God's Faithfulness: 7 -Fear Not-s

I've lived 81 years in this world and have been privileged to be in God's family for 68 of those years and I'm still amazed at God's grace. He's arranged events and things within those events to bring us to this situation that we're in now and so with grateful thanks I'm going to pray. Father, you listen to the Lord's people down through the generations and sometimes there's been serious times like this that have come across thy people.

We remember Moses prayed one time because the Lord's people were in the straits and he said if thy presence go not with us carry us not up hence and Ezra prayed. So Father, I would like to pray for this nation as a citizen of this country and perhaps for this world. Hear our prayer.

Our country has sinned. We have failed thee. We have turned away from the faith of our fathers.

We've turned away from the fundamentals on which this nation was established. We've turned away from the Bible, from the value of human life. People have been looking for pleasure.

Please, Father, in heaven, hear our prayer and if it would please thee, heal our land and give us words to say from thy spirit at this moment. I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

When the governor of this state, Washington, where I live, issued a stay-at-home order two months ago for senior citizens, and I happen to be one of them, and people who live in a compromised condition, my wife is in compromised condition, my gracious Heavenly Father on that very same day issued an advisory to me in the Bible. I happen to be reading in the book of Isaiah and writing my way through that, those passages that speak of a time when there was big problems in that day. I mean, the Middle East was in turmoil.

Armies were marching. Preachers were preaching, but people were going further and further astray. And it seemed like almost like Isaiah might have been half in a panic.

But then I got these words from Isaiah chapter 43. Now some of you, I've already talked about this to you, but if I haven't gotten over it, which I haven't, and I hope I never will, maybe it will help you too. I'm going to read these words that came to that faithful preacher, Isaiah.

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 Sheba 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. Now if you have your Bible open, you could probably see right there that there are seven specific statements made by God to people like you and I who are in a crisis situation.

Mind you, Isaiah wasn't the only one. David hit one one time and he was that frustrated that he already knew what to do because the enemies were outside and he was in a state of despair. But then when he got his eyes off himself and off the situation around him, he said, my times are in thy hand.

I would like us all here today in this Refuge Series to understand that everything's under control. God's not dead. He's allowed all this.

During this time of pandemic, you and I can either be positive or negative. That's up to you and up to me. But fear not, so not just for pandemics, but there are things to live by.

That's who we are. We're living in a fearful world where people are afraid to live and they're afraid to die. So I would like to assure you all that God enters into every situation, every situation, and he's involved for a number of reasons.

We just read some of them. He created us. He formed us.

He redeemed us. He knows us by our own names. And he has clearly stated that he is our Lord, our Savior.

So I would like you to lift up your hearts and find this rock of our salvation, this fortress that our Lord is, and find that the place where you find your joy and your hope. This can be a time of great joy as well as suffering. Yes, this week, a lady that I know, her oldest son died.

She was actually in our assembly of COVID-19. It's hard. I wish we could go there and put our hand on her shoulder and assure her.

But my wife, even though she's sick, she uses the phone and she's been talking to our sister. Fear not. Well, why not? Well, firstly, fear not.

I have redeemed thee. Now, understand redemption is salvation by a sacrifice. Redemption has to be paid for.

It's not something that comes to us just automatically. There's a price to redeem a soul. That means that you and I have been purchased by somebody.

Who is that that has purchased you and me? It's God. The Lord God we read. The Lord that created us.

He's the one that has redeemed us. Now, is that good or what? Well, I'll tell you, I am so glad not to be left off in a scrap heap. But the Lord God that created me didn't dump me into the garbage can because I was a sinner.

He stepped in and redeemed me. Well, how does redemption happen? Redemption involves deliverance, first of all. And that means that we have been delivered, first of all, from the curse of the law.

The law kills us, just reveals to us who we are and how far we've gone from God and why we need to be redeemed. But not only that, the law brings us into a bondage and it captivates people. And he's also redeemed us from our iniquities and from our enemies and from death.

Death, you say? Oh, yeah, this is only temporary. For whatever reason, we might, the doctors may say we passed away. It's 100% guarantee that we're going to die.

