THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR"The
Prevailing Promise
Rev. Carl Haak(e-mail: Rev. Carl Haak) |
Dear
Radio Friends,
Today we consider a beautiful
passage of the Word of God as recorded in Isaiah 41:10.
There we read, “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.”
I would call that verse
God’s prevailing promise, that is, that it is a promise that goes over, and through,
all the struggles of our hearts. It has the
victory over all that apparently contradicts the hope that we have in Christ.
What is in your way today? What causes you fear? What is it that you see that mounts up and says
that the hope that is yours in Christ is impossible?
What is really in our way and
causing us fear is always unbelief, the weakness of our own faith. The promise that we just read in Isaiah 41:10 goes
over, pushes aside, prevails. “Fear thou
not; for I am with thee … I am thy God … I will strengthen thee.”
This promise prevails because it
stands upon something. The promises of God,
of course, stand upon a foundation. This
promise stands, first of all, along with all of the promises of God, upon the foundation
of the blood of Christ. In II Corinthians
1:20, 21, we read that all the promises of God are Yea and Amen in Christ. We ask the question, then: Will God forsake me? Will the promise that He gives to me be found
faithless? Will He lead me in such a way that
destroys my hope? Will He ever abandon one of
His own? Well, the blood of Jesus Christ
says, No, that cannot be. The blood of
Calvary seals the promises of God. Through
the cross, God says, “As I have given Christ to experience the death and hell of My
children, so I will not forsake them but save them to the end.”
Secondly, this promise stands
upon the being of God. If you have your Bible
handy, open to Isaiah 41:10 and you will see that four times in that verse God says,
“I.” God’s promises,
therefore, rest upon His own character and being. We
read in II Timothy 2:13 that He cannot deny Himself.
We read in Titus 1:2, “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie,
promised before the world began.” God
is true. God is faithful. God is righteous.
Shall the eternal, faithful, righteous, true God abandon His own promise? Shall He forget?
Shall His love cease? The answer is,
No! A thousand times, a million times, No!
This promise is sure because it
stands upon the blood of Christ. And it
stands upon the being of God.
The promise is found in a very
significant chapter in the prophecy of Isaiah. The
prophet Isaiah is bringing warm words of assurance to Judah as they are in the captivity
of Babylon. They are prophetic words, words
that see ahead to that situation. In that
situation, the people of Judah would see Cyrus king of Persia coming upon the kingdom of
Babylon with a power even greater than that of Babylon.
Many of the other nations would respond to Cyrus by taking counsel together,
thinking that their strength would be in their numbers and in confederation against Cyrus. Then they would turn to their idols. But the Lord God commands His people to do
otherwise. He says to them in verses 8 and 9,
“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.”
God’s counsel to Judah was to trust in Him.
That is God’s word to us as well — a word that is fitted for our personal
situation and for our need. The Word of God
brings to us a prevailing promise. And that
prevailing promise is this: Fear not; I am
with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God.
Note that it is, first of all, a
command. We read, “Fear thou not.” Fear is when we see looming on the horizon a great
evil, which we believe is going to be utterly dreadful and destroy everything in which we
hope. Fear is when there stands on our
pathway an obstacle that we estimate surely will take everything away from our hearts and
prvent the good thing that God has promised to us in Christ. We estimate things, and to our eyes, as far as we
can see, the good hope that God has given to us will fail us. Fear is when we walk by sight, not by faith. Then we find much reason to fear. We become scared.
Anxieties come and overwhelm us and drive us to a panic.
God was speaking to Judah who
would be in the captivity of Babylon. It is
very hard to put ourselves in that situation. But
they certainly would have great reason to fear and to be overwhelmed with anxiety. Their strength was God. They had no home.
They had no protection. They had no
military. They were in a strange country. In fact, the prophet says to them in the opening
verses, that they were accounted as dust in the eyes of the nations. Then the mighty Medes and Persians, that kingdom
under Cyrus, was looming on the horizon about to destroy Babylon. And the question was: What is going to happen to us?
So also we can look out. We see great evils coming. We say, What’s going to happen to our child? Am I going to be able to bear this burden much
longer? What about our marriage and the
difficulties and the weariness that we experience in dealing with them? What about my health, cancer, death? And then those personal and inward fears that
beset us?
But God says, look to Him. Fear thou not; for I am with thee. In the chapter, when He commands “Fear
not,” He always gives reason why we should not fear.
If you read the chapter yourself you will see that the eye of faith has very much
to look at. Do not fear, says God. But believe.
