Alright brethren, let's turn
to Matthew 17. We'll begin reading in verse
24. Matthew 17, 24. And when they were come to Capernaum,
they that received tribute money, came to Peter and said, does
not your master pay tribute? Now notice they didn't ask Peter,
they asked if his master paid tribute. Now this tribute was
not the tax that was owed to Caesar. That's not what this
was. This was a temple tax. for the
maintenance of the temple." This was a tax of the Jews, a temple
tax. So these religious men came asking
Peter, does your master pay the temple tax? Verse 25, Peter said
yes. And when he was coming to the
house, Jesus prevented him. It means the Lord spoke before
Peter got a chance to speak. And he said, What thinkest thou,
Simon, of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? Who do the kings of the earth
take their taxes from? Do they take taxes from their
own children or do they take taxes from strangers? Peter saith
unto him of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are
the children free. Kings of the earth collect taxes
from the ordinary citizens. They don't take taxes from their
own children. They don't take taxes from their
heirs. The children are free. They are
free. Verse 27, Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, lest
we should offend them, Go thou to the sea, and cast a hook,
and take up the fish that first cometh up. And when thou hast
opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money. That take, and give unto them
for me." Now this past week I had the
message prepared for today and I thought I was going to have
a relaxing week. I had gotten the message prepared
and was set to preach it. And then I got a phone call from
our zoning lawyer and he was taking me through
some of the steps involved in getting the zoning for this building
and getting a variance and the most difficult of all, getting
a parking lot. And he began to tell me about
all of the fees that could be required. And he began to tell
me about all of the people in various offices that were going
to require to be paid. And he began to tell me of the
timeline that it would take so that everybody involved could
get their piece of the pie. And that's on top of applying
for a loan. And at first I thought about
that and I thought, you know, this is an utter waste to people. these offices and these extra
payments and these extra permits. This is an utter waste to people. And then I began to think about
how utterly impossible it sounds for us. And I went to my Bible and I
opened my Bible and this text is the first text I read when
I opened my Bible. And a message came as fast as
I could take it down. I was like a secretary just taking
down notes. And it came just that fast. This
is what I want you to get. The Lord has provided all spiritual
blessings for all His people. And the Lord shall provide all
temporal blessings for His people. His very name is Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will provide. And He
will provide. Now the first thing we need to
look at here, let's get the significance of this tribute. Let's get the
significance of this tribute. Matthew 17, 24. It says, They
that receive tribute money, tribute money. They came to Peter and
they said, does not your master pay tribute? Now by this time,
by this time, this had become just a man-made custom. This was just a man-made tradition,
a religious tradition was all this tribute was. And most people
involved in it had long since stopped teaching what it originally
meant, and long since forgotten what it originally meant. Most
people who paid the temple tax, these religious folks would pay
it like men in our day in Baptist churches pay a tithe, thinking
it's just one more work they're doing to get God's favor, or
to stay in God's favor. And these men that went around
and collected it are just like men who go around knocking on
people's doors and checking in on them, making sure they're
doing what they're supposed to be doing. These men that went around
collecting these taxes were doing a religious work to gain God's
favor. That's all it was. It was just
an outward form. And they had long since forgot
or even knew what, how this was started, how it even began. And
I thought about that, and I thought, you know, in our day, there's
so many religious ceremonies, so many religious works that
churches go through and people go through, and they don't have
any idea where it came from. They don't have any idea where
it started, where it originated, or what it meant. And then it's
the same in civil government. You know, everything in this
world that men create in government, in religion, it's all just a
bad copy of something that God originated. That's all it is. Look at monarchies. Monarchies
are just a man-made bad copy of Christ our monarch ruling
over his people. Despots in governments where
they have despots. That's just a bad copy of the
sovereign God who rules everything and everybody, who is a despot. When you look at communism, socialism,
that's a bad copy of the early church, when they had all things
common. Man can't create that, only God
can create that in the heart. That wasn't communism, that wasn't
socialism, that was grace working. And then I got to thinking about
taxes. We learn to take up taxes from God. Remember Joseph? God takes Joseph down to Egypt,
makes him the head over Egypt. The head over the national storehouse. He's the head over the national
treasury in Egypt. Wealthiest nation in the country.