That's going to happen, whether it's COVID-19 or a heart attack or a stroke or whether it's a car accident, we're going to go. But that's, for those of us who have been redeemed, that's just a short stopping spot. We're just borrowing a grave for a few weeks or a few months, maybe a few years.

Our Lord, when he redeemed us, borrowed a grave for a weekend. That's all he needed, just for the weekend. Because redemption work that he accomplished is way more important than any short thing that just happened to us, like you and me, in this little life that we have.

But how is this redemption done? Mind you, he's also redeemed us from this present evil world. And I think that those of us who are believers need to be intercessors for our nations. Maybe, just maybe.

Even this tech thing that we're involved in, you know, I'm old, so I don't know much about it. I rely on other men. But this thing is a way that God has stepped in before 10 years ago or more and arranged that we could have this kind of a meeting right across this land and across this world.

What a joy to see the faces of God's people. I'm just totally enthused about this gospel that I'm part of, because part of this is that I've been delivered. And how did it happen? Well, this was no accidental fluke on the hand of the part of God.

He has chosen to redeem me by blood. That means that the highest possible price that could ever be paid has been paid for me and for you. Fear not, I have redeemed thee.

You know, that's, for what it's worth, folks, us evangelists can't help but raise in our voices. So I'll try and be a little toned down here. But you understand that to me, the blood of Christ is something that's totally precious to me.

Listen to these wonderful words from Ephesians chapter 1, verse 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. How did he redeem us? Well, the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I'm chief Paul wrote.

And how did he do it? A holy, spotless, one-of-a-kind Lamb was found to pay the price of redeeming us. And he did it. He paid in full for our redemption, nothing left to pay.

Christ has come and has died and was buried. But if he was only ascended into heaven in soul and spirit, that would be only a two-thirds of a victory. So he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven.

And our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, is alive forevermore in the body. If I had a hand that could go far enough, I could touch him. Boy, I just am anxious to see him.

I might as well tell you, I am just totally sold out on this business of redemption, because who am I? Nobody. And yet, at the highest possible price, nobody can ever lay a charge. Fear not, brothers and sisters, he says, I have redeemed thee.

Now, is that good? Definitely it is. But not only that, he's not only redeemed us, but he says, fear not, I have called thee by thy name. Now, I have a bit of an unusual name, but this doesn't have to do with a purchase.

I've called thee by thy name. This has to do with our position, what he's done with us. He's called us Christians.

The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. Now, my name is Gaius Campbell Gough. The word Gaius, my mother had a sister named Grace, and the closest thing you can get to Grace is Gaius.

And so I guess my folks maybe wanted me to be a girl, but they named me Gaius. But there's four Gaiuses in the Bible. I'm number five.

I'm the whosoever. But then my middle name is Campbell. Now, my grandfather, David Scott, was saved when he was 13 years old in Omagh, North Ireland, under the preaching of James Campbell.

And at 13 years of age, he was saved. The only one in his family, just outside of Omagh in a little place called Edenderry. Actually, my wife and I were there on her 50th anniversary.

We were looking for our roots to see whether we could find any more Scots. And we're looking in the archives and in the city hall and so on, and we couldn't find much. But we stepped out onto the street and a man says, you look like you're strangers here, looking for something.

I said, yes, sir. Well, he said, I'm the mayor. And we talked to the mayor of Omagh.

And he said, who are you looking for? I said, well, Scots. Oh, he said, there's Scots down here have a mill and somebody has a lumberyard and somebody builds houses. I said, where did they come from? And he said, well, out there in Edenderry or Berry, whichever one it is.

And so we went out and sure, right next door to Lawrence Lodge is a little small, old, old house. That was where my grandfather was born and raised. There's a nice house beside it.

But for some reason, they kept that old house. I loved about it. I'd rather preached in that Orange Lodge, the gospel, because our Scots there, they're not saved.

So I was named after James Campbell. And when my father was kicked out of his house at 17, because he wouldn't give up being saved and came to North America and Boston, James Campbell came too. In fact, James Campbell is buried in Boston.

