Most of you here know, but maybe
some that's listening online don't know, our brother Eric
went home to be with the Lord this last week. We will have the funeral service
for Eric at Gar Funeral Home in Sellersburg, and the viewing
will be at 11 o'clock. The viewing is short. We will
be there from 11 to 1130. And then we will go from there
to the gravesite. And we will commit our brother's
body to the ground, and then come back here at 1230, and we'll
have worship service here at the church. And afterward, we'll
eat lunch together. She has requested chickens. fried
chicken for that and just everyone bring a side dish for your family
and for someone else. She is having her sisters coming
in and her friend are coming in for the funeral. Eric desired
not that his body not be here. He doesn't want to be any distraction
from the gospel of Christ. That's his desire was to be out
of sight and really to be out of mind. I don't think that's
going to be necessary, but he wanted the gospel to be preached
to whoever would come to his funeral. So that was his main
concern. So we'll have the gospel here
at 1230 and then eat afterwards. As for your prayers this morning,
I don't feel like I'm firing on all cylinders, but the Lord
will have to intervene and give me the strength I need to preach
to you. Pray for the message. Pray for
Angela as she goes through this difficult time. Remember to pray for her sister
as she is undergoing chemo as well. So pray for these. who are sick, pray for those
not able to be with us this morning. I pray that they're able to tune
in. I'm so thankful for this, the ability to, I tell you, there's
no substitute for being here. But God had other plans, so pray
for them. Again, I ask your prayer for
me as I want to preach the gospel to you. Let's go to him in prayer.
Our gracious Father in heaven, we bow before you this morning
seeking your grace. I beg you this morning to send
your Holy Spirit into this place. Our Lord, I beseech you to be
with us, to cast out our enemies who would
hinder us, the things that would distract us. cares of this life,
the thoughts of this flesh. I beg you, Lord Jesus, to please
be gracious and remove these things. Help us to enter in to what you
say, to what you have declared to us. I pray that there be any that
do not trust and believe in you, that you would give them a heart
of faith. And Lord, I plead for us who
do believe that you would continually give us a heart of faith. Not just making mental assents
of faith. Father, giving ourselves, trusting
you in all things, in all the dark providences of this life,
leaning wholly upon your word, upon your name, upon your work. And I pray, Father, that you'd
give us the wisdom to understand that it is only safe to trust
in you. I pray you'd forgive us of our
sins. Be with those that are sick.
Raise them up. Those who are unable to be here,
be with them. Strengthen your word as it goes
out in power and demonstration of your spirit in the quickening
of the dead, in the giving of sight to the blind. I pray that you would do this
for your own glory. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen. All right. This morning I want us to first
go to Proverbs. chapter 3 and I'm going to use
this as a pretext and then we're going to go back to Luke chapter
14. So hold your place in Proverbs 3 and then go back to Luke 14,
hold your place there. In Proverbs chapter 3 verse 5
the scripture says this, trust in the Lord. Now how much? With what measure are we to trust
the Lord? With all thine heart. And here's the opposite. Lean
not to thine own understanding. What does it mean to trust Him?
In all thy way. Acknowledge Him. Acknowledge
His sovereignty. Acknowledge His salvation. Acknowledge
His person. Acknowledge His glory, His wisdom,
His strength, His power. Acknowledge Him in every providence,
in everything. In all thy ways, acknowledge
Him. And here is a promise to all
who trust and acknowledge Him and lean not to their own understanding.
Listen, He shall direct thy paths. That's not a question, that's
a statement. He will. Now if you go to Luke chapter
14, the Lord's going to tell us something here. that represents
every true believer, everyone who is actually trusting Christ.
Listen to what He says. He describes for us everyone
who believes in Him. Look at verse 33. He said, So
likewise, whosoever be of you that forsaketh
not all that he hath cannot be. my disciple. I've entitled this message, Is
it safe to trust the Lord? Is it safe? Our Lord here says
this, if you are going to trust me, you must forsake everything
else. There's no middle ground here.
You cannot trust Him, His Word, His salvation, and trust your
own reasoning, your own flesh, and your own words. It can't
be done. You will either trust Him totally,
completely, and absolutely, listen, for everything, or you will not
trust Him at all. There's no middle ground. Now, before our Lord commands
this, of forsaking all, the first thing He lays forth is this,
the gospel is salvation by the grace of God alone. The gospel. In verses 16 down through verse
24. I think that's right, just a
second. Yeah, verse 16 down to verse
24, The Lord Jesus Christ sets forth the gospel, that this gospel
is a message of grace without works. The message of the gospel
is salvation by grace without works. In other words, all your
forsaking has nothing to do with your salvation. Yet those who
are saved do actually forsake everything. And we'll give you
a good reason why in just a minute in this parable. But the Lord
sends this gospel message. And the gospel message is seen
in verse 17. Look at that. He said, let's
go back to verse 16. He said unto him, a certain man
made a great supper and bade many. In Matthew chapter 22,
he said a king made a marriage supper. And it's exactly the
same thing. So this great man is a king. He's a lord. He's rich. He is a ruler of the
providence. So when he bids somebody to come,
it's not a suggestion. And he sent his servants out
with the glorious message. Listen to this. All is ready. That's the gospel. Listen. This is the glorious gospel.