And God taught him that in the seven good years, you take up
corn. You put it in a storehouse. That
way in the seven lean years, you'll have corn that you can
give out to the people and they'll get through those seven lean
years. That's the purpose of a tax. And men just take these things
of God and they make these customs and these traditions and it's
just another day at the office. Or another day in the church
pew. And they don't have any idea what the significance is. And those in religion are doing
it just to try to work their way to God. Well, what did this mean? What
did all this mean? Turn to Exodus 30. Let's see
where it started. Exodus 30. Where did this temple tax originate? Well, God ordained it. But God ordained it to be a free
gift. to be made. It was not a tax.
It was a free gift to be made. A free gift to be offered. Now, all were obligated, and
there's a reason. All were obligated, but it was
not tribute money. It was not tribute money. It
was ransom money. That's what it was. Ransom money.
Now look here. Now, in the Scripture, this is
something else we need to remember. It was done twice in the Scripture. It was done right here where
we are going to sit. It was done a few years later in the temple. But
it was only done twice. It was for the maintenance of
the temple both times. And it was done when the children
were numbered. When the children of Israel were numbered. But
we don't find anywhere in the book that God said do this every
year. And make this a custom and continue
doing this. It was just when the children
were numbered. And we only find two cases of it in the Scripture.
And there should have been a third case when David numbered the
children of Israel, but he didn't do this, and so God slew a bunch
in their midst. There was a plague in their midst
because he didn't give this ransom. Now look here, here's where it
all started. Verse 11, Exodus 30, 11. And the Lord spake unto
Moses, saying, When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel
after their number, when you count the people, of the children
of Israel." Not everybody in the world, just the children
of Israel. He says, "...then shall they
give every man..." This is required, but they're giving it. "...but
every man must give voluntarily a ransom for his soul unto the
Lord." Every one of them must give a ransom for his soul unto
the Lord when thou numbers them. Here's why. That there be no
plague among them when thou numbers them. That there be no plague
among them. Verse 13, This they shall give
every one that passeth among them that are numbered. He keeps
making that point, doesn't he? Not a one of them can go without
every one of them that are numbered. that are numbered. They got to
give half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary. That
means like a coin that just came from the U.S. Mint that's the
exact weight of a quarter. He says this shekel has got to
be the shekel of the sanctuary. It can't be a shekel that's been
passed around and been shaved off and is lighter than it ought
to be. It's got to be the exact amount
that is owed. Exactly. And he says, A shekel
is twenty giraz, and half a shekel shall be the offering of the
Lord. Every one that passeth among them that are numbered
from twenty years old and above shall give an offering unto the
Lord. The significance of that is it has to do with them being
ransomed out of Egypt. Twenty and above. Twenty years
old and above. There were some that were born
in the wilderness. Now these are the ones that were ransomed.
Now watch this, verse 15. The rich shall not give more
and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel when they
give an offering unto the Lord to make an atonement for your
souls. To make an atonement for your
souls of the children of Israel. And you shall appoint it for
the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. That's what
it's to be used for, for the tabernacle. of the congregation,
that it may be, now watch this, that it may be a memorial unto
the children of Israel, a reminder, a constant reminder unto the
children of Israel before the Lord to make an atonement for
your souls. Now, this is, let me turn to
Exodus 38. Let me go over what we just read. This offering was only for Israel. Only for Israel. God has an elect
chosen people that are His Israel. And that's who this is for. For
His Israel. And everyone numbered in that
Israel is required to give a ransom. Every one of them is required
to give a ransom. Every one of them is a sinner.
And so there has to be a ransom given. And each one that God saves His people. Each
one is ransomed from the fall by God's own Son, giving Himself
a ransom for us. That was the extent of this.