So my name, Gaius Campbell Goff. Well, a 16-year-old girl left her home in Linton down near Wales in south of England and went to Plymouth and heard the preaching of Robert Chapman from Barnstaple. And she was saved and went home and married Henry Goff.

So my name, oh yeah, I've got a heritage, but this is far more important. That doesn't make me afraid. That makes me just afraid that I might ruin the reputation of our heritage.

But listen to what God says. Fear not, I have called thee by thy name. Now, what does that mean to me? Well, I'll tell you.

As I think of my position in Christ and yours, the words in Hebrews chapter three and verse one come to my mind. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession. He has called me brethren.

I'm one of his, and he knows my name, but not just knows my name, but he's done more than that. He's written it. So why did he call me? He has a goal for you and me.

If he's called us by our name, he's called us to be holy. He said, you be holy because I'm holy. You're my position.

That's our position, holy people. And we've received a high calling. And so we need to respond to that high calling and understand that there's a certain attitude that one who has placed us in such a position has a right to expect from us.

He wants you and me to walk worthy of our calling, of our position. So he says, fear not, I have redeemed thee. I've been purchased.

Fear not, I have called thee by thy name. He's placed me in a position of high and honorable location. That's who we are.

Don't be afraid in these days of uncertainty. Fear not, for thou art mine. The third one that we read.

So this goes even beyond redemption and even beyond the position to the fact that you and I are his possession. We're in his family. Christians are referred to as children of God.

Listen to these words from Romans chapter 8. The spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are children of God. That means our Lord Jesus is the light of the world. So he has every right to expect us to be the light of the world too.

In fact, he told us that. That means that we're dear children. That means that we're joint heirs with Christ, heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus.

That means that we're little children like John wrote in 1 John. That means as children of God, this is just a temporary place. We're just passing through here as pilgrims.

Home is up there where my gracious father is and my savior sits at God's right hand. Well, I shouldn't say he's here too, but you understand what I mean. As children of light then we are called dear children.

Fear not, I have redeemed thee. Fear not, I have called thee by thy name. Fear not, thou art mine.

But also he says, fear not, I will be with thee. That means don't be afraid of what's tomorrow. Don't be afraid of what's going to happen.

We go to the hospital every week and we sit with people who've got cancer and a lot of them are afraid. They don't know why they're here. They don't know why they're alive and they're afraid to die.

So I've had more, my wife and I've had probably more opportunities of personal witnessing in this last year than ever. Very seldom do we ever miss a shot somewhere along the line when we're at those places where people are right up against, they're afraid every day. But don't you be afraid if you're a child of God, fear not, he said, I will be with you.

So what does that mean? That means that we have access to God. Listen to the words in Romans 5 and 2, by whom we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We have access because we have an advocate with the Father.

He's there all the time working on our behalf, our Lord Jesus Christ. And we have an intercessor on the job all the time. The Holy Spirit is an intercessor.

Even when we pray, fear not, I will be with thee in these dark times. I will be with thee if you're suffering day after day. Some of my beloved brothers and sisters are suffering for years.

And they have no hope of getting over what they have. But he says, fear not, brother, sister, I will be with thee tomorrow, the next day, all the way through this journey that we call life. Fear not, I will be with thee.

I'm so happy that I have this kind of promise from God. This promise is so important to him that he wrote my name in the Lamb's Book of Life. My name is written in heaven, and so is yours.

Don't be afraid of what tomorrow might bring or the day after. Fear not, for I am with thee. And this is the eternal almighty God who's saying such things to us as this.

Fear not, for I am with thee. And you and I have been made partakers of the divine nature so that we can actually enjoy the same things that God enjoys today and tomorrow. I've already had a great time this day worshiping and remembering our Lord with the Lord's people.

To me, it's just a wonderful, wonderful joy to know that we all have access we may not have access to the gospel hall, or be able to sit at a bench and sitting around the Lord's Supper with the bread and the wine between us, but we do have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and we rejoice in this hope of the glory of God. Some of you are going to suffer trials. Some of you are going to hurt for a long, long time.

