[0:00] This morning, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Head and King of the Church, we pray that it might be a blessing for us all to spend a few moments away from the hustle of this life and direct our minds to higher things.
[0:23] We begin our worship by singing to God's praise in Psalm 71. Psalm 71. O Lord, my hope and confidence is placed in thee alone.
[0:46] Then let thy servant never be put to confusion. And let me, in thy righteousness, from thee deliverance, have caused me escape. Incline thy nearer unto me, and me save.
[1:00] Be thou my dwelling rock, to which I ever may resort. Thou gavest command me to save from thou my rock and fort. Free me, my God, from wicked hands, hands cruel and unjust.
[1:14] For thou, O Lord, art my hope, and from my youth my trust. Thou from my womb didst hold me up. Thou art the same that me out of my mother's bowels to.
[1:26] I ever praise thee, will praise thee. To many I am a wonder, but thou art my refuge strong. Filled let my mouth be with thy praise and honor all day long.
[1:43] Those verses to God's praise in Psalm 71. O Lord, my hope. O Lord, my hope. O Lord, my hope. O Lord, my hope.
[1:58] Hope and confident in leaving alone.
[2:12] Let thou lift my laughter be true to Confucius.
[2:29] 住 need you,que h surveyed. Fil heat by day of Mohammed.
[2:39] Pen great adherence, be upon him,oustical prayer. Thank you.
[3:14] Thank you.
[3:44] Thank you. Thank you.
[4:44] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[5:18] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[5:56] and a new opportunity to gather around your living world that endures forever. And the many days that you have given us, Lord, in this life, that we might glorify you and enjoy you forever.
[6:16] Help us, Lord, to realize that without your presence with us and your enabling spirit, we are unable to worship you.
[6:29] And that is what we ask for at the outset of our service together, your spirit and your truth to be with us as we lift up our eyes and our hearts beyond what is seen in this life and what takes up so much of our time, Lord, and to the things that are unseen and are eternal in the heavens above.
[6:56] And as heaven has drawn near to earth here, in that mysterious way in which Jesus Christ came in the incarnation into our midst to show us that you are a God who cares and a God who, despite our rebellion against thee and ours ever sinning against you, in thought, word, or in deed, that you are still the God who comes to us with grace and with truth.
[7:30] And we thank you, Lord, for Jesus Christ on this morning for his work in our midst and his work in our hearts that as we have sung there together.
[7:43] He is our rock and our salvation and our consolation and he is also the one that made us to be a wonder to other people.
[7:55] And that is what grace always does when it flows into the hearts of individuals. They are reborn of the Spirit of the Lord and they are beyond recognition unto themselves and they are a wonder and an amazement to all around them.
[8:15] But that is what your scripture tells us what we need to be born again of the Spirit, not from earthly things that we have in abundance in this life, but fail us in our hour of trial and difficulty.
[8:32] So we thank you, Lord, for all that you are in yourself and for your Holy Spirit that you sent into this world when you left this world.
[8:44] And you gave us this, Lord, to be our guide and our director in this world, that we might not be drawn to be led by the world and the things of the world, but only for to give to the world that which is his and to give to God what is, belongs to him.
[9:08] For at the end of the day, Lord, the world passes away and all the lusts thereof, but he that abideth in me, he lives forever.
[9:19] And we thank you, Lord, for life eternal in the midst of all the gloom that is around us here in this world. And for all the situations that we find ourselves so disillusioned and disbondent at times and depressed in the midst of everything, because, Lord, things are not the way they were, but you are in absolute control of all things.
[9:48] And we leave it to thee, Lord, to show us how to live, how to walk, how to be the people of God in the midst of a crazy and a foolish people, Lord, who know not their right hand from their left hand spiritually.
[10:07] Help us, Lord, to remember this morning, as we are privileged to be in the shelter of this place and in the comfort thereof, to remember that there are many today worshipping you in back streets and in undergrounds and also many places, Lord, that they are afraid of the very thing that we have the liberty of doing here, of worshipping you.
[10:36] But we thank you, Lord, that they do not forsake you, that they are prepared to die for you, Lord. And the great matters of the past have all done that, and their blood is the seed of the church.
[10:50] And we thank you, Lord, for that and for that enabling grace and spirit that says, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain.