It wasn't mandatory. They gave it because it showed
Christ voluntarily giving Himself, His body, a ransom for His people. And it says, and when he did
that, Christ ransomed his people. He paid all the debt we owed
to divine justice. Now, there's no plague. There's no plague. They were
to do this, that there'd be no plague. And now there's no plague
of sin. for God's people. For none that
Christ died for, there's no plague of sin. Atonement has been made. Repitiation has been made. Now,
God's elect rich and God's elect poor, they have the same exact
payment God demands. And they can meet together because
the Lord is their maker. He has made them both. That's
what Proverbs said. Christ has made them both. Now
let's see how the shekel was used in the sanctuary. Look here
at Exodus 38, and let's begin reading in verse 25. And He made the... Wait, I'm
sorry. Let me get in Exodus 38, that'll
help. Alright, Exodus 38, 25. And the silver of them that were
numbered of the congregation was a hundred talents. That's
what they took up. And 1,703 score and 15 shekels
after the shekel of the sanctuary. And that shekel of the sanctuary
pictures Christ who is the exact payment God demands. Perfect
righteousness, perfect holiness, perfect redemption, perfect acceptance
with God. The exact shekel of the sanctuary.
And this was all that they collected. Now look, a beaker for every
man, that is half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary,
for every one that went to be numbered from 20 years old and
upward, for 600,000 and 3,000 and 550 men. Every single one
of God's elect. have been numbered by God and
redeemed by Christ so that they're all paid up. You see here, that's
what he's saying. They all paid up. And it was
all paid up. It was all done. And that's the
story of the Gospel. It's all paid up. Christ has
paid up everything. It's done. Now watch what they
did with it. And of the hundred talents of
silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary and the sockets
of the veil. A hundred sockets of the hundred
talents, a talent for a socket. And of the thousand seven hundred
seventy and five shekels he made hooks for the pillars and overlaid
their chapters and filleted them." Now here's what all that means. These silver shekels were melted. And they weighed a talent and
they melted them into this socket that weighed a talent. And they
made a hundred of these sockets. And they would interlock these
together and they fit together. And that's the foundation of
the tabernacle. And they had sockets in them
so that these boards went in these sockets. There wasn't any
nails in the tabernacle. You wasn't going to hear a man
hammering or sawing in that tabernacle. God made that tabernacle. God
held that tabernacle up because it's a picture of God's house,
Christ's church. And those boards went in those
sockets and it held the whole tabernacle up. And it held the
veil in place that separated the holy place from the holiest
of holies. And then they had these hooks that they made where
they would hang the sacrifices in there. And then they had all
the rods that ran that held up all the curtains that were made
out of this silver. And so here's the point. When those priests
went into that tabernacle, and they're going in there to do
whatever God commands them to do, Everything that they see
and are reminded of from the moment they walk in that house
is the ransom has already been paid. Atonement has been accomplished. Where are you walking? I'm walking
on the foundation of redemption finished. I'm walking on the
foundation of ransom already paid. And brethren, when God
brings you into His church, into His tabernacle, into Christ Jesus
Himself, and you enter in through faith. Our foundation His ransom
accomplished. Our foundation is the Lord Jesus
Christ who has accomplished the redemption of His people so that
it's settled. So that anything God calls you
to do and anything God calls me to do, we're not adding anything
to what Christ has done. We're not attempting to gain
God's favor. We're not attempting to earn
heaven. We're doing it on one foundation. It is finished. And that's our constraint to
obey God. We're on the foundation of ransom accomplished. Christ
gave His life a ransom for many. And He accomplished the work,
brethren. He didn't give... And I'll tell you something else.
When they moved that tabernacle, and you know they moved that
tabernacle. That thing was ugly on the outside, had badger skins
all over it, but inside it was gold and silver and brass and
precious jewels. It pictured the Lord Jesus Christ.
