Let's turn in our Bibles to Matthew
10. Matthew chapter 10. Our subject tonight is comfort
for forgotten sparrows. Our Lord is sending His disciples
forth to preach the gospel and He promises that they shall encounter
constant conflict and sorrow. He assures all who believe on
Him, all who confess Him publicly and serve Him that we'll be hated
of all men for Christ's sake. He assures us that our own families
will rise up against us. Now that was so in their generation,
that's so in our generation. And yet here as He's saying this,
the Lord Jesus says to His disciples, fear not. Now I want to know
why the Lord said, fear not. having given all this news about
what we can expect, the conflict and the sorrows and the trials
and tribulation that we must go through to enter the Kingdom
of God, I want to know why God said, Fear not. Let's read Matthew
10, 29 and we'll see. He said, Are not two sparrows
sold for a farthing? Are not two sparrows sold for
a farthing? Among all the wild game that
was sold, sparrows were sold at the smallest price. This was
a half Roman penny of farthing. And the sparrow was the smallest
living creature that was used under the old Mosaic dispensation. It was the smallest living creature
that was used as a sacrifice. It was the gift that the poor
leper could use. sparrow he says verse 29 he says
and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father
these poor little worthless sparrows he said not one of them will
fall to the ground without your father God protects all the birds
that fly all the birds even the lowly little sparrow he sees
the little sparrow when she builds her nest He protects her little
ones while she feeds them and while they grow up. And he sees
them when they leave the nest. And he protects them as they
fly forth. God knows the sparrow. He knows
where it flies. He knows where it feeds. He knows
where it lands. And he says, and one of them
shall not fall on the ground without your father. Not by the
bird hunter, not by the cat, not by the cold, not by old age.
Not one will fall on the ground without your Father. Now, God
numbers the sparrows. He knows the sparrows and He
numbers the sparrows. But now, believer, catch this.
Verse 30 says, But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. The very hair. He numbers the
sparrows. But He says, But even the very
hairs of your head are all numbered. Verse 31, fear ye not therefore,
ye are of more value than many sparrows. Now he's arguing here
from the less to the greater. He's showing us if God cares
for the lowliest, worthless sparrow, then he'll care for you who are
his children. He says you are of more value
than many sparrows. Now, if we believe Christ's Word,
we believe what our Lord Jesus is declaring to us here, then
we have assurance that God our Father will not forget one of
His children, but He'll protect us and care for us all our days. Now, we've got brethren who are
suffering. We've got brethren here who are
suffering in trials, various kinds of trials. And we've got
brethren in other places who are suffering from all kinds
of trials. And I hope this message, this
word of our Lord, of our Savior, will be a comfort to them. This
is comfort for forgotten sparrows. And if you'll stay with me to
the third point, you'll see why it's titled that. Now here's
the first thing that we're reminded of. We're reminded of God's absolute
sovereignty over everything. He says here, not one sparrow
shall fall to the ground without your father. Now notice who it
is that's ruling everything. He says, your father. Not one
shall fall to the ground without your father. Not luck, not chance,
not fate, it's not mother nature, it's not This impersonal providence,
you hear folks talking about, well, it was providential, it
was providence. It's not just some impersonal
thing called providence. It's not what folks say when
they say, well, all things work together for a reason. It's not
that. Strike those words from our vocabulary. It's none of that. Those things
don't even exist. God our Father himself rules
all things. everywhere all the time. God
our Father is the one who's doing it. He rules all inanimate matter,
the vapor that comes up when the waters are drying up, the
lightning, the rain that comes down, the winds that blow. He
rules every bit of it. All beasts, every animal, even
those creeping things that came into Egypt during those plagues,
God ruled every one of those. those little frogs and flies
and locusts and all those things. All men, God rules. He raises
up kings and He raises up whole nations. And God puts down kings
and He puts down whole nations. He'll call for a war and cause
men to war with one another and put down a king and a nation
and raise up a king and a nation. All is of God's sovereign hand.
