Hello one more time. Thank you
all for having us. We're thankful to be here. It's
wonderful to see everyone again. and to sit and fellowship with
you and speak with you, and I'm thankful to be preached to. Love
you dearly, thank you. Eric's always been steady to
me. I mean, just solid. I'm not, I'm woo! I feel like
I come and go. But I was thinking of Moses and
Jonah. Moses was the meekest man that
ever walked the face of this earth born Adam. He made 39 and
a half years, and he popped. And that shows me, no matter
how good I think I got it together, the Lord has to keep me. And
then Jonah, that peevish prophet, walked through a town preaching,
40 days and Nineveh will be overturned. And then he billshed, kicked
his feet up, and said, I'm going to watch this place burn. Both
of them had something in common. They were both the Lord's prophets,
weren't they? Adam, thank you for that song. I love that. I wish I could finger pick like
that. John Davis plays that on a banjo. That is wildly different,
isn't it? Same song, and I love it either
way. I love it both ways. They're both my favorite. It's
something. Genesis 15, if you'll turn there with me. People might think I have a theme.
I just need to keep it in order so I remember what I'm talking
about. Friday night we looked at the work of salvation. Call
his name Jesus because for he shall save his people from their
sins. Who's he? That's what we looked
at yesterday morning. The Lord, my shepherd. My shepherd. He's your shepherd, but he's
mine. He's mine. That's who does the saving. Well,
if the Lord, the person, salvation's of the Lord, and He has done
the work of salvation, somebody had to be saved. There's an object,
isn't there, that He saved. A person that He saved. The person
saved a person. This person saved a people. He
shall save His people. Well, what's that mean for us?
Is this just something that's on a Wall chart somewhere, this
is written in a book somewhere and we don't get to read it.
There's benefits to that. I call this the reward of salvation
because the title was the, when you sell stuff there's features
and benefits. Here's the features, this is
what it does. And here's the benefits, how it's going to help
you. I'm not a salesman. But I'll tell you about the rewards
of salvation. Do you know God? Has He come
to you in power and saved you? And He's the one that did it.
And then after this has happened, you ever been afraid? You ever
been scared? Have you ever thought, well,
I'm naked. I feel so exposed. I feel unprotected. I just feel like I'm just left
out in the wind. And you ever just felt broke? Broken spirited,
broken hearted, broken walleted. I'm going to run out of money. I'm going to go pay these bills.
Lord, you saved me, you're gonna let me starve to death in the
desert now? You ever felt that? So I've heard people say, believers
don't do this. Well, throw out the Psalms, and
throw out everyone that the Lord comes to and speaks in power
and says, fear not. Fear not. That's cause they was
in, afraid, they was in fear. Peace, that's cause there wasn't
no peace there. He's the peace, he comes and speaks to his children.
Genesis 15, one. It says, after these things,
the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear
not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. After what things? We're going
through Genesis in San Diego, so I'll give you a quick run
now. After these things, something happened. The Lord came to Abraham. Well, the old writer said there's
ten great trials of Abraham. Abraham was halfway through.
He was halfway through, had already been through five. The Lord had
called him out of Ur of the Chaldees and said, you leave your mother
and father and you follow me. Well, he left and his father
followed him. He didn't leave daddy, leave
your mother and father, follow me. Well, he didn't. They went
up to Tabor. They were there five years and
the Lord killed his father. He said, now, you can go to the
land I gave you. And he went there and he built an altar and,
well, times is tough, so he went down to Egypt. There's another
trial. There's a trial in the Caodice, trial in Tera, trial
in Egypt. He told Sarah, his beautiful wife, who was like
75 years old, honey, lie and say you were my sister. She must
have been a pretty lady, huh? That trial, Pharaoh found out
about it, kicked him out of there. Well, everything's fine. Now
we've got a bunch of goods, got a bunch of servants. Hagar's
with them now. Now we worship God again, we'll go back. And
then Locke came to him and said, our herdsmen are fighting one
another because we just have so much. And I'm in the real
estate business. And I don't want to give up ground
I've already gathered. And so I'll tell you what, what
we're going to do. And Abraham says, you pick. You take what,
if you want to go left, I'll go right. You want to go right,
I'll go left. Not once did Lot say, you know what, we got it
so good. We have the worship of God right here. I'll sell
off everything I have. We still got more sheep than
we could eat in a lifetime. I want to be with you. They wouldn't
give up ground. And so Abraham, trusting the
Lord, watched him walk into Sodom. Well, here come four kings. It
was four kings made a confederacy. They're bound together. And they
whooped five kings. That's pretty impressive, isn't
it? It gets more impressive than
that. And they took Sodom and Gomorrah and these other cities.