[11:01] But we bless thee, Lord, for Jesus Christ, who came in here. And we thank you again on this morning for all that we have on our tables in the land today.
[11:15] And whatever much we complain about things, we have much, but we remember those who don't have anything at all at this moment, Lord. We are bereft of everything, of whom, of their families, of their children, of everything, in the midst of wars and wants, and all these inhuman acts of man towards one another.
[11:39] Oh, Father in heaven, be our guide. Lift up the light of your countenance upon us. Make us to be appreciative people. Appreciate what we have while we have it.
[11:52] While it is day, Lord, let us work and before the night comes when no man can work. Oh, Lord, we pray, Lord, for all that are out in the oceans of this world today and those, Lord, who are in the air and those who need protection and those who are aware and those who are not aware of the danger that they might be in.
[12:17] And we are in danger, Lord, especially if we don't have Christ and if we don't have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, then we have nothing, Lord, to hold on to when the storms of life come and they will come to all, he said.
[12:35] He says, Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, lest the evil days come. Know how they come, Lord, and how soon they come.
[12:45] And eat us up, Lord, and take from us our nearest and dearest in this life but we are still those who lose not faith in the midst of everything because we are persuaded that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ, our Lord.
[13:04] Help us now, Lord, to remember all who are unwell and beds of illness in their homes, here, in this very parish itself, who are unable, Lord, to come out, to move, Lord, and to be where they once loved to be.
[13:19] And those, Lord, who are careless and don't want to be here, we pray for them also, Lord, because it is our remit to do that and to remember them at every turning for thine is the power and the glory to change all things and change you can, Lord, in the twinkling of an eye it can happen.
[13:43] And we thank you, Lord, for that. We pray for those in hospitals, in homes, Lord, and places where life now is draining away from them and there is no hope of them ever coming about to the places where they loved once and to all that is done for them, we pray for those who look after them, Lord, who care for them year after year, time after time, in the midst of everything and in the midst of their own trials, Lord, in their own lives, in their homes and in their families.
[14:18] Oh, Lord, be with your servants today who raise up Christ as the only means that there is for salvation. We will give them liberty, Lord, and help them to hold on to the things that are good and right and proper and the only things that will work and change people's lives.
[14:42] The word of the living God that endures forever. Bless our Queen, Lord, and our country at this time. In the midst of all the strife, Lord, and all that is happening, the confusion, Lord, everywhere, help us to hold fast to what God has given us in Jesus Christ that cannot be moved.
[15:05] Bless us now, bless your own servant as he is away on his holidays at this time. Be with them, Lord, as with his wife and family and they may have a refreshing time and be able to face again whatever comes their way.
[15:25] Bless us and keep us mindful of yourself. Give us a heart, Lord, that is longing to hear your word, longing to see yourself, longing to be touched in our hearts, in the innermost parts of our being, with that word that we once heard when so often we say, where is the blessedness I knew when first I knew the Lord.
[15:50] Oh, it is still there, Lord, it hasn't changed, but we have changed, Lord. We have forsaken our first love so often. Oh, have mercy upon us, cleanse us, Lord, in the blood of Christ.
[16:04] Bring us to Calvary, Lord, together and Calvary covers it all and we ask that in the name of Jesus and for his sake and glory. Amen.
[16:14] Amen. Now we read a portion of God's word as we have that in the Old Testament in the prophecy of Isaiah and chapter 41.
[16:36] Isaiah chapter 41. Let us hear the word of God.
[16:47] Listen to me in silence, O coastlands. Let the people renew their strength. Let them approach them. Let them speak. Let us together draw near for judgment.
[17:01] Who stirred up one from the east, whom victory meets at every step. He gives up nations before him so that he tramples kings underfoot.
[17:13] He makes them like dust with his sword, like driven stubble with his bow. He pursues them and passes on safely by paths his feet have not trod.
[17:29] Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, the first, and with the last, I am he.
[17:41] The coastlands have sinned and are afraid. The ends of the earth tremble. They have drawn near and come. Everyone helps his neighbor and says to his brother, Be strong.
[17:54] The craftsman strengthens the goldsmith and he who smoothes with this hammer, him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldiering, it is good, and they strengthen it with nails so that it cannot be moved.