There wasn't anything in Him on the outside that men looked
at and found appealing. But inwardly, He's God Almighty,
righteous and holy, the righteous God-man. That's who He is. And
when they moved that tabernacle, one talent One talent, they had
a hundred of them. One talent in US pounds weighed
75 pounds. That means that floor of that
tabernacle weighed 7,500 pounds. Every time they moved that tabernacle,
you know what they were reminded of? The weightiness of the ransom. How much, how heavy that ransom
was. And every time we looked at Calvary's
tree, you know what we're reminded of? The weightiness of this ransom. He wasn't redeemed with corrupt
things. He didn't redeem us with corrupt
things like silver and gold. That's a vain tradition, just
customs passed down by men. No, He redeemed us with His precious
blood. More precious than gold, more
precious than silver, more precious than precious stone. Precious
blood. as of a lamb without spot or
without blemish. You think of this, those men
came there and they asked Peter, doth your master pay tribute? And Peter just real quick, he
said yes. And Peter probably had no idea the depths of what
he was saying. Oh yes, our master paid. He paid it all. He paid everything his people
owe. Alright, now here's the second
thing. Let's get our Master's message to us. Let's get the
Lord's message to you and me now. First of all, Christ declares
to us that now all His children are totally, perfectly free. We're totally, perfectly free. Look here at Matthew and look
at verse 25. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented
him and said, What thinkest thou, Simon? Of whom do the kings of
the earth take custom or tribute? Of their own children or of strangers? Peter said unto them, Of strangers.
And Jesus said, Then are the children free. Now you know what? One thing here that the Lord
was teaching Peter was this. You see, they didn't ask Peter
for tribute money. They asked Christ. They asked
about Christ paying tribute money. Peter was a Jew. He was one of
them. They knew that. He was a son
of David the king, fleshly speaking, and they knew that. So they considered
him a child. You don't have to pay. What about
this stranger here? They considered Christ the Lord,
God Almighty in human flesh, to be a stranger. To be a stranger. But now here's Christ's message
to you and me, brethren. Look over at John 8. John chapter
8. Who is our Lord? He's the King
of kings and Lord of lords. He finished this work and God
raised Him to the right hand. He's the King of kings and Lord
of lords and all His people. or in His kingdom, regenerated
into His kingdom, born into His kingdom, clothed in the king's
garments. Now look at this, John 8, 31.
Jesus was speaking to those Jews which professed to believe on
Him. John 8, 31. He said, if you continue in My
Word, that will be proof that you are My disciples indeed.
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free." The truth shall make you free. And they answered him,
We be Abraham's seed. We were never in bondage to any
man. How sayest thou you shall be made free? What were they
trusting in? They were trusting in their flesh,
that they were Abraham's sons. They were trusting in the will
of man, what their parents had done for them, circumcising them
the eighth day. They were trusting in their own
will, what they had done under the law and keeping the law.
They said, what do you mean? We're free! Now watch what Christ
said to them. Jesus answered them, verse 34,
Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever
committeth sin is the servant of sin. You know what He just
told them? Everything you got any confidence
in is the committing of sin. Every bit of it. Now watch this. And the servant abideth not in
the house forever. You're going to die. You're going
to face God in judgment. And you're going to face Him
having done nothing but committed sin and all your best religious
deeds and all your best righteousnesses. But now look at this. But the
Son, God's Son, abideth forever. Whatever He does is going to
be forever. Now look at the next verse. If
the Son therefore shall make you free, You shall be free indeed. It means if He made you free,
you're free forever. You're free forever, for all
eternity. See, Christ is the believer's
liberty. Christ is our liberty because
of this ransom He paid. And so every child that Christ
died for, and every child that He caused by His grace to believe
on Him, we're free from sin, God has no record of our sin
anymore. We're free from the law. The
law cannot say anything to a perfectly righteous man. You ever been
stopped by a police officer for obeying the law? The law won't
say anything to a righteous man. No, sir. We're free from the
law. We're free from condemnation.
God won't condemn us. He condemned His Son in our room
instead. We're free from the devil's bondage. He set us free from his bondage.
