine that the coronavirus or anything else can prevent God from fulfilling His purpose for you. Two of my favorite verses in the Psalms are Psalm 57:2 and Psalm 138:8: Psalm 57:2 reads:
I cry out to God Most High,
to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
Psalm 138:8 reads:
The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me;
your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.
Do not forsake the work of your hands.
What a comfort this is. No child of God has ever died prematurely. I want to pause as speak a special word of comfort to those who have lost a child, whether it was before birth or after. Your child did not die prematurely. Although it is difficult for us to see how the purpose of their life could have been fulfilled, we must believe God’s Word, not our understanding. God was with them, just as He is with you right now.
The fourth comfort we have from being chosen by God is that He will not cast us off. We find this at the end of verse 9:
you whom I took from the ends of the earth,
and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, “You are my servant,
I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
Isn’t this our greatest fear? The fear of being cast off. We have this fear because all of us have been cast off by someone else. Not only that we see it all around us. Moreover, we have given God good reason to cast us off. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The context of this passage is the judgement God would be visiting upon Israel because of her sin. Many unbelieving Israelites would be cast off, but God wants the believing Israelites to know that He will never cast them off, even though they would have to undergo the same hardships that was befalling the nation.
In this life, believers suffer like the rest of humanity, but never, never think for a moment that this is an indication that God has cast you off. God has promised to never leave you nor forsake you!
What a comfort this is as we go through this troubled time caused by the coronavirus. God is with you; He will not cast you off.
Finally, being chosen by God means that God will strengthen, help and uphold you.
fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
God is with us to help us. His hands pick us up and hold us close to His heart. I am not going to speak more of this now, because the fourth I AM verse is found in verse 13, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you,” but I do want to point out this in closing: In verse 10, tells us not to be dismayed, because He is our God. Being dismayed is another way of saying that we are afraid. The greatest benefit to being chosen by God, is that He becomes our God. There are many false god’s out there, but there is only one true God. One of the things that the coronavirus has done is that it has exposed false gods. There are so many things that people relied upon and now they are gone! Sometimes we need to lose everything, in order to discover that everything is God! As Paul says, “All things are yours, …you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s” (1 Cor 3:21)!
Perhaps you have been secretly worshiping one of the false gods of this world, isn’t it time that you repented and put God back in the place He deserves?
Perhaps you have forgotten who is on your side, it is God! God is you God and no problem is too big for Him!
“Fear not, I AM with you,” this is God’s word to you this morning.