Our text words for this evening you can find in Isaiah 41, verses 8 through 10. 8 through 10. 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." With God's help, we want to look at the theme, living out of the promises of God. In the first place, we will look at the people for whom the promises, especially the promises of verse 10, is designed. The people for whom this promise is designed. Secondly, the condition to which this promise is addressed. And thirdly, the person, capital P, in whom this promise is fulfilled. Living out of the promises of God. First, the people for whom this promise is designed. You see those people explained in verses 8 and 9. Second, the condition to which this promise is addressed. They are people who are very afraid. And thirdly, the person in whom this promise is fulfilled, namely, the Son of God, who is God's righteousness. God's Word congregation is very, very rich. It is filled with wonderful promises. for poor, needy, trusting people. Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1, verse 4, whereby we are given exceeding great and precious promises, that by these promises ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Well, we have before us tonight one of these glorious promises that are so rich that it, as it were, causes us to pause and say to ourselves, it is too rich, it is too glorious, it is too full for sinners like we. And yet God comes and He promises to comfort His people, to feed them, to strengthen them, to be their righteousness. And so here too, in Isaiah 41, the promises are the very means of grace God gives for believers. Our forefathers always taught that the promises of God are the greatest means of assurance. The promises of God which are yea and amen in Jesus Christ are the strength, the backbone, the means for growth in grace, the means for spiritual maturity of the children of God. It is by the promises of God that God's people are carried along all the way to glory. And it is by those promises fulfilled that Jesus Christ presents them faultless before the throne of God in the day of days. Now like every other benefit that flows to God's people, these promises also come to them out of sheer unmerited grace. Every promise of the Bible is sealed by the blood of Jesus Christ to God's people. Every promise is full of riches. Every promise is yea and amen in Jesus Christ. Yes, Peter is right. They are many, they are great, and they are precious promises. Now, there are few books in the Bible that have so many promises as the book of Isaiah. from beginning to end, but especially the last twenty-some chapters, Isaiah is replete with rich promises. In fact, we can say from Isaiah 40 to the end of the book, there is scarcely any part of Scripture in which the promises of God are so rich, so concentrated, and so full in every way for the children of God. Now in Isaiah, you find many different persons taken up in these promises. Some of the promises in Isaiah are designed for people who do not yet know God savingly, assuring them that if they seek God with all their heart, they shall find Him. Promises are often in the Bible unconditional. and are designed for all men, look unto Me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved." You see, if any unconverted person looks, he will be saved. That's God's promise. Some people say, well, the promises aren't to the unsaved. Well, they aren't to the unsaved in and of themselves, in and of their own nature. But if the unsaved are given grace to look to Jesus Christ, the promises are for them, you see, as well. So there are some of these promises in Isaiah. Then there are other promises that are particularly designed for backsliding children of God in the book of Isaiah. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. That's particularly given in the context of the backsliding believer in Isaiah 1. There are promises in Isaiah also given to Christ. He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. There are promises in Isaiah given to those who are called to preach the gospel. But most of the promises in Isaiah like the one in our text, is given particularly to believers in their normal walk of life. As they struggle through this wilderness here below, they live out of the promises. This is their strength, this is their hope, and this is their future. And so you'll find this rich promise of Isaiah 41, verse 10, for whom it is designed in verses 8 and 9. Isaiah begins by addressing those, in verse 8, to whom God would bring such glorious promises. And in verse 8, he's contrasting, isn't he? He's contrasting the recipients of that promise with those in verses 5 through 7, those who help themselves, those who worship other gods. He says, I have a promise. I myself am the promise for those who refuse to worship other gods, for those who cannot serve idols, for those who cannot indulge in iniquity, for those who fear me. And so in verse 8, we find a turn in Isaiah's exposition. He says, but, but thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. And then it goes on in verse 9. Actually, he describes God's people in five ways here. As the recipients of the promise. If you look with me at verses 8 and 9. First of all, he describes them as a chosen people. Isn't that interesting? He begins by talking about them being a chosen people. Thou, Israel, art my servant Jacob, whom I have chosen. So when Isaiah, directed by the Holy Spirit, will record this grand and glorious promise of verse 10 where God says, I am with thee, I