Let us turn to God's word and
we'll speak this morning on the gospel of Luke and chapter 12
and we'll read verse 7. The gospel of Luke chapter 12
and reading verse 7. But even the very hairs of your
head are all numbered. Fear not therefore, ye are of
more value than many sparrows." Well I'm sure that it's an illustration
we have here that we can all understand and I'm sure you young
people can also understand it. Because we are told that God
knows even all about us. In actual fact, he knows how
many hairs we have. And he knows when they're going
to fall to the ground. Now, that shows us surely something
of how great God is. And if you just think about that,
you young people, think how many people there are in the world.
I think there's seven or eight billion people in the world.
Just you think how many hairs you and I have on our head and
on our body. Think how many hairs we have
and they fall, don't they? When we brush our hair or whatever,
those hairs, some fall to the ground. And we don't really notice
it. But we have a God who notices
every single hair that falls to the ground. In the very hairs
of your head are all numbered. So God knows all about every
single hair in our head. Now, I hope that gives us really
some little idea of just how really great God is. Because
that means God is not only here, but God is in every place throughout
the world. That's amazing, isn't it? And
let us think then that God, he created the world, he created
the universe. He is an almighty God. He is
an amazing God. He is one that our natural minds,
our own brains cannot really understand how great such a God
is. But the truth is that you and
I have such a God to look to, We have such a God to pray to.
We have such a God to be aware of. And this God rules and reigns. He is always there. He always
has been and He is and He always will be. And that's the greatness
of the God that we come before this morning. And that's the
God that we read about in this twelfth chapter of Luke. And
again, it's the same God that we read about from Genesis to
Revelation. So as we commence this, our thoughts
this morning to realise something of the greatness of God. But even the very hairs of your
head are all numbered. Now the previous verses in this
chapter show to us that we have a great God from whom nothing
can be hidden. And we are told, for there is
nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that
shall not be known. So you and I, thinking in the
greatness of God, we can't say anything that God doesn't know
about. We can't hide anything that God
doesn't know about. God knows about everything that
we do. And because he's so great, he
knows everything that we even think. Everything that we think,
everything that we speak, everything that we do, it is all known to
this great God. And so that's why we're told
nothing can be hidden, nothing can be covered. And he goes on
to say, therefore, Whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall
be heard in the light. And that which ye have spoken
in the ear in closets, that means in rooms which are shut up, shall
be proclaimed upon the housetops. Luke is really telling us, again
emphasizing how great this God is. And this is the God that
you and I have to deal with. And so he then says, and I send
to you my friends. Now remember, Jesus is speaking
here. And it's very wonderful to think
that Jesus is speaking to us and he's referring to us as his
friends. Well, I hope we are the friends
of God and I hope we're not the enemies of God. You see, really
we're only One of two things, we're either a friend or we're
an enemy. But Jesus here is speaking then
unto his friends. He says, I say unto you, my friends. And what does he say? He tells
us, be not afraid of them that kill the body. Now we know, of
course, that people can kill each other. We see it happening
all the time, don't we? We read of it, we hear of it.
People in the world are being shot and being stabbed and being
killed. One person kills another person. And of course it's a very frightful
and a very fearful thing. But what does the Lord say? He says, be not afraid of them
that kill the body. Well of course naturally we probably
would be afraid if someone came in here with a gun this morning
and was going to kill us all. We would naturally be afraid.
But Jesus is really showing us here, bringing to us what we
would call an analogy. And the analogy is this, it's
between fearing what a person, a man or woman can do, and fearing
God. And therefore he tells us, I
say unto you my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the
body, and after that have no more that they can do. I will
forewarn you whom ye shall fear. Fear him which after he hath
killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear
him." And he's speaking here of course about the greatness
of God because God has power to kill us and he has power to
cast us away from his sight forever into that terrible place of hell. So it's really a statement here
of warning to us, to make us conscious that we have to deal
with a great, great God. And so we need to realize the
truth of this to influence our lives in what we do, what we
say, and what we think, to realize that this God has power to take
our life. A person may have some power. He may not be able to. But if
God comes and takes our life, we have no power to stop that
occurring. God is all-powerful. He takes
our breath, our heart stops. God does it and we are dead.