It's God that does it. It shows you something of the
depravity of the heart and the enmity against God, that man
just can't bring himself to say, God rules everything. Just out
and out say, God did this. He's got to attribute it to something
else. Love, chance, fate, second causes. He just can't bring himself
to say, God did it. God did it. Look at Psalm 135.
Psalm 135. Mark your place there in the
Psalms if you want. We'll come back near there, if
not to there. Look at Psalm 135 and look at
verse 5. I know that the Lord is great,
that our Lord is above all gods, that is, all vain gods that men
imagine. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all
deep places. He causeth the vapors to ascend
from the ends of the earth. He maketh lightnings for the
rain. He bringeth the wind out of his
treasuries. Who smoked the firstborn of Egypt,
both of man and beast? who sent tokens and wonders into
the midst of thee, O Egypt, upon Pharaoh, upon all his servants,
who smote great nations and slew mighty kings, Sihon, king of
the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms
of Canaan, and gave their land for a heritage, and heritage
unto Israel his people. Thy name, O Lord, endureth forever,
and Thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations. For the Lord
will judge His people. That means He'll do what's right
for His people. He'll judge His people, and He
will repent Himself concerning His servants. Well, what about
the devil? What about wicked men? Does God
rule them? Proverbs 16, verse 4 says, The
Lord hath made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked,
for the day of evil. God rules the devil, He rules
wicked men. We'll use the greatest example
of all that this world has ever known, the crucifixion of God's
own Son. Did God rule everything that
was transpired when Christ was crucified? Christ said, I was
with you, I went amongst you, I walked amongst you, and you
never touched me then. Why not? Every time they'd try
to touch him, it said he'd just go right through the midst of
them, and they never touched him, because the scripture said
his hour was not come. He didn't let them touch him.
But when the hour came, they came to arrest him, and he said,
they said, he said, whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus. And
they fell back flat. on the ground, showing that he's
sovereign. He's the sovereign savior. But he said, stand up, this is
your hour. This is the hour of darkness.
And he gave himself into their hand. But they couldn't touch
him before the end. They couldn't have any... He
told Pilate, you could do nothing except it was given to you from
above. Everything that was done there
was ruled by the hand of God. And God rules the devil. Look
over at Job 1. This is something that men have
a lot of difficulty with because I guess men just want the devil
to be more powerful than God. They want God and the devil to
be in a competition as if the devil can somehow outwit God.
But if that's so, then the devil's God. God means he's God. Now look here. Job 1 and look
at verse 8. The Lord said unto Satan, Job
1.8, the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant
Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and
upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil? Then
Satan answered the Lord and said, Does Job fear God for nothing?
Now look, the devil knew this. Hast thou not made a hedge about
him? The devil couldn't touch him.
He said, And about his house, and about all that he hath on
every side, thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his
substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand
now, and touch all that he hath, and he'll curse thee to thy face.
And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in
thy power. Only upon himself put not forth
thine hand. And so Satan went forth from
the presence of the Lord. You see there, the devil couldn't
do anything till God called him and said, Have you considered
Job? And the devil even said, You've got him hedged about,
I can't touch him. And then God said, Okay, you can touch his
substance, but you can't touch him. Later he let him touch him,
but not then. But the devil can do nothing
but what God permits him to do. And then men will hear this and
they'll say, Well, what about man's responsibility? Well, the
truth of the matter is, man is responsible and he's responsible
to obey God. Every man on this earth is responsible
to obey God. But responsibility doesn't mean
he has the ability to do it. We fell in Adam. By one man sin
entered the world and death by sin, for in Adam all have sinned. That's what the scripture said.