And Lot was one of them in there. And Abraham wasn't going to stand
for it. Now he calls him my brother. He said, I'm going to go get
my brother. And out of this great household of Abraham, he had
318 military age males. against four kings that had beat
five kings. So what they've acquired, really,
that's nine kings, isn't it? Here comes 318 men. He whooped
all of them. Took the people, took the goods,
come back. And on this great, after that
great trial of Lot, recovering Lot, here they come back and
Melchizedek, the high priest, visits him. He was the king that
came to. King Melchizedek. And being a
prophet, he told him what God had done. Look what the Lord
did. I know you just did it. You didn't do it. The Lord did
that. Here's the king being a prophet and saying the Lord is going
to bless you. And being a priest, he interceded. He blessed the
Lord. He made intercession for Abram. This one that appeared, that
had no beginning, that had no end. He was a king, he was a
prophet, he was a priest. And you know what he brought
with him? Bread and wine. Well, the Lord's
table had not been established. No, but Christ had been established.
His work had been established, and that's what he was preaching
to Abraham. They had a church service right there. That's a
true worship service. Sacrifice took place. And then
here come the king of Sodom. He sees Christ sacrifice and
he tells what he will sacrifice. What wickedness. Look here in
chapter 14 verse 21. Genesis 14 verse 21 just to the
left of the page. Then in the kingdom of Sodom
said unto Abram, give me the persons and you take the goods
to thyself. What wickedness. What wickedness. But Abram, Abraham having his
pure mind stirred up, He just left Melchizedek. He responds
in true faith. He responds to this king, believing
God, trusting his heavenly king to provide him everything on
this earth. He responds to this earthly king, verse 22, And Abram
said unto the king of Sodom, I have lifted up my hand unto
the Lord, the Most High God, the Possessor of heaven and earth,
that I will not take a thread, even a shoelatchet. and that
I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou should say,
I have made Abram rich. Save only that which the young
men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me,
Aner, Eschol, Mamre, let them take their portion. He said,
these people around me, they take anything they want to take,
I don't care. But as for me and my house, we're serving the Lord. These people will not be given
up. Who's praying there? Is that
mighty Abraham? That's a picture of our Lord,
isn't it? That's what he said there in Joshua. Our pastor pointed
that out to me years ago, and I wrote it down. Thank you. There
in Joshua 24, people so misquote that, they say, well, as for
me and my house, I'll serve the Lord. The Lord begins speaking,
Joshua says, thus saith the Lord, and the people don't respond.
The way after. But in verse 15 of Joshua 24,
it says, and if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord, this
is the Lord still speaking, choose you this day whom you will serve,
whether the gods which your father served on the other side of the
flood, on the other side of the Euphrates, or the gods of the
Amorites and whose land you dwell. You can either serve them old-fashioned
gods, lowercase g, or you can serve the newfangled gods you
have now. But as for me and my house, I
can want to say that. I can intend to say that. He
can say this. As for me and my house, we will
serve the Lord. Abraham just did that. Stood
up in front of the king of Sodom. Says, as for me and my house,
we're serving the Lord. Take what you want. Give me them
people. I won't lose one. I won't lose
one. That's strong, isn't it? Would
he need comfort after something like that? Something must have
happened between this wonderful, bold, monumentous occasion. He made a bold dogmatic statement.
The Lord's going to prove to him he means it, doesn't he?
