Let us turn again to God's Word
and I want to direct your attention more particularly to a verse
that we find at the end of the epistle to the Hebrews. In Hebrews
chapter 13 and verse 5. Let your conversation
be without covetousness and be content with such things as you
have. For He has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake
thee. I'm sure it's a verse that you're
not unfamiliar with. One of those great texts that
we find here in Holy Scripture, a word that is truly full of
much comfort to the people of God, let your conversation be
without covetousness and be content with such things as you have
for he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Now the word that we have here,
conversation, refers to much more than speech. We would use
the words today in that sense, referring to our conversation,
the things that we speak of. But it is a word here that is
much wider in meaning. John Owen says that it speaks
of the frame of mind and the manner of acting. And John Brown
says something very similar. He says it has to do with character
and conduct. So we have to think here of the
way in which the child of God is to live his life, the manner
of his living, the way in which he conducts himself. And we see
that the believer is not to be covetous. Let your conversation,
your manner of living be without covetousness. It echoes really the words of
the Lord Jesus Christ himself as he speaks in the gospel there
in Luke chapter 12 and verse 15 Christ says, take heed and
beware of covetousness for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance
of the things which he possesseth. Man's life is more than material
possession, though men often set their hearts upon these things. What is a man profited to gain,
says the Lord Jesus, if he should gain the whole world and lose
his own soul? Or what should a man give in
exchange for his soul? And yet it is a truth, is it
not, that man's sinful desire is insatiable? He is ever always
seeking to find some satisfaction in the things of this present
world. Such, alas, is his condition
as a fallen creature. And how that truth is declared
time and again in the wisdom literature of Holy Scripture.
Think of the book of Ecclesiastes and there in chapter 1 and verse
8, Solomon says, the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the
ear filled with hearing. The more men see things, the
more they hear of things, so much the more they want to have
those things. They think that they can find
some satisfaction if they can but possess the things that they
see and the things that they hear of. Again, in Ecclesiastes
4 and verse 8, Solomon says, neither is his eye satisfied
with riches, even when men come into the possession of those
things that they see and that they lost after. even when they
have those things, yet still they are not satisfied. Such is the sin of covetousness. And so Paul tells us, does he
not, when he writes to the Colossians, that covetousness is idolatry. Covetousness is idolatry. A man sets his affection on things
of time, of things of sense, and he seeks to find his satisfaction
in these things. He words again of the Apostle
writing in Philippians 3 verse 19, he speaks of those whose
end is destruction, whose God is their belly, who glory in
their shame, who mind earthly things. So, the Scriptures inconstantly
bear this testimony against covetousness. Strangely really, of course,
when we think that it is covered in the last of the Ten Commandments.
in that 10th commandment there in Exodus chapter 20 God says
thou shalt not covet and yet in a sense the 10th commandment
brings us back to the first commandment the first commandment of course
says thou shalt have no other gods before me and to put anything
in the place of God and to desire anything before God To covet
after these things is a form of idolatry, is it not? Remember
the language of Augustine, the great church father, He says
in his prayer to God, Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our
soul is restless till it finds its rest in Thee. God, of course,
created man in His image after His likeness. He was made to
enjoy fellowship with God. It is His chief end in the language
of the Shorter Catechism, to glorify God. and to enjoy him
forever. And how this covetousness is
but the evidence that man, alas, is far off from God, is in a
fallen condition, is in a state of alienation and enmity against
God. And it is interesting when we
read of the experiences of the godly, the experience of the
Apostle Paul, for example, when he writes in the 7th chapter
of Romans, how he makes it plain there that it was that 10th commandment,
the commandment that says, Thou shalt not covet, that found him
out as a sinner. Nay, he says, I have not known
sin but by the law. For I had not known lust, except
the law said, Thou shalt not commit, Thou shalt not covet."
