Isaiah chapter forty-three. Verse one. But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel. Fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name, Thar thy. 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. I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia, and Shiva for thee. Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. Therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. Fear not, for I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west. I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, keep not that. bring my sons from the past, and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Even every one that is called by my name, for I have created him for my glory. I have formed him. Yea, I have made him. I never read that verse, verse six, or verse five and six, without thinking of something I heard one time. about an old colored tree. You'll notice it refers to the north, south, east, and west. And this old colored brother, he got up and he thanked the Lord that many were going to come from the east and from the west and from the north, but only a few from the south. So I guess you know what I was running through is mine. Now I want to continue our studies on this remarkable passage of Scripture. We were speaking last week about the many walkers. Though thou passest through the waters thou shalt not be drowned, or through the floods they shall not overflow thee, and through the fire and thou shalt not be burned. What is the source of these walkers and this fire that we read about here? The source is possibly many, but I'll mention four of it. The world, the flesh, and the devil, and nature taking its course. Now the world will cause a Christian to have to pass through very unpleasant circumstances through waters that are chilly and cold and rough. Persecution from the world. The world is no pen of grace. The Lord Jesus could say, My will not if the world hate you. It hated me before it hated you. Can you conceive of this world hating the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, who came into this world to lay down his life for sinful man? He came into this world to do his Father's good will. He came into this world that he might do good to man. He had good in his heart. He healed the sick. and all that were oppressed of the devil for God was with him. He went about doing good, and yet one who came from the good with one object in mind to do the world good, to bless humanity, and yet the world hated it. Marle not if the world hated you. He hated me. Well, if it hated the Lord Jesus, the sinner, holy, righteous son of God, Don't you think it's going to hate those who follow him and adhere to his word? The Lord Jesus is giving encouragement to his people. Don't be disturbed. Don't be alarmed. Don't be upset if the world turns a cold shoulder to you. They did the same to me. And then the flesh. The flesh. That fallen sinful nature that is in the heart of man. When you become a Christian, you don't get rid of that old nature. You wish you could, but you don't. You can't get rid of it. It's there, and it'll be there till you die. And it'll give you all the trouble it can give you on your way to heaven. The devil knows he can't keep you out of heaven. That's certain you're going to heaven. They'll give you all the trouble and all the misery he can on the way to heaven. And he'll do it by using the world to persecute you. He'll do it by tempting that evil nature within you and trying to get you to disobey God and do things a Christian should not do. The devil will do his best to set snares for the feet of young Christians. And he's the rolling lion who goes about seeking whom he may devour. And so the world of flesh and the devil can cause the child of God to go through these waters, through these floods, and through this fire. But then also nature taking its course. That's painful sometimes. You go and you see some fine Christians. You can look upon a young person, and there's no hope. The doctors can do nothing. Oh, how the doctors wish sometimes they could. And Christians pray and seem to pray in vain. Why, nature is taking its course. The very same thing that works and operates, the same principle that works and operates in the unconverted, operate in the Christian. The Bible just simply says, that send worketh in you to bring forth truth unto death, and our outward man perishes. And we can't stop it. The outward man perishes, but the inward man, the spiritual man, is renewed day by day. And in the measure the inner man is being renewed day by day, in that measure I can accept the fact that the outward man perishes. Undoubtedly there have been times when it has pleased God to reverse the laws of nature for a little while. There have been times when miracles have been performed, but that's only a temporary thing. That person has got to die eventually. God raised Lazarus from the dead only for him to die later on. And so nature is taking its course. This means rough waters sometimes, deep water, cold water, and it means going through the fire, these extremes, from cold waters to hot flames. Yes, that's like the Christian's life, one extreme to the other. As the mother said to her son one day, when he came streaming, running into her arms, He goes, what's wrong with you? He goes, say, come on, please ask me. Well, son, you