“The Lord is my helper; I will not fear.” - Author and Writer Ronald Nelson

TODAYS BIBLE VERSE: 

"...for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." Hebrews 13:5-6;

ENCOURAGING WORD: There were some men years ago who were on a leaky old ship in the middle of rough and stormy sea, fearful for their lives. They didn't know whether they were going to sink or not. So one of them went to see the captain and said, "Captain, are we safe?" He said, "Well, I'll put it to you this way. The boilers on this ship are very weak and may explode at any moment. Also, the ship is very old and she's taking on water. To be honest with you, we may have an explosion, or we may sink. "We may go up or we may go down. But" he continued, "At any rate, we're going on." And that's the way we are to think as we face every new day. Jesus may come for His bride at any time, and we may go up to meet Him in the clouds. Or we may just simply die and be forever with the Lord. But at any rate, we're going on...even though we don't know what a day is going to bring.

Colossians 3:2; tells us, “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” 

In other words, don’t get caught up with all the distractions of the world news and all the evil that is going on.

1 John 2: 15-17; we read, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world, If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”

Before I started reading the Bible about twenty five or more years ago, I was under the impression that we were to love the world and all that is in the world. Then I read 1 John 2: 15-17; and I was really confused. As I continued to read the Bible with the Holy Spirit as my guide, I realized what these three verses really meant. I first understood this to mean me should not love the world and all the beauty it possessed. But then as I read more and more I realized that the world in this context meant the world system, the people that inhabited the world, not the blue earth that we live on. The world is God’s creation, and when you look around at the world with all its magnificence, you know without a doubt that these verses are not talking about the blue Earth that we inhabit. From the beginning of time, ever since the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden, man has continuously corrupted our planet with more evil than we ever thought could happen. Man has taken this beautiful planet and made it into Satan’s Kingdom as we read in the following Bible verse.

 2 Corinthians 4:4;  “In whom the god of this world (Satan) hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

Matthew 4:8-9; “Again, the devil took Him (Jesus) up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me."

Satan is showing Jesus all the Kingdoms of the world at a glance, and he (Satan) is proclaiming that the world belongs to him. Notice, Jesus did not rebuke him. But on a much more pleasant note, Jesus will return to take back what He turned over to Satan six thousand years ago. Satan’s reign of evil is about to come to an end. That is evident as we see where the world is headed. We are nearing what we refer to as the Tribulation Period which will be the last seven years of Satan’s reign on earth. It will be his last shot at destroying mankind and his number one goal is to rid the planet of all Jews first. Of course, the Bible is very clear that this will not happen. Most of the world population has no idea what is in the very near future. Only those that have studied Bible prophecy with intensity, understand where we are on God’s prophetic calendar. Just like in the days of Noah, people are mocking and laughing at those of us that know the truth. Just like those that mocked Noah, they will not be laughing much longer. Side note, look what happened to the Jews because they did not believe the prophets of old when they warned the people of upcoming judgment. Daniel prophesied the exact day that Jesus Christ would proclaim Himself to be the Messiah. As a result of them not knowing Daniels prophecy, which told of the exact day that their Messiah would appear on the scene, they were spiritually blinded for the next two thousand years. Because of their rejection of Jesus, they suffered more persecution than any other ethnic group. When the Jewish hierarchy had Jesus crucified they brough a curse upon the Jews and all their descendants from that point on as we read in the following Bible verse.

Matthew 27:22-25; “Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said to him, “Let Him be crucified!” Then the governor said, “Why, what evil has He done?” But they cried out all the more, saying, “Let Him be crucified!” When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.” And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.”

What most people do not understand  is this, once we have rejected Jesus Christ and His propitiation for our sins, we are then under Satan’s control and all his deceptive lies. There is no way for us to understand the Bible or anything else that has to do with Salvation. It’s like trying to explain the colors of a rainbow to a blind man. It can’t be done. Once a person decides to reach out to Jesus for truth, then, and only then will the blinders be removed and then the Holy Spirit will start to work with them to bring wisdom and knowledge into their life. Until then, they will have no understanding of what is happening in our world or what is about to come to fruition just like all those that perished in Noah’s flood.  

But those that have received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and accepted the Holy Spirit into their hearts, they are spiritually protected, and nothing can harm them. Just stay focused on Jesus Christ and everything in your life will be working out for the good.

Romans 8:28; confirms what I just said; “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” 

That doesn't mean that Christians won't go through rough times; it just means Jesus will guide all believers through each trial and bring us out of it more purified than when we went in. It is the purifying process that we, as Christians all must go through if we choose to serve Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We read this promise in;

John 16:32-33; “Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.  These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” 

Jesus promises us that we will go through trails and tribulation. But the tribulation that we will go through on earth is not the great tribulation that is to come upon an unbelieving world in the last seven years of existance as we know it. The tribulation that we will go through is from man, the great tribulation that the Bible speaks of is Gods wrath on an unbelieving world. Jesus even tells us this in the following Bible verse;

1 Thessalonians 5:9-11; “For God did not appoint us (Born-Again Believers) to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing."

When we truly trust the Word of God and His promises, we will go through life without fear, and experience the joy of life that God had intended for us to live.

I’m going to give you an illustration of why we must go through trials in this life. Let’s use the purification of gold as an example. When gold is first mined, it is anything but pure gold for the most part. So what happens, is it has to go through a purifying process by putting it through the fire many times. Every time they put gold through the fire and bring it to a boiling point some of the impurities of the gold will rise to the top. That is when they will scrape off the top layer and remove all the impurities. They will continue this process over and over until they have pure gold. This is exactly what God does with His children. We are put through the fire and various trials so that when our trial is over, hopefully, we have learned from it. There is a lessen to learn from every trial that we endure. God will continue to do this to his children until they are pure and are transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. This process could take a long time, or it could take a shorter time depending on how quickly we learn from the trials that God allowed you to go through. When we look into pure gold we can see our reflection. When we become transformed into the image of Jesus Christ we should be able to look into a mirror and see Jesus Christs reflection in us.