And then he goes on to speak of how that law, when it was
applied to him, wrought all concupiscence, all sinful desire in his heart. It was by that law that he discovered
the truth concerning himself and his wretched condition before
God as a sinner. Here is the man who when he was
Saul, the son of a Pharisee, as a Pharisee he considered himself
to be a keeper of the law of God, touching the righteousness
which is of the law. He thought he was blameless before
God. But now, in that tenth commandment,
he was brought to see the true nature of God's law, that it
is a spiritual law. And he says it, the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, sold unto sin. that 10th commandment, thou shalt
not covet, then it has to do not only with the actions of
a man, it has to do also with the attitude of his heart, and
it is from within, out of the heart of man, that all evil proceeds. How covetous then is that that
is abhorred by God It is contrary to God, it's contrary to the
commandment of God. Psalm 10 and verse 3, we're told,
"...the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth." And so, here we see
how the believer is to behave himself. He is not to be covetous. That's the plain statement that
we have in the text. Let your conversation, let your
manner of life be without covetousness. And what is the antidote to this
covetousness? What is the cure? And we have
it again in the sixth. You know, the apostle continues,
he goes on, and be content with such things as you have. If the believer is not to be
covetous, then he is to be content. Content with God's dealings with
him, content with the provision that God makes for him in his
sovereign providence. And this was the truth, of course,
that the apostle had to learn. And how he was taught these things
by the Spirit of God when he writes them in the epistles,
Is he not writing as one who is very conscious that he is
a pattern to them which should hereafter believe? He says as
much there in 1 Timothy 1.16. As we said before, he is a type
of the true believer in the way in which he lives his life. And so when he writes in Philippians
chapter 4, you're familiar with the verses, I'm sure, there at
verse 11, the following. He says, Not that I speak in
respect of want, for I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith
to be content. I know both how to be abased
and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things
I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound
and to suffer needs. I can do all things through Christ
which strengtheneth me." Now was it that he was taught this
lesson concerning Christian contentment? It was not natural to him. As
he says in Romans 7, by nature he was a covetous man. And when
the commandment, when the law came to him, how he wrote that
in him. All manner of evil desire was there. He was exposed under
the law of God. But then, it's in the Lord Jesus
Christ that this man learns true Christian contentment. And so
again, when he writes to Timothy, in 1 Timothy chapter 6, At verse 6 following Paul says,
But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought
nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing
out. And having food and raiment, let us be there with content.
But they that will be rich fall into temptation and dismay, and
into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction
and perdition. For the love of money is the
root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have
heard from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many
sorrows. how he speaks in so fully of
the need of contentment in order to act as an antidote against
all covetousness. And look at the language that
he employs here in 1 Timothy. In verse 9 of the 6th chapter
he says, they that will be rich, they that will be rich. Now there are two words, two
verbs, to will, in the original, in the Greek here, and it is
the stronger of those two words. It's a very strong word indeed
that he uses, and it has the idea of desire, of the resolve
and determination. They that desire to be rich. Those who are determined to be
rich. That's the strength of the language.
Or the folly of those who set their affections on the things
of this world and would seek to find satisfaction in the material
things that are all about them. We know that the things that
are seen are temporal. The Apostle says the things that
are not seen are the eternal things. And how the believer
then is to be content. It is of course simply a restating
of the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. We have the language
of Christ there in the Sermon on the Mount and remember how
he speaks at the end of Matthew chapter 6 Verse 25, Therefore
I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall
eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body. What ye
shall put on is not the life more than meat, and the body
than raiment. Behold, the fowls of the air,
for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns.
Yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better
than they? So Christ continues, verse 31,
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall
we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
For after all these things do the Gentiles seek, do the heathens
seek, for your heavenly father knoweth that ye have need of
all these things but seek ye first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you
take therefore no thought for the morrow for the morrow shall
take thought for the things of itself sufficient unto the day
is the evil thereof now the believer is to live that life of dependence
upon God. He is to look to God. He is to
live as seeing Him who is invisible. It is that life of faith that
God calls His children to. Oh, here then we see something
of the believers' behavior. Not covetous, but content. And what is at the ground of
the believer's behavior, what is it that causes the man to
conduct himself in such a manner as we've sought to speak of just
now? It is because he has confidence
in God. And that's what we see in the
second part of the verse, is it not? There, at the end of
the text, he speaks of the manner of God for he hath said I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee I will never leave thee nor forsake
thee what we have here is first of all an emphatic declaration
and then secondly we have a strong negative and I want us to consider
those two things as we come to this particular part of the verse. First of all, there is here an
emphatic declaration. Literally, it says, for he, he
hath said. The pronoun is repeated. He, he. has said. Again, Dr. Owen's comment here is this,
thou art he is the name of God, says the Puritan. Thou art he. That is God's name, is it not? God says, concerning himself,
I am. You're familiar with the revelation
that God gave to Moses there in Exodus chapter 3 at the burning
bush? And when Moses inquires what
he is to say to the children of Israel concerning the one
who has sent him, God declares, I am that I am, is to tell them,
I am, hath sent me. Now, God, of course, He's speaking
of Himself, and He speaks there in the first person, and if we
speak of Him, we would say He is. God says, I am, and we say
He is. It is the name of God and it
is from that third person that we have the name Jehovah or Lord
in capital letters as we find it throughout the Old Testament
scriptures. Lord literally means He is He
is the unchanging one. I am the Lord, I change not,
therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Oh, this is the
one who is speaking. This is the one who is declaring
this great truth. He has said, I will never leave
thee nor forsake thee. Who is the One who is giving
this promise? Why it is the Great God, the Great Jehovah. In chapter
1 and verse 12, we have those words, Thou art the same and
thy years shall not fail. God is ever the same, always
the same. And He is the unchanging One,
whose words is truth. 1 Samuel 15 verse 29, The strength
of Israel will not lie nor repent, for he is not a man that he should
repent. He never changes. There's no
repentance in God. God is not a man that he should
lie, nor the son of man that he should repent. As he said
it, shall he not do it? As he spoken it, shall he not
make it good? All God's Word, you see, is truth.
The Lord Jesus says as much, does He not, in His great prayer? In the 17th chapter of John,
He declares, Thy word is truth. And we have the same language,
of course, in other parts of Scripture. We see it in the book
of Isaiah, there in Isaiah 46. Isaiah chapter 46 and verse Ten, we read of God as the one
who is declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient
times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel
shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. Again, at the end
of verse 11, Yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass,
I have purposed it, I will also do it. This is the one then who
is speaking. And as I said, there is a tremendous
emphasis here in the verse on the one who is the author of
this promise, who he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake
thee. Paul is quoting scripture, he
is referring clearly to that promise that was given by God
to Joshua in the portion that we read at the beginning of the
book of Joshua. He says at verse 5, There shall
not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy
life, as I was with Moses, so will I be with thee. I will not
fail thee, nor forsake thee. God says it directly to Joshua. Now Moses himself had given him
that particular promise back in Deuteronomy, in Deuteronomy
chapter 31. Verse 7, Moses called unto Joshua
and said unto him, In the sight of all Israel, be strong and
of a good courage, for thou must go with these people unto the
land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them,
and thou shalt cause them to inherit it. And the Lord, he
it is that doth go before thee, he will be with thee, he will
not fail thee, neither forsake thee. Fear not, neither be dismayed."
And so it is simply an echoing of what had already been promised
there by Moses, writing, of course, under the inspiration of God.
