Isaiah forty-three is the third message of these two verses. But now thus saith the Lord that created me, O Jacob, and he that formed the oath Israel. Fear not that I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame tremble upon thee. For I am the Lord, thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia, and Siba for thee, since thou was precious in my sight. Thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. Therefore will I give men for thee, and people, for thine life. Fear not, for I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather them from the west. I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Every one that is called by my name, I have created him for my glory. I have formed him. Yea, I have made him. We were speaking on these waters in the last few Sundays, but something else I want to dwell on this morning, and that is not that I will give men for thee, as you have in verse four, but also the fact that he says further, I gave Egypt for thy vessel. I think we have in these verses what God will do. for the person, the individual, or the nation, that will give him first place. God will do great things for them. He said, I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Shiva for thee. Egypt had to suffer. What did God do to Egypt? He poured out his flames upon Egypt. His judgments were poured out upon Egypt. And finally the land spent the smell of death because of the judgment on that terrible night. And God says, I am willing to sacrifice Egypt, Egypt and all her glory. And all her treasures are sacrificed that for my people is. And also Ethiopia and all her glory, and Shiba and all her glory. I am willing to dispose of these nations. if they stand in the way of my people Israel. In other words, here is God putting a trite flag upon that nation that is today fighting for its life here in the Middle East. As we mentioned before, many nations far greater than Israel in their history have long since passed off the face of the earth. But here is little Israel, still alive and struggling. God has to reserve that nation. He has removed nation after nation, kingdom after kingdom, who has stood in the way of his people. And the day is going to come when God at the Battle of Armageddon will dispose of all those hordes that will be there gathered. And His judgment will report out upon that little people that nation called Israel. God's earthly people. Now today God is not putting the Jew above the Gentile as far as the Gospel is concerned because the Jew has to be born again just like a Gentile if he wants to be in the church. God is now gathering out of people from all nations, not one nation, but all nations. That's where the Gospel comes in. It's for the whole world. And so he says, I gave Egypt for thee. and Ethiopia and Jesus. But God gave a greater price for you and you. He said, I gave my son. I gave my son, and although I poured out my judgment, my wrath, my heartless pleasure upon those nations that stood in the way of my earthly people Israel in days gone by, I'm going to give the greatest gift of all. I'm going to give my son the Lord Jesus Christ, that holy one. On him that Calvary God poured out his wrath and he could say, All thy ways and thy will have gone over me. This is the fight God has paid for your salvation and for now. God must have loved Israel to do what he did do. Yes, he did. He loved Israel. And he loved them because Abram, Isaac, and Jacob, their fathers to whom he made a covenant, that he would bless every people that would bless Israel, and he would curse every people that would curse Israel. And the United States is coming to a decision. She is about the only great nation that's standing behind Israel today. Even in that past week, Japan broke off practical relations. and signed for the Arabs. One by one the nations are going to forsake Israel, but I thank God that the United States still is standing with that little nation. And eventually we'll resign a contract or a covenant with her. And as long as this nation does that, God will bless Israel. If this nation ever turns against Israel, God will turn against this country. There are many reasons why God has blessed America and will, as long as she favors Israel. That is, the United States is the anchor, the base, of practically all evangelical movements around the world. There's more money, goes from the United States to missionaries, to great gospel efforts, to help other nations, heal the nations, goes to the United States more than any other nation in the world. And if the United States were to come under the displeasure of God and our economy collapsed, it would bring to an end all kinds of missionary work throughout the world. And I believe for these two reasons, because the United States is saving Israel and we have the freedom of sending out God. missionaries and sending forth missionaries, supporting and sustaining greater such as the Far Eastern Broadcasting Association. And we had Glenn Deal, Dean, a representative of that organization here a few months ago. What a great work they're doing. But as communism is growing in the Philippines, watch out for that effort. For if the communists take over, that will be the end of that great network. of stations that is sending