Fear came in. A great trial was suffered. And
being brought through all these trials, what just happened? Another
one's coming. Abraham was afraid. Because the Lord dresses his
fear, doesn't he? What was he afraid of? He had just insulted
a king. Could you imagine insulting a
king? Don't matter, you just whipped nine of them. And you
just rescued that king. He's still a man, isn't he? He
insulted a king. Get out of here. Beat it. And
he said, you keep everything you got. I don't want a penny
from you. But I get the people. Well, now
he had a bunch of people. He already had 318 servants,
men's servants, so now there's probably at least 1,000. Now
he has more people. He's got to provide for those
people. His patriarch has to take care of them, make sure
they eat. And I just gave everything away. And I just made a king
mad. Oh, what am I going to do? He went from hero to zero, as we
used to say. He went from so strong in the
faith to cowering in a corner. Anytime I think I'm really standing
on my hind two legs and I'm like, yeah, I ain't afraid I believe
the Lord and I'm gonna tell you about it. I instantly know I
better watch myself. If it's my pride that's standing,
I'm getting ready to fall. He was cowering in the corner.
In such a time of weakness, in such a time of unbelief, in such
a lack of trust in God, considered only this worldly king, not looking
to the high king of heaven. In a time right after seeing
our Lord defending the gospel, these things, those great things
that happen, but Him being a man, an individual, that experience
is what you and I experience. The Lord comes to him and says,
after these things, Genesis 15, verse 1, where the Lord came
unto Abram in a vision, He saw him, Christ came to him, saying,
this vision spoke, Christ spoke to him. How precious is that?
How precious is that? The word of the Lord came to
Abram. Who's the word? Christ is the word, isn't he?
Christ spoke to a sinner. Oh, I hope I don't take that
for granted. He called him by name. And that's the way it is
with every one of his children. He comes to them in saving grace.
He speaks to their hearts. I can speak to your head, I can
speak to your emotions, I can speak to your fears, whatever,
play on things. The Lord can speak to the heart. He said,
my sheep hear my voice, I know them, I love them, and I know
their frame, and they follow me. His sheep hear the preaching
of the truth in this word, and he knows us, and we know him,
and we follow him. We have a true desire. We have
a pure motive for the first time to follow this word. Not out
of personal benefit, not out of personal gain, not quid pro
quo, but because of love. The outside always looks the
same, doesn't it? But the motive's different, because he spoke to
our hearts. He knows us. We know him. He loved us first.
He said in John 10, he said, to him, to Christ, the porter,
the father, openeth, and the sheep hear his voice, and he
calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. He calls
his people by name. If you're not Abram, Abram, can
you put your name in there? If you're not Kevin, throughout
time that's been the case, isn't it? A little bit further in Genesis,
Hagar got wrapped up out of Egypt and drug up there in the north,
and now she was a bondservant of Sarai, and now she's with
child, with Abram, and she ran. was brought a Lord out into the
wilderness, just like Gomer was. And the Lord spoke to Hagar and
said, Hagar, fear not. You think she's got anything
to fear after that? He went to Daniel, Daniel, fear
not. Mary, fear not Mary. Joseph, fear not. That's what
the angel came speaking. Peter, fear not, it is I. Each of us by name. He calls
us by name. That's precious, isn't it? When
did fear first enter this world? When sin did. That's what Adam
said in the garden. The Lord called to him and said,
where art thou? And he said, I hear thy voice
in the garden. Not a God, not the God of our
imagination. I heard the God. I heard your
voice. And I was afraid because I was
naked. I wasn't covered. And I hid myself. Many times the fear of God's
people are not known to others, but our Lord knows. Before we
mention them to anyone else, before we mention them to Him,
He knows them, because He sent those trials that makes us afraid.
And He considers our frame of those that He approaches,
that He draws near to, and He considers our troubles, and He
considers our fears. The compassion of that. David wrote about that, he said,
I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy, for thou hast considered
my trouble. Thou hast known my soul in adversity. Thou hast not shut me up to the
hand of the enemy. You know me, Lord, and you haven't
left me alone. And he said, you've set my feet
in a large room. That's not our modern vernacular,
is it? What's that mean? You arrested me, you purchased
me, and now I'm in an eight by 10 sale. I got a big room. I have liberty now. I'm in you
and I can walk around. I can get up and stretch some.
