Isaiah 42 verse number 18. Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see. Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I sent? Who is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the Lord? He sees many things but does not observe them. His ears are open, but he does not hear. The Lord was pleased for His righteousness sake to magnify His law and make it glorious. But this is a people plundered and looted. They are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons. They have become plunder with none to rescue, spoil with none to say, “Restore.” Who among you will give ear to this? Will attend and listen for the time to come? Who gave up Jacob to the looter and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk and in whose law they would not obey? So He poured on him the heat of His anger and might of battle. It set him on fire all around, but he did not understand. It burned him up, but he did not take it to heart. But now, thus says the Lord, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in My eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you. I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, “Give up,” and to the south, “Do not withhold. Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.” Father, we come to You, asking that You would send the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of our understanding, to shed light into our darkened hearts, that we would see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. O Lord, help us to lose ourselves this morning in the wonder of Your grace. Oh Lord, heal the brokenhearted through the power of the cross, through the wisdom of Your word, through the work of the Holy Spirit this morning. Revive, strengthen, sanctify, save, Lord, that we might glory in our Redeemer. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen. Years ago, my uncle took me to help him on a job site, and he was a painter. And I was seeking to learn how to paint at the time. And at this particular job, there was a scissor lift outside one of these industrial factories in inner-west Sydney. And there was a scissor lift there, and he asked me if I wanted to to go give it a go. And so I said, “Okay.” I agreed to go on this thing. And I jump on the scissor lift, and as the platform began to rise, something strange happened. My heart began to sink. The higher it went, the more my confidence sank. My hands tightened. I felt like lying on the ground. In fact, if I remember clearly, I think I got on my knees and put my hands on the floor. My stomach dropped. I avoided the edge with my eyes as much as I could. Now, what was the problem? The problem was that I was afraid of heights. But what was actually wrong with my position the moment that the scissor lift went up? Nothing was wrong with my position. My feet were standing on steel, engineered, tested, tried, and secured. In reality, I was just as supported 10 meters up from the floor as I am right now standing before you. My fear never altered my position, never changed, as it were, how secure I actually was. What my fear did is that it gave me something to be afraid of which I should not really have been afraid of. I think this is the case, or something like this, in the case of spiritual discouragement or spiritual depression. We feel unstable, we feel exposed, we feel unsafe, yet we forget our position as believers in Jesus Christ, that our position remains unchanged. Now, what would help me or any of us quench our fear if we were to go on a scissor lift? Well, it would be a consistent knowledge and remembrance and a continual reminder of the objective reality, that people don't die on scissor lifts every day. There’s more chance of you dying standing on the side of a, you know, on the pedestrian standing there. To remind ourselves of of the realities connected with this, to quench the fears, the thoughts arising by reminding ourselves of how safe things really are. Now, that's why they say when you overcome fear, or try to overcome fear, the best thing you can do is gradually expose yourself to the object or to the situation that you fear most in a controlled manner where you continually challenge unhelpful thoughts that come to you while you are in front of or in the situation which you fear most. The worst way to help with fear is to flee the thing you fear. It only increases fear. And why do they say this? Well, what that does is it develops and reconstructs the way that your brain processes that very thing by which you are afraid. It's cognitive restructuring. It helps you process. It helps you understand the real risks that are there and really helps you get things in perspective. And I submit to you that this is essentially a fundamental principle in dealing with soul trouble also. That it is important for us to believe in a more sure word above our own experiences so that we may be able to say with David, “When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust, I shall not be afraid of what flesh can do to me.” Now, the truth is, flesh can do a lot of things to you to hurt you. It's flesh that kills flesh, right? But David understands and David trusts in something greater than flesh. He praises and hopes in the word of God, which is stronger than the word of men. And therefore, the threats of King Saul that threatened his life are not enough to to finally put him out of the world or for him to take his life, because he knows that God has said, “David, you'll be king,” no matter what Saul says. And look, Heman in last week's sermon also battles with a similar thing. You know, in Psalm 88, he wrestles with the same kind of things. His subjective experience reminds him and tells him that that God is my enemy. That's how he feels. This is how he processes the information that is around him. It's it's this subjective experience that is overpowering the objective reality that that Heman is not an enemy of God. He's a friend of God. He's a child of God. But the whole Psalm 88 is looking at it from his subjective experience, not saying that it's wrong or it's a lie or