forth the gospel of the grace of God. And so we find how God removes nations for the sake of his people. Israel! And he'll do the same for individuals today. I will give men for thee and people for thy life in verse four. And that applies to you and me. He rebuked and slew kings for their sake and destroyed nations. And I want to say this. No one can stand in your path if God has a work for you to do and you want to do. You're willing to do. You're determined to do. For instance, look at Abraham. God called Abraham when he was down in Ur of the Chaldean. He was an idolatrist. His father's name was Chira, the lay. And Abraham stayed in Chira. He didn't leave it as God wanted them to. Why did he stay in Tira, or rather in him, because his father, Tira, was with him? That's why. You know what God did? What did Abraham? You're allowing your father to stand in your way. Carry out my will. And so God just put Tira to sleep. and Shira died in heaven. After that, Abraham obeyed the voice of the Lord. Here's a case where God took away a thought that a son might do the will of God. As I say, Shira means delay. Abraham was delayed in his obedience to the will of God. I think a few of the incidents in my own life. I think I've mentioned them here on one or two occasions. When I was saved at the age of nineteen, I went to a young fellow, the name of Frank Norman, who wasn't old and I was. Frank and I were very close, and then he got saved. He was keeping company with my younger sister, May. And when he got saved, why, he and I just woke up. I didn't have any desire then to go to the meetings and become interested in the spiritual thing, but he did. He wanted to spend his spare time studying the Bible. He was wanting to be a missionary down in Spain. I went to the service and never missed the meeting, and he began taking part in the developing a gift. So four years later, I got saved. One of the first persons I wanted to tell was Frank North. And I went to Frank the next morning in the railroad shop where we worked. He worked in the pipe shop and I worked down the boiler department. And I went down just before the whistle blew to start work. And I said, Frank, I got saved last night. Jesus, praise the Lord. He said, come round to my apartment tonight. He was talking over. I said, all right. The whistle blew and went to work. That night I went around. We had a happy evening together. and of course a warmer relationship developed. And we spent a pretty good summer, but I used to love to hunt in those days, hunt rabbits. I was always glad when the first snowball came around. Well, Frank, he had never been hunting in his life. So I asked him, I said, Frank, how about going hunting with me? Sure, I'll let you time to go. And by this time he had discovered he had an uncle out in New Zealand, a very wealthy man, and he had a large ranch. And Frank said, you know, he bought a motorcycle, a sidecar. He says, supposing that we drive the motorcycle over to the Pacific Coast and we'll sell it, and we'll go to my uncle in New Zealand, and we'll get a job on his great ranch out there, and we'll have a wonderful day. I thought this is strange. Frank had such a burden to serve the Lord and learn Spanish. Anyway, we went hunting. And about the third time we went out, he slept at our house that night. On my, about two o'clock in the morning, he jumped up and looked out the window. He said, it's snowing. Snowing. It all was like a fresh layer of snow that we were hunting. You see the rather fast. Next morning, three inches of... new snow had fallen. I did. We took off in the motorcycle and went about twelve or thirteen miles. We stopped at a place where we didn't see anything, follow up. And so we put our guns back in the side car. I put mine in first, the handle end, the butt end of the gun, down at the foot of the side car and the barrel sticking out over the back. I went around to get on the motorcycle. And I saw him put his in. I said, Frank, did you unload your gun? He said, no, we're not going to drive far. So easily, when he were driving, I would be in the side car and sit there and have the gun between my legs. Of course, the bow was pointing right at the tip of my stomach. And if I were driving the motorcycle, he was in the sight. So I hesitated. I said, you should have unloaded your gun. So he went and got on the motorcycle and said to me, getting in the sight, God, I sat on the seat of the back behind him. We were down a little way into a little valley. By the snow was marked with all kinds of rabbit tracks. I said, boy, here's a good place. And he pulled off the road. He used to carry a parrot. I don't know whether it's a parrot is. He took a parrot with us in a box. And all you do is put the parrot down in a... gravit holes. And it may be that some of the other holes from those underground burrows might be covered up with snow. So you didn't know when the rabbit was coming up. We'd put the ferret down and just step back and watch for the rabbit to come out. And so it was his turn to carry the ferret in the box. I took my gun and I did something I never did before. Instead of taking both guns out and handing in his and getting my own. I took mine from beside his. Mine was a single bow, and his was a double bow. I