It'll be just fine. Abraham was struggling and the
Lord knew it before Abraham cried out. And God answered him before
he cried out. He hadn't said, I'm afraid. The
Lord came to him and said, fear not. He didn't say, I'm not covered,
I'm naked, I'm defenseless. The Lord said, I'm your shield. Isaiah wrote that, he said, it
shall come to pass, the Lord told Isaiah, it shall come to
pass that before they call, I will answer. And while they are yet
speaking, Lord, I'm a... Don't be afraid. While they're
yet speaking, I'll hear. And I was thinking of the wisdom
of that. That's not just the compassion,
that is the compassion of God. That's the love of God to his
people. A caring hand of God to answer before we even ask
it. But I thought of the wisdom of that. the wisdom of that,
that petition, that prayer of petition in our youth, because
we're little children, right, turns into thanksgiving that
fast. Lord, you gonna leave me alone?
I hate to leave me alone. Thank you, Lord, for not leaving
me alone. I was talking to a child of God that was so just down
and hurt and wounded, and they were like, I don't even know
if I'm the Lord's. I have no assurance. I have no shield.
I have no reward. I'm afraid. And they were looking
to self. That's what Abram was doing.
They were looking to their situation that was around them. They were
looking at the providence that the Lord had sent. And I said, well,
is Prospero safe with his people? Yeah, yeah, he's going to do
that. You think he's going to lose one? And they went from,
well, no. You think they're going to be
in glory with him? They're going to be made perfect? Well, of course they are, yeah.
And you just watch that body just straighten out some. Because
the confidence hidden in our self, it's in him. It's in him. He said it's in that room that's
large. And we go from petitioning him
to thanking him. And James said, ye ask and ye
receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your
lust. That's what Paul was saying.
I wrote that down yesterday. Paul said, pray for us, brethren.
Pray for us. I'm not a priest. I can't mediate
between God and man. My prayers are no more impactful
than anybody else's because I preach. That don't make a difference.
But I ask you to pray for me. I'll pray for you. Somebody says,
Kevin, pray for them. Pray that this will happen. Pray
so and so it gets better. And I'd like those things, that's
true. If the Lord, don't cheat a blessing. If the Lord sent
a trial, I pray that trial stays as hard as that is. It's easy
for me to pray for somebody else. Lord, keep this trial. I asked
for wisdom one time, and I'll never ask for that again. Hey,
God, if it got rough. last January, and then it got
rougher. And I thought, all right, I've
been through this a couple times, I have some experience and patience,
I understand the Lord has now done, nope, mm-mm, got a couple
more levels down. But if I pray for you, Lord,
keep this trial that you've sent until it's accomplished its purpose
that you sent it for, and that'll happen. And what's gonna be the
end state of that? You see Christ exalted. You got cancer, you're gonna
see Christ exalted if you're His. You got woes between one
another, you're gonna see Christ exalted if you're His. That's
what it is, fear not. Fear not. And He calls us by
name. Paul said, likewise the Spirit
also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should
pray for as we ought. But the Spirit itself maketh
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And
I'm thankful. You wanna pray on behalf of a
group? You imagine this whole world
in prostate, just flat on their faces, and you're the only one
standing up looking to a holy God. You wanna speak on behalf
of them people? That's what's happening when
you stand up and pray for a group. Lord be with us, forgive us for what
we are, you're holy, let us see Christ today. Give us today our
daily bread. It's simple, don't it? Fear not,
Abram, I am thy shield. Abram was afraid. Abram knew
he wasn't covered. Did the Lord come to him and
say, that's a dumb way to think, knock it off. What's wrong with
you? He did it in tenderness, long suffering, bearing the burdens. He said, fear not Abram, I am
thy shield. What's a shield? That's an answer
to prayer before it was prayed, wasn't it? Shields of protection.
It's a buckler. A buckler is the word there.