And we have no life. And we have no power to stop
that. So what does he say? We are told
to fear The Great God. The Great Almighty God. And to
realise that He has total control over us. Total control over us. And many today think they have
control over their lives. They're going to do this and
they're going to do that. Well, we only have to realise
many people get up in the morning and have plans before them in
the day. And before that day has finished, they are no longer. No, they lost their lives through
one reason or another. And so we must recognize that
we have to deal, not with men and women, but above that, we
have to deal with the great God. And so we're then given an illustration
of how God cares for his people. And he cares for every single
one of them. And it's spelt out really like this. He says, are
not five sparrows sold for two farthings? Obviously, speaking
about what occurred in his day, a farthing had some value in
those days. Of course, it's very different
today. But anyway, there were these
five sparrows that were sold for a relatively small amount.
And he says, are not five sparrows sold for two farthings? And not
one of them is forgotten before God. Again, just reiterating,
you see, God knows everything. God knows when an event like
this takes place, that there are five sparrows which are sold,
and if only four were sold, God would very well know. And so,
are not five sparrows sold for two farthings? And not one of
them is forgotten before God. And then he comes on and says,
but even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So what
does he say then? Fear not therefore, ye are of
more value than many sparrows. Well, what a wonderful thing
it is that we have a great God who controls our lives, a great
God who looks upon us And what a wonderful blessing that we
are able to come like this this morning and not fear, because
we have a God who controls our lives, a God who guides us in
our life, in everything we do. He guides us from the very moment
we're born. We don't know anything about
it then, do we? We're not conscious of what happens when we're born.
And usually we have parents to look after us and we are thankful
for that. And the Lord then preserve us
as then we grow up and become able to crawl and to walk about,
to think that God watches over us. He knows about us. And so
here we're told, fear not therefore. We don't have to fear because
we have this God. Then we go to school. and again
with all our friends and perhaps dangerous situations and God
watches over us and we have not to fear it doesn't mean to say
that you and I won't come into difficulties it's not we don't
have to think that we won't have any any any problems we won't
have any injuries but what we need to realize is this great
truth that God is Watching over us and God has planned our lives
To think of that should be a wonderful comfort to us to realize God
has planned our lives Everything which is going to occur in our
life the small thing remember the illustration all the hairs
are numbered So if all the hairs are numbered see God knows everything
that is going to occur in our lives when we're children, when
we grow up and we're teenagers and when we go to college perhaps
or university or go to work and then in our lives then when we
do work and then when we perhaps then we have boyfriends and girlfriends
and we're married and then the Lord grants us children. The
Lord watches over all these things and we have not to fear Because
we have a God who is doing that which is good for us. Sometimes
we think, well, surely if we have such a great God, such a
good God, why has such a situation developed in my life? Why has
such a thing happened? Well, you see, God knows His
plan for us right from the day we're born, right to the day
we die. And we only know the things which
are occurring at the very moment. We don't know what's really going
to happen tomorrow, or in the week ahead, or in the months
ahead, or in the years ahead. And really, the great truth is
this. If we are born into this earth,
and if we are those whom God will come and call us, and we
use that phrase to be born again by the Spirit of God, our lives
will be for His honour and for His glory. And so He has a perfect
right to do that for us, which will bring honour and glory to
Him. And we won't always understand
this. We may say, well, how can these things work out for good? Well, we have many illustrations
in the Bible to tell us about these things. And perhaps one
very obvious scene which perhaps some of us are aware of was recorded
in the book of Daniel. Daniel was quite a remarkable
character. He was blessed with wonderful
ability and he was somebody that only desires to do God's will. And he wouldn't bow down to any
idols, he wouldn't obey the laws of the land if they were contrary
to the law of God. And there came that time when
there was a king on the throne, King Darius, who told everybody
to bow down to the idol which he had raised up. When the musical
instruments were sounded, they were to bow down. Well, Daniel
didn't bow down. And in actual fact, I'm muddling
up a little bit. when the three friends were told
not to bow down to an idol, and they didn't, but the people were
told not to pray to anybody apart from the idol. And Daniel carried
on praying every day. And he didn't hide his prayers. The people were able to see him
when he was praying. And they came and told the king, hey,
this chap Daniel, he's not obeying you. And what was going to happen
was this. All those people who didn't pray
to the king's God, pray to other gods, were going to be cast into
a den of lions. Well, Daniel didn't have any
excuse, and so Daniel was taken and cast into the den of lions. And the likelihood was very strong
that he would be eaten and that he would not live. Well, God,
you see, was with Daniel in that situation. You may think, well,
why did Daniel have to be cast into that den of lions? But doing