took mine from the side of his, and I turned around, walked away, and loaded up. I got about fifty feet, and I heard a shot, and I hurled around thinking he had seen a rabbit. I saw his arms drop, and I got back in time to catch him. In my arms, the blood started coming out of his mouth. He had reached over to get that gun by the barrel, and he pulled it out. The hammer caught the sheet, and he got the load right here. We were using large-scale Western-X super-shells at that time, and some of the pellets came out this side of the ground. You know how bad it was. When I had to run for help, I didn't want to leave them. I saw the roof of a barn up over the hill. I didn't want to leave them, but I had to. And I ran up to that barn. I started shouting as I was running into the barnyard. They had a very vicious dog, and it started coming down from the barn, and the farmer came out. This wife came running out from the house, and they were able to stuff the dog. I don't know what would have happened. So I told them, I said, a man is dying down here in the valley. Will you please phone a doctor and get something that we put him on and bring him up to the house? The farmer said, I'll be down there with my slave. He came down with his team and the slave. I didn't expect to find Frank alive when I got back. But I just got over the hill, and I heard him go. Then I could see his legs in the city. I got there. After a while, it was a long break. The sleigh came, and we picked him up, put him on the sleigh, took him back to the barnhouse. Well, Frank passed unconscious a few hours later. For three days he was unconscious. Then a few more days. I think he was awake from unconscious for two days. And he thought he was going to dwell, and he said he was going to be home for Christmas. But this happened on the ninth of December. But he lapsed into unconsciousness and never woke again here on earth. But Frank was a lovely fish. He was married from our home, and I looked upon Frank, twenty-five years of age. A powerful young man who could put four hundred pounds up to his shoulder. He had sailed a seven-seat with my brother-in-law, who married my other sister, who died a year ago in January. But Frank died. And I went from looking at his casket up to my bedroom, and I opened my Bible at random. Say not four months then come upon us. Lift up your eyes. The fields are white, already the fire. And God said to me, I saved you for the purpose. I wondered why it was that I wasn't saved. And Frank, who was studying to be a missionary down in Spain, or some of the islands where they speak Spanish. But he was dead, and I was left. When that church commended me, as an evangelist for the Lord's work. He said, Lester, this is why God took credit. If this day might come, if you might go and preach the law. Only eternity will explain the full detail of the purposes God has in taking it by now. Well, I worked at the railroad shop, and I got promoted. Well, that was wonderful. And I bought a car. When I had that car, I thought that was a wonderful thing to have, and it was one of the first sedans that came out, Model T. But about a month after I bought the car, I was notified that I had to be demoted. Because there had been an agreement between the railroad company and the union, there would be no promotion unless there was a debt or a retirement. I would have sold that car and gone immediately. out west because I was corresponding with someone out in the west. But I couldn't sell it. I couldn't sell it. No one seemed to want to buy it. I was so mad and upset because I was demoted. Well, something strangely happened two days later. A neighbor of ours, Joe Reddy, got bed with a heartache. And he worked in the same department. And he died. And I stepped into this way. So I would get on. If I had my way, I would have sold that car if I could. And I'd have gone out west. I had offered a pretty good deal out in Vancouver. Well, that kind of sobered me. But then another day I was working. And I saw the foreman of our shop, Mr. Ord, talking to the foreman of another shop, the tender shop. Mr. Cook. And Mr. O'Hourda had come over to me in the meantime, and he said to me, he said, George, I don't know if you call me George, my father's name is George. He said, I'm going to let you go. I said, what do you mean? Well, he said, I can't get you promoted. Mr. Sealy, the superintendent, won't hear your name mentioned in a promotion. And he said, I don't want you... just laboring here with no promise of promotion or betterment. It's a shame, and I'm going to let you go. And I want you to get out, to get a job where there's a future, and use your potential. Well, I said, when am I going to go? I was kind of glad. I know this is fine. I was glad. So, when he said what time did you want to go? I wouldn't want to let you go now, because this was about the end of May. He said, well, it's still kind of rough. I said, what about the first of May? He said, fine. I thought that was fine. I said, Mr. Ward, how about giving me a free pass out to the West Coast of Vancouver? Of course, you do get free passes on the railroad. So I thought if you're going to let me go, how about giving me a free pass? What do you want to go out to the West Coast for? Well, I