A buckler is a very small shield. It's a little round one. It's
a little bit smaller than Captain America's for you young folks.
A small shield, a buckler. And that's a little shield that's
defensive, but it's also offensive. It's offensive and defensive.
And it's useful in any situation. It's easy to carry. It's quick.
It's light. It's not a heavy burden. That's
what it is, the shield, a small shield, a buckler. And buckler's
also literally translated crocodile hide. I love that. I love that. He's our buckler. He's our crocodile
hide. That's a durable covering. That's an eternal covering. That's what it is. He's our atonement. He's our covering. He's our buckler.
I am your shield, Abram. What do believers need shielded
from? The penalty of the law. I cannot stand the just sentence
that I earned. I can't handle it. I need a shield.
I need a shield. Christ must be my shield. The
fiery dart to the devil, I have no protection. I can't run away
from him. He's my shield. He's my buck.
I need a robe of righteousness. It's not just that I'm the purchased
possession of Christ. I have to have acts from a holy
nature. He's given me that holy nature, but I have to have a
perfect life from conception to end. He's my righteousness. He's my shield. I need shielded
from my own wicked thoughts and my own wicked actions. I need
shielded from me. And that warfare that goes on
inside of every believer from that old man to that new man
and that old accuser that lives, the new man's house and this
body of death, I need a shield. I don't need enemies, I got plenty
of them right here. I just look them in the mirror every day. Like that walls of the city of
refuge were protected. Were protected. And this is personal.
This is personal. This isn't a theological standpoint.
This isn't a systematic theology. This is personal. Abram, he called
him by name and he said, I am thy shield. Thy shield. He didn't say a word, I'm the
shield of that king of Sodom. He didn't say, I'm anybody's
shield that'll have me. He said, I am your shield. I
am thy shield. You are mine and I am yours. I am my beloved's and my beloved
is mine. Don't be afraid. It is I. I am
thy shield. Just the same way as that ark
which was Christ, was a shield, a protector of Noah and all that
were inside of it. Against all those waters, all
those waves of wrath, of judgment, beating on the outside of that
ark and that pitch that was pitched without within. He was our shield. Christ is a shield to all those
that's inside of him. Abraham was also afraid of something
else. He'd given away all the spoils of war. That's good provision,
isn't it? Well, we can hold out for another
10 years. We'll still plant crops and stuff, but we got a buffer.
We have an emergency. We have a six-month emergency fund put
back, and we'll be fine. He just gave it all away. Take
it. Beat it. He had to provide for
those people. He didn't have anything for them.
There was no reward from this battle. He fought this battle
and won, but there was no reward. There's no rewards in the battles
of this earth. And what we fight, and what we go through, and our
arrows that we just want to fling and send, or ones that's hitting
us, there's no reward from that. Those 318 souls with him, he
went and fought those kings with, come back, and he had to provide
for them. And the Lord says, in this fear, in this nakedness,
this exposure that Abram has, after these things, the word
of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, fear not, Abram,
I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. The Word of the
Lord, Christ our King, speaks comfort and peace in the hearts
of His children. And He tells them of our security
being in Him. And you're either safe or you're
not. You're either safe or you're not. You're either shielded or
you're not. You're either covered or you're naked. You could be
in that city of refuge and be broke. You could be fully covered
and starve to death, couldn't you? I'd have the best coat on
in the world and die of hunger. Abraham's protected, but what
kind of reward does he have? An exceeding great reward. It's
not just that he's been saved, he has an exceeding great reward.
It's not just that he's protected, he has a reward that will not
get used up, but it grows. An exceeding great reward. It
waxes greater and greater. Paul wrote that in Romans 8,
he says, the spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that
we are children of God, and if children, then heirs of God and
joint heirs with Christ. That doesn't work the way our
mortal minds comprehend it, the way our society understands it.
Worldly, if someone has a child, and a family member dies, there
may be an inheritance. Someone has to die for you to
get an inheritance, don't it? The Lord Jesus Christ is the
one that died for his people. to give us our inheritance. But
he is the inheritance. We can't get that, can we? I
believe it. But that don't math out in our
head. That ledger sheet don't add up
to us, does it? He is our inheritance. He is our great reward. I am
thy great reward, thy exceeding great reward. I have four children.