We were in his bondage all our life in fear of death, but he
set us free from his bondage. And he set us free from death,
brethren. We have eternal life. If he sets
you free, you're free forever. Death can't sever that. Physical
death can't sever that. We have eternal life. And real
soon, brethren, we're going to be made free from these bodies
of sin. And then we're going to be absolutely,
thoroughly, totally redeemed into His glory. You see, what
I'm trying to tell you is to be perfectly, fully, complete
in Christ and accepted of God, that's freedom. What else has
to be done? Nothing else has to be done.
What else must be done? Nothing else must be done. Well I feel like I want to serve
God and thank Him for what I've done. Now that's alright. But
don't go around saying you've got to do this and you must do
that and you need to do this. Ain't nothing got to be done.
It's free. And so it's freely done. Whatever
is done is freely done. The Son abideth forever. And
if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Now
you look at what he said. Do the kings, do they take taxes
from their children? Nope. They just take it from
strangers. Well, Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords.
And everybody He saves is in His kingdom and they are His
children and they are saved. And God our Father says, they
don't owe anything to Him. Everything's paid, they owe Him
nothing. Now sinner, you that don't believe God, let this be
a warning to you. You're a stranger to God. And
you owe Him. You meet God right now, you go
walk out of here and you get hit by a car right now, you better
hope mouth-to-mouth resuscitation will bring you back because if
you meet God like that, you're going to owe God an eternal death
that you can't pay. because you're a stranger to
God. I pray God will make you flee
to Christ. I pray He'll open your eyes to
see today is the day of salvation. Flee to Christ now while you
can. Don't wait tomorrow. You might
not have tomorrow. You might not have this afternoon.
Alright now, then Christ, that's the first thing He says. My children
are free. Now here's the next thing He
declares. When it comes to things indifferent in this world, This
is so critical. This is not applying to things
that matter like compromising our gospel or the doctrine of
grace or anything like that matter. This is about things that are
indifferent. Things like paying this temple
tax. Things like paying taxes and
fees to a township and paying that man so he can grease that
other man's palm. And you know he's greasing that
other man's palm and it's just a big old crooked mess. But you're
required to pay it by law. Well, here's what the Lord says.
Christ says to all His children, pay what's due so that you don't
give any man an offense. You don't do anything offensive
to any man in this world. Look here at verse 27. Notwithstanding,
though you're free, lest we should offend them. He tells them, go
pay what's owed. Look with me at Romans 13. Romans
chapter 13. In verse 4 he tells us here,
he's telling us there's no powers but of God. God put everybody
that's in power in place. Verse 4 he says, and he's the
minister of God to thee for good. You talking about tax collectors?
Even tax collectors. He's the minister of God to thee
for good. But if thou do that which is
evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain, for he
is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that
doeth evil. He's God's servant for good or
for evil. To bring good to you or to bring
evil to you. Now watch this. Wherefore, you
must needs be subject not only for wrath's sake, Not only to
avoid the wrath of these men, but also for conscience sake. Knowing, okay, if I disobey them,
I'm disobeying God. God's the one that put them there.
And God's going to be the one that's going to take care of
me if I disobey Him. He's going to chase me. He may use them,
but He's going to chase me. Now watch this. For this cause
pay ye tribute also for they are God's ministers attending
continually upon this very thing. They're doing God's bidding.
I'll show you a case in point. At about one o'clock this week,
on one afternoon, my telephone rang and one of these ministers
spoke to me on the telephone and told me all about these fees
that were going to be paid and God used that to bring me to
this scripture to give me a message to bring it to you. You see how
they are ministers for our good? I didn't see that when I hung
up the phone with him. All I saw was a bunch of corruption. But it don't matter if they are
corrupt. They're God's little corrupt
puppets. Now watch this. Verse 7, "...Render therefore
to all their dues. Tribute to whom tribute is due,
custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. Owe no man anything but to love
one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law."
Paul told the Galatians, Brethren, you've been called unto liberty. You're totally free. But don't
let liberty be an occasion to your flesh. Don't think now,
well, I'm a child of God. I'm free. I own all this stuff.