might as well learn it early in life. That's what life is, one thing after another. And so it is. And this is the life of the Christian. You know, life is not one fight or one scourge or one battle. Life is a campaign. Life is a constant come for the Christian. The world against the Christian. and in Satan's system against the world. As Martin Luther King said when he was seeing persecutions, for his stateness stands for the word of God, one of his friends supposedly, said Martin Luther, don't you see the ecclesiastical world is against? The political and the military world is against. Martin Luther, all the world is against. Then said, Luca, I'm against all the world. What can you do a man like me? That's the point. Yes, the world is against the city, and we as God in Egypt have opposed the strong turnips of this world. And so life is a constant conflict. When you get up every morning about the first one to get in, the first lift will be the devil, or the flesh. But there's where the Christians' opportunity come in to get something from the Lord first thing in the morning that will sustain you and strengthen you through the day. And so this is life. We must go through the water. We must go through the river. We must go through the pire, tribulation, persecution, and physical suffering. I was in the home one day this week that the mention to a party was going through these waters. And I said, well, we've got to the either early in life or middle life or in later life. And I'm going to mention the name of her personality that quite a few knew. Mrs. Cattle, if she first started coming to the chapel eighteen years ago, she was eighty-six years of age. And she told me one day, she said, Do you know I have never had a headache in my entire life? Well, I tell you, that certainly came home to me, for I had many of them, and at that time I had some. I thought, How could a person go through life for eighty-six years and not have a headache? And she had a wonderful life, good health, an alert mind, fine circumstances, a wife who stopped this covenant. And my, she had a wonderful life, a smooth life. The waters were smooth as a lake. Nothing to worry about. All was God. But something happened when she was eighty-six. She had cancer. And she was taken into the hospital for an operation on that cancer. And when she came out, Dr. Cutler went in and he died. Later on she had a second operation for that cancer. She went into the hospital with pneumonia. Then her only son Milton died. And then she fell and broke her hip. And she had it one thing after another the last eight years of her life. She died at ninety-four. She went by to pick her up. about two years before she died and pounded her on with four gifts of those that day. But I might say the saddest thing of those eight years, none of her life, was toward the end. She was for death this year. Whether she disclosed it to others, I don't know. Time and time again, when I went into school, Brother Wilson, I'm afraid I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid I'm not afraid. And you could see, she meant it. And time and time again you had to go over the simple way of salating. And here was this merry, jolly soul. For eighty-six years she had not passed through deep waters, not even shallow. She had not gone through the fire. But she did the last eight years of her life. You have to go do it sometime old enough. There may be an odd soul, a rare soul with a stake. But this is life for God's people. This was true of Israel. It's true of God's people today. And so he says, though thou passest through the water, they shall not overflow into the flood. They shall not drown thee, and thou shalt goeth through the fire. Thou shalt not be burned. There's no bread, there's no boat, there's no tunnel, that will enable you to escape these waters. These waters will never flow down, and this fire will never go out. As long as the Christians in this world, he's going to take the waters and take the fire. A persecution. may be a physical son. God had one son without sin, but he never had one child without a son. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered, yet he was sinless. Yet we have sinned in us. That's why we do so. We are still in the Father. But it's the blood of Christ that cleanses us from sin after our salvation. But being saved by grace doesn't guarantee that life is going to be smooth. Why, here are the disciples and the Lord told them to get into the ship and go to the other side. And they hadn't gone far before a storm came upon the lake. And it was a bad storm. The disciples could have said once or another, now this is strange. Are we not in the Lord's will? Did he not tell us to get into the ship? and go to the other side of the lake. And we did it. And here are storms upon the lake. We don't be the one who said, Listen, brethren. The Lord sets up and goes to the other side. Now if he means what he says, we're going to get to the other side. We're not going to stand on this floor. But they were four feet. And he came unto them watching upon the water. And to be in the will of God, doesn't mean to say we're not going to encounter storms and rough waters. That's been the lot of God's people down the century. There will be until the Lord comes. With all the advance in medical science and in new guts and techniques