And if I die, they're probably going to get a hodgepodge of
cheap tools, if they're still working any. They'll have some
pictures and maybe a small life insurance policy, but they gotta
split that four ways. Don't work out much, does it?
Their inheritance, if any, will be divided among them because
I died. Earthly, we get that. God's sons
and daughters, we all have the same inheritance, and it's not
diminished. It's an exceeding great reward.
Those that number more than the sands of the sea, from every
tribe, kindred, nation under heaven, each one of them thoroughly,
as if none other exists, have Christ as our reward. How is
that possible? I can't explain it, but it's
so. It's so. That's deep, isn't it? Is that over our heads? How deep
in the water are you going to swim to get wet? That's deep
water, isn't it? Paul said, it's written, I have
not seen or ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
But God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit, for the spirit
searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. Dwell on
that. I'm his and he is mine, and he's
yours, and it's just as much for you as it is for me, and
it's the same, but it's individual. That'll get you through the day,
woman. Go on these things. Work's a
hard place to be sometimes, isn't it? He told his people, he said,
I go to prepare a place for you. That's not a low-end motel, is
it? That's Him. He's the place He
went to prepare for us. We are heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ. Is that exceedingly great to
you? Or do you need a diamond in your crown or some nonsense?
What carat of gold is the streets paved in? I don't care if I got
streets. Where's Christ at? I want to be with Him. He's heaven. That's what's in Genesis 1. God
created the heaven. Capital H, heaven. That's not
a city, that's a person. Hebrew writer said, God, who
at sundry times and divers manner spake in times past unto the
fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to
us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things. Christ is
the rightful heir. He's the firstborn among many
brethren. And being joined with him in
the father's electing grace, put in Christ before the foundation
of the world, we're heirs with him. We're heirs with him. He's
the head and we're the body. He has joined himself to us. Old brother Marvin Stoniker said
that. He goes, the monarch, the queen over in England, she wears
the crown on her head. She's the sovereign in man's
terms. She's the monarch. But her pinky
finger, does it wear the crown? It don't have a crown on it,
but it's attached to the head, isn't it? That head wears the crown, but
every member of that body is joined with it, isn't it? Joint
heirs. That's more than we can fathom. Paul also said, and if
children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified
together. For Abram and for every child
of God, for every sinner made one with Christ, he speaks in
that great time of fear. in that great time of worry,
in that great time of doubt, in that valley, deep down in
that valley of the shadow of death. And he says, fear not. Fear not. I am thy shield, and
I am thy exceeding great reward. He says, I am your God, and you
are my people. I believe. Lord, help my unbelief. Well, what's the work of salvation?
He shall save His people from their sins. Who's the person
that does that? The Lord, our shepherd. And in
Him is the totality of God. He provides all, heals all. He's
our shield, He's our defender, He's everything. He's our shepherd,
He leads us. What's our reward in this work
of salvation that is accomplished, that's plumb done? By God almighty,
salvations of the Lord. What do we got to do with it?
He's our shield. He's our peace. And he's our
exceeding great reward. He does the work of salvation.
He's the person of salvation. And he is our great reward. If you want something else, I
don't know what to tell you. You got any better news? There
ain't such a thing. I've heard my whole life. If there was a
better gospel, I'd preach that. I don't know what's any better
than that. I'm scared and naked and broke. But God, who's rich
in mercy, comes and says, fear not. I'm your shield. I'm your
grateful Lord. He fills all needs. Amen. Thank
you for having us this weekend. Everybody's fed us. I've ate
good. I told Cameron, I said, this
shirt shrunk what time I was here. I don't know what's happening.
We've been put up good, and I'm just tickled to see everybody.
We love you. I pray for y'all, and I don't tell you as often
as I should how much we thank you, every one of you. And Eric,
Michelle, I just love you. Thank you. Thank you for preaching
to me. Thank you, pastor.