anything of the sort, but it is letting us into his emotional life and how it is that he actually feels subjectively. And although this experience might be real, because our experiences are real, our feelings are real, in that we feel things that actually we actually feel them. They're not made up, make-believe, as it were. We must understand also, though, that we must be fundamentally persuaded of that which is objective reality despite the way that we feel. Now in the case of the children of Israel in this text of scripture that we've just read this morning, it tells us the story of a people whose hearts have been rebellious, that they are people that are described as blind and deaf. Now, not utterly blind in the sense that they are ignorant about God. They know who God is. They grow up hearing the law of God. But they are a people who have seen many things, but they do not see, right? They hear many things, but they do not hear. They have been overtaken by lies. They've been overtaken by falsehood. They've been overtaken by sin. And such lies and falsehood and sin have weakened their vision of the objective realities that are true because of their covenant relationship to God. And in this passage of scripture, we see that God is giving them up to the looter and to the plunderers. And in the final analysis in verse number 25, I believe, at the end of the chapter, it shows that that that that he did not understand, it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart. A very sad, as it were, description of the state and condition of this people. And so they will go through a very difficult time, a time in which the Babylonian enemies of theirs will come in and invade the city and ravish the city and destroy their livelihood. And in fact, Jeremiah, just a couple of years from this point, will be sitting down looking at the destroyed city, and he will be writing his lamentation, acknowledging this city now as lonely, as having her majesty departed, as her gates sunk into the ground and fallen, that the people have been fallen by the sword, and they have been killed and carried off and hauled off into the foreign nations. This sorrowful experience will be horrific. It will be something that will trouble their souls like nothing else. And chapter 43 verse 1 says, “but.” But says the Lord. “But now thus says the Lord, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel.” Now, if you think about those words, straight after on the back of what's just been said in chapter 42, what would you expect God to say following that? You're blind, you're deaf, the enemy's coming, you will be destroyed. But now, I am the creator, the sovereign one, the one who is powerful, the one who is in control of all, I am the one who formed you, oh Israel. You'd probably think, okay, and I'm going to make sure you really get what you deserve. I'm going to consume you, ruin you, destroy you, forsake you. Why? Because you see many things, but you do not observe them. You hear many things, but you do not do them. I'm going to finish you off. But that's not what we get in the passage, is it? But now thus says the Lord, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel, fear not. They may have given up on Him, but He did not give up on them. He prophesies of a homecoming and a gathering of His people, everyone who is called by His name, His remnant, His covenant people that are called by His name, will be regathered because God will show them mercy. Why will they be regathered? Why are they not to fear? Why should they not fear? Because God's care for them remains unchanged. He says to them, “Fear not. I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are Mine.” This is covenant language. This is language that describes their their calling by God's grace into relationship with Him. It describes their the the the the fact that He possesses them, that they are His people and and and and He will be their God. This is language of redemption, the only way in which any of us ever enter into covenant. And God is reminding them and helping them understand, “Fear not because I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are Mine.” This is language, covenant language, that is sure, that is secure. Securer than the waves, securer than the rivers, securer than the fires that will threaten them. And that's why He goes on to say in verse number in chapter 43, “When you pass through the waters, when you pass through the rivers, when you walk through the fire.” This is part of that trouble that is about to come to you because of your disobedience. But in the midst of the water, in the midst of the fire, in the midst of the rivers, I will be with you. I will help you. I'm the one who redeems you. I am the one who loves you. Therefore, fear not. Despite the blindness and the deafness, God's divine care for His covenant people remains unchanged. This was God's word to His covenant people in the midst of waters, in the midst of the rivers, in the midst of the fire. They would never and should never forget that their creator, their savior loves them. And loving them, they belong to Him. And therefore, He is with you and He will keep you. Why? Is it because they are accepting of such love? Why would God love people like them? Is it because they're good? Is it because they're worthy? Is it because of the way that they sacrifice to God? Is it because of the way that they know how to, you know, do their sacrifices and rituals in a way that pleases God? Is that why God is committed to them? No, God is not committed to them in this passage for any other reason than His own name's sake. Why? Because it says it. It says it in verse number four. “Because” – this is the reason – “you are precious in My eyes and honored, and I love you.” That's why. Now this is the sure foundation that is under the feet that the children of Israel, the remnant of the children of Israel belonging to the covenant of God, they must remember in the water, in the fire, in the rivers. They won't overwhelm them, they won't they won't be destroyed completely and utterly because