and equipment, there are still more sick people than doctors can attend. We don't have enough doctors. were a hold of six on the right hand and on the left. And Christians are not exempt from these sicknesses and these thoughts. God wants us to realize this fact. It would be a sad story if I were to end my sermon there, just telling you the dark side of the rivers and the waters and the pines. and the experiences and wisdoms like and circumstances they have nothing to do with and shan't stop and the fire gets hotter and the days will die but thank God there is something right in this passage in this very verse verse two that thou passest when thou passest through the waters I will lead them and through the flood they shall not hold us to Yes, I will be with it. And go to this poor, sick, dying, lonely, dying world. We can thank God. We need not be swallowed up or drowned by the waters surrounding us. When we seek to swamp up and kill the very soul of the Christian, he said, I will be with thee. I will be with thee. And these things need not divide up from Him, and they can't divide us. And this is something we need to get a hold of. And it's the very thing that we've tried and pressed upon as Catholics in some of those closing days, that no matter what the Christian path is through. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. We may not like these wars. We may not like these trials, fiery trials that Peter speaks of. But one thing is true, and they cannot destroy us. That would be the structure. That would be a tragedy. Why can't these circumstances, why can't these experiences destroy the Christian? Because the Christian in Christ says, Christ says, I am the... That's why. That's why you cannot be destroyed. You have that over in Romans eight, thirty-five. What does he say in Romans chapter thirty-five? Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, shall distress, shall persecution, shall famine, shall nakedness, peril, or sword? No. Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principality, nor powers, neither things present, nor things that come, neither height, nor death, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God. It is in Christ's power. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the flood drown it. You find in Song of Solomon's chapter eight and I think the verse says, Oh, the love of God. Many waters cannot quench the love of God. Neither can the flood drown. He says, I will be with you. I'll be with you. Isn't it wonderful to have that issue? Jesus. If we do what this meant, the conscious presence of God, and if we have the faith, we look at these circumstances and say, Woe, what is woe? Burn fire, burn! The Lord with me! The account is for it. Loe, I have witnessed you always even unto the end. Lord, increase my faith. Increase my faith. Not when we walk through lovely meadows and flower gardens and pleasant places, I believe, although he assuredly is, but we don't feel the need of them, eh? When the sun's shining and all is going well, why it's wonderful to know I'm a Christian. But when the piles, the testings come, And we're going into those cold, chilly, swift-running waters, tired of physical stuff. Oh, a wonderful day. It's worth, I would say this. It's worth being saved just for the final payoff alone. Because when death water goes, he says, I am the and to know that when death does, I have the assurance that the Lord will be with me in it. That's the great payoff to becoming a Christian. You know when you're dying, you're going to perish. So we find these waters, these rivers, and the fires, they can't stop the living. You're going through them. They can't stop the march of the fish. And I love that word. Though thou passeth through the waters, thou shalt not be found through the flood. Thou didst they not hold it slowly. Passeth through. You're not going to stop before them. You're not going to be stopped in them. You're going through to the other side. He says that. He says, My presence is with you, and you have my word. You're going to the other side. will be in heaven at last. If I had to go through this little fire, you know what I'd do? I would jump, I would leap, I would run, and it's too much quicker. But you can't do that with these waters or this fire. It means sixty minutes to the hour, twenty-four hours to the day. And oh, these minutes, these hours, Say these weak, these monks are awfully long in the struggle. You can't resist. You can't speed up the pace of certain things with power after power. Say after day after day. But he says, I am weak. I am weak. And you shall not be burned. I love the twenty-third song. Where he says in that twenty-third sound, though I walk to the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. O the Savior, I'll have no fear, but thou art this. Thy loss, thy staff may comfort me. The Eastern Shepherd, when he's leading his flock through some of those valleys in the east, there are three valleys that are fairly noticeable where Shepherds had to leave their walk and possibly still do to get the good passes. And at night sometimes on a full moon there are lurking shadows. A beast, there could be a hyena or a wolf or a lion. There are shadows as the shepherd is leading as fast through he wants to get through as quickly as possible. There are caves. There are always