“Fear Not, For I Am Your God” Part One

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 928 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Phil Enlow: Praise God! I appreciate that testimony. I believe the Lord has made us part of one family and it’s Him that’s done it. There isn’t any of us that can look in the mirror and say, I deserve to be favored of God or blessed of God. It’s all in mercy isn’t it?

Turn if you will to Isaiah 41. I had this scripture come to me last night and judging from the songs that have been sung, the words that have been said this morning, even the prayer that was prayed, this seems pretty appropriate. I’ll begin and just read a few verses and then we’ll just kind of go from there as the Lord leads.

In verse 8, the Lord is speaking…He says, through his prophet, “But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend, I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, You are my servant; I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (NIV).

That sound kind of familiar? Praise God! You know I want to interject something into this because I think it helps us to understand the prophets, and the message, and the words, and to understand who it is that God is addressing here, because I believe we need to see this in the light of the New Testament. You know Paul, as we’ve said many times…let’s just turn briefly to Romans chapter 9, because this passage, and I don’t want to go through a lot of it, but I want to comment on one particular thing.

This passage helps to explain the Old Testament in that you will look through Isaiah and you will see…and other prophets…and you will see great denunciations of Israel for its evil. You know, it’s like, “you’re so bad you’re almost worth throwing out” in places, and, “I’m judging you” and all these terrible things, and then the Lord turns around and says, comfort my people. He addresses them as His people. How do you account for that? How do we understand that? How do we see…who God is talking to when He says the things that He’s saying?

I believe we have a key in Romans chapter 9. I’d like to go down a little further than I sometimes go because God emphasizes that He has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy. He doesn’t explain why He makes the choice He does, just that He does. And so somebody who is inclined to be God’s judge will jump up and say to God, that’s not fair. And God says basically, without explaining Himself, He says, who are you to judge Me? I’m paraphrasing the thought there.

And then He says this in verse 22 which is a real key to the Old Testament. It says, “What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath--prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory--even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?”

Now there’s a key there. Right before this He’s talked about the potter having the right to do with…what He wants with the clay. He can take the same lump of clay and He can make one vessel for something that’s very common and ordinary and make another one for a very noble purpose. What’s He talking about when He’s referring to the clay--what clay is He talking about?

( congregation inaudible ).

Well He’s talking…yeah, He’s talking about us, but in the context Paul is dealing with the question of the Jews. How do we account for so many Jews being…rejecting Christ, and only a small remnant actually believing. The clay that He’s talking about is Abraham’s flesh--Abraham’s natural descent. Each of those are part...they’re all drawn from his flesh, but yet God makes two different kinds out of them. And He describes these two different kinds…one as objects of his wrath.

And so when God is giving these great denunciations in the prophets, that’s who He’s addressing. He is addressing those who have rejected Him, those who have refused to listen to His voice, and gone their own way, and of course, He also refers to a different kind…said God put up with them for many years…centuries, in fact. God tolerated them and though He poured out judgments, there was always an element of mercy, there was always an element of restoration. And the element of restoration was because God also, in Abraham’s flesh, had objects of mercy. And God was fulfilling His purpose through those objects of mercy. So there were basically two kinds of Jews weren’t there?

So do you think, for example, when God through the prophet in Isaiah 40 says, comfort my people--comfort my people…was He talking to the rebels? Was He talking to the objects of wrath? No. That was addressed specifically, not to the nation as a whole, but to the objects of mercy within the nation. So when we read these prophecies and see the different…the very contrasting, if you will, things that it says, we need to understand who it is that God is addressing.

Now we know from reading through the prophets, you see the different characteristics of the two kinds, don’t you? You see on the one hand God extending His hand all day, stretching forth His hand to a disobedient people, to a gain-saying, to a stiff-necked, stubborn…. And those are qualities, those are characteristics, if you will, of people who have said no to God. Whenever He talks, they always have a resistance in them to what He says. There is a self-justification element there to the point where some of them were religious and were looking down their nose at other people and saying, stand by yourself, I’m holier than you are. Self-righteousness is a characteristic of vessels of wrath. The stubbornness, the choice to continue in sin, to resist God’s mercy, all of these things are characteristics of these objects of wrath.

But on the other hand you will find that there are objects of mercy and their characteristics are when God speaks, they listen. There’s a humility of spirit. They’re not perfect people by any stretch, they’re sinners just like everybody else, but there’s a repentant spirit about their sin. There is a penitence, there is a willingness to humble and say, oh God, help me, I need you, Lord. There’s that quality about them and you can see the characteristics of the different response to God’s dealings with the nation.

And so when we read virtually any prophecy in the Old Testament, you need to know who He‘s talking about. But now this actually goes beyond the lump of clay we talked about, that is Abraham’s flesh, because Paul does not stop when he’s talking about the objects of mercy whom He prepared in advance for glory, He doesn’t stop with the Jews, does He? He says, “…Even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?”