underneath are the everlasting arms, underneath is a sure foundation that their soul can rest and that their hearts can draw strength from, and therefore they can have the confidence in that they need not fear, though they're in the water, though they're in the rivers and though they're in the fire. But this is the sure foundation that the spiritually depressed stubbornly refuse to recognize, isn't it? They see many things, but do not observe them. Isn't it true? When you're depressed, when you're down, you come to the word of God and you hear God loves you, you eat of the bread and drink of the cup and you see His mercy towards you. You see many things, God's provision in your life, but you don't observe them. You hear many things, but you do not give your ear to them. That's the stubbornness of spiritual depression and anxiety that refuses to embrace unequivocally the steadfast love of the Lord. And it's amazing when you counsel people through their soul's trouble and they get just a little glimpse and the veil just starts to unfold and the light begins to shine, you see their countenance begin to change, don't you? You've seen it in your own life. And as the countenance begins to change and the light begins to beam in, and guess what fades in the background? The fear, the anxiety, the depression. But then they put the veil back over. This is the truth that was the foundation of the covenant people of God in the midst of their suffering, even in the midst of the ravishing of the city when Jeremiah is there recording the horrific things that are happening to the people of God, listen to what he says in Lamentations chapter number three. He says, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him. The Lord is good to those that wait for Him, the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.” He goes on to say in this same passage, “For the Lord will not cast off forever. Though He cause grief, He will have compassion in accordance to the abundance of His steadfast love.” I love it. He's going to have compassion not because you're good. He's going to have compassion not because you just worked out the methods of achieving God's favor. He's going to have compassion because of His steadfast love. He's going to have compassion because He is compassionate. That's why He's going to have compassion. “For He does not afflict from His heart or grieve the children of men.” Now, it is the primary business of the devil, if you haven't worked this out already, to make people deaf and blind. To conceal and to pervert the knowledge of the truth of God. He desires to veil the truth of the gospel. He blinds the minds of them that believe not. Look at it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 3, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world, that is Satan, has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of God who is the image of God.” Satan's temptations are fundamentally lies designed to blind you, designed to make you question the steadfast love of the Lord and the surety of what God has said in His word. The first temptation in the garden was that way, was it not? Here we have Adam and Eve and the words that come out of the devil's mouth, the first words that we hear come out of his mouth, “Has God said?” There you have it, the father of lies right from the beginning. The liar, the one who does not stand in the truth. Did God actually say that you shall not eat of any tree of the garden? Oh, you shall not surely die. And so it was in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ thousands of years later when he was tempted in the wilderness. We often miss this, but do you understand what happened before Jesus went into the wilderness? He was baptized of John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, there was a voice from heaven that said, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” And the scripture says that he was immediately went up into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil for 40 days. And every one of Satan's temptations begin with these words, “If you be the son of God.” You see that? Striking at his identity which God just claimed and proclaimed from heaven to his son. Striking at at at at at God's, the Father's thoughts towards the Son. If you be the son of God, cast yourself, turn these stones into bread. If you be the son of God, do this and that and the other, challenging him as if to say that if you want to be the son of God and want to prove yourself to be the son of God, you got to do these things. But the Father just declared him to be the son. You see the challenge? You see how Satan is working in his temptations? Attack on his identity. And this is how Satan deceives the hearts of many, perhaps your heart this morning, believing things about yourself that are not true of what God actually says of you. And it is the business of the gospel to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The business of the gospel is God saying, “Let light shine out of darkness.” The business of the gospel is the proclamation of the light, the proclamation of Jesus, the proclamation of the truth, the proclamation of the one who forgives sins, the proclamation of the one who unites us to Himself so that we have a new identity, the proclamation of the one who died for every one of our sins, no matter how wicked they are. The one who is savior, the one who is Lord. The business of the gospel is to bring us near to covenant love. The business of the gospel of Jesus Christ is to help us understand and to know that your salvation has nothing to do with yourself, but it depends upon a God who has decided to love you. We love Him because He first loved us. We know the passage, but we don't think about it enough, I think. Another one we know but we don't think about it much is Romans chapter 5. “For why, while we were still weak…” – listen to the condition of us, and listen to the work and mercy of God. That's what you have to pick up in this verse. If you miss that, you miss it all. Look at what it says here. “For why we were still