Living in the good of God's presence

Isaiah 41, please, the book of Isaiah chapter 41 and verse 5. Isaiah 41 and 5. The isles sought and feared, the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near and came. They helped everyone as neighbor, and everyone said to his brother, be of good courage. So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer, him that smote the anvil, saying, it is ready for the soldering.

And he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved. But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, thou art my servant.

I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away. 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. Now Isaiah here is writing about a people who were afraid. We read that in verse 5. The isles feared, the ends of the earth were afraid.

They were afraid of coming calamity. And of course for them, it was the invasion by the Persians under Cyrus. I don't have to tell you that many people in our country today are afraid.

Afraid of coming calamity. Whether it's economic collapse, whether it's nations with differing ideology like Russia or China, North Korea, or whether it's terrorists who have a tremendous hatred for the U.S. and call us the Great Sea. What did people do here that we read about? We read in verse 6 and 7 that they were busy.

There was a lot of activity. They were involved with their idols. We've been hearing about idols.

Because this is what they were trusting in. This is what they thought would help them handle the coming calamity. They were busy with the idols that they served.

And we live in a country where people are afraid what's going to happen. And we live in a country where there's much activity, even of a religious nature. But it involves idolatry.

Now in the background of all this, Isaiah talks about the people trusting in their idolatry, busy with their idolatry. He says, but you Israel, he says, you are my servant. And I would just like to bring it home for a few minutes to you and me today.

That even though many in our country are fearing calamity and who knows what's going to happen. Brother, sister, God says to you and me, but, in contrast to the idolatry that's all around us and can infect us, he says, but you are my servant. What are we serving? Who are we serving? That's what we're going to trust in.

You know in verse 9, these words have often spoken to my heart. He says, thou art my servant. Thou art my servant.

God has claims upon us. And I'd like to look at verses 9 and 10. These verses are very familiar.

My youngest daughter asked me what I was going to speak on at the cross conference and I said Isaiah 41. And she just lit up. She says verse 10, she says that's my favorite verse.

This verse has been a help to many. It's been a help to me over the years. But you know as I've been considering it, it's one thing to know the verse.

It's one thing to have been helped by this verse in the past. But it's another thing to live in the good of it, moment by moment. I like to look at it this way.

Three points. God's purpose, God's presence, God's promise. He says, I have chosen thee.

Past tense. He says, I have chosen thee. He says, you're my servant.

Once you and I were the servants of sin. Some of us excelled in that service. The devil was beating the drum and we were just going as fast as we could.

But we read in Romans 8, once we were the servants of sin, now we're servants to God. What a privilege. You read about different ones in the Old Testament that were servants of God.

Abraham, Moses, David. In the New Testament we read about Peter, John and Paul and others. Very, very celestious company.

Tremendous privilege. Servants of the living God. But what a responsibility too.

My daughter just spent some time in the hospital and she was hooked up to different machines and amazing what shows up there. But I want to look at it this way. If we could have some kind of spiritual readometer that would show how we're doing in our service for God, I wonder what the digital read would be.

Brother, sister, how are you doing? How are you doing? God has called you to serve him. He's called me to serve him. How are we doing? So easy to live for me, live for self.

So easy just to blend in with the world and be involved in, yes, it's idolatries. God says, but you're my servant. He doesn't want us to serve the world and its idols.

One reason he saved us is to serve him. In our own sphere, he doesn't give us all the same sphere of service, but he's called us to serve him. And he's given us a work to do.

He's given you a work to do that nobody else can do. God has a purpose for you. There's young people here.

And maybe you think, well, I've only been saved a little while and there's so much of the Bible I don't understand. Listen, God has saved you for a purpose. This is the beginning.

Sometimes we think, you know, because I can't do some great thing, I'm not going to do anything. Before I was even connected with the assemblies, I was involved with a denomination and there was an older preacher there and he said one day, he says, you know, my wife and I, he says, I never expected to end up preaching. He says, but you know, the Lord saved us and we just did what was ever around our feet.

If it was arranging chairs, taking out the garbage or whatever it was, he says that's what we did. And little by little, God enlarged our sphere. You know, there's truth to this.

Whatever God puts around you, be it ever so humble, be it ever so little, maybe it's unnoticed by others, just do what God gives you to do. Some might say, well, you know, I've blown it big time. I've failed here, I've failed there.