[18:11] 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 furthest corners, saying to you, You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off.
[18:34] 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.
[18:49] Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded. Those who strive against you and all shall be as nothing and shall perish.
[19:03] Thou shalt seek those who contend with you, but you shall not find them. Those who war against you shall be as nothing at all. For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand.
[19:17] It is I who says to you, Fear not, I am the one who helps you. Fear not, you warm Jacob, you men of Israel, I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord.
[19:30] Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge, new sharp and having teeth. And you shall thresh the mountains and crush them and you shall make the hills like chaff.
[19:46] And you shall winnow them and the wind shall carry them away. And the tempest shall scatter them. and you shall rejoice in the Lord and the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.
[19:59] When the poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue is parched with thirst, I, the Lord, will answer them.
[20:10] I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land a spring of springs of water.
[20:26] I will put in the wilderness a cedar and a kaya, a myrtle and the olive. I will set in the desert the cypress and the plain and the pine together and they may see and know, may consider and understand together that the hand of the Lord has done this.
[20:44] The Holy One of Israel has created it. Set forth your case, says the Lord. Bring your proof, says the King of Jacob. Let them bring them and tell us what is to happen.
[20:59] Tell us the former things that they are that we may consider them, that we may know their outcome or declare to us the things to come. Tell us what is to come hereafter that we may know that you are God, you are God's, do good, or do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified.
[21:23] Behold, you are nothing and your work is less than nothing and abomination is he who chooses you. I stood up one from the north and he has come and from the rising of the sun and shall call upon my name.
[21:42] He shall trample on rulers as on mortar, as the potter threads clay who declared it from the beginning that we might know and beforehand that we might say he is right.
[21:56] There was none who declared it, none who proclaimed, none who heard your words. I was the first to say to Zion, behold, here they are.
[22:09] And I gave to Jerusalem a herald of good news that when I look there is no one. Among these there is no counsellor who, when I ask, gives an answer.
[22:24] Behold, they are all a delusion. Their works are nothing. Their metal images are empty. Amen.
[22:34] And may God bless to us the reading of his own holy and inspired word. And to his name be all the praise and all the glory.
[22:45] We further sing to God's praise in Psalm 138. 1, 3, 8. At verse 3, Thou didst me answer in the day when I to thee did cry, and thou my fainting soul with strength did strengthen inwardly.
[23:07] All kings upon the earth that are shall give thee praise, O Lord, whenas they from thy mouth shall hear thy true and faithful word. Yea, in the righteous ways of God with gladness they shall sing, for grace the glory of the Lord who doth forever reign.
[23:26] Though God be high, yet he respects all those that lowly be, whereas the proud and lofty ones are far off knoweth he. Though I in midst of trouble walk, I life from thee shall have.
[23:41] Against my foe's wrath thou stretch thine hand, thy right hand shall me save. Surely that which concerneth me the Lord will perfect make. Lord, still thy mercy last, do not thine own hands work forsake.
[23:59] Those verses to God's praise in Psalm 138 at verse 3 to the end thou didst me answer in the day when I to thee did cry.
[24:10] thou didst me answer in the day when I need it cry.
[24:29] And I let you throughd down the from me King.
[24:50] wore in she Thank you.
[25:03] When I sing all my words to you, I do a faithful word.
[25:22] In the righteous ways of God, let gladness face us day.
[25:39] Our strength and glory of the Lord, the love of our ever-in.
[25:57] Though God be high, yet he respect all those and lowly.
[26:13] Where does the blood and love deviance the heart of your dear?
[26:32] Though I am in rest of trouble, I die from each other.
[26:49] And my full trial, the fresh good heart, I cry to a heavenly day.
[27:09] Surely I wish from standing, that Lord will smelten thee.
[27:26] Lord, till I am, till I am, my Lord and worth the Lord say.
[27:46] Now for a few moments as we seek God's blessing and presence to be with us. And to guide us through this scripture that we have, we have read together.
[27:59] It has two portions in it. At the beginning, it is fear not, for I am with you. And at the end, the futility of idols. That's how the heading goes in the ESV anyway.
[28:14] But the text I want to use with you today is at verse 9, where he says in the middle of verse 9, You are my servants.