am thy God, I will strengthen thee. He begins by saying, this is for a people who are recipients of the distinguishing love of God. You whom I have chosen. You who were but Jacob, he says. in yourself, deceiver, twister, unworthy, hell-bound, but whom I have called Israel, thou who hast had power and prevailed with God and with men. And why? Because I have chosen thee. I have chosen thee. But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob, whom I have Chosen. You see how suddenly Isaiah becomes very warm. He becomes very personal. He becomes very encouraging. Dear believer, your hope, your foundation of the promises of God that come to you are the choosing graces of God. God has chosen you. Therefore, you have chosen Him. God has elected you. Therefore, the promises are sure in His sovereign, eternal grace. You see, Israel is God's servant. Israel has made His willing doulos, His willing slave, the seed of Abraham, my friend. God came. God called Abraham out of the Ur of the Chaldees. God turned him into a great nation. No pharaoh could hold them back. Pharaoh had to learn that they were the beloved of God. They were indeed God's firstborn nation, for whom He did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. That today is the New Testament Israel. God fulfills these promises today in your lives, dear believers, because He has chosen you. He has chosen you with His everlasting love. And the choosing of you demanded that He has chosen also a place called Calvary. Because to be chosen in Him means that Christ had to be chosen for you. To stand in your place. For you are chosen in Him. That's why that resurrection power we heard about this morning, you see, is instrumental to make you a partaker of Christ's righteousness. That's why there is victory in justification and sanctification and glorification, because there was victory in God's heart from all eternity. Why is God with us? Why will He help us? Why will He uphold us with the right hand of His righteousness? Well, He says, Israel, because I have chosen you. But secondly, these promises come to a people who are not only chosen, but also controlled and guided and steered by God. You see that in verse 9a, don't you? You whom I have guided is the original meaning. You whom I have steered from the ends of the earth. Whom I have taken and guided. in My way, formed and fashioned and molded to be My children, to fit My purposes of love towards you. I have controlled every aspect of your life. Every hair of your head is numbered. Every detail of My providence is direct to you. I have taken you out of Egypt. I went before you with a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. I led you through the wilderness. I brought you into the land of Canaan, Israel. I am still with you. Fear not. Be not dismayed. I am thy God. I will guide you. I will steer you in every problem you face. That is still true today, congregation. God never leaves His people alone. In all our troubles and trials and afflictions and impossibilities, He is there. And He calls to us. as He called in the New Testament era to John and Andrew at the opening of that New Testament era, come and see. Come and abide with Me. Come and behold My mediatorial glory. Come and learn of Me. I will steer you. I will guide you. I will take you and lead you in My way. Thirdly, the recipients of this rich promise are not only controlled and chosen, but also called. Look at verse 9b. Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said, Thou art my servant, I have called thee. Those whom God has chosen, He takes from the ends of the earth. From the ends of the earth, He steers them and guides them to Himself, effectually calling them. unto His salvation. That's why God's grace is irresistible. That's why when He called, you had to set your weapons down and you had to come, dear child of God. You had to set out on a voyage of discovery. To discover, to know the Lord. And that's why even now, you feel that that voyage has just begun. You see, there is so much more to know. But you know that it is through effectual calling that the mystery of election is made known. You know that God has called you. You never would have come on your own. God has called you. And the same God who has called you will fulfill His promises in you. Spurgeon put it this way, I cannot climb up to heaven to find my name written there. but when God calls me with power, so that my sinful and rebellious heart and mind can no longer resist Him, and I throw myself into the arms of the only Savior and receive Him graciously, yes, then in my obedience to the command of God to believe in Christ and be saved, I can read my name in the eternal covenant of grace." See, that's what happens. God chooses. God calls. God steers. controls, the sinner responds. And as he looks back upon his response, he sees it was all God's grace. I have called. I have controlled. I have chosen. But fourthly, I have commissioned. Thou art my servant. Thou art my servant. You see, twice You read that here. Verse 8, my servant. Verse 9, my servant. Why? Because those whom God has chosen and controlled and called, He will commission. We lose our lives, dear believers, in becoming His servants. That's what Luther called the priesthood of all believers. We surrender our all to Him. We are Christians, followers of the Christ, living out of the Christ. Though we come so far short of being the kind of Christians we want to be, we are commissioned to walk in the Lord's ways, commissioned to be