But fear not, I will be with thee right until the end of this age. But not only that, fear not, he says, for I am thy savior. Fear not, because I've purchased thee.

I've redeemed thee. Fear not, I've called thee. That's our position.

Fear not, thou art mine. That's, we're his possession. Fear not, I will be with thee.

That's his promise. Fear not, I am thy savior. Well, who is this? The Lord thy God, the Holy One is my savior and yours.

Fear not, brothers and sisters, we have a savior who never sleeps or slumbers. In fact, well, I want to just quote to you a gospel verse that just, I preach on it a lot of times, Acts 4.12, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. One savior, only one, and he is mine and he's yours.

Oh, maybe some of you are not saved. You've got no savior. You have no future.

You have no hope. You have no life. You're afraid to live, and now you're afraid to die.

You know, we have nice neighbors in this cul-de-sac where we live, and we're the old people here, like the grandparents, kids play and families. I don't think any of the families go to church, any church, but they know who we are. I give them a letter at least once a year and give them the gospel on a letter, and when I talk to them, they're polite, but since this COVID-19 pandemic has started here in this area, we're only a day, an hour's drive from where it started in United States.

Since it started here, the neighbors will come around and check on us from time to time, and they ring the bell and back off to six or eight or ten feet. How are you, Mr. Goebbels? We're doing fine. My wife and I are just in here.

You're enjoying? Yeah, we pray together, and we read the Bible together, and we're singing hymns together sometimes, and we do this praying twice a day, and they hardly know what to say, and in fact, they said we're concerned about you folks more than you perhaps are concerned about us. Well, thanks, Mr. Goebbels. Anything we can do to help you? I said, oh, not really.

We're doing fine. The Lord has provided for us, and the Lord's people are wonderful. So are you.

Thank you for caring for us, and they back off another step and say, well, Mr. Goff, we'll pray for you, and I thought, whoa, thank you very much, and I say to them, remember, my name is Gaius, and hers is Linda, so when you pray, put those two names into that prayer. Will you do that? Oh, yeah. Well, I hope they do, because one of the things that is happening right now, unbelievers are becoming conscious of God in a way that they haven't.

In fact, I read a stat just yesterday, 44% of people in the United States think that God is trying to get our attention. Now, I say, hallelujah, what a Savior. Keep her coming if that's what it needs, because we need to get down on our faces before God as a nation.

Do you know, since 1973, we've killed over 60 million of our babies before they ever had a chance to be born? It breaks my heart, but every child is in heaven, and that part is a victory. But he says, fear not, I am thy Savior, and not just our Savior, but he is a complete Savior. He's able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him.

If you don't have Christ as your Savior, I would be scared to live and scared to die. But he's there, and if you want salvation, let me tell you right now, you humble yourself at this moment. And if you're in a room by yourself or confined a room nearby, go and get down on your knees and call out, oh God, be merciful to me.

Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And then I can say to you, fear not, I am thy Savior. 68 years I've been a Christian, and it's better.

I don't know how much, sometimes I wonder, Lord, if it gets much better, I'm going to bust. But it's such a wonderful joy to be a child of God and enjoy him every day. And get wonders like this passage of Scripture just on the exact day and moment when I needed it.

Fear not, I have redeemed thee. Fear not, I have called thee by thy name. Fear not, thou art mine.

Fear not, I will be with thee. Fear not, I am thy Savior. Oh, hallelujah, what a Savior.

Fear not, brothers and sisters, he is our refuge. But there's more in this passage. Fear not, I have loved thee.

What does it mean to love somebody? There's a lot of people I love. I love the Lord's people. I love going to a conference just to see the faces of my brothers and sisters and to hear them join their voices and sing, hallelujah, what a Savior.

It's just something that we can't help. We know we've passed from death unto life because we love the brother. There's a lot of precious people.

But I think probably of all the people in this world, there's one special one. Her name is Linda. She is, if there's such a thing as a preciousness in a human, she's it for me.

But there is a Savior and unto me who believes in him, he is the preciousness. But then I read this and I say, wait a minute. He says, fear not, I have loved thee.