weak,” – that's us – “at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” That's us. For one would scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would even dare to die. “But God shows His love for us,” – that is the ungodly and the weak – “in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” While we were still sinners, just make sure you get that point. Now, since therefore we have been justified by His blood, there you go. We talk about justification by faith, and it is true. But let me tell you, it's the blood of Jesus Christ that saves. The faith only has any teeth, as it were, because it lays hold of the blood that cleanses, the blood that gives us righteousness. So it's not even your faith in the final analysis that saves you. It's God's mercy, it's His grace. Look at what it says here. For now we have been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God? Do you get that? If we've been justified through His blood while we were yet sinners, when we were ungodly, when we were undeserving and did nothing for the salvation of our own souls, Paul's trying to argue and make the point here, if you've been justified by His blood, how much more shall you be saved? Like you think he's going to rescue you when you're in your worst condition and then when you have a fall, he's going to say, “Sorry, mate, you're stuffed up.” It doesn't make sense. He saves you in your worst. He saves you when you do nothing for Him. He saves you in your blindness and in your deafness. Well, he's going to kick you away because you have a moment of deafness and blindness? That's not the gospel of Jesus. And he goes on and he presses deeper, for if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His son, while we were enemies. Now we were hostile against Him and in that condition God reconciled us through the death of His son. Much more now that we are reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. You understand that? The point he's trying to make is that there's nothing that will separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus because that love is a covenant love that's not dependent on you. And Paul's saying you derive your identity from that, O sinner, O ungodly one. Because Jesus paid it all. And this is at the heart of the Christian gospel, which is why we can say that a depressed Christian is in one sense a contradiction of terms. Now, it's possible to be a Christian who struggles and is depressed, of course. But it's an unacceptable condition for a Christian. And what I mean by that, it's not living up to our calling. Look at the things that we have just heard of. Look at the things that we have just spoken of, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Is that not cause for rejoicing? Should that not make my heart rejoice? Should that not make me find my identity in someone else rather than myself? Shouldn't that not make me beat myself up over my sin to the point that I that I I put the curtains over his beaming mercy that wants to shine into my heart this moment? Of course, it's an amazing gospel. Our condition is a glorious and happy one despite our deafness and despite our blindness. God says to us through the gospel of His son, “Fear not, for I am with you. Be not afraid, for I am your God.” He says to us through the gospel of His son, “I have redeemed you, I have called you by my name, you are Mine.” He says to us through the gospel of His son, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned and the flame shall not consume you.” He says to you through the gospel of His son that “I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” He says to you through the gospel of His son that you are precious in His eyes, honored, and I love you. That's what He says to you through the gospel of His son this morning. He is the one from whom we can derive our confidence. And therefore, the logical conclusion of such a wonderful doctrine is simply this. Did God the Father receive Christ's sacrifice? Yes or no? Yes. Does He receive Christ's righteousness as a perfect righteousness? Yes. Did He declare from heaven, “This is My beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased”? Yes. Okay. Then if you are united to Jesus Christ by faith this morning, no matter how you feel, no matter how you think, no matter what's going on, no matter you going up that scissor lift and wanting to go down, you need to remind yourself and speak to yourself and tell yourself that I belong to God. If I'm united to Jesus, I'm accepted in the beloved. Because of the beloved. If if if I am united to Christ, I am righteous. That means God looks at me as He looks at His son. You know what that means? You can do nothing today that will make God any more happier than in you than he is because of Jesus Christ. Amazing truth. It's gospel truth. It tells us that every one of our sins is forgiven, every one of them. Listen, that vain regret that you have in your past, that relationship that failed, the way you treated your children in their upbringing, the way you've treated your spouse and perhaps ended up in the divorce, perhaps all the things that you think in your mind that trouble you that Satan throws as darts into your heart to to weaken the glory of the gospel of God in the face of Jesus Christ, all forgiven, all paid for by the blood of Jesus, all of it. All of it. And they are lessons to you of not to do this and the way of the transgressor, yes, is hard and things are difficult, I know, and sin has a cost and has consequences, but never to think that God doesn't love me. Because He loved you in the depths of your sin. In your deafness, in your blindness, it was in your sin that He had mercy on you. The message of Romans chapter 8 teaches us this, that justification, which is talking about Christ's righteousness received by faith, not by our good works, by faith, is such a powerful truth that Paul can start off Romans 8 by saying, “There is now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” That's it. Those who are in Christ Jesus, no condemnation, none. Should I then condemn myself if God is not condemning me? “What shall we say then to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely and graciously, that is, give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall be able to separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation…” – and not only physical tribulation, soul trouble. “No, of course not. Distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No. As it is written, for Your sake we are being killed all the day long and we are regarded as sheep to the slaughter. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure…” – are you sure? – “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And it is the peculiar problem of legalism that shifts our confidence from Jesus Christ and Him crucified and puts it back on our good works. And many believers fail at this point, and perhaps that's where you're failing this morning in this area of spiritual depression. You've started to measure yourself and your relationship to God by your performance. You've been thinking if I've been doing good this way, God loves me more than He did last week. You've fell into the trap of Pharisaism, you've fallen into the trap of legalism. Now you're measuring your relationship to God by your performance, and two things happen in that case. The first of which is that you deceive yourself and have a false standard of righteousness, isn't it? That's what the Pharisees did. They they thought they were holy, but they were full of corruption. They were really unholy. But they twisted the law of God to say, “Yep, I'm going well.” And how many Christians go on in their Christian life just like this? Everything is fine in my relationship with God. And that's because they've reduced the law of God and they're measuring themselves by their works nonetheless, but they're having their confidence because they are moving forward. Or the other thing that could happen is that you'll depress yourself because of your constant failures. You see? Measuring yourself by yourself, measuring yourself by the standard without the grace of God in Christ. What does it do? Leads to condemnation. Inevitably. And perhaps you're down this morning because of this very thing. And so it is a business of the Christian to remind themselves of the wonderful mercy of God in Jesus Christ. You see this in the Psalms, you see it in the scripture, but you know what's amazing in the Psalms and the scripture? You see David talking to himself. And the Bible doesn't say that he's crazy for doing so. In fact, it encourages us to do so. David says in Psalm 103, turn with me there if you like in your Bibles, Psalm 103. Let's look at this passage together and look at David how he talks to himself. He's talking to himself. He's reminding himself in his trouble, in his affliction, in his hardship day by day, he's preaching the gospel to himself. And he says this in Psalm 103, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love towards those who fear Him. And as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him. For He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust.” Preach this to yourself. O my soul, listen very carefully, O my soul. Listen. Listen to the steadfast love of the Lord. Listen to the God who removes your sin as far as the east is from the west. Listen to the one who does not repay you according to your iniquities. Preach to yourself this truth. When indwelling sin says to you, “You are worth nothing.” You say to indwelling sin, “I am worth nothing.” Yes. But as the hymn writer says, “Here is my worth and my unworthiness,” right? That's the point. My worth is in Jesus. My price is fixed, my ransom paid at the cross. Okay, so indwelling sin, “Look how bad you are.” Yes, I actually, I'm worse than what you know, Mr. Indwelling Sin. The Bible says the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it? How many people trouble themselves, “I can't believe I had that thought.” Are you serious? What do you mean you can't believe you had that thought? What do you think you're good? You know, beating themself up all day. You should say, “I had that thought. Yeah, I had that thought. Thank God for His mercy. Thank God the blood of Jesus cleanses us from those kind of thoughts.” We listen to the voice of the world and its ideology and its standards, its philosophy, teaching us you find your satisfaction and your identity in what you feel about yourself. If you're think you're this, well you are that. Well, that's dangerous. Because I think a lot of bad things about myself, that's going to lead me right down into the in the pit of depression. I need something higher than my feelings. I need something higher than my experiences. Something more sure under my feet than how I feel. I wouldn't last another day or another week if I didn't have something more sure under my feet than how I feel. The devil, the accuser of the brethren, reminds you of your sin, reminds you of your guilt, reminds you of what you have done. But they overcame him because they were really good in self-righteousness. No, they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. They overcame him by the word of their testimony. And that testimony wasn't about, oh, how good they were when they came to believe in Jesus. The word of their testimony was the testimony of Jesus Christ, that He saved me. It was the testimony of the gospel. This is what God has done for me. This is what He's done in my life. And they overcame the darts of the fiery one, of the wicked one because they said, “I belong to God because I have a testimony. He saved me. I belong to God because Jesus's blood has cleansed me.” What if the voice of anxiety comes to you and says, “Well, what if nuclear war breaks out this week? What if my children turn against me? What if I get cancer? What if my husband or wife leaves me? What if I die alone in a nursing home away from my children and my family?” What if God is a sovereign creator, sustainer, orchestrator of everything in the universe? What if, when you pass through those waters, He is with you? What if you hear His