I'm not paying taxes. Well, the IRS is going to differ
with you. They're going to differ with
you. God says, and I'm going to differ with you. Pay what's
due. Honor whom's due. Fear whom's
fears due. So on. In all areas of our life,
we don't want to give an offense in anything. We want to conduct
ourselves, not so people see a bunch of phony, fake, hypocritical
religion, but so they see genuine, loving, caring, merciful, honest
folks, so that they might one day be moved by God to say, what's
your hope? You're not like the rest of these
A bunch of religious phonies. What's your hope? That's the
reason. And Paul said this, don't give
an offense at anything that the ministry be not blamed. That's
the first thing they're going to blame, is the ministry. And
you know whose name's on this ministry? Mine. And they're going to blame me.
Guarantee it. Guarantee it. Then Christ teaches His child
that as we obey Him in this, as we obey Him in this, to trust
that Christ shall sovereignly, freely provide all temporal things
for us just like He has provided all spiritual blessings for us.
Now hear that again. As we obey Him in this, We're
not to go through it grudgingly and, oh, I just can't believe
it. Do it happily, knowing Christ
is ruling sovereignly, freely, providing everything you need
in all these temporal things, just like He has in spiritual
things. Just like He has in spiritual things. Now look at this. First
of all, we see it in verse 25. When he was coming to the house,
Jesus prevented him. Jesus stopped him. He didn't
even let Peter talk. He just went to talk him. And
knew what the conversation outside had been about. You see, Jesus
is the God-man. He's the all-knowing, all-powerful
God who is also man. And therefore, He knows the infirmities
of your flesh, believer. He knows what you need, when
you need it, and He's God's sovereign to bring everything around and
arrange everything to give you just what you need. You see,
Peter needed to be taught this. The Lord wasn't being taught.
Peter needed to be taught this. And so the Lord sent these tax
collectors right there to Peter's door at Peter's house in Capernaum. And the Lord put in their mouth
the words that they spoke. And the Lord knew what they spoke.
That's why when Peter came in, he said, now let me ask you something,
Peter. You see, our Redeemer, He's not
only the Savior, He's Lord. And you can't be saved unless
He's your Lord and your Savior. He got to be your Lord first,
because nobody's ever been saved except by a sovereign God. If
you've got to help Him out, He ain't God. You can only be saved
by the Lord. That's the only way. And He got
to be your Lord or He can't be your Savior. He's Lord. The King's
heart is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water, He turns
it whithersoever He will. You think a puny little tax collector
is going to have any trouble with Him? He's turning the King's
heart. He can turn a tax collector's
heart. And then it says this, neither is there any creature
that's not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and
open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." This past
week, I heard a lot of information concerning all these doors that's
got to be opened. And at first I was discouraged.
I'm honest, I was discouraged about it. And I hung the phone
up. And then God used this scripture right here to remind me. God made that phone call through
that man. God put those people in place
to require all that and brought that information to me. God has
done everything involved in this and brought this information
to us to teach us to trust Him. To trust Him. That's what he
was teaching Peter, to trust him. And then look at this. So
when it came time to pay him, the Lord didn't just reach in
his pocket, pull out the money, give it to him. Peter's got to
not only know that the Lord's providing for him and is sovereign
and all powerful, he's got to be taught it. And so the Lord
says in verse 27, Go thou to the sea. Well, Lord, I ought
not go to a bank. Is the Lord's ways our ways?
No. Go to the sea and cast a hook
and take up the fish that first cometh up. All I see, you want
me to go open a fish market and sell some fish and make the money
to take to Him. No. When thou hast opened His
mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money. That take and give
unto them for me and for thee. How come the Lord had power to
do that? How did the Lord Jesus have power
to do that? Because Christ is the first one
that came up out of this sea of depravity and ascended, accepted,
satisfying to the right hand of the Father and all His people
in Him and sat down there. And in His mouth, Out of His
mouth comes forth the gospel of our salvation. Just one piece
of money. Not two. Just one piece of money. For me, He said, and for thee. Christ paid it all. Just His
payment alone is enough for Him and all His people. One payment. And then you know what He did?