[28:26] I have chosen you. Not cast you off. Fear not, for I am with you. For I am with you.
[28:37] Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
[28:50] And may God enable us to pick a few things out of this chapter that might be applicable to our own life and to our own situation at this very moment itself.
[29:07] Because we live, I don't have to tell you that, in confusing times. In an age of total confusion. Where no one seems to know what is right or what is wrong.
[29:26] No one thinks anything, from the highest to the lowest, of lying and carrying on. And this must have a profound effect, especially on young people who are growing up in the midst of this.
[29:45] Are they saying to themselves, Is this norm? Is this how it's always been? Is this what we expect to see when we go out into the world there, with all its challenges?
[29:59] And you have a moral compass in your own life that you have in your church here, or wherever you worship. And you read their compass, and you read their life, and you say, Well, there's no comparison between the two things.
[30:14] What my minister has been saying to me is totally contrary to what the world is saying to me. But we should not be afraid or scared of these things.
[30:28] Because this chapter here has a few things to say to us by way of the consolation that he gives to his servants.
[30:39] And the condemnation that he gives and has for his enemies, those who are in idols.
[30:51] It is the consolation of the faithful, my dear friend. And the faithful are the ones who suffer in the midst of our day. It's not the people who say anything goes, and I live my life, I do whatever I want, it doesn't matter what happens, it'll end up fine.
[31:10] That isn't, that isn't, it doesn't address them that way at all. But he says this to you and to me, who have experienced the power of the living God in our own personal lives.
[31:28] Somebody said, Well, you can argue a person out of a theory. And that's possible. But he said, you cannot argue a person out of an experience.
[31:45] An experience remains with you. What you, when you experienced Christ, love poured into your hearts.
[31:56] No theory on earth can erase that from you. And that is our dearest wish today, that someone here, in the midst of everything, would experience the love of God poured into their hearts and recreating them from the inside, outward, to be new people who will not be caught in, who will experience the web that is around us.
[32:27] And there's no way of evading that. But the thing is, that we mustn't fall into the web of the wicked, my friend. There's a consolation here.
[32:40] And there's an encouragement to trust in God. Not just to say it with our mouth when things, the skies are blue and there's no clouds, there's no difficulties in our life.
[32:53] It's so easy to say many things in a situation like that. But it is an entirely different thing when God draws near to us with problems and difficulties.
[33:05] And to whom else can we go? He has the words of eternal life. And that is the words that we have here. There's no doubt that we live, we live in a godless thinking society.
[33:20] It's not godless because God is in absolute control of it. But in so many people's lives, it doesn't exist. And that enables a person to do whatever he wants or she wants in this world.
[33:36] It doesn't matter. No accountability, annihilation when they die and all these things. But surely, that isn't what the Bible says to us. That isn't what those whom God has drawn close to and poured his love into their hearts is saying something very different to that.
[33:56] And Israel here was, the Babylonian powers were going to leave them, their faith, very weak, my friend. And the strongest of faiths can become weak when it is challenged, my friend.
[34:12] But it's challenged, there is a mark beyond where that challenge cannot go. And you be assured of that here this morning, that there is a mark.
[34:25] It is how we feel it, how weak we feel in ourself and ourselves. But God doesn't vary. God is the same, my friend. This is a day, as the Old Testament says, a day of small things.
[34:39] But when God does a thing, it's never a small thing. If God converts one person here, today, or there, or wherever they are, it's not a small thing.
[34:52] It is a big thing because it brings joy unto the courts of heaven itself. No less than that. Whether it brings joy to the earth, it doesn't matter.
[35:05] But it brings joy to them. But we must remember that we live in an age, as we said before, a careless age, a confusing age, confusion everywhere.
[35:19] You look, and imagine if you were somewhere and you didn't know where you're going and you ask somebody, where is this street or where is this station or where is this, and they send you in the other direction.
[35:33] That's confusion, my friend. Confusing you more and more. But here, we remember that we live in an age that puts culture before Christ, ahead of Christ.
[35:46] It doesn't matter what about Christ, but what matters is culture, what the things that stand in their way. The falling standards in society, I don't have to tell you about that.
[36:01] You see them, you read them from the top to the bottom. It's the same everyday news of this, news of that, news of someone who's not telling the truth and then eventually they have to tell the truth.