that was good. It was because God would show
how powerful he was and how he would deliver Daniel. Well, the
king realized he made a big mistake in causing Daniel to be cast
into the den of lions. He went home to his palace and
he couldn't sleep and he spent all night without any sleep and
early in the morning he got up and he ran to the place where
Daniel was and he called out and he said, is thy God able
to deliver thee? And Daniel said, my God hath
shut the lion's mouths. And therefore Daniel was not
destroyed. Daniel was then freed and we
see there the wonderful power of God. And that experience was
to show the power of God. Well, our lives today may be
very different and we don't expect, we hope we don't have to be thrown
into the den of lions. But there may be things which
come into our lives and we think, well, why have I got to do this? Why have I got to listen? Why
have I got to be brought here? Well, it may be because God is
dealing with us because of his love to us and because he will
show us what he will do for us and that through what he does
it will bring glory to God. We must always remember our little
lives are for the glory of God. And so here are these words this
morning. God tells us Fear not therefore. We are not to fear what is happening. We are to believe that it is
all working together for our eternal good. And there are many
texts in the Word of God to encourage us just to quote one or two and
Isaiah, the prophecy of Isaiah is a very well-known and wonderful
prophet and a number of times in his prophecy we can read about
those things when he said directed by the Holy Spirit to fear not
and in the 35th chapter of Isaiah We read this in the fourth verse
we read say to them that are of a fearful heart Sometimes
we are fearful what's going to happen? Say to them that are
of a fearful heart be strong fear not and Behold, your God
will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense. He will come and save you. You see, we have this God who
is in every place. And although we may be fearful
of the situation, let's realize that we have a God who will come.
He will deliver us. He will save us. And then just
moving on to the 43rd chapter of this same prophecy. And we
read this in the first verse. But now, thus saith the Lord
that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, and of course
he uses the word Jacob because Jacob was referred to by God
and he had another name which was called Israel, representing
really the whole church of God. And so here we have this statement,
O Jacob, he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, Then he goes
on to explain why. For I have redeemed thee, I have
called thee by thy name, thou art mine. Now that's a tremendous
truth, a wonderful promise to realise that here we have a God
who tells us to not fear and he gives us a reason. And, well, two reasons really.
The first reason is, for I have redeemed thee. You may ask, well,
what does that mean? Well, very briefly and very simply
it means this, because we have all sinned, we've all disobeyed
the commands of God, we've all disobeyed his word, and therefore
we all stand guilty before God. We are guilty. And because we
are sinners in that condition, none of us will go to heaven
unless the Lord does something. Because heaven is a holy place. There is no sin in heaven. And if we have sinned, we need
that sin to be taken away. And how can that sin be taken
away? We can't take it away because
we're sinners. But there is someone who can,
and there is someone who has, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, what he's done
is to pay the price so that our sins could be taken away. And
that means, therefore, he has redeemed us. Once we were lost,
but now he's brought us back. He has redeemed us. He has paid. the price to take away our sin. And that's why we have this word
here, redeemed, and how he did that was of course to die upon
that cross at Calvary, to shed his precious blood in doing that,
in dying, and through that death he has redeemed us. So we have
these words here, that's why we have this statement. Fear
not, for I have redeemed thee." And that's wonderful. And then
he says, and I have called thee. Again, God comes and wonderfully
calls his people. He knows where we are, he knows
where we live, he knows where we were born, he knows where
we are today. And it's a great blessing to
know that God comes then in a wonderful way, in a very special way, and
he speaks to us, in our heart and he calls us and he tells
us and he asks us perhaps what we're doing and we find that
we're not doing right things we're doing wrong things and
he may call us and make us aware that we are disobeying God and
that we are therefore a sinner because all have sinned right
from the time when Adam and Eve disobeyed the Word of God in
the Garden of Eden. When Eve listened to the devil
and took of that fruit, and ate of it, and therefore she sinned. And we're told that sin passed
upon all mankind. So from the moment we're born,
we're all sinners. We all need to be redeemed and
we all need to be called. What a wonderful thing. If you
and I have heard in our hearts, that means In our very being,
in our conscience, the Lord has spoken to us and made us think
about ourselves, made us wonder about our condition, and shown
us then that before God we are bad, we're not good, and we stand
before a holy God with sin, and we need to be redeemed, and God
has called us Wonderful it is. Individually, that's why it's
spoken like this, called thee by thy name thou art mine. Now if you and I are a child
of God, you know everything will be well. Everything. Yes, we
may have still to pass through difficulties, but this is the
truth that all things are are working together for good, all
things. We don't always recognize them
at the time. We look back in our life and we think, well,
I am surprised. But what occurred to me has been
a benefit to me. I didn't like it at the time.