He came to this sea of depravity where we are, with all power
in heaven and earth, and He used His preachers like Peter used
that fishing pole. And He pulled us up out of this
sea of depravity. And He put that coin in our mouth,
put that gospel in our mouth, to see He's the ransom price. He paid it for me. He paid it
for me. And He brought us to obey Him
and trust Him and do everything He said. You see, whenever He
finished that work, He made us wisdom unto God. He made us righteousness
unto God. He made us redemption unto God.
He made us forgiven before God, reconciled to God. And so God
was so highly exalted in what He did, He highly exalted Christ
for what He did. And now the Scripture says this,
"...thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands."
Remember, we saw Adam had that at first. Not anymore. Now we see Jesus, who was made
a little lower than the angels. who was made the captain of our
salvation through death, now we see Him risen, and now has
given Him dominion over all the works of thy hands, and now has
put all things under His feet, all sheep and oxen, the beasts
of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea,
and whatsoever passes through it. Therefore, we have God's
Word. We have God's Word. Romans 8.32.
And I want you to put your eye on this. Romans 8.32. Romans
8.32. You can't read this enough. One
of these days we'll get it, maybe. Romans 8.32. He that spared not his own son. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up, forsaken his own son, and did
it for all his elect, how shall he not You see, His character
is holy and righteous, and He's made His people holy and righteous.
They're His children now, and as a righteous Father, His holy
character demands it. Christ's blood demands it. He's
made His people righteous and holy and given them all spiritual
blessings. Now, as a Father to His children, it demands that
God provide everything for His children. How shall he not with
Christ also freely give us all things?" Everything temporal
you need now. How shall he not? Freely. All
things. Preacher, now I believe, I really
think I believe, persuaded I believe that God gave His only begotten
Son. and that God delivered him up
for me. And I really, really believe that I really think I
believe that Christ really gave His precious blood for me. And
I believe now that I'm complete in Him by what He's done. I believe
this. But now, preacher, times get
tight sometimes. And I got a lot of mouths to
feed. And it looks like it's going to be near impossible.
Are you sure God can provide me with a couple extra pennies
when I need them? Does that sound absurd to you?
Does that sound absurd to think to you? God says that's absurd. If I loved you and you was a
vile, God-hating enemy, enough to send my own son and deliver
him up to justice that you can't even comprehend, for you, that
I might reconcile you and make you my friend and make you my
beloved son and my firstborn son, how on earth do you think
I'm not going to provide everything else that you need? That's what
God said. To think otherwise is to call
God somebody that abandons his children, leaves his children
orphans. He won't do that. Man will do
that. He said, I've been graving you
on the palms of my hands. I'm not leaving you or forsaking
you. Chosen children of God. This is what God said, let no
man glory in men. That means don't get worried
and fret about men and about what you've got to pay them and
all those things because when you fret and worry over them
and what they're going to do, you're glorying in them rather
than glorying in God. But He says calmly, just glory
in God. And He says because All things
are yours. How shall he not with him give
us all things? Freely give us all things. And
as Paul said, all things are yours. Whether Paul or Apollos
or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or
things to come, all are yours. And you are Christ's. And Christ
is God's. Brethren, that, my friends, is
security. That's security. Real security. When the way seems impossible,
don't ever judge it to be simply impossible because you don't
see how God can do it. Because that which is impossible
with men is possible with God. Instead, look at the difficulties
and the more there are, just look at them and say, boy, this
is going to be Just more and more opportunity for God to show
me that all His promises are yes and amen. Because that's
what they are. Now, tomorrow God can shut the
door if He wants to, and no man can open it. Or He can open the
door, and no man can close it. Either way He does it, we're
still ransom children, free. Any way we does it, He's still
providing everything we need. Any way He does it, He's still
teaching us and making it profitable in our hearts. You can see that
by the messages He's already given us through this process.
And He's going to keep doing that. We don't have to worry
about it. That's comfort, brethren. Amen.