So, we were under the curse and we were sinners when God gave
the law at Mount Sinai. And the scriptures are crystal
clear. If there had been a law that could have given life, righteousness
would have been by the law. But he didn't give it for that
reason. He gave it to declare us guilty. That's men's argument,
you know. Well, God wouldn't have gave
us a law we couldn't keep. Yes, he would and he did. We
broke it. Not only had we broken it in
Adam, we broke it before Moses ever got down out of the mountain
with the law. We broke it. So God gave the
law knowing we would break it. He gave it to show us we can't
obey God even though we're responsible to obey God. So then how does
a believer obey God? Well, when a believer obeys the
Lord, bowing to Christ in faith, repenting from our way and our
works and our will, in any good work that we do in this earth.
The reason we do it is because God said in Ephesians 2 and in
verse 10, God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
It doesn't mean God before ordained this would be a good work to
believe on Christ. This would be a good work to
repent from evil. This would be a good work to
provide for your brethren. I just hope my people will do
it. That's not what that means. It means God before ordained
Eric Lutter is going to believe on Christ, repent from evil and
serve his brethren. That's what it means. God before
ordained every good work we do in this earth, that's why we
are going to do them. We are going to do them. But
man is responsible indeed for all his sin. The man that God
leaves to himself his sins, he is responsible for all his sin.
But God is so sovereign, He even overrules the wickedness of men
for the good of His people. Remember Joseph? His brothers
treated him evil. They threw him in a pit, and
then they sold him into slavery, and they did all of this because
they just didn't like him. That's just plain and simple.
And Joseph said this, As for you, you thought evil against
me. They were doing what was in their
heart to do, and God let them do it. God just took the reins
off of them and let them do what was already in their heart to
do. And it says, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass
as it is this day to save much people alive. If Joseph's going
to be head over the storehouse in Egypt, and he's going to be
the wise one who provides everything and stands there as a picture
of Christ, God's going to have to ordain everything and bring
it to pass to put Joseph down there in Egypt to do all that.
And you know how God did it? Through the wickedness of his
brothers and what was in their heart. He used them to put him
there. Isn't that something? Look over at 1 Kings 12. I'll
give you another example. A long, long, long time before
any of this came to pass, God told Solomon, He told Solomon
that Jeroboam and the ten tribes of Israel were going to separate
from the two tribes in Judah, Judah and the half tribe of Benjamin,
and separate from Rehoboam. He told Solomon they were going
to do that, that it was his will that they do that. And then look,
when they did it, all those years later, when Jeroboam led them
away, look at what God said in 1 Kings 12.19. So Israel rebelled against the
house of David unto this day. He charged them with sin because
they did it. They did it. Even though God
said beforehand, it's my will that it be done. He's bringing
that will to pass through their own rebellion in doing it. Now
look at this. Look down at verse 24. Thus saith the Lord. They got
together, Judah and Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. They were
going to go up and attack Israel because they had done this thing.
Thus saith the Lord. You shall not go up nor fight
against your brethren, the children of Israel. Return every man to
his house, for this thing is from me. God said, I did it. I did it. Were they responsible? He said, they did the sinning.
But it brought God's will to pass. God said, I'm overruling
the whole thing to bring my will to pass. Now, I know men will
hear that and they'll rebel against that. But you know what it typifies?
It typifies the fact that before the foundation of the world,
God determined He was going to save His kingdom and our King
David, Christ Jesus, save us from our sin. So before the world,
God already ordained sin was going to enter the world. And
yet Adam himself was responsible and everybody Adam represented
when God told him of that tree, you shall not eat of it. And
Adam disobeyed and ate of it. You see what I'm saying? Yeah,
man's responsible. But even man's sin, God overrules
it to bring to pass his will. That's what he does. And there's
no point in trying to exalt our will and our responsibility. And that's what the smokescreen
of what about man's responsibility, usually that's just man exalting
his will. But I have a will. I have, if
you try to exalt your will, and I try to exalt my will, and we
try to exalt this smokescreen of our responsibility, we're
going to condemn ourselves. If we didn't see that what we
just saw there, that's what we're going to do. We're going to condemn
ourselves. But believers bow to God's Word. We bow to God being sovereign
over all things, and we praise God because, do you see the wisdom
of God? To have a world full of sinners,
everywhere and yet to bring his will to pass, even using the
wickedness of men who are totally doing what's in their heart and
what's contrary to him. And yet, if it doesn't praise
him and it's not good for his people, he don't let it happen.