Who hasn't? Who hasn't? But notice what he says at the end, what God says at the end of verse 9. He says, you're my servant, I've chosen you, he says, and I've not cast you away. He hasn't rejected us. You know, God is so gracious.

Now we know God doesn't love sin, but he's made provision for our sin and our failure and our weakness in the death of his Son. And you know, 1 John chapter 1 and verse 7, those tremendous words, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Tremendous.

But then in verse 9, the provision for God's pilgrim people as we go through this world with all our depravity, we live in a scene that's defiled. He says that we confess our sin to him, that he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin. There's a parental forgiveness.

It's not the punishment for our sins, it's maintaining fellowship with him and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Today's the first day of the rest of our lives. Maybe there's failure in our past, but you know, we can confess our sin.

God is righteous to forgive that sin. And we can go on from there. Brother, sister, God has a purpose for you.

He says, you're my servant. He says, I've chosen you. Now, a servant's work wouldn't have been easy.

It would have been difficult. I was thinking about this a little when I, early summer, I was driving through Mississippi and the cotton fields there and what it would have been like for the slaves years ago. The blazing sun, the heat.

I mean, down in Mississippi, give me the north. But being a slave under those conditions, not easy. Well, you know, serving God has its difficulties as well.

I don't have to tell you that. I can just imagine an earthly master of slaves. Maybe he buys a certain slave.

He says, okay, you're my servant. And then likely the next thing he would do was give him orders. This is what I want you to do.

Up in the morning, work all day, 15 minutes for lunch. You work till the sun goes down. You know, brother, sister, God doesn't work that way.

He says, I've chosen you. You're my servant. And now there isn't a list of do's.

Do this, do that. Notice, he speaks to our heart because he knows the difficulty of the work. He says in verse 10, he says, fear not, I'm with you.

Don't be dismayed. Don't be discouraged. I'm your God.

He speaks to our heart because he knows what we're like. And here we get two statements about his presence. First of all, we read one statement in the past about his purpose.

He says, I've chosen you. And now we get two statements in the present tense. He says in verse 10, I'm with you and I'm your God.

And coupled with that, he gives us two commands. He says, don't be afraid. Don't be discouraged.

Let's take the first one. He says, fear not. Just before I get to this, do you know what it is to be afraid? To do what you think God might want you to do? Brother, whether it's to give you testimony, maybe for the first time after you get saved.

Or to get up on a Sunday morning and tell God how much you appreciate his son. Or sister, maybe somebody that works beside you in the office. Or a young person at school.

You know somebody's got heartbreak, going through all kinds of difficulties. Their family's falling apart and you just love to speak to them about the Lord Jesus, but you don't want them to think you're weird. Fear? Listen, the words fear and afraid are found almost 600 times in our King James Bible.

600. And yes, there will be tasks that seem too difficult. In our natural ability, it seems we can't do it.

Wasn't it like that for the Israelites in the wilderness? God told them, possess the land. And they heard the report from the spies. They were like grasshoppers.

And they said, not me. They were afraid. You know, fear is a tremendous hindrance to serving the Lord.

Fear. And I might just say, I doubt if there's one of us who get up here at this conference who does know a little bit about that. God knows what we're like.

He knows we're afraid. And I find it very interesting that not only does God not want us to be afraid, but he tells us not to be afraid almost 90 times in the Bible. 90 times.

I mean, once would be enough. 90 times. He either says, fear not or be not afraid.

And then he gives us a reason why we shouldn't be. Just four words. He says, I'm with you.

I'm with you. That doesn't seem like much, does it? Think of the disciples when the Lord Jesus was here on earth. When he was with them, they didn't have a thing to be afraid about.

He handled every situation. Has he changed? Is he not the same yesterday, today, and forever? Did he love them more than he loves you? He says, I'm with you. Now, interesting to look through the scriptures, the different times God said to his servants, to his people, I'm with you.

And the circumstances. Just a few. Think of Jacob.

He's going to Paden-Arim to look for a wife. God says, I'm with you. Nice.

In situations like that, important decisions, looking for a life's purpose, a partner, to know God is with us in this, to have us leading and guiding. Think of Jeremiah in chapter 1. God says, I've ordained you to be a prophet. He wanted Jeremiah to speak for him.