Look by faith to Me. He says to us in
verse 9, “I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.” There God is calling us to look by faith to the
decree of gracious election, the truth that from eternity God has determined to love His
children in Christ, to pick out and to choose His own redeemed in Christ in order that He
might bring them to glory. And He says, Not
only look at My eternal election; but look at My covenant (v. 8). You are the seed of Abraham, my friend. I am with thee.
That means that God says to us, “I have established a bond of fellowship and
love with you in the blood of My Son. In that
bond you have become My servants and My friends. You
are My peculiar people. And in this covenant,
I will remain ever married and bound to you. Look
to that.”
Then the Lord God says,
“Look at Me! Look at My omnipotence and
My omnipresence, that is, My all-power and My everywhere-presence. I am with thee.” Now faith looks at these things. Faith does not simply stare itself blind at all
the impossibilities that come up against us. But
faith looks to God, looks to the God of our salvation.
And in God we are strengthened.
That is very important. God comes to us and He does not simply say,
“Now forget your feelings. It does not
matter what you see.” But God says,
“Look to Me.” That is the answer: Look to that which is greater than anything, and
all things, that could ever oppose you. “Look
to Me. Learn to know Me. Learn to place your trust in who I am.”
The command is repeated: “Be not dismayed; for I am thy God.” The word “dismayed” is a little
different than fear. It means to be
discouraged at the prospect of trouble, to be alarmed.
The word refers to those who are nervous, on edge, their eyes darting around and
the slightest noise making them jump. They
become nervous and they greet every bit of news with alarm.
Judah was tempted to be like that. They
saw all that was happening among the nations and they became jumpy; they were on edge;
they became discouraged.
So our minds, too. We can easily begin to magnify the obstacles. We are like little children — we exaggerate
our trials and our difficulties, and the power of God shrinks in our hearts and minds. That is something very odd about our human nature,
our sinful nature. It shows itself in that in
the midst of difficulties we can talk up and we can magnify everything that is against us,
and we imagine how great it is and how impossible it must be and how hopeless it is, and
at the same time we minimize God. We say, O
yes, we know God is faithful. Yes, we know
that we have that glorious salvation in Christ. But,
but…. Then we magnify the obstacles as
if those things that are against us are greater than our God. Once again, faith sees God as great. And then, no matter the obstacles, faith sees them
in their true dimension.
The command, then, is “Be
not dismayed; for I am thy God.” Once
again, the idea is that of the covenant: God’s
eternal commitment to His people in the blood of Jesus Christ. “I have established, by My grace, a bond of
love and fellowship with you, a relationship with you in My Son. I am thy God.”
That is entirely of grace. “I
have become thy God.” You see, salvation
is exclusively of God. It is from God to us. “I am thy God. All that I am is thine. Therefore, be not dismayed nor fear.”
If we are then to have this
precious promise in our heart, we must understand the reasons why we must not fear or be
dismayed. First of all, it is because of our
God and because of the fact that He is omnipresent. He
says, “For I am with thee.” What
does that mean? It means more than just the
truth that God is present everywhere and always. He
is. The Scriptures teach us that He is in
every part of His creation. Read Psalm 139
for an example of that. There is no place
where God is not. God is constantly upholding
all and every thing, from the most distant part of the universe to the tiniest speck on
the earth. All things are in His hands.
But when God says, “I am
with thee,” He means that He is present with His people in His love. He is present with us in Christ. He is present in His grace and favor. Note the words, “I am with thee.” What name of God is that? What is the name that means “God is with
us”? Immanuel. Immanuel means “God with us.” So when God says “I am with thee,” we
must see the promise of Christ. We must see
the Son of God walking in our human nature, dying for us upon the cross solely of grace,
uniting us to Him as His body. “I am
with thee, thy Savior, thy God.”
But that God is with us also
means that He controls all things by His providence for our good, that God is working by a
mighty power in and through all things to accomplish a perfect and a holy end for each one
of His children. Think of that. The child of God, belonging to God by grace, is
not simply meandering through life. It is not
just another day. It is not just the
same-old, same-old. But God is working in a
perfectly wise way as the glorious God — a perfect counsel and plan of salvation
— all directed for our good. “I am
with you in My favor in Christ. I am with
you by a perfect, wise control, directing all things as your glorious God.” Why must we not be afraid? Why must we not be dismayed? “I am with thee — thy Savior, thy loving
Father, to direct all things for thy good.”