He just stops it. Listen, Psalm 76, 10. Surely
the wrath of man shall praise thee. The remainder of wrath
shalt thou restrain. Isn't that good news? Now let's
bring this close to home. What about these brethren we
have that are sick, have disease? Did God do that? There's cases
all through scripture where God made men to have diseases. It
says plainly, God did it. He did it. But the only one we
see in scripture who could save sinners from sickness is the
Lord Jesus, our sovereign savior, who came and made men whole. And that's all the picture what
we see on the cross, because sin is the cause of all disease. And on the cross, we see Christ,
our great physician, healing his people, all God's elect,
of every sin there is, brethren, on that cross. So, that's why
sinful man despises God's sovereignty. That's what it is. The main thing
it is, is this. It declares God's sovereign in
salvation. That's what men are opposed to.
That God is sovereign in salvation. God chooses whom He will, passes
by whom He will. That's the sovereign free grace
of God. Christ came and redeemed a particular
people from our sins. That's sovereignty, brethren.
Christ said that my people must be born again of the Holy Spirit. And they shall be. They shall
be given faith to believe on Him. That's sovereignty. That's
what man hates the most. That's why men rebel against
God being absolutely sovereign. But God does it. He gives us life. He gives us
understanding. And He shows us He's absolutely
sovereign. And God says this, I create the fruit of the lips. That is, the calves of the lips,
the thanksgiving we give to God. I create that, God said. Peace,
peace to him that's far off and to him that's near, said the
Lord, and I will heal him. Now, the point is this. God is
God. That's what the meaning of God
is. Absolutely sovereign. Look at Isaiah 14. Look at verse 24. And God is God. It means nobody
can stop God from doing what He will in this earth. Now look here, Isaiah 14, 24.
The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought,
so shall it come to pass. Can you say that? I can't say
that. I can't say that. This is what
offends man's pride. You and I can't say, As I have
thought, so shall it come to pass. But God can and God does. Look here. And as I have purposed,
so shall it stand, that I will break the Assyrian in my land
and upon my mountains, tread him underfoot. Then shall his
yoke depart from off them and his burden depart from off their
shoulders. This is what God said He's going
to do for His people. And you can, in the place of
the Assyrian here, you can put the devil and every enemy of
His people. That's what he's showing us here.
Look at the next verse. This is the purpose that is purposed
upon the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched
out upon all the nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purpose,
and who shall disannul it? And his hand is stretched out,
who shall turn it back? You see, God does what he will.
He's God. For my brethren, it doesn't matter
what you're suffering. It doesn't matter what you're
suffering. Here's the comfort. You might be asking, why would
God have me suffer this way? Here's the comfort of this. You
remember the blind man? when the Lord's disciples said,
Who hath sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born
blind? And the Lord said, Neither this man nor his parents have
sinned, but he was born blind that the works of God might be
manifest in him. So, whatever we're suffering,
it don't matter what it is, let it be so that we can declare
to anybody that'll listen the wonderful works that God's done
in us. That's the purpose of it. That's
one purpose of it, to declare to men the wonderful works God's
done on us. And when we know that everything
God's doing is according to His sovereign hand in our lives,
whether it's good, whether it's bad, when we know that, that
everything He's doing is for our good, and He's working it
Himself for us for our good, that's comfort to us no matter
what we suffer. The scripture says this, We know
that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called, according to His purpose. That's what men
are kind of halfway trying to quote when they say, well, everything
happens for a reason. This is what it says. God works
them together for good to them that love God, to them who are
called according to His purpose. So we praise God and we thank
God that He is absolutely sovereign, that He sent us whatever it is.