[36:15] But so it goes on. And this is my point regarding the younger generation. We know what the truth is. And we have a faith that holds us in the midst of all the situations that confront us in this life.
[36:33] But these poor creatures who are growing up and are swallowed up into this situation of thinking that this must be right, are in for a very, very big shock at the end of the day.
[36:49] When reality catches up with them. And that is the thing. Falling standards in society, falling standards in the church as well.
[37:00] You can't leave the church out of it. It's right at the heart of it as well. It is doing away with this, doing away with that, clearing this out of the way, all myself.
[37:11] And it's happening all over the place, my friend. Challenging your faith, my friend. But I hope you have a living faith, a faith that can take a challenge, my friend.
[37:25] It can take a challenge. Because it is a living faith, he said. A living faith. We have. And that's all that we need, my friend.
[37:37] You don't have to compare your faith with someone else or with another person. But you have a faith that is a gift of God that has been given you so that you can stand up to the torrents of evil around you and without losing your feet in the midst of it all.
[38:03] and he says that. I am, he said, the Lord, he said, verse 4, I am the Lord, the first and with the last I am he.
[38:15] I am he. And God was going to show them that by raising up Cyrus, a king in Babylon that was going to take them back again.
[38:29] Just as he raised up Pharaoh in Egypt, an evil man, a person who said, who is the Lord that I might listen to him?
[38:43] Then he says, I'll do the same in Cyrus, he says, and he'll bring you back again from your trials, from your testing, my friend.
[38:54] Remember, God doesn't try anybody. He tests us, my friend, as the gold is tested in the furnace, my friend.
[39:09] I can do all these things, he said, I can give them as the dust with the sword. I trample kings, he said, underfoot and makes them like dust with the sword.
[39:23] People who raise themselves up, my friend. Give them. Psalm number two says to us, he in heaven loves a puny man as he tries to destroy his eternal efficacious work, my friend.
[39:45] It can't be done. It can't be done. And that is why he's saying to them and saying to you today here, fear not, fear not, he said.
[39:58] See, that fear is a fearful thing. There's many forms of fears, my friend. But there's one that has a destructive element in it, as it gnaws away at our life and our faith and robs us, tries to rob us of this, my friend.
[40:19] fear. He brings them to the comfort of the word of God, lest they lose hope. In chapter, the previous chapter here, chapter 40, he says, comfort you, comfort you, my people, he said.
[40:37] My people. That is your mission, he said. That is your mission. And the rest, he said, you can leave with me, because fear tyrannizes us, isn't it, my friend?
[40:51] Yes, it does. It's a poisoned arrow that is sent from the evil one to destroy your faith, however weak that is.
[41:05] It's meant to paralyze you, my friend, in such a situation, decommissioning us spiritually. That bit that wasn't there at one time, and that God has given us, that we have built on down through the years until this moment, lest we be inclined to fall away and give ear to other voices.
[41:30] Oh, Paul, in the New Testament, many years after this, said the same thing. He said, oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?
[41:42] Who has cast a spell who has paralyzed you? Who has set your mind in such a way? Having begun in the spirit of the Lord, in the work there, now you're going to complete your salvation with the works of the flesh.
[41:59] He said, there's no logic in that. There's no logic in it. It doesn't make any sense. Because it wasn't the flesh that started you off on this mission at all, he said, it was the spirit.
[42:12] spirit, it's the spirit that quickens, my friend. The flesh profiteth nothing. Israel, in Egypt and in Babylon, could see no other way out of the situation they were in.
[42:30] And you could be like that today. You could be in a situation that you can't see. You're walled in this way and you're walled in that way. But always remember, my friend, there is one thing that the devil can't do and that is close you in.
[42:51] Close the roof of the building, my friend. There's always a line open on the vertical, my friend. The vertical. But if he can, he'll bounce you from one thing to another.
[43:08] He got Israel to say at one time, my way is forsaken of the Lord. It doesn't make any sense to me now. But he says, we can't witness the Babylonians now are laughing at us and saying, sing the song of Zion.
[43:30] Sing us the song you used to sing back in Jerusalem in the temple. Sing that again now, he says. And their hunger, their harps on the willow trees, they're on the point of giving up.