His people, to be recipients of His promises. And finally, fifthly, God calls and commissions and chooses controls a people He cherishes. I have chosen thee and not cast thee away. God cherishes His people. He can't cast them away. Though we've given Him numerous occasions to cast us away, though we've deserved it a thousand times, you see, He cannot cast us away. Now, I don't know if that thought has ever overwhelmed you, but that is the beauty of the Gospel. You see, the God who chooses, the God who calls, the God who commissions, the God who controls will cherish his people forever. Even our sin, even our failures, even our disobedience, even our unworthiness cannot annul this character of God. that is so inclined to love His people. So who receives His promises? Well, these glorious promises in this particular context are received by a chosen people, a commissioned people, a cherished people, a controlled people, a called people. And dear child of God, every one of those five qualities ought to make your heart sing for joy. This is what God thinks of you. Not what you think of yourself. This is what God does with you. Not what you are able to do. God makes you by sovereign grace because He regards you in this way from all eternity. But now this promise is spoken, says Isaiah. into the context of fear. God's people often are a fearing people. Fear thou not, for I am with thee. You see, God says sixty times in so many words and so many ways in the Bible to his people, fear thou not. has come in the wake of our sin in paradise. It has entered our human experience as a result of sin. Adam, where art thou? It was spoken into the context of Adam's fear. Adam was hiding in the bushes. He said, I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid. And you see, fear has permeated the human race ever since. Fear has haunted us. Fear disenables us. Fear incapacitates us. Fear leads to dismay. Fear can bring nervous breakdown. Fear can bring great sorrow. Fear can bring untold anxiety. But God says, You are chosen. You are commissioned. You are controlled. You are cherished. Fear not, for I am with thee. I am thy God. Now you see, ultimately, this is the only thing that will dispel our fear and our depression and our sense of uselessness. The only thing that dispels fear in the truest sense, and gives peace in its place, peace that passes understanding, is the presence, the favorable presence and promises of Jehovah. Nothing that can so quickly quell the unbelief of our mind, or chase away the hardness of our heart, or take away our fear, has the promises of God. God comes and says, fear not, and gives us His promises. Those are the best moments of our lives, congregation, when we can live out of those promises and we find God faithful in those promises. Then there are moments where there is no one in all the world except God and ourselves and those promises. And those promises then loom large and we cling to them. And we know that God is there. We know that God fortifies us in the midst of distress. Fear thou not. That's God's command. And that means, dear child of God, that you have absolutely no reason to fear. Our fear is sinful. Slavish fear is sinful. You see, we are all prone to it, even after we see grace. We are prone to fear. But God says, fear thou not. I am with thee. I will take care of thee. I will strengthen thee. I will hold thee. I will help thee. I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. You have no reason to fear. You are in the palm of My hands. Nothing, death nor life, principalities nor powers, bad angels called devils or good angels, nothing shall be able to separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. What Christ has done for you, what He has done in you, and what He is to you, guarantees that you never have just reason to fear. You see, God's total graciousness, God's freeness of love, God's strong command, fear thou not, ought to satisfy you. And it ought to satisfy me. And yet these promises never come in a vacuum, do they? They are given to meet a people who are filled with fear. And what happens is that whenever we look at ourselves, whenever we look away from Jesus, we are filled with fear. We look to circumstances. We look to people. We look to our sinfulness. We look to our weakness. We look to our infirmities. We look to our inconsistencies. We look to our wretched, wretched unbelief. And we cry out, Lord, I fear. But God comes and says, Fear thou not. Fear thou not. Thou who art chosen. Thou who art commissioned. Thou who art called. Thou who art cherished. Fear not. A slavish fear, you see, is harmful. It injures our spiritual life. A slavish fear doesn't trust God. A slavish fear at bottom is saying that God is a liar because it doesn't believe the record that God gives us of His own Son. The living God, who cannot lie, comes to us and says, dear believer, fear thou not. Believe My word. Trust My word. 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 shalt not be burned. neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." How is it possible that God's people fear so much when they should fear so little? Why do they take so much injurious and harmful and sinful fear upon themselves? The reason why is because they are looking too much to themselves and too little to the One who is promising. The way to dispel fear is to look to Jesus Christ. To look to His promises. To look to who He is. Fear thou not. Why? Here's the colon. That means whatever follows it is the reason for what precedes it. Fear them not. Why? For I am with thee. Be not dismayed. Why? 