He says, I'm with you. And then the remnant returning from Babylon, from captivity. God wanted him to build a temple.

He says, I'm with you. In our personal lives, in our work for the Lord, in our assembly life, God's with us. You say, but I failed.

Listen. Let me underline. If we confess our sins, we can confess it to him.

And it's taken care of. Brother, sister, the Bible is full of men and women who failed. Full of it.

But he's made provision in the death of his son for our sin and uncleanness. Not only fear not. He says also in verse 10, he says, be not dismayed.

Don't be discouraged. And the thought of that word seems to be, don't look around you. And isn't that what we do? We look at the circumstances and it's so easy to get discouraged because we take our eye off the Lord.

Again, that's what happened to the Israelites. Anybody discouraged because of circumstances, maybe in your home, at work, in the assembly? Sure. Is there anyone here who has circumstances just the way you'd like them? The Lord says, be not dismayed.

And notice what he says. He says, I'm your God. Now think about that.

I am singular, thy God. I'm your God. I am your God.

Brother, sister, the Lord knows you like nobody else does. He cares for you like nobody else could. You know, I wonder if sometimes we would rather have said, don't be discouraged because there's a million dollars being put into your bank account.

Would that be better? Or don't be discouraged, I'm going to give you a new house or a new car or whatever. Would that be better? What could be better than having God as your personal God? He says, don't be discouraged. I'm your God.

Is anything too hard for the Lord? Brother, sister, he's the living God and he wants us to live in the good of his presence with us. But then finally he gives us his promise. It's really threefold and now it's in the future tense and there's three statements.

He says, I will strengthen you. Yes, he says, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.

You know what I see here? I was just thinking this today. But first of all, he says, I'll strengthen you. It's like, you know, some parents have a little child and wants to ride a bike.

And so maybe they're too weak when they're real young. So they feed that child. So it has the strength to be able to do it.

But it doesn't end there. The time comes when the father or the mother, they will take that child and show them how the bicycle works and what to do and everything. They help them with that.

But it doesn't end there either. As that child starts to go down the sidewalk, maybe for the first time, they've got their hand right by that seat. So if they start to go over, they just hold on, they hold them up.

Listen. This is what the Lord wants to do for you and me and our service for him in the sphere that he's given you. You know, he doesn't say he's going to strengthen us and help us to do what he wants somebody else to do, but what he wants you to do, what he wants me to do.

He says, I will strengthen me. Isn't that just what we need? Strength, whether it's emotionally. In whatever way, he will give us the enabling we need to do what he wants us to do.

Now, he may not give it until the moment we need it. And that's where the faith is involved. That's where trusting God is involved.

But he says, I will strengthen you. Does he mean what he says? Remember what he told the apostle Paul? He says, my strength is made perfect in weakness. God's power shown most effectively, not in our great abilities, but in our weakness, in our inability to produce results.

Brother, sister, our limitations don't limit God. Your weakness doesn't limit God because his strength is made perfect in your weakness. He says, I will strengthen you.

He says, I will help you. I will help you. Have there been times in your life where you just cried out to the Lord and said, Lord, help me or Lord, help us? Sure.

You may not always answer just when we wish you would or how we wish you would. But listen, he's our father. He's your father.

And he says, I'll help you. And maybe there are some here today and you've got a tremendous burden. You don't know what's going to happen.

He says, I'll help you. Tell you, I was just talking to my wife at the break. Tremendous need in our life.

And my wife told me God has helped us. Touching to think that for the Lord Jesus, none to help him. Isn't that what we read in Psalm 22? There is none to help.

So he can help you and me. But just finally, one more thing. He says, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.

I'll hold you up or to look at it inversely. He won't let us down. Brother, sister, he will not let you down.

In fact, we read in Hebrews 13. He says, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. And someone put it this way.

I will never leave you. I'll never fail you. I'll never leave you without support.

I'll never let you sink. I won't forsake you. I'll never desert you.

I'll never abandon you. I'll never leave you in the lurch. I'll never let you down.

Brother, sister, this is the kind of God that we have. The kind of God that has called you and me to serve him. The world has its activities, many of them religious.

He says, but you, but you are my servant.