[43:44] But they were in the classroom in God's gymnasium there, preparing them to be better people and stronger people when they would return from all that.
[43:58] They had lost their witness in a sense, my friend, in a sense. And that's one thing you and I can't afford to lose in the midst of this age that we live in is our witness.
[44:10] No compromise with the world. We know the ways of the world. We know the craftiness of the world. We know where to get it from. We were there ourselves.
[44:22] No one has to teach us that. So we have been brought around, Lord, to this new course that we are on. Maybe there's something nickeling away in your own mind today.
[44:37] Maybe it's something very serious. Maybe it's something very trivial. But by the time Satan stops, he'll make a mountain out of a molehill for you and for me.
[44:51] Some unscaled peak, my friend, that you haven't. you fear to fall from it if you don't. But he said, are some crossroads that you're coming up to where you have to make a decision to go this way or go that way.
[45:10] A crossroad to follow Christ or to deny Christ, my friend. Crossroads. It happens. That's where it happens, my friend, at the crossroads of life there.
[45:24] God and we hear that every day. We know of people who have to face hard providences. But we pray that God be with them and God be in them, my friend, in them.
[45:41] Jesus Christ is their helper. He is the one who said, fear not, he said, fear not. If only you could do that, he said.
[45:52] This is the antidote for God. God's arrow of encouragement, encouragement. It says in chapter 45, verse 2, I will go before you, he says, level the exalted places, break the pieces, the doors of bronze, and cut through the bars of iron.
[46:16] I will give you treasures of darkness and the hordes in secret places, for you may know that it is I, the Lord, who call you by your name.
[46:32] F.B. Mayer once said about suffering and sorrow. He said that in suffering and sorrows, God touches our minor cords.
[46:46] He touches the minor cords within us and develops the passive virtues.
[46:57] The bits that have lain there haven't done anything for a while, but God expects us to exercise what he has given us so that the talent might increase, my friend.
[47:10] And in doing this, he says, he opens to view the treasures of darkness. The minor cords, he touches them.
[47:24] He wants to hear that noise, that sound, that note, the note that the person who is tuning the thing wants to hear before he locks it at that.
[47:38] And God sets us aside sometimes just to do that, to tighten the strings up a bit to get a higher note out of us. It's painful?
[47:49] Oh yes, because nothing is easy when the Lord is at work and it develops our passive virtues, gives us a heart and a longing and a soul to work for him and do something more than we have done before and opens to view the treasures of darkness and there are treasures in the darkness as well and that is important for us.
[48:20] That is why he says fear not for I am with you. I am with you he said for if you don't deserve you will perish he said so that you don't perish he said that is exactly what Jesus said he said that you might have life that you might not perish but have everlasting life this is what we hold out to you we can't give it to you my dear friend how I would love to be able to do that but we can't do that God has only called us to present the gospel in its purity to you without confusion or anything and it's for you the hand that takes it into your own heart that you have a faith that lives forever for a promise he says of delivery shall come and he gives us that in chapter 46 this is why he said my counsel shall stand my word shall stand other people dismiss it cast it aside to this to that to it they don't open the bible they think that's a way out of it but that's no way out of it because there's judgment to come there's judgment on the way and that is why he says my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose that's in chapter 46 and verse 10 my counsel shall stand and if that's that was all that we had this morning to comfort us and to strengthen us it would be enough that the word of our God he said endureth forever
[50:30] I am the Lord he said therefore the children are not consumed remember that as we go from there that he was going to send a light one day a herald of good news was going to come this is part of God's plan of salvation working out his plan of salvation it doesn't happen in a moment it doesn't happen in a year it doesn't happen in a hundred years and that's why people get frustrated about it but it will happen and it did happen in the past in the fullness of God's time Jesus Christ came he didn't come the day before that or the day after that and it's the same with the end times he will come he said he said it himself I go to prepare a place for you that where I am there you may be also he said that's comfort that's consolation and a word of encouragement my friend he says for I am with you
[51:37] I am I am is with you it's not just anybody this is the great I am that met with Moses in Genesis at the very beginning of Moses his mission chapter 3 of Genesis sets that before us so clearly Exodus chapter 3 I should say he said and the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush he looked behold the bush was burning yet it was not consumed that is the important thing there my friend it is not consumed it would never be consumed he looked and behold the bush was not consumed and that caught his attention my friend there was something happening and when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see it this is the problem sometimes we just push it aside and pretend it is not happening but once