said, I'm corresponding with a young lady out there, and I'd like to go out there. Julie, the young ladies alone. You get out and get a job first. Get a good job. Well, that was good advice. I have. I've kept it till now. So, anyway, this evening, dear Mr. Ord was shaking hands of Mr. Cruz. Three minutes to five. We had a very important hockey game that night. Our city was in Strasbourg. Indians were playing for the championship. And I saw them shaking hands. And I knew them. They're not even done often. They were made of vets. I was a gentleman vets. They shook hands after it. And that was three minutes to five. At fourster after five, Mr. Orr was a dead man. He went home, and he was shoveling the snow away in front of his house, and he dropped dead. But the bad thing to do is he got heart trouble. I went by on the way to the prayer meeting that night, and there he was, still on the couch with a blanket over, the undertaker that hadn't taken the undertaking farther in. And I looked at him, and I thought, just did it. Only a couple of hours ago, I saw him shaking hands over a bed, and he was an atheist. That's what mirrored that. Well, who should step into his shoes? But I missed another man, and this other man was a Christian. Mr. Barrett. Well, this made things good. Mr. Barrett stepped into his position. And so I thought, well, what am I going to do now? I'm supposed to go on the first of May. But this time I was beginning to think about these things that have been happening in my life. So I went to Mr. Barrett. I told Mr. Barrett what I was going to do. Yes, he said, I heard about it. But he said, just wait. He went to Mr. Sealy. who was the superintendent, she said, I would like to promote. That's the word. She said, I don't want that name mentioned anymore. Mr. Orr mentioned it enough. Several times, she wanted to promote him, and I don't want to promote him. Well, the reason he did, he had grounds for it. I, before I was saved, whenever I felt like it, I'd slip away and spend two or three hours sleeping in the border. And I got caught two or three times by this to Mr. Barrett, the same man. Because I'd been caught by anyone else, I'd have gotten my ticket. But that time, Mr. Barrett was an inspector. Now he is a foreman over the border department. And so when he spoke to Mr. Sealy about my promotion, Mr. Sealy said, I don't want his name mentioned again. He knew about how I'd stand around. When you used to be a hockey player in Canada, you'd be just about do what you like. You wouldn't lose your job. You could stand around, look, talk. You knew you were pretty safe. Well, they did. It seems a pocket fair's executive privilege. Or in other words, a little favor. But Mr. Byrd said, you know, Mr. Seating, that's not the same, Mr. Wilson, if you know. No, what's that? He said he's a Christian. He said he was at an open air meeting three or four weeks ago, and he said, my son happened to be there. And he gave his testimony. He told how God saved. And he said, my boy came home, and he told me all about it. And he said, Lester's a saved boy. He said, I know what he used to do. I caught him several times. But he's not the same boy. God is saved, and his life has changed. Well, Mr. Sidney was a member and held an office in a big vocal church. And that kind of softened up. Well, he said, I'm glad to know he turned over a new leaf. I'm glad to know he changed. And he agreed to my promotion. And I was promoted. And I stayed there until I came out. Here are three lines. God says, I will give men for you if a person has been called of God. And God has a work for him to do. God will remove every barrier. If he's willing, I must say at times I want him. I tried to think of going to the Z. I tried to think of going out the West Coast. God said, no, I want you down south in the United States. There you have, Frank, my buddy, statement. Well, I might have gone to the Z. And then... I might have gone to West Coast if this man ready had not got there. And then Mr. Orr was taken, and a Christian stepped into his place, and I was kept on. Then I really woke up. God really has a work for me to do. And now I'm going to do. And I've kept that impression to this day that God had a work for me to do. He's given me many evidences over the... forty-two years to begin that he removed those barriers. But I could tell you other instances. But God did this for Israel, and he'll do it for the man and the woman today, who really will cooperate with God. If God has got something for you to do, woe be unto anyone who steps in your path and tries to stop you. God will remove barriers. We were hearing a couple of Wednesday nights about the barriers we moved. God can remove that. God says, by his strength we can run through a troop or we can leap over a wall, a barrier. And that's true. God will teach us that we get over those battles. Not can keep him from our side. I'm leading him. When he is leading us and he has something for us to do. He came through the door. When the disciples were in the upper room, fearing for their lives, he appeared in their midst. He came through the literal door. Ah, yes, he came right to their side. Although there was fear and trembling in their hearts, he came into their midst. Also in the Old