words saying to you, “When you pass through the rivers, they won't overwhelm you.” What what if you hear Him saying, “When you pass through the fire, it will not consume you.” Yes, it may hurt, yes, it will you will feel the heat of that moment in your life, but it won't consume you. Oh, you say, “But what if I die?” Yes, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? For You are with me. Do you understand what the passage is showing us here? That we belonging to God as His covenant people, we can find safety and peace and rest even though our hearts trouble us with anxiety because God, the sovereign one of heaven and earth, rules the world and He's for us, not against us. He's for you. You can lay your head and rest at night knowing that He watches you. The voice of depression saying, “I'm a failure and I always ruin things.” Well, you know what? You're not far from the kingdom of God if that's the way that you think. Because this is the gospel story, a people that fail constantly and have not lived up to God's holy law and God's holy standard. And it should not concern you, brother and sister, that you are human, for there is no person, not a righteous man on the earth who does good and never sins. And the beautiful thing about that as we heard this morning that he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. So stop thinking legalistic about your relationship to God as if it depended on your own relationship. How would have David moved forward after his adultery and after his murder of Uriah, if he did not have the the truth of God in his heart that reminded him that God doesn't reward us according to our iniquities? That he removed my sins as far as the east is from the west. How would he get on with another day? I don't think he could. But it was a steadfast love of the Lord that upheld him. We need to stop deriving our identity from things within ourselves necessarily, but we need to take our cue from God. God says you're fearfully and wonderfully made. God says you were made in His image. God says if you are His child that I love you, I have redeemed you, you are mine. God says that you are righteous in Christ Jesus. That is what your soul should rest in. And we think in such ways, we lose meaning, we lose identity, and we spiral down into some crazy experience in our lives and it looks like there's no getting out of it. But I think what was true of Hosea's day is true of our day, that my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. Many of God's people, perhaps even you here this morning, you are not adding to your faith knowledge. You are not supplementing to your faith knowledge. You're not increasing in your knowledge of God and your understanding of God. You've become content with a superficial understanding of the gospel. So superficial that you see the gospel as that which you did. Or you see the gospel as just merely a message preached. It's more than a message preached. The message preached is telling of us about the gospel which runs way deeper into the work of Jesus Christ and way deeper into your own faith. Maybe you're destroyed for a lack of knowledge because you know things theoretically, but you don't believe them convictionally. You've come to the point today where you've just adopted things that you've heard. You grow up in a Christian home, Mom and Dad said that was right, and therefore it's right. Do you really believe it? I mean, are you holding fast to that? Does that doctrine work out in your life day by day? Is it an anchor point for your soul, or is it just something you know how to recite when you're quizzed? Do you know your own corruption, your own heart, or do you think you're a pretty good person? You know if you think you're a pretty good person, get ready to get discouraged. But if you know your own corruptions, if you understand Romans 7, that that that this is the human heart, this is the heart of even the redeemed. When you understand those blessed truths of even our own inward wrestle, you would know that not every thought that comes into your mind even comes from you. Sometimes Satan insinuates thoughts into your mind. Sometimes it's worldly philosophy, sometimes it's things you've heard. It's amazing how many people get so depressed and discouraged by the dreams that they have. That's a that's a that's another topic for another day. But do you know who you are fundamentally? Do you know who you are spiritually? Do you know who God is? And I'm not saying just abstractly, but who God is to me? You know, the creeds and confessions can tell us who God is, but only saving faith in Jesus can lay hold of who He is and say, “He is mine because I am His.” Who is He to you when you sin? Who is He to you in your doubts? Who is He to you in your rebellion? Who is God to you in your deepest and darkest night? Is he judge that hates you and wants to wipe you off of the face of the planet Earth? Or is he the one who says to you, “Fear not, for I am with you”? The one who says, “I love you.” Nothing concerns pastors more, I guess, in many ways than those that have very little care for theology. It is dangerous, it is dangerous to your soul and to your position. Or if all you want is do, do, do, do, do, experience, experience, experience, I'm going to tell you one day, you're going to realize that you're failing in what you're doing, and your experience is going to be like Heman and it's going to be darkness all around you. And if you don't love theology, and if you don't love who God is despite who you are, you will fall to the ground and cry in anguish without any hope. But you know what, when you fail, and when your experience fails, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. And you can hold firm to His promises and have that sure foundation. What was Peter's confidence when he was going to deny the Lord? It wasn't that I'm going to fix this up and fix up everything. No, no. Jesus said to Peter, “I have prayed for you that your faith fail not.” That's his confidence. How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent word. Let's pray.