I wasn't very happy. I wasn't very pleased. But now
I see, as I look back, I see that in my life God was calling
me and God was directing me and the Isaiah he goes on when he speaks
that we should not fear because he says then 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, for I am the Lord thy God. Surely that is a very
good reason, is it not? Why you and I should fear not,
as we have here in this word, fear not therefore. It's therefore referring of course
to the illustration given here, but I've just read some more
illustrations which are very comforting and very strengthening
to us. And there are really very many
words in the Word of God which are encouraging to us in that
way. And just to refer once again,
perhaps this time, to the New Testament. And the New Testament,
we read these words in the 10th chapter of Matthew's Gospel,
and the Lord says here, again very similar to what we've just
been reading in Luke's Gospel, he says, what I tell you in darkness,
that speak in the light. And what you hear in the ear,
that preach you upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill
the body, but are not able to kill the soul. but rather fear
him which is able to destroy both soul and body. So again, very similar words
repeating what the Lord tells us in these verses here. But even the very hairs of your
head are all numbered, fear not therefore. And then he tells
us this, ye are of more value than many sparrows, Well, we
know what a sparrow is like, I expect. It's a very small bird.
And the Lord takes notice of that and they are valuable to
him. And then to think that you and I are of more value. We are really very valuable to
the Lord Jesus. And you may ask, well, why am
I valuable to God? What makes me valuable? I'll
tell you what makes us valuable. It's because Jesus Christ has
died for us. He's given his life. He thought
so much of us. He loved us so much. And we never
loved him to begin with. We never loved God. You see,
we're born with no love to God. In actual fact, naturally, we
hate God. We don't love God. But if God
has loved us, then he was willing to die for us. And because he
was willing to die for us, we are valuable to him. Very valuable. Isn't that wonderful? To think
that you and I if we are those for whom Jesus died are very
valuable to God. And we have pictures again described
in the Bible that we are as jewels. Well, we know what jewels are
like, don't we? We see jewels and sometimes they're placed
in crowns and that and they're worn to show forth value. And that's a natural thing, yes,
we know what a jewel is, and a jewel can be very valuable,
but you see, God's people, to Jesus, are very valuable. Very
valuable. And we are so valuable because
he has died so that we might receive the great and glorious
gift of eternal life. Now, let's just make that clear. The reason why that is so is
that you and I were not able to redeem ourselves, to save
ourselves. Again, you may ask the question,
why was I not able? I'll tell you why we were not
able. The Bible tells us that we were born spiritually dead. We had a natural life, but we
didn't have a spiritual life. And therefore we needed to be
given life, not something that we could produce ourselves. It's
quite obvious, isn't it? If you see a dead person, they
can't make themselves alive, can they? Impossible. So it is
with our spiritual life. You see, we have two lives, a
natural life, a body which we have, and a spiritual life which
is a soul which we don't physically see. But both of those are very
true and our natural body we know about, our spiritual soul
is dead until the Lord gives us spiritual life. God gives us spiritual life and
therefore that life is very valuable. Because that life is only given
to us if we are amongst those who are the children of God.