[52:45] God gets his attention he says Moses Moses he said God called him I am he says the God of your father same God my friend he hasn't changed the years change fashions change and things like that but God doesn't change his expectations don't change he expects the same thing I am God of your father the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob and then he says what if when I come to that tyrant and ask him to let your people go who will I say send me what is his name he said I am who I am that is my name and my glory I do not give to any other I am this is my name he said not just now but forever throughout all generations I have observed you and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction but I know that the king will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand this is the hand of compulsion this is the hand that can do it the hand of God with God nothing is impossible nothing you might see things just now in your own life and you say well I wonder if I could work this out if there's a way around this well with
[54:17] God there is nothing nothing impossible nothing nothing he is the creator of all things and that is because why is he with Israel then why is he saying that well he said you are my servant he said in verse 8 there Israel my servant Jacob he said whom I have chosen this is my elect people he said this is my treasure and God's people is God's portion my friend he has possessed them he owed them he has put a ring of blood around them to show that they are his in the midst of everything I then he says I govern I'm the governor of your life I govern your life he says it's what I say is what matters and God goes because you are of the seed of
[55:23] Abraham my friend the seed of Abraham so long ago and before that now it comes to flourishing here my friend elected according to his foreknowledge and according to his grace my friend before the world was before anything was and everything in this world is in harmony perfect harmony apart from the man he created it's the only thing that's out of harmony with this world today it's that sad isn't it the chaos that we brought and sin entered in and threw us off course completely and still does and is very good at multiplying it as well I have done this I have taken you he said I have taken you by the hand you are mine he said when you pass through the river I will be with you through the waters I will be with you through the fire
[56:24] I will be with you he said because I the Lord have said that he said the three Jews in the fiery furnace was the same Daniel vowed he would not compromise on anything it didn't matter if it meant him eventually to be cast in with the lion or into the fire or whatever it was he says that is nothing compared to forsaking my Lord and that is why the great matters of the pastor and pastor families on their way to to in Smithtown there and Smith Smithfield and all these places where they were mattered in front of people there their families had to watch them there and that wasn't easy but they would not resent they would not say I don't believe in Jesus I don't believe in Christ and God that is the type of faith that that is required if we want to see something happening in our midst it's not what we do with our hands but what we believe with our minds and with our hearts that God is able to do it and do it he will because in that furnace there was a fourth person one like and to the son of God and that was true he was there that's the one who promises to go with you and with me through all the difficulties of this life even he went through death for human so that the grave is empty this morning
[58:06] I will take you by the hand he says I will for I am your God he says I will strengthen you he says I will strengthen you that's the danger that we don't stand up for Jesus we give far too much time to the world and to the and occasions to the enemies of the Lord how often that happens every paper you read every news thing there is something that is giving occasion to the enemies of the Lord some person who shouldn't have done or said something has done it and it brings the whole system if that was man made it would have been destroyed but being of God it cannot be destroyed and we should be careful how we live in this life of ours with all its challenges well we glorify God and if we get an opportunity some evil person gives you an opportunity and you see it's an opening go through it my friend and give him a word a word from God give them a testimony see that's that's all you have to do you're not responsible for that person's developing or anything like that
[59:30] I had on occasion a couple of years ago sitting down with a person who doesn't go near church or anything like that but he sat there I don't know until this morning I don't know why he sat there but he came in and sat down there and we ended up anyway giving him my testimony so he can't now go away and say I have never heard it was so obvious that the opening was of God go through it my friend speak a word in season don't don't be afraid of that person's because who knows when God might use that seed that you plant into someone's heart in his own time he will do that he said oh he will not break the bruised treatment no be not dismayed he said well he said be not dismayed for I am your God he says
[60:39] I will strengthen you and I will uphold you just as it was in Paul at 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 he said the treasure that we have the treasure that we have is within us it's an earthen birth and they are prone they can be subject to anything anything Christian or heathen doesn't matter when it comes to that this world is not our home not at all we are afflicted he said on every way but not crushed perplexed but not driven to despair persecuted but not forsaken struck down but not destroyed always carrying the body of the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies we can only do that when it is time in this world here he gives power to the faint and to them who are without strength he gives faith he strengthens them you remember