And here is God repeating that great promise. And it is the
same promise that David gives to his son Solomon in the first
book of Chronicles. In 1 Chronicles chapter 28, and verse 20, 1 Chronicles 28 verse
20, David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and of good courage,
and do it, fear not, nor be dismayed, for the Lord God even, my God,
will be with thee, he will not fail thee. nor forsake thee until
thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house
of the Lord." This is how David is encouraging his son in the
building of the temple of the Lord. And it is the same promise
that was given on those two separate occasions to Joshua. Just like Solomon. Joshua was
a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, the very name is the
Hebrew form of the name Jesus. And we have it used earlier in
this book in reference to Joshua, back in chapter 4 and verse 8. If Jesus had given them rest,
then would he not afterward have spoken of another day? The Jesus
being spoken of there is not the Lord Jesus Christ, it is
in fact Joshua. It's the Greek form of the name,
if Jesus had given them rest. And he's speaking of that great
rest, that God gives to his people. What does it say? Concerning
the children of Israel, the Hebrews there in the wilderness at the
end of chapter 3. With whom was he grieved forty
years? Was he not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell
in the wilderness? And to whom swear he that they
should not enter into his rest, but to them that believe not?
So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. or that accursed sin, that sin
which doth so easily beset us, as he says there in verse 1 of
chapter 12, that accursed sin of unbelief. We are to be those
who do believe. in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
not told that all the promises of God in him are yea, and in
him are men. He's not Christ, the one who
is the image of the invisible God, and in him, of course, we
see the unchanging Jehovah, as we have it here in verse 8, Jesus
Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever. He is that One who is He. He is the Great I Am. There at
the end of John chapter 8, does he not declare that truth? Before
Abraham was, I am. And He is the One who is speaking
then. Here in our text tonight, He,
He has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. It is such an emphatic declaration. It is the Word of God. And it
is that Word, as we've said, that is to be found on three
separate occasions in the Old Testament Scriptures, and here
it is repeated for the fourth time in the New Testament Scriptures. And what is the promise? I will
never leave thee, nor forsake thee. And I said two things with
regards to the Christian's confidence. He doesn't only have confidence
in the One who is speaking, who is none other than Jehovah Jesus,
the Lord God, but he has confidence in that Word that is spoken.
Because it is such a sure and certain promise, is it not? It
is such a strong negative. There are really five negatives
here in the original Hebrew. We know
that two negatives would make a positive. Four negatives would
make a positive. Five negatives, of course, makes
an emphatic negative. And it's brought out, is it not,
in the hymn that we'll sing presently, 3, 2, 9, where God says, I'll
never, no, never, no, never forsake. Oh, that's the strength of the
promise. What a promise it is to the people of God. It's that
promise that was given to Joshua, it's that promise that was given
to King Solomon, or Solomon before he became king, when his father
David spoke to him and sought to encourage him and assure him
in that great work that he was engaged in. But here we have
it, you see, spoken to the believer, the Christian believer, with
regards to the way in which he is to behave, the manner of his
conduct. How the Christian's conduct is
rooted and grounded in this, he has confidence in his God. He knows God is with him. I'll
never, no never, no never forsake. It is God's promise and that
promise that is confirmed by an oath. Back in chapter 6 at
verse 13 following we're told how the God when he gave promise
to Abraham because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself. He swore by himself. How he has
magnified his word above all his name. All his word is dependable
as himself. If his word fails, he fails. He has given His promise and
He has committed Himself. To that promise He has sworn
by Himself, not only so. But here in Hebrews we learn
that that promise of the New Covenant, that promise of the
New Testament is now sealed by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The testator has died. The testator has shed his precious
blood. He has poured out his soul unto
death. and that covenant, that testament stands not only God's
promise and God's oath but the sealing of the covenant with
the blood with the life of the Lord Jesus Christ in chapter
9 and verses 16 and 17 and then here of course also we see how
all is verified in the experiences of the people of God What is
the conclusion that Paul draws from all of this in verse 6?
So that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, I will not
fear what man shall do unto me. Or, how the writers are made
bold as a lion in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let your conversation
be without covetousness, and be content with such things as
ye have. For he hath said, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee." May the Lord bless his word to
us. We're going to sing that hymn
that I referred to, 329. the tune Montgomery 375, the
hymn 329. I'll read the first verse and
we'll sing from verse 2. Our firm foundation, ye saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word.
What more can he say than to you, he has said, you who unto
Jesus for refuge have fled. 329.