Testament, he came through the furnace wall, inside the furnace of being with those three Hebrew children. Nothing can stop. He came over the angry waves when they thought they were going to go down into that sea of that tempest. But he came unto them at the right moment, and thus they were saved. He'll come to the side of you. He'll come to the side of me if we really want and were willing to obey him. He has something for us to do, we'll do it. He'll give us the strength and he'll remove barriers that might be in our way. He says, fear not, I will be victorious. If he did not keep his word and his promises, the devil would accuse God. There's one of your children who believed you and trusted in you, depending upon you and you let them down. And if ever that happens, The devil would use that slander of reproach against God for failing to come to the assistance of his child. Yes, you remember poor Peter, and he began to walk on the water. Peter began to sink. The Lord didn't stay where he was and let him go down. Our Lord was Peter's fault because Peter took his eye off the Lord onto those troubled waters. But when Peter says, Lord, save me, the Lord reached out his hand and took him and lifted him up. If he hadn't, the devil would have been telling that story over the centuries. Had the Lord not delivered those three Hebrew children from the fiery furnace, the devil would have been proper giving that to this day. But God has come to the help, to the assistance of his people over the years. Wait for his glory. and when it is for our children. A number of years ago, I read a remarkable story, quite lengthy, it's in a book, and this text, that's what struck me, this text was the heart of this story. And I wrote down little excerpts of that big book, and I'm going to try and give you the excerpts as more. Early in the last century, a way up in the cold, still, silent, the reality, no one, they found an overturned boat. And underneath that boat, there were bones, books, guns, and watches. They had been there ten years. It was the end of an expedition led by Sir John Franklin to explore the vast area of the ice. I've been a really of this in history. And among the books that were there was the personal book or possession, of Sir Franklin. And that book had a corner turned down. And you know what was on that page? In a very text we've been speaking on to the last reason. When thou passed us through the waters, I will be lifted. And through the livers they shall not overflow. When thou walked us through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall thou lay kindle upon. This seemed to summarize All of Franklin's life. The water. The water. The beckoning. The challenging water. As a boy he walked along the beach near his home. Over an Indian. And seeing that the very sea. The mighty ocean in transfer. And challenging. Oh yes. He wanted to get out on that water. Those waters. He just loved the sea. The call of the waters. Fortunately, he took up one of the masters of the sea, Gail Master of the Exploration, Matthew Glendon. I don't know whether you've heard that in history. This man longed to shale the tropical waters, the unseen, unsaled solitude of the mighty man. There he wrote a letter to his sister who was in England, and this is what he wrote. in his diary, in letters to his listeners. He says, how real the Bible breaks with new beauty upon my soul. In the hushed wilderness of ice and snow, with deep thought and solemn reflection, a man is seen and soon convinced of his gift and of his inability to do anything to save himself. And the urgent need of deliverance. And he says in his letter to his sister, How then can I be saved? And under deep conviction he said, I saw the way. John fourteen six, I am the way, the truth and the light. No man comes under the power of one's mind. He heard the call not of the waters of the ark. He heard the call of living water. Christ says, I am the living. and he heard the voice of the living one. While interested for many years in his life, he sailed through many waters. The white, white waters, the dark, dark water, the deep, deep waters, the crude water, the pitiless water. Yes, he'd sailed through those waters, but now he encountered another time in the water. He thought to the waters He had sailed those remarkable, all engulfing waters, those deep waters. But oh, here's something. I thought I was sailing waters that were unparalleled. I had never dreamed of living waters that are more deep, more broad than those mighty oceans I loved to sail. The living waters of whom the Son of God is the storm. and he proved the truth of this text to all his experiences after his conversion. These verses I have been reading, Thou thou passest through the waters I will be there, and through the rivers they shall not overflow. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame thin them upon them. And this one text, the staining, to all the rest of his life until his body was found under the overturned book, The Way in the Mighty Morning. That book, as I say, the leap was turned down here, and it seemed to summarize it with light, as well as a capsule of the two with one. These face-to-face with death, not long after he wrote that letter to his sister. But until then, this text was like a mighty anchor that held him. But then things began to happen. The strain on that table was terrific. Supplies were gone. Starvation was tearing them in the face. And a herd of reindeer went by, not far from the boat. And members of the party were too exhausted to even pull the trigger or even the gun. The next day, Indians found the body. of these men. But it was too late. Through his thin and wavering lips he said, some one later who, Heavenly God forbid for me, through his thin and wavering lips he led the dying party in prayer. And then it was that these Indians found him. There was another map here, a large map of that unexplored area. And over is that part of the map that he had hoped to explore. There were these words. Here be dragons. Here be demons. Here be silence. Here be savages. There are worship devils. But across that map he wrote, Here is God. God is God. We are living in a world that we can just about apply those words to. Demon worship. If the devil's ever been loose in this world, he's loose today. When you see things that are happening, what more has got to happen before the Lord comes? But in the midst of all what's going on around you, here is God. God says, though you pass through these waters, deep and dark and dreadful, I will be with them. That's his promise. He has said, Lord Tennyson was asked to write the inscription on Franklin's Monument in Westminster Abbey to honor this great explorer. And this is what he wrote. Not here the white north hath thy bone. Thou heroic sailor's soul are passing on thy happier voyage now. The wards know earthly old. That can be seen today. in the monument of questions of Adam, not traveling to any earthly pole in the cold, cold, dark darkness, he arrived. He's where no storms will raise, no bill will, for there is no sea in heaven, nothing to disturb or upset the tranquility of the presence of God by the visiting someone recently. And it was evident that he would likely never come to consciousness again. And I said, remember the fact. But far he's concerned, he's already seen the Lord's face. But when he comes conscious, he'll deal with the Lord. How wonderful to know that that will be true of you when your eyes close again. When now passes through the water. Are you passing through water? Waters of loneliness, sadness, sorrow, sickness, reflectivity, pain, and poverty? Maybe physical. Maybe domestic. You know the waters you're passing through. But he says, I'll do it. Those waters may be political. They may be poverty. They may be many things. But there's no water. A Christian sail through. what he can't sing and say, Jesus, Savior, pilot me over life in this tempestuous season. I will be with you. I agree that. And you know it this morning. He has been with his people over the centuries. He has been with you. Those waters may even be shamed, acknowledged shame, personal shame, family shame, church shame. Yes, they may be. But he said, I'll be with you. These people he cannot deny himself. This is his promise to his people. Until we one by one step step into Jordan's cool waters. For whether we all go up together with a shout to meet the Savior in the air, I am with you always. Even unto the end of the day. millions don't want this presence the Lord near us frightening people unsaved people they don't want the Lord present their name they can't do what they want even some Christians maybe don't want the Lord's presence to read that I will give the conscience doing what they're doing I wonder if that's you David said I remember God and I was told Why was he troubled because of what he did as a friend? Why did that David remember God and rejoice? After he did that I remembered God and the children. He was afraid. You hear this morning and you're afraid of the presence of God you don't want. Why are you a Christian that David speaks of? And your heart is panting after the water-book. That's what it says. Hungering and thirsting after the living one. As the heart panteth after the water-book. Oh, so seeketh my soul. Panteth my soul after the field, God. Are these the waters that are thirsty for the snow? Do you hunger? Do you thirst after the rain? Do you want reality? Do you want Christ? Do you want him to be your planet? Do life and rest and stay? He'll step on board this morning. He'll open the door and let it go. He'll take charge of that ship and lead you through life to him until he guides you into the harbor of heaven where it will abide forever. He answers up to you. What will you do with you? And what will your answer be? Accept it. And be saved. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we enter thy presence. We ask thy blessing on thy word. We thank thee for such a saviour to present to the harem of women. One Father that has satisfied thy people down the centuries, when they were willing and want to be satisfied. Satisfied with thee, Lord Jesus, I say. O God, we can only praise thee in reflecting back over our own lives the marvelous grace of our glorious God. We trust thy people this morning to be conscious of his goodness. The unsaved was the moment of praise of the presence of God. O may they become. concerned about their callousness and come to Christ with me. We ask it in this worthy and friendly