Alright, now look here. Here is the next thing in our
text, Matthew 10.30. He shows us here that not only
does He rule all things, God predestinated all things. He
predestinated all things. He says here, the very hairs
of your head are all numbered. Another translation could be,
having been all numbered. They were numbered from before
the foundation of the world. Now God's predestination includes
everything. It includes the first thing He
ever did. God said, let there be light.
In the beginning God spoke and the earth was. He created everything. And it is so all the way to the
end. Everything God does, He's declared the end from the beginning.
That's who God is. He does it with man himself.
He's predestinated man himself, and He's predestinated everything
that pertains to man. That means all things everywhere
at all times. Now, when good things happen,
sometimes folks will attribute that to God's hand, to His His
purpose and His grace. And then sometimes when big things
happen, they will, occasionally, like a tornado or hurricane.
And it's true, the Scripture says, the Lord has His way in
the whirlwind, and the clouds are the dust of His feet. But
in our text, Christ declares here, even the smallest things
are predestinated by God. The very hairs of your head are
all numbered. There shall not a hair of your
head perish, Luke records, speaking of this account. Now, I made
a statement one time. I was with some folks, and we
were standing there, and a leaf fell. And I said, God predestinated
that leaf to fall off that tree. And somebody said, not a leaf. They said he predestinated things,
but not a leaf. Yeah, he predestinated a leaf.
He said right here, he's arguing from the least to the greatest.
And he says here, a sparrow. can't fall unless God ordained
it. And he said in the hair of your
head can't fall unless God ordained it. It's all numbered from the
foundation of the world. So seeing that he predestinated
a sparrow and seeing he predestinated the very hairs of your head,
he's telling us brethren that he's predestinated his people
and everything that transpires that happens to his people. And
he did it in eternity before the world was made. I know this
boggles our mind because contrary to what we think, God's bigger
than we are. And we can't get in our little
finite, thimble-sized mind all that God is. We just can't do
it. I can't. We try to do it every day. We
get up and we plan our day. We plan our week. We plan even
our months ahead of time. But we can't bring it to pass.
But God, before the world began, predestinated everything that
will come to pass, everything men will do, good or bad, He
did it. Now, that's God. That's who God
is. Again, let's use the greatest
example ever given. Look over at Acts 2. Did God
predestinate His Son to go to Calvary? Look at Acts 2. Help me find it, Eric. What is it? Verse 36. Yeah, verse 36. Let
all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made
that... No, no, no, no, no, no. It's
where he says here. He says that he... Well, look at verse... What is
it? 23. All right, look here. Here you go. Him being delivered
by the determinate counsel... That's the predestinating power
of God. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, the predestination of God,
ye have taken Him by wicked hands and crucified and slain. Look
over at Acts 4 and look over here at verse 26. Or verse 27, Of a truth against
thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and
Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were
gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before to be done. Now if he determined it before
to be done, and he did that for his son at Calvary, Did He do
that for His people? Ephesians 1.11 says, In whom
also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according
to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel
of His own will. Why did Christ come into the
world? Scripture says, When the hour was come. When was that
hour set? It was set by God in eternity.
He predestinated it. And when the hour was come, Christ
came. When the hour was come, He went to the cross. When the
hour was come, he sent you a preacher. Because he said in the Old Testament,
I'll give you pastors according to my heart that will feed you
with knowledge and understanding. When the hour was come, Paul
said, when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's
womb, he gave me life so I could believe on Christ. God predestinated
it. And he's going to keep us in
this world because we're predestinated according to the purpose of him
that works all things after the counsel of his own will. And
not only did he predestinate us, he did it all to glorify
his son. Romans 8 says, whom he did foreknow,
he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, then he also called that he might be
the firstborn among many brethren. And whom he called, he justified
that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. In whom
He justified, He glorified that He might be the firstborn among
many brethren. And so He says, what shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Whatever it
is you suffer in right this minute, not only did God do it, God planned
it, purposed it, predestinated it before the world was made.