You know we’ve read recently, in fact Wednesday night I think we referred to Romans chapter 4, where God makes it plain through the apostle that Abraham’s children are based upon the principle of faith. That is, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a Jew or Gentile, if you are a believer, you are Abraham’s child, because God was bringing forth a family of those who were begotten of that faith.

And so this sheds even a different light and I believe we can see that in this passage. It takes this away from simply being a historical example and makes it a message that is relevant to you and to me today. It is a message to us from God. So don’t just say, well this is something real neat that God said to some people a long time ago and it’s a nice example, and isn’t that nice. No! God wants to talk to you and to me today.

All right, let’s listen to what He said here. “But you, O Israel, my servant….” Now that alone conjures up the account of how the name Israel came to be in the first place. Do you remember what happened? Do you remember where that happened? You had a man named Jacob who was the grandson of Abraham, heir to the promises, but he was a bit of a rascal, not unlike some of us. He was a schemer, he was just somebody trying to scrabble his way through life and make his way, and lots of obstacles, lots of problems, and he reached a point in his life where he was terrified. He was going back home but he had had a serious falling out with his brother. He cheated him and he just figured he was in for a rough go.

Somehow, I don’t know how he knew who this man was. It says he wrestled with a man at night. He was alone on this particular occasion, just on the cusp of facing this situation. Somehow he knew that this was a divine encounter. I don’t know how he knew this, but he wrestled with him. And when it became almost daylight, this angel as it turns out said, let me go, it’s almost daylight. What did Jacob say? I will not let you go unless you bless me. There was a sense of desperation. There was a sense in him of his own weakness and his own need. That’s a characteristic of God’s people. Today if you feel a need and a desire to serve God, you ought to be shouting!

( congregational amens ).

…Because the people that are not God’s chosen don’t feel that. They don’t have that kind of a sense about them. God does not go out looking for the strong and the mighty, and the self-confident, and the self-righteous, He looks for people who are in need. That’s who His heart is drawn to. And as a result of this encounter that Jacob had with the angel, God changed his name. And the name Israel was given to him because as a prince with God, you’ve prevailed.

So God is addressing this kind of people. There’s a spiritual type there that is passed on to all of God’s chosen people down through the ages. Israel, my servant, Jacob! Now I realize that there are choices, there are choices to surrender and to believe that we…as far as we’re concerned, we exercise. But I’ll tell you, when you look behind that, you’re gonna see that God does the choosing ultimately. You can argue the theology behind that, but I’m gonna say God…that He’s addressing people and says, whom I have chosen. God is the initiator. Boy, that takes a load off my shoulders as though I had to somehow hang on for dear life to God. Thank God, He does the choosing!

( congregational amens ).

If you’re His this morning, it’s because He chose you!

( congregational amens ).

And He chose you knowing all about you. There isn’t a thing about you that God didn’t know up front. It’s not like some of us when we sign something and then we discover the fine print later to our chagrin. There’s no fine print. God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows things about you that you don’t know yet, that will cause you great shame and embarrassment when you find out…and I would say the same thing about me. I’d better make that “us.” But God knows those He calls and He displays his character by doing it anyway. Praise God! Praise God! He knew all about Jacob and all about his trickery, all about his weaknesses. He says, I’ve chosen you. “…You descendants of Abraham my friend….”

Now again, in the light of the New Testament, who are the descendants that He’s talking about? Is that just the Jews? No! That’s anybody here that God has called to himself. Praise God! We are descendants of Abraham! He is our father, so far as the plan and purpose of God is concerned. We are as much God’s chosen people as any Jew who ever lived. Praise God! It has nothing to do with these physical things. It’s a spiritual descent, isn’t it? “…Whom I have chosen….”

Now look at the language that He uses. He says, “I took you from the ends of the earth….” You know that phrase, that expression right there brings us into it doesn’t it? You look back a few verses and you’ll talk about how God has sought to make His name known in the earth. He’s declared, I’m the one who has arranged everything. I was there in the beginning, I’m here now. I’ll be there at the end, and He says in verse 5, “The islands have seen it and fear; the ends of the earth tremble.”

So He’s talking about the Philippines. He’s talking about all the remote places of the earth where people live. He’s not talking about Palestine…not confining his remarks to Palestine, is He? I’ve called you from the ends of the earth. He goes on to describe the idolatry of the people from the ends of the earth but yet, out of that God has called a people. He has chosen and called a people unto Himself. Praise God! It’s exactly like Douglas said. We’re gonna get to the end, and we’re gonna look back and we’ll say, Praise God! You worked--You worked in spite of me, you worked in spite of every circumstance. You are my God. I put my trust in You, but You were the one who apprehended me, and you have done all that’s been done. I praise you! I have chosen you, I took you from the ends of the earth, I called you. It kind of sounds like God is in charge--like God’s able. Praise God, doesn’t that sound pretty good to you?