Without trials in our life it is impossible to be transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ as we are all told to do. So when Paul says that we should count it all joy when we go through these various trials, I believe he is referring to the joy we will feel when we get through these trials and understand what purpose they have served. (Do not let your trials go unlearned) I can personally look back at some pretty tough trials that I went through in my life, but after they were all through, I could definitely see the changes that they made in my life and why I had to go through them. When we go through these trials, we need to give them all to Jesus Christ so that He can guide us through them and purify us through this process. Jesus did not promise that we would not go through trials, but He did promise that He would see us through them. Every day God will ask us "Do you trust Me?" When you truly put all your trust in Jesus Christ you will find a sense of joy and happiness that passes all human understanding.

I’m going to share the following Bible verses and then put them into perspective. List carefully to what it is saying.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8; “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.”

Now, everywhere that “love” or “it” appears, put in the name Jesus Christ. “Jesus Christ is patient; Jesus Christ is kind. Jesus Christ does not envy, Jesus Christ does not boast, Jesus Christ is not proud. Jesus Christ does not dishonor others, Jesus Christ is not self-seeking, Jesus Christ is not easily angered, Jesus Christ  keeps no record of wrongs. Jesus Christ does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  Jesus Christ always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Jesus Christ never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.”

Fits really well doesn’t it? Now put your name every where Jesus’s name is. “I am patient; I am kind. I do not envy , I do not boast, I am not proud. I do not dishonor others, I am not self-seeking, I am not easily angered, I keep no record of wrongs. I do not delight in evil but rejoice with the truth.  I always protect, always trust, always hope, always persevere. I  never fail. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.”

It just doesn’t fit very well. So, to get to my point, Jesus Christ is Love. Every one of these actions that I just read leads to sin. Everybody who says that they do not sin, needs to re-examine themselves based on the message above.

Another analogy that I want to share to get a point across is this. The Bible says that if we fall in one category of sin, then we have broken them all as we read in the following Bible verse.

James 2:9-10; “but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.  For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”

The point that I want to make is this, “If you are hanging from a cliff by a chain link chain, How many of those links have to break before you fall to your death? Answer-One! If the same way, if you believe that you fulfilled every sin but one, then you have broken all of them and you will fall into the depths of hell.

Now comes the lifesaving remedy. Of course, none of us can keep even one commandment, let alone all of them. So, according to this analogy, we are all headed toward hell, eternity without Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ provided a way out for all those that would trust in Him. See, God came to earth in the personage of Jesus Christ. He lived a perfectly sinless life. Because of Him living a perfect sinless life, He was able to take our sins upon Himself. So, Jesus willingly took the sins of the world upon Himself, and then willfully went to the cross to suffer the most horrific death known to man. He took our sins and paid our price and in return He gave us His righteousness. We call it the great exchange. When we become born-again into the Holy Spirit, it is as if we never sinned, we have been justified. It is just as if we never sinned so when we stand before Jesus, we will be found innocent of all charges because He covered our sins with His shed blood. Since Jesus is the judge and we have nothing to be condemned for, we will enter the Kingdom of God for all eternity. We will be sin free!

Now let’s look again at the title of today’s message. “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear.”

Should we believe for one second that if God did all this for us, should we fear anything, of course not! God even tells us in the following Bible verse how we are to handle fear.

 

2 Timothy 1:7-9; “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

With all the evil that is in the world, its hard not to fear what is about to take place in the near future. Our flesh likes to rule our bodies, so it is natural to feel fear at times. Here is where the rubber meets the road. If we can take the fear that we feal, and turn it over to Jesus Christ, that fear will go away. This is where God asks us, “Do you trust me?” If we say yes, then we should feel no fear. If we say yes, and still feel fear, then do we really trust in the Word of God? Apparently not. I believe God will put us in a situation often so He can ask us, “Do you trust me?” If we never suffer a hardship or a trail, how will we even know if we truly believe the Word of God and all that is in it.

I believe this is a process that we have to go through during our walk with Jesus Christ. I gave a perfect illustration of why we have to go through trials at the beginning of this message. We are like a peace of gold that has to go through purification before it is pure. Trials produce obedience. None of us like to go through trials, but it is a necessary component to becoming purified before Jesus Christ.

Here what James tells us in; James 1:2-6; “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.”

Friends, the days ahead may be difficult for us. But I am telling you that you can stand upon the promises of the Word of God. Our God is a God of love. He will guide true believers through every situation that may come into our life. But rest assured, we can be sure that whatever happens in our life is Father filtered. The trails that we go through are a necessary component of our spiritual growth. As we go through these trials, we need to stay focused on the Word of God, otherwise we will be drawn into the world and all the evil it pocesses. Face the upcoming days by squaring your shoulders, lifting your head, and saying "The Lord is my helper, I will not fear. “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” 

The greatest thing you could do to begin with, if you have not done it yet, would be to give your life to Jesus Christ. This would be the beginning of a brand new life. With Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, nothing can harm you unless it is working out for the good. Are you willing to acknowledge Jesus Christ openly and publicly as your personal Lord and Savior? The choice is yours! It will be the best decision that you could ever make! We don't know what the near future will bring--sickness, heartache, or trouble. But I do know that you can boldly say, "The Lord will be my helper. I will not fear what man shall do to me." Find your contentment, your companionship, and your confidence in Jesus Christ. In Him you will find your comfort and your courage.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

May God Bless you in all you do, and take care!