But there is another reason. We could say that the reason is yet deeper and
more profound. It is the reason found in who
God is. All of His perfections work in the
behalf of His people. That is an awesome
thought. In all that God is, He is for us. If God (read Romans 8) be for us, who can be
against us? All the virtues and powers of God
are focused on and funneled to the glory of His children.
It is very important, then, for you as a child of God to study your God. The philosopher says, “Know thyself.” Man says that he must make the object of his study
man. And more and more in the church, men
make man himself their focus. Now, there is
certainly a need for that. The Word of God
will certainly tell us what man is and will certainly unfold to us our problems in every
sphere of our life. But the focus must be
upon God. We must know God! We were created to know God. We must delve into the being of God. We must put aside all other interests. We must be consumed by the amazing truth of our
God. “I am thy God. I have loved thee.” Always the object of our study must be the
greatness and the majesty of our God. “I
will strengthen thee, I will uphold thee.”
The child of God who knows God
the best will also possess the best of all comforts.
Our comfort will be rooted in God Himself.
God says, “I will
strengthen thee; I will help thee.” That
means also that the strength of God is granted to us only in the way of working in us
humility. Every saint of God must learn this. The strongest Christian is one who knows God in
His truth, in His sovereignty, and in His power, and who knows himself in his weakness,
sinfulness, and total inability. God brings
that out in verse 14 of Isaiah 41 when He refers to Jacob as a worm: “Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of
Israel.” A worm! When God shines upon you, He gives you to know
that, of yourself, you are nothing. He will
empty you of your own strength. He will bring
you down low. He will expose to you your
pride and your weakness, and then He will fill you with the fullness of Himself. That is always the way it is. First we must know that vain is the help of man. First we must know our own unworthiness, our
weakness, our inability, our damnworthiness as sinners before God. Then God says, “I will strengthen thee.” Look unto God.
He goes on to say, “Yea, I
will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” The right hand in Scripture is, of course, the
symbol of authority and power. But it is also
the idea of dexterity, of that which is coordinated, that which is skillful. The right hand of God’s righteousness refers
to the fact that God will exercise all of His power in a skillful and in a faithful manner
toward us. God will uphold us
skillfully and wisely. Sometimes we say to
the Lord, “But the way is wrong, the load is too heavy. It is not right, Lord. It’s too much — the demands upon me,
what is going on in my family. I’m going
crazy. The obstacles to my marriage, the
future of the church, my personal struggles — it’s all wrong,” we say. God says, “I will uphold thee by my right
hand of righteousness, by my skillful, faithful, omnipotent hand. Even though all hell should endeavor to take you,
even though the devil would try to pluck you from My hand, he will not. I will uphold you skillfully, wisely, according
to My own commitment as it is revealed in the cross of Calvary.”
Let us lay hold of this promise. Let us lay hold of the prevailing promise of God,
“Be not afraid, fear not, be not dismayed.”
Will we distrust the omnipotent God? Shall
we say, “His promise is not true?” Will
the faithful God fail you?
The answer, of course, is No. In fact, to say “Yes” is blasphemy. Then we see that our fear is our unbelief. And to unbelief we must say, “Get thee
hence, Satan. Thou honorest not God.” Let us leave our fears. Our fears are painful and make us miserable. Our fears are weakening us and making us jump at
shadows. Our fears are a dishonoring of God. It is not pious to doubt God. Lay hold of His prevailing promise: I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; I will
uphold thee. That is the Word of God to you,
now in the situation in which His hand has led you this day.
Through faith in His promise we
have comfort. Upon this promise God’s
children have put the enemy to flight. God’s
children have stood secure in this wonderful promise of God. It is no different for you and it is no different
for me. God is with us. I am thy God, fear not nor be dismayed.
So there may be many obstacles,
there may be many things that we do not understand. There
may be many things that are simply too much, and, according to our estimation, tomorrow
may look very dark to our eyes. But we know
who holds tomorrow, who holds all things. We
know the One who has said, “Fear thou not; I am thy God; I will be with thee; I will
strengthen thee.”
Let us then lay hold of the
prevailing promise of God.
Shall we pray.
Father in heaven, we thank Thee
for Thy infallible Word, the Word that is above all true.
We pray that the Holy Spirit may seal it to our hearts and engrave it upon our
hearts, that we might confess this truth: Thou
art our God who has promised never to forsake us and to help us always. We pray that we might possess that strength even
today in the midst of every way of trial and difficulty.
We ask that Thou wilt forgive us of our many sins.
They are with us in all that we do. Oh,
Lord, pity us. Give us, O Lord, to turn from
our sins, and give us to believe and thus to honor Thy name. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Last
modified: 15-Sept-2004