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. Five times in a row, God buttresses His fearing people with reasons why they cannot fear and every one of those reasons begin with I. I the Lord. I am the reason why you should not fear. Jesus Christ is the person in whom this promise is fulfilled. Fear thou not. The original Hebrew says, for with thee I. For with thee I. I'm there. I cannot desert you with Thee. I. That's everything. All you need is Me, saith the Lord. The I Am. The faithful covenant-keeping God. The I Am is with you. As He was with Moses in the burning bush. as He was with His people throughout all ages and will be to the end. Fear thou not, dear troubled child of God. Your God is with you. Fear thou not, for I am with thee. This is the Old Testament counterpart to the New Testament promise. I will never, no, never, no, never, leave you nor forsake you. You know, in Hebrews 13, verse 5, the translators didn't know what to do with it because five negatives are lined up in a row to emphasize in a five-fold, strengthening, intensified manner God's impossible forsaking of His people. The best way we could translate it would be Never, no, never, no, never forsake you. Well, here you have five eyes lined up, don't you? I am with thee. I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. I will help thee. I will uphold thee. You see, God cannot desert you. If you're a true believer, it is impossible for Him to desert you. No matter what your problem may be, no matter what physical pain you may have, fear thou not. I am with thee. I will make all thy bed in thy sickness. No matter the pain of the loss of loved ones, I am with thee. I will uphold thee. No matter how many providences seem to run counter to your desires, No matter how many unusual responsibilities overwhelm you, no matter if the load gets too heavy, or the opposition gets too intense, or the water comes over your head, fear thou not, I am thy God. I will be with thee. You know, God gives trials to His people. for many reasons. But certainly one of those reasons is because, as Reverend Lemayne used to often say, God wants to boast of His own grace through His own people. And God wants His own people to be able to show the unsaved round about them that Christianity holds weight when the waters come high. You see, then is the test in our lives. Then is the test of our Christianity. Not when everything is going well, but when the afflictions are multiplied. When we have human reason to fear. Then the question is, will we fear or will we trust our God? I read not so long ago of a little story about a young widow who was complaining to her child that her husband had died and that this child had no daddy. And the widow said to this child, Now that you have no daddy, and I have no husband, and I have no work to do, and no way to get money, I'm afraid of what will happen." And the child looked up at her mother and said, but why are you afraid, Mommy? And the mother said, I'm afraid we'll have nothing to eat, and our home will be taken away. and we will have nowhere to go. My dear child, what will happen to you? And what will happen to me?" And that child looked up sweetly in her mommy's face. Boys and girls, she asked her mommy just one question. She said, Mommy, did God die too? Did God die? Why are you talking like this, mommy? Why are you so afraid when God is alive? You see, fear thou not. How sad it is when God's people come into affliction and act no different than the world, and are filled with fear and lose their faith as it were, or at least a sense of their faith. You say, but it's so hard. I know it's hard. But faith is designed for hard times. And faith triumphs especially in hard times. Look back in your own life, child of God. Isn't it precisely in the most difficult places of your life that your faith was the strongest and that you grew the most? Isn't that so? Where would you be without trials? Fear thou not. I am thy God. I am with thee. I will strengthen you. I will strengthen you. I will strengthen you when you are weak. I will strengthen you when you have nothing to fight with. I will strengthen you when you are totally dependent upon Me. I will strengthen you when you lay down all your weapons. I will help thee. Give God's help, boys and girls. You don't need anyone else. God's help is sufficient. God is so gracious. God is so helpful. God is so good. With God, as we heard this morning, through a resurrected Jesus, there is every blessing. He will justify. He will sanctify. He will glorify. I will uphold you. I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness. My pierced hand. my son's hands, Emmanuel's hands, God with us hands, I will uphold you. And I will never, never let you go. You know, in ancient biblical times, when someone came to plead for someone else at court, that person stood on the right hand where he pleaded for his friend. And so the Lord says, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. I will plead for thee. I will make a case for thee. And I will do it based on my righteousness and my well-beloved Immanuel, my Messiah, whom I will send to suffer and die for you. For his sake, I will uphold you. We read in Isaiah 41, verse 13, just two verses later, three verses later, the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not, I will help thee. So God, as it were, stands on the right hand to plead our case, and He holds our right hand. God's