( congregational amens ).

It sounds awesome to me. “I called you. I said you are my servant.” We didn’t volunteer, oh God, I want to be Your servant. Oh please, pretty please. I said! God has made a declaration, “You are my servant; I have chosen you and have not rejected you.” Whew!

( laughing ).

Praise God! Praise God! Think…just ponder those words. All of these declarations of God over and over, think about the people to whom He was declaring these things. They surely felt very small, very weak. They looked around and things didn’t look good. They heard the pronouncements of judgment just like everybody else did. They saw the wickedness of people around them who didn’t care about God. They were just…they were doing their own thing. Some of them were very religious, looking down at them and they just felt very insignificant.

God what about…I just don’t understand the great promises you made. Look at how things are. Oh God, I just don’t get it. Is it all going to come to nothing? Are you just gonna…are all the promises gonna go begging because people are so wicked? And God continually came back and said, no. Yes the nation is in terrible condition but there’s good in it. There’s a people that I have preserved.

Think of the time of Elijah, this great man of God who from his perspective He was convinced that he was the only one. And God had to say, I have reserved 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Now how did that come about? God said, I have reserved them.

You and I are powerless against the power of darkness that would entrap us, that would hold us and keep us captive. But Jesus said, the gates of Hell will not prevail against His church! God has the power to reach into hell itself, if it’s necessary and those gates cannot keep us in if God calls, if God chooses, if God works. We do not come on our own merit. We don’t come in our own strength and ability. We come because God is working out a great sovereign purpose from the foundation of the world. Whew! Again that takes the burden and the fear away, doesn’t it?

So, what’s the consequence of all this? I have chosen. I took you. I called you. “I said, you are my servant; I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear….” You know it just seems like…you can see the way the devil works on different kinds of people. These vessels of wrath are proud, self-willed. And so the devil kind of builds on that. And he will tell you whatever you want to hear to make that principle in you stronger. He doesn’t have to beat you down, he wants to build you up and make you feel okay and justified and you know whatever it is, you’re gonna come out on top. You’re gonna be the one on top looking down and being critical on somebody else. The devil is gonna build on that kind of quality.

But if you’re one who has a sense of your own weakness, your own need, he is gonna jump on you with all fours and try to grind you down and tell you that you are worthless, that all is hopeless…that the Lord doesn’t care about you, that the Lord is gonna reject you over all of those things. You see the difference. So God’s people are a people that have a tendency to fear.

You know, I was thinking about this. This does not say, never feel fear, does it? What’s his point when He says. don’t fear? What He’s talking about is giving in to a spirit of fear. It is allowing the fear that we feel to control what we do, and what we say, and how we react. God wants us to be able to rise above the fact that we may even feel fear because we all do, don’t kid yourself. I know you’re not. I know you’re…but everyone of us is afraid. The devil will go through our lives just causing us to be afraid of this, afraid of that…I don’t measure up, I’m not as good as them, I can’t do this…1001 things that are personalized to you and your weaknesses.

And what God is saying is, I’m the one who has chosen you! I’ve called you! Don’t be afraid. Don’t react to fear. Don’t give in to the spirit that would cause you to say, I can’t, I’m no good…all of those natural things that you would feel. I imagine when David faced Goliath…the Bible doesn’t really say all these things, but I guarantee that there was an attempt by the devil to cause him to feel emotions of fear. You don’t look at a giant who’s fully armed and you’re standing there with a sling and not have feelings of fear. But David made a choice to trust the God that he had proved in his life and to go out anyway. He simply…there was a spirit of faith that trumped the spirit of fear!

And that’s what God is wanting to minister to everyone of us. There’s not a person here who’s not afraid of something. There’s not a person here who is not attacked by fear of your failure, your weakness, your inability, some mountain that looms before you, some obstacle, some opposition, some spirit that’s maybe had a hold on your life and you’re afraid that you’ll never get free, and God will get tired of messing with you. Well, this is the kind of people God is addressing here by saying, I have chosen you. It gets our eyes back on the fact that God has taken hold of us, that God is on our side, and God is with us, and there’s no ground for us to give in to the fear that we all feel! So do not fear.

Why shouldn’t we fear? “I am with you.” I am with you--I am with you. You know God’s being with us is not something we have to ‘feel’ all the time. In fact many times we don’t. From the standpoint of our perception, our emotions, our…what we see and feel in every area of our lives, God can seem a million miles away, but His Word which doesn’t change, spoken by One who cannot lie says, I’ll never leave you! I will never forsake you!

I don’t see a condition in that, do you? I don’t see where God says, if you will just keep on trying, I’m gonna reward your efforts. I’m there to cheer you on. It’s up to your strength, but I’m gonna just encourage you. No! That’s not it. I am with you!

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