Otherwise we remain in spiritual darkness. There is no life and
we die in spiritual darkness. So what a great blessing it is
if the Holy Spirit comes and gives us spiritual life. And we are therefore valuable. Fear not therefore, ye are of
more value than many sparrows." Well, it's a very tremendous
thought, isn't it? That to God, we are valuable. We may think, well, I don't think
I'm of any value. Well, when we are born again
by the Spirit of God, we are of value. And if we are of value,
the Lord tells us what will happen. This is worth thinking about
very carefully. It follows in the next couple
of verses. And if we are of value, this
is what will happen. Also, I say unto you, whosoever
shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of Man also
confess before the angels of God. So that is a very clear
statement. What that means is this, if we
confess that Jesus Christ is our Saviour, because we have
the evidence that we are valuable to Him, then He will confess
us, that we are one of His children. But on the other hand, we read,
but he that denieth me, that means we don't confess Jesus,
before men shall be denied before the angels of God." That's very
clear, isn't it? We're either amongst those who
confess that Jesus is our Lord, our Saviour, our Master, or we
deny Him. And that, of course, is by the
words we say. You see, whosoever shall confess
me before men, clearly it must be by words. Well, what a blessing
then if you and I have the wonderful evidence that we're valuable,
that God has died for us, and therefore the result is that
we confess Him before men. It's a very sure evidence that
we are a child of God and all of God's children will confess
him before men. Don't think that you can creep
into heaven without confessing the Lord Jesus Christ. My friends,
because he has done so much to redeem our souls, so much in
taking away our sins, he's paid A tremendous debt that you and
I could not pay. Therefore we must confess Him
before men and not deny Him. The truth is, if we don't confess,
what's the opposite? Denying. We can't say, well,
I confess the Lord. If we haven't done so, the result
would be that we deny Him. And then the Lord goes on, and
whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall
be forgiven him. But unto him that blasphemeth
against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven." So we really
deal with the great God as I've tried to illustrate. A God who
is so powerful, a God who is so mighty, and a God who deals
with us in love to our souls. The great blessing is that such
that fear Him will be preserved, will be strengthened, will be
kept. What a mercy it is to know that
God does preserve His people. You see, you and I can't really
keep ourselves. We may try to, but we're bad. And don't forget, we always remain
with a sinful nature, and we don't just suddenly get rid of
that. We still have it, but we're thankful
for the grace of God, which is God's free unmerited favour,
which comes to us and helps us and strengthens us. So the psalmist
tells us in Psalm 116 with regard to this preserving. And we read, the fifth verse
tells us, Gracious is the Lord, and righteous, yea, our God is
merciful, the Lord preserveth the simple. Real religion is
simple. God's people are simple. It's
not a complicated life. It's a life of believing in the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's a life of believing and
trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. And to such, these words apply. The Lord preserveth the simple. And the psalmist says, I was
brought low and he helped me. Well, we don't always live in
a situation where we're blessed and rejoicing in what God has
done. Sometimes we are low. We have
trials. We have difficulties. But you
see, when we are brought low in our own mind, in our own lives,
to realize that God is there to help us. And he helped me. We've been preserved. The Lord
hasn't cast us away, saying, well, you're a terrible failure.
Get away. I don't want anything to do with
you. If that was true, none of us would have any hope. But God
preserves us. He preserves his saints. he tells
us precious in his sight because we're valuable and therefore
we're not ditched but the Lord is gracious and kind and loving
and so what a what a wonderful blessing that is and in Psalm
145 and verse 20 again we have similar words which are spoken
about preservation which is important because we may fear sometimes
that the Lord will left us, leave us. And this is what the Lord
says in Psalm 145, Psalm of David, and he says, he will fulfill
the desire of them that fear him. God gives us that fear,
the fear of the Lord, fear him. He also will hear their cry and
will save them. The Lord preserveth all them
that love him and all the wicked will he destroy. My mouth shall
speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy
name forever and ever. Well, that's the exclamation
of the psalmist. So we have here these words this
morning. But even the very hairs of your
head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, because
we have this great God Because we are valuable to him. Because
he's died to take away our sins. Because he stood in our place.
He's paid the punishment due to us. And if that is so, here
are these glorious words, fear not, therefore. Fear not. We need those words. We do fear
sometimes. The Lord tells us here, Fear
not, therefore, and he speaks very directly, therefore, ye,
individually, you and me, are of more value than many sparrows. And if we are valuable to God,
the great truth is this, one day, by his grace, when we've
finished our life, when it's worth, it will be to go and to
be with Jesus in glory, in heaven at last, forever and ever. And in that place, there's no
sin, there's no sorrow, there's no sadness, there is eternal
joy and happiness. Isn't that a wonderful prospect
to look forward to? So as we journey on through life,
then let's look ahead to that which is before, the people of
God, and to truly praise Him if we have the knowledge that
he is watching over us, that he's called us, he saved us by
his grace, and that we shall arrive safe home in glory. Amen.