[62:02] Hagar the dirty thing that was done regarding Abraham and his wife his wife especially they landed this lady in trouble because they couldn't believe that God could give them a son so they went and developed it themselves and did what was contrary to God's way of doing things and you read about that in Genesis 21 and all that that has regarding this person but God protects Hagar my friend fear not for God has heard he said God has heard the voice of the child he said God has heard it the boy lift up the boy and hold him he says and I will make him into a great nation then
[63:11] God opened her eyes and she saw what she was afraid would never be the case she saw the well of water the water that she saw she couldn't see in her perplexing time the angel of the Lord and God pointed at her there's the water go and fill now your your white skin with that he says and carry on see we don't this God is not a figment of our own imagination not at all this is God who became man and dwelt in our midst and we have seen his glory like the glory of the only begotten son of the father full of grace and full of truth the two very things that we need grace and truth I will strengthen you he says
[64:17] I will uphold you with the right my righteous right hand he said he has given you a righteousness my friend that can withstand all the troubles of life because he is the God who has planned this salvation Christ is the one who brought it down to man and Christ has gone out of our sight now but his presence all we love his presence to have his presence with us here this morning is a wonderful thing my friend to have his presence with us I wonder if he is speaking to any heart here who is dismayed cast down and we can identify with all these things yes it's part of life heart of life and he took it to
[65:18] Calvary and he was crucified there and this is what he says about the God of the idols that they had worked so hard soldering away and testing and all these things behold they are all a delusion he said their works are nothing works are nothing but how they can delude us so easily my friend maybe they can draw us away fear not he said for I am with you and greater is he that is in your heart today than anything that can be against you my friend greater is he than anything that can be against it but be in time my friend give it a thought spend a few moments not like the world rushing and escaping escapism of the world and then coming and easy believism and then walking away again as if nothing had happened you give it a thought your own life how precious it is how precious it is to you to your family to God he is precious unto you who believe he is precious my friend this is the one they cast out and he is one day coming for you and don't be afraid of losing it because what
[67:03] God has given you if he has placed it in your heart no person in this world can take that away from you however much Satan tries to do it he has conquered Satan he has Satan in his place my friend and he is coming again for his people would you want to be with your family there see your children there my friend and all these things well as I said before I can't do that for you my friend but I can recommend them to you and make you feel as if you want to have him my friend and have him forever I'm sure you heard that the one about we finish with it life's clock my friend the clock of time was wound but once and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop at late or early hour to lose one's wealth is sad indeed to lose one's health is more to lose one's soul is such a loss as no man can restore my friend the life's clock my friend no one can restore probably not surprising that
[68:39] McChain had the three words engraved on his watch when he was preaching and I left it after that he said he had engraved three words on it simple he said be in time be in time time while the voice of Jesus calls you be in time don't put it off till tomorrow because who knows what tomorrow has for any of us let alone that we think that we know ourselves let us pray gracious God we thank you for the few moments that we have we pray Lord that you would unction us unction your people here touch their hearts touch where they are asking the question touch them Lord because they need to be strengthened and encouraged and there is no one else who can encourage and it's rent for them but the one who says fear not for I have redeemed you
[69:53] I have called you by name you are mine forgive us in Jesus name Amen now we conclude by singing the God's praise in Psalm 62 at verse 5 my soul Psalm 62 at verse 5 my soul wait thou with patience upon thy God alone on him dependeth all my hope and expectation down to the verse marked 8 ye people place your confidence in him continually before him pour ye out your heart God is our refuge high my Solution My soul with the withations upon the yore alone,
[71:04] For only hand and clothed, and Missed is just now, He only my salvation is, and my stronghold is He.
[71:38] He only is my sure defense, I shall not let Thee.
[71:57] And all my glory places, and my salvation sure.
[72:15] And all the robes of my sin, my grand mutual Savior.
[72:33] Give the pleasure of the earth, and in content of the earth.
[72:52] Behold and glory, and you are, for this time when you die.
[73:09] Amen. Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest upon you, and abide with us all, now and evermore. Amen.
[73:28] I'll go to the door.