right hand is holding our right hand in every trial. And shall we not then go hand in hand with God? and sweet communion, Lord, with Thee. I constantly abide. My hand I'll hold this night on to keep me near Thy side." God's promises are sufficient for every trial. Lay hold of those promises, dear believer. They're for you. They're designed for you. They're designed for every situation. Ebenezer Erskine once said, God has a promise fit for the mouth of every one of His children. He knows the precise promise to fill their mouth with that they may digest and feed upon the promises of God. Every promise is designed for particular situations in such a way that there is never a situation we enter that there's not a promise fit for us in the Scriptures. Promises are meant to be used. They are meant to be indulged in. They are meant to be embraced. They are meant to be exercised. William Spurstow, who wrote that wonderful Puritan book, a whole book on the promises of God and how to use them, said, God's Word is like a bag full of golden coins. And He unloosens for His people the string and He throws out the bag of promises at their feet. And He says, take what you will. Use My promises. God is honored when His promises are used. God's not a stingy God. You see, when you want to give something away, Or when you love something, you want to see it used, you want to see it acted upon, don't you? You want to see it exercised. Just a few weeks ago I said to someone, it's just such a good feeling for me to see our students move about in my library, using my books. I just love to see them use my books. It's such a good feeling. Those books are being used. But think of how God feels about His promises. God doesn't want to store them in a museum and catalog them and have them all in order and have no one use them. He wants them to be used, to be checked out as it were, to be read, to be indulged in, to be meditated upon, to be prayed over, to be claimed. I keep before me still the Lord whom I approved. At my right hand He guards from ill and I shall not be moved. that life's pathway thou wilt show, to thy right hand wilt guide, where streams of pleasure ever flow, and boundless joys abide." That's where God promises legion, when we keep the Lord always before us. The great I Am will bring you through, dear believer. Your God is sovereign. So sovereign. He's even chosen you. So sovereign that every providence He will overrule for your good. So sovereign that He wants the precise trials you have had and you do have and you shall have to belong to you. He tailor-makes your every need for just the kind of person you are. God makes no mistakes. We deserve not only every trial we get. These are far more. Far more. But the beauty of God is that He uses every trial. He designs it. Tailor makes it for our good so that we may come forth as gold, trusting Him the more, leaning on His promises the more, Finding the blood of Jesus Christ, the more precious. Yes, God will strengthen. Actually, in the middle of verse 10, this wonderful promise, I will strengthen thee, is written in the perfect form of verb, which normally is translated in the past or in the present, as if God says, I who have strengthened you, I who am strengthen you even now. I will strengthen you in the future. It reminds us of what Paul said, doesn't it? I who have delivered you and doth deliver shall deliver. So, fear thou not. Trust me, says the Lord. Have I ever betrayed your trust? Have I ever been found unworthy of your trust? Fear thou not. I am with thee. My dear unconverted friend, you have reason to fear. You are not ready to die. You are not sheltered in the blood of Jesus Christ. Your soul is not ready to meet the Lord. You are not resting in the promises of God. God's Word is not your delight. You are not clinging to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You have not been made a spiritual mourner for sin and spiritually hungry for Christ's righteousness. You have reason to fear. You know, when Jesus arose from the dead, you remember the well-known resurrection story. The angels didn't say to the guards, fear not ye, But they said to the women seeking Jesus, fear not ye. The guards had every reason to fear. The women had no reason to fear. For Jesus was alive. You, child of God, have no reason to fear because of Lord's Day 17. He's alive. He justifies you. He sanctifies you. He will glorify you. It's all in His hands. But you who don't know Him, who think to go on without Him, who do not believe, who do not repent, you will meet Him too. But He will be your judge to condemn you if you don't bow before Him and look to Him even from the ends of the earth and be saved. Oh, what shall it be? to have him say in that day, fear much, for I am not with you. Be dismayed, for I am not your God. I will not strengthen you. I will not help you. I will not uphold you. But the right hand of my righteousness, because you have rejected my righteousness and you have cast away my salvation. Dear congregation, we have to be ready to die every moment. We don't know when our life will hang in the balance. We have to be resting in the blood of Christ. Our life must be hid with God in Christ. There's no other way to live. There's no other way to face trial. There's no other way to die. Fly tonight with your poor soul sinful will to the God of mercy and cry out this very night, O God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And don't rest until you can say, I know in whom I have believed. Amen.