That means that he loves me. And if you love somebody, you're precious to him. And when somebody is precious to you, what a joy, what a joy it is to be able to tell them, if you told the Lord he's precious to you today, well, before you go to sleep tonight, be sure you do.

Because, but then if you read the Bible, you'll find that he tells you, you're precious to him. You know, when we read in the Bible, we look at some objects of God's love. And to me, I am just so overcome.

You know, Christ was loved, the Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. And for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God loves this whole wide world.

One of the most precious verses to me, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Now, is that precious? Well, I'll tell you it is. But I want to read you a verse from 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 16. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ himself, am God our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation, and every good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work.

Oh, my brothers and sisters, this is going to the full limit. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself. I mean, no mistake who he's talking about.

I have loved thee. But not only that, God our Father, has loved us. And not only that, the Holy Spirit has loved us.

We've been loved by divine persons, with a love that's limitless. There's no measure to it, because God is love. That means that the whole thing that surrounds me at this moment in this little room is love.

Fear not, I have loved thee. You have to pardon us old people, we talk a little bit long sometimes, so I'm trying to hustle through this as fast as I can. But there's one more that I got to say to you, this, fear not, I am with thee.

That means right now, right here, at this moment. This is not just the preciousness or provision, but this is his presence. Right now, I am with thee.

Doesn't say sometimes, occasionally. This is the omnipresent God who's saying to you and me, no matter what your situation is, I am with thee at this moment and onward. What does that mean to me? Well, I was thinking about this back on the day that God gave it to me when we were blocked in here for the first time as senior citizens and were told not to come out unless you came out for a draft there.

He said, I've loved thee, but I'm with thee. Doesn't mean that I'm going to take this all away. I'll just be with you in it.

Remember, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Moses said to God, if thy presence go not with us, carry us not up hence. Listen to the words in Psalm 16, thou will show me the path of life.

In thy presence is fullness of joy, fullness of joy. At thy right hand, there are pleasures forevermore. He says, I'm with thee.

This is the one who's put us on this path. It's his path that you and I are on when we're saved. You're not.

I'm with thee in this path. I'm with you right now. I'm with thee when you're suffering.

I'm with thee when a doctor comes and says, let me take your temperature. We went into the clinic a while back, a month ago now. And I've always gone in with my wife.

We came to the door and they hold it. And here's people sitting at the door. And they said, Vivre, you had the sniffles? And my wife said, well, yeah.

And they put up the wall, give the temperature, whatever. And they wouldn't give her her treatment because they wouldn't let her in for fear she had COVID-19. And so for two weeks, she didn't have it.

But I could never go in with her since. They won't let anybody else. I'm in the car sitting in the garage for two hours, cracking my knuckles and worrying about her.

And then, wait a minute, I said, wait a minute, wait a minute. Fear not. I am with thee.

Right here in this garage, car parking garage. And I'm with your wife upstairs, getting her shot and all the other stuff that they do. I'm with thee.

He's with you in that room where you're sitting. He's with you and me all the time. He will be with us everywhere and will guide us.

I'd like to just review this with you one more time because I know my time is about gone. But fear not. I have redeemed thee.

I purchased thee. Fear not. I have called thee.

He's established us in a position as his children in his family. Thou art mine. We're his possession.

I will be with thee. That's a promise for tomorrow and the next day. I am thy savior.

That's his provision. We're not going to be lost. Heaven's our home.

I've loved thee. This just thrills me. We are precious to the savior.

And I am with thee at this moment. I would like us to find our solace and our joy and our comfort and our assurance in these trying times. Don't be afraid.

This is the one who created us and formed us. And he says, you're mine. Is that good or what? Father, with reverence and with respect, we bow our hearts here before thee and say thanks, oh God, our gracious father, for ever showing favor to us, redeeming us all the way down to thy presence with us right here at this very moment.

We never want to get over the joy that thou dost give to us even in such times as this. And the confidence that thou art with us, our refuge. What a blessing to have such a refuge.

We don't deserve it, but we sure are grateful for it. Thanks so much in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.