lurking caves. You know what the shepherd does? He's speaking all the time to his sheep. And the Bible says, and history proves it. They know their sheep by name. And in order to keep the sheep from seeing those shadows, those laughing dangers, the shepherd is speaking to his sheep. To let them know he's there. He has the rod in his hand to defend them against the wild beast. And the sheep, they trial posters. to the shepherd and to one another as he calls them. Ah, yes, he's in the midst of them. He's there to protect them. He's there to assure them they're safe because he is there. That's the point. When thou passest through the water, thou shalt not be drowned. And through the river they shall not overflow. And through the fire thou shalt not deliver. Shouldn't these experiences in life bring us closer to him and to one another? When all one member suffers, all the member suffers, all the members suffer with him. And thus we have the assurance from our Lord that we are straight to all life, temptation and time circumstance. Fear thou not, he says, I am the. this is his frequent utterance. I am with thee is his program to show. You may not be able to see the way. None of us can see all the way, but the way is safe because he is there and his calling is not to be the same. I am with thee where. I am with thee in the deepest shalom. In all their afflictions, he says, I'm afflicted. Isn't that wonderful? He said that with him. In all their afflictions, I am afflicted. And he says in the New Testament, he's touched with the very feelings about infirmity. He was tempted and tried in all points like this, he said about it. To think the Lord Jesus is touched with the very feelings about infirmity. Not our sins, our eternity, our physical imperturbance, circumstantial imperturbance. He's touched. He says, He that touches you, touch at the apple of night and night. He said to Saul of Tarsus, Saul, Saul, why persecute this thou me? In what way was Saul of Tarsus persecuting the Lord Jesus? by persecuting his people on earth. They were the members of the body of Christ. And the Lord Jesus says, saw what you're doing to those members of my body you're doing to me. Why are you persecuting me so? That's what you're doing when you're persecuting my people. Showing the closeness of the bonds between Christ and the distance. Why, first, did it result? Who do we realize? Now, in the nearness of the Lord Jesus Christ, when the sun is shining and when it's not. He is with us in secret, conscious, sustained thought. That's what my Bible says. Like the burning bush in the desert in Exodus chapter three. A picture of the future sufferings of Israel. There that bush burning in the desert Yet not conclude. Why? God was in the burning bush. For when Moses approached unto the burning bush, God spake from the burning bush, Moses, take your shoes off your feet, for the place where I am used to have. It is holy ground. Both come and eat, most of you know. God was in the bush. Now, folks, was not in the bush. God has been in Israel. the nation of Israel. That's why Israel has not been concerned. I am Jehovah, I change, now therefore ye sons of Jacob are not concerned. And although many nations that have been larger than Israel over the centuries no longer exist or have been swallowed up among other nations, Israel is still a nation today. No nation has survived the famine For the water of persecution and the fires of Christ like his little Israel. Time and time again men have tried to exterminate that nation. They haven't been able to do it. God says they are mighty. Thou son's a dick. The reason you're not the sword is because I haven't changed. I am Jehovah. I change numbers. I promised Abraham, Isaac, and David that you would be the one that would bring my son into this world. You would be the nation that would give to the world my reason. And although you're going through deep water, eventually you'll reign and Christ will be your king. As God says, I haven't changed. That promise still remains. That's why Israel is where she is at his wedding time. If that's true of Israel, it's certainly true of the church. For he said concerning Israel, you're graven on the palms of my hands. But in speaking of the church, he says, you're part of my hands. You're members of my body. You're nearer to him than Israel ever could be. Amen. The church is in that close proximity to the Savior. Not confused. If there is that burning bush in the desert. A burning testimony in the wilderness. And in the wilderness of this world, there is a Jewish nation. Anything can convince any Christian with a wise and honest mind. We've got to admit there's something about that people, that nation. not true of any of us. She's been a witness to that effect. There she is, learning testimony in the desert, and a radiant glow during the long, long night. How wonderful you have in verse three. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy seed. If you find any warmer language than that, I am the Lord. I am Jehovah, that's what that is. The self-existing one. I am the Lord. Thy faith. I am the self-existing one. He says this to him. And I am the holy one, which simply means he can't lie. If a person could lie, he's not holy. Honesty and holiness go together. God says, I am foolish. I will not lie. Have I not said, and will I not do it? Have I not spoken, and will I not bring it to pass? I am not a man that I should lie, nor the common man that I should repent. God says that I am foolish. I am the high and the lofty one that inhabits and inhabits the earth, the holy. One who will keep his word is in captivity unto the earth. So he's reminding us, we are here, the one who is with it during the fire, but, oh, Jehovah, can't you put the fire at us? Oh, can't you stop those waters from flowing? Can't you stop those storms from breaking on our national life? Yes, I should have. But don't forget you disobeyed me. If you had honored my priestess, if you had kept my word, life would have been different for you. You got a lot of this upon your son when you turned to idolatry. Israel has invited her present child. The son of God came. Here was her great test. He produced all the evidence. He was the Son of God. He was there in the trial. And they said, Away with this man. Truth is fine. You must have this man to rule. He may be perfect. He may perform miracles and outstanding things and claim that he, the fulfillment of prophetic wisdom, that we're not going to let him reign on. That was their sin. We will not have this man named O God. That's why people today are in their sins and go to hell. They do not want the authority, jurisdiction of the Son of God in their life. Yes, Mark, we'll put a Christian to go that far. Yes, I accept Lord Jesus. I know I'm saved, but I want my life, the government of my life, in my hand. I don't want his supreme authority. I don't want him to be alone. He says, I am the holy one of Israel, thy Savior. He's my Savior. But he wants to be my sovereign. He wants to reign in my life. Just as Israel as a nation has brought untold miseries upon themselves, because of their disobedience to the word of the Lord, so Christians today have brought many storms taking on their little chore because they'd been disobedient with the word of the Lord. How remarkable that he had been. He said, I'm rich, not an angel of riches, not a man as riches, I the Holy One, I'm rich. How remarkable verse for it. Precious, honorable love. we cost them much. I think that he could use this language, concerning Israel as a nation and concerning us as his people today. Oh, how wonderful, how tender, how intimate are these things. I, says the Keshom, your honor, your love, my love. He cost them much. He said he was done the time that we might be. And if you're not a Christian here this morning, there's sad news for you. These waters I've been speaking about, you're going to go through them. And although they're rough for the Christian, there's a more rough for you. You'll have to pray these fellows alone. You'll have to go through these swift waters alone with no diviners Your little bark won't stand up, you say, when the bill goes on over. You will not swim through these cold waters. You will sink beneath them. Jordan's current is too swift for you to navigate. Jordan's icy waters will sweep you off your feet, sweep you to your feet. No savior with you. You cry for help. there's no response. And you're being caught up with the whirlpool of death, to be sucked into the everlasting burning, a fire that shall never dwell, a flame that will never cease, all because we haven't received Christ as you're saved. We haven't believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. We haven't trusted him. Therefore you navigate this life alone. And then you face death. Although I said to many a person on a sick death, you may get through life without them, but you'll find it awfully hard to get through death without the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how sad and solemnly to see a person slip from time into eternity without the Savior, lost, lost for death. Oh, that you were unsaved this morning. to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust them here and now. Dear what did he say on the cross? All thy ways, thy pillows are thrown over me. Those wings and pillows are the divine judgments that I have experienced. I deserve thy merit that they went over him. And from above thou art sent fire into my bones. That fire should have broken on me. That fire broke on him and she did. Now he says to all who say, As to your life, I'll be with you in all your trials and tribulations. And when you come to die, I'll be there. When loved ones, voices and presents, fade from your mind and memory. There'll be something that'll sustain you to Jordan's uptime. There'll be something that'll be whispering through you constantly. Be not afraid. It is I. It is I. He'll take you through. He'll be with you. You'll no more sink in deathful waters than people say. The ark couldn't go down with no one of his family else because God was in the ark. God said, Come thou and all thy house into the ark. The Lord didn't say, Go in, as if you were outside, tell him to go in. He should come in. I may hear that truth. And the person of the Christian, Christ is in the heart. He's there all during life, Lord. Finally, as we go through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Thou art with could you ask for more. It's yours, Lord, for the people. Free transportation at heaven is the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you touch me? Will you touch me? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,