That gives me comfort to know this is all of God's hand. If
an enemy did it, I could complain about it. But God is, He's too
good to be unkind, too good to be unjust, and my Heavenly Father
did it. So whatever it is that He's done
and brought into our path, we repent from our sin, we repent
from our evil, we don't blame God for that. But we blame God
fully for sending it to us for our good because He determined
for the world was made to do whatever it is that comes to
pass. That's good news. Now look thirdly.
We'll concentrate briefly here on this forgotten sparrow. This
forgotten sparrow. Turn over to Luke 12. Luke 12. And look at verse 6. Now in our text, he says two
sparrows are sold for a farthing. Here, Luke says, are not five
sparrows sold for a farthing? He's recording our Lord's words
here, but Luke says it this way. Are not five sparrows sold for
two farthings? Sparrows are so common, they're
so cheap, that if a man buys two farthings worth, if he gives
a full penny, a farthing's a half penny, if he gives a whole penny,
the merchant will throw in one sparrow for free. And that sparrow
he throws in for free, he's so worthless and so common, the
merchant don't count him. He's just forgotten. That's just
a forgotten sparrow. He just says, here, take this
one. That's just to give you an incentive to spend a whole
penny and get five instead of two. Now do you at times feel
like that you're so common that you've forgotten that you just
that that unknown worthless forgotten sparrow Well, he says there in
verse 6 not even one of those sparrows is forgotten before
God Not even one sparrow is forgotten before God man forgets him man
doesn't value it at all, but not even that least little sparrow
is forgotten by God. Think about how many sparrows
there are in the world. He said not one of them is forgotten
before God. Now believer, if God don't forget
a little lowly sparrow, He is not going to forget His child.
He is not going to forget His child because His child is precious. Not because of anything in us.
We were conceived in sin. We came from a mother's womb
enmity against God and we would have stayed in that state. But
we're precious because God chose us by His sovereign and free
grace, by His electing love. That's why we're precious. Herein
is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent
His Son to be the propitiation for our sin. We're precious because,
and He won't forget us, because of the preciousness of the blood
of His Son. Can a woman forget her sucking
child? That she should not have compassion
on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will
I not forget thee. Behold, I've graven thee upon
the palm of my hands. Thy walls are continually before
me. Now, hear this, you that believe
God, hear this as Christ saying this to you as the only one in
the world that he's done this for. Because that's how That's
how focused God is on each and every one of His people, that
He will not forget them, like they're the only ones He did
this for. Christ, the Son of God, took flesh for you. Christ
fulfilled the law for you. Christ took your sin for you. Christ was made a curse for you.
Christ laid down His life for you. Christ redeemed you for
you. Christ rose from the dead to
the right hand of the Father for you. Christ now has all power
and rules everything in this world that comes to pass everywhere
for you. We were talking last week, me
and Cheryl, and she was talking about how school was closed the
next day and it was a day when the temperature was going to
be I forget now, two or something like that. I said, I said, God
probably did that just for you, Cheryl. And she said, I think
about that sometimes. I do too. That's what the scripture
says. He does this for you. He said,
your walls, that sovereign protection that he provides just for you,
he says, your walls are before me continually. He's not going
to forget one. God's child is precious because
we're sons of God. He says, notice back in Matthew
10, 29. He says, one sparrow shall not fall on the ground
without your father. Without your father. Now, ladies,
think about this. Sarah, you used to have a bird.
Okay, you got a little canary or whatever, sparrow, whatever
it is in the birdcage in your house. And you take care of it.
You feed it, you water it, you provide for it. What if over
here you got a little child that's your little child in a cradle?
You going to provide for that bird and not provide for that
little child in the cradle? The mother's going to provide
for that child in the cradle much more than she's going to
provide for that canary in a birdcage. Well, what if that child in that
cradle is alive because you had to give another child so that
child could live? You had to give your other child
so that child could live. You're going to protect that
child? You're going to provide for that child? You're going
to do everything for that child? The Scripture says this, Behold
what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we
should be called the sons of God. Here's the manner of love
He bestowed on us. He gave His only begotten Son. That's what manner of love he
bestowed upon us to make us sons of God. And he says, he that
spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him freely give us all things? Is there any possibility
that God will forget one of his children for whom he gave his
only begotten son? It's an impossibility. They're
all justified so that God's own justice demands that he not forget
them. That's one thing. But the other
thing is that blood of his son. He's going to honor his son because
of what his son did for him to magnify his glory and his justice
so that he was not going to forget one for whom his son died. And
not only that, You're God, our Father's son. You're His child. And He says, I gave my son for
you. I will give you anything else
that you need to provide for you and care for you. Everything
Christ bought for you, I'll give to you. Justification, redemption,
wisdom, righteousness, holiness, everything Christ purchased for
you. And not only that, every lesser thing, I'll provide it,
God says. God won't forget His child. He
knows his child, and he knows what you need, and he's engraving
you on the palms of his hands. Now, here's the last thing. So
let's heed what Christ said. Here's what he said, verse 31.
Fear ye not, therefore. You are of more value than many
sparrows. Fear not. Peter said, cast all
your care on him, for he careth for you. It doesn't matter what
it is. If you have in trouble and you're
a believer, this is so. If God didn't care for you, he
wouldn't have sent to trouble. Because the trouble is to turn
you from you and everything else to him. And he wouldn't have
done that if he wasn't caring for you. You know, we get to
thinking, this happened to me. God just don't care. Well, no. The very fact that you suffer,
what you suffer is proof God does care. because He's weaning
us from this world, from all our idols and every covetous
thing we put our heart on. He's taking that from us and
putting our heart on Him. Is it family trouble? We have
brethren suffering family trouble. He says, Fear ye not, cast all
your care on Him, for He cares for you. Well, but what should
I... Fear ye not, cast all your care
on Him, for He cares for you. Well, my business is failing
or I'm having money trouble. Fear you not, cast all your care
on him, for he cares for you. Well, my body's diseased. I got
a sick loved one. I just lost a loved one. Fear
you not, cast all your care on him, for he cares for you. Well,
I'm being rejected because of the gospel. Fear you not, cast
all your care on him, for he cares for you. Well, God's chasing
me for my sin, and I see my sin now, and I mourn my sin, and
I repent for my sin. Fear ye not. Cast all your care
on Him, for He cares for you. Turn over to Psalm 34. I got
one last scripture. I'm standing here, and I'm saying
this to you. as somebody who's bearing witness
of something I know for a fact. Will you hear what I'm saying?
Fear not and cast your care on Him. He cares for His people. Look here, Psalm 34, 6. This
poor man cried, and the Lord heard him. and saved him out
of all his troubles. I can tell you that is a fact
for me. I was poor and desperately poor,
still am without him. And this poor man cried and still
cries, and the Lord has heard him and saved him out of all
his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear him and delivereth them. Oh, taste
and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in Him. Oh, fear the Lord, ye His saints,
for there's no wont to them that fear Him. Do you hear that? There's
no wont to them that fear Him. The young lions do lack and suffer
hunger. You know why? Because they're
strong. The young lions are those young
sinners who are strong and think they've got strength in themselves
and don't know God. They do hunger because they're
trusting in their own strength. But they that seek the Lord shall
not want any good thing. Nothing. Have you ever wanted
for anything? Honestly, since God saved you,
have you ever wanted for anything? Nothing. Nothing. So Christ says
to us then, He says, Fear ye not, therefore, ye are of more
value than many sparrows. Next time you see that little
sparrow out there, remember that. Remember that. Amen. All right, Eric.