Everything is already prepared. God has chosen His people to
save. That's already done. He's prepared. He's chosen them. I don't know
who they are, but He has. He's chosen them. He's loved
them. And proof of this love is this. He has sent His Son
to pay the bride price. God betrothed people to His Son. His Son came and bought them
with His own blood. He redeemed them. Jesus had obtained for her both
redemption and made for her a robe of righteousness. In one of these
parables, you remember when that guy came to the wedding feast,
he came in his own robe. And the king said, why are you
come like this? I'm sure it's a robe his mom
gave him. And he was very proud of that robe. It was very precious
to him. But what did it do? It mocked
the king. It mocked the message. He said, All is ready, even the
robes are ready. Don't bring your own robe. It's
already prepared for you. Don't bring your own offering.
It's already prepared for you. All is ready. And so then he pictures this
feast. What is this feast? We know this. The feast is Christ. He's the supper. He's not only
the bridegroom. He's the supper. The king bids
his subjects then to come and rejoice in the marriage of his
son and commands them to bring nothing. Yet something happens
in verse 18. Something happens. They all with
one consent. You got that? Not just a few
here and there, but all. All of them with one consent
began to make excuse. One said, I bought a piece of
property. I hadn't seen it yet, but I bought it. Now, who buys
a piece of property they've never seen? I got some ox, but I haven't
yet proved it. Who buys an ox that hasn't been
proven? Another guy said a wife. I got a wife, and I just can't
come. Who's running that family? Well, all of these people valued
something more than the feast. They all valued something more
than the feast. As we preach the gospel, there
will be many who will make excuse. And I'll tell you this, those
of you who do not believe, listen, you're making excuse. You got
an excuse. You think it's a good one. These
men thought their excuse was sufficient. You will not come to Christ.
You will not believe on Christ. Listen to me, because you don't
think it's safe. You think it is better to trust
in yourself. in a land you've not seen, in
an ox you've not proved, in a world and emotions that overrule you. Passions. You think they're better. You think it foolish to come
to Christ. Man, you got to be a fool to come to Christ. I got
all this other stuff. So you make excuse. You will not believe. Yet, praise God, there are some
that will. There are some that will believe.
There are some that will come. And these are only one specific
group who will come. Sinners. They're the only ones
who will come. Why? Because they have nothing. Anything is better than what
we have. If God makes us a slave in heaven, that'd be better than
what we've got. We have nothing. Sinners have
nothing. He said, I came not to call the
righteous. But what? Who has he come to call? Sinners,
to repentance. And many are deceived to think
of Jesus Christ as nothing more than a fire escape out of hell.
That's all they care for Him. As long as I don't go to hell,
that's all that really matters. So I'm going to use Jesus for
that. And the rest of my life belongs to me. Oh, no. No. Listen to me. You will either
surrender everything or you'll have nothing. To believe on Christ is nothing
more than a complete surrender. And these men will not come because
they don't have need of Christ. They know they need to get to
heaven, but surely he'll excuse me for these things. Mind starts
to begin to reason as to make up excuses. Well, I really want
to come to him, but you know what? It's his fault. It's his
fault. He won't let me come. I've never read that scripture.
He's forbid one who really desires to come. Never once has he forbid
one person to come who needed him. Men will not come to Christ because
they don't have a need. Surely Jesus, He'll understand
my needs. I got family to take care of. I've got a business to run. I've
got things in this world that are vitally important to me,
and He knows this, so therefore, surely He would excuse me from
giving up all these things. No. No. He will not. These men will not come because
the things of this world are of more value than Christ. Listen to me very carefully.
You will not come to Christ because the things of this world are
more value. They're worth more. But notice who gladly comes.
Look at your text now. And go to verse 21, and the servant
came and showed his lord these things. And the master of the
house, being angry, said to his servants, go quickly into the
streets and the lanes of the city and bring hither the poor,
the maimed, the halt, and the blind. And so the servant did. And he
comes back and said, Lord, it is done as thou has commanded,
yet there's room. And the Lord said unto him, Go
into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come into
my house, that it may be filled. For I say unto you, that none
of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper." Notice the ones that come to
the wedding are those who have nothing. They're poor and got
no money. They're maimed. They have no
arms or legs. They're blind. And when he gets
those poor, blind, halt people in there, he said, look, there's
still room. So what does he do? He goes after
the thieves and the murderers. That's the one who's in the hedges.
That's the one hiding in the bushes, seeking to ambush somebody
else. He's going after the most vile
people he can find, the most unworthy people. I'm often thought about, when
I've read this, I think about the prodigal son. Remember him?
There he was, a king's son. Rejected all, spent all that
he had. He was broke. So broke that he
was tended to the hogs. The worst thing a Jewish man
could possibly do is attend to hogs. It was the lowest that
a person could get. And he wasn't even allowed to
eat what the hogs ate. He ate the leftover. And you remember when he came
to himself, he said, my servants in the Father's house eat better
than this. And what did he do? He said, I'll go to my father, and I'll beg him just to be a
servant in his house. Why? He didn't have anything.
He didn't have any right to ask his father anything. And he came
because what? He had a need. He had a need. What did he find? He found his
father's arm, his father was sitting on the porch waiting
for him. And when he saw him and his son's head was down,
didn't even see his dad, and he ran to him, the only instance
in all of scripture where God is pictured to be in a hurry.
He ran and he fell on his neck. And he kissed him and he said,
kill the fatted calf, make a feast. Isn't that what the king is doing
here? Making a feast. Now what did these poor, blind,
haught, thieving rebels have to give up? Was there anything
of value that they had? When they compelled him to come
and didn't have anything, what did he have to give up? He gave up his shack. He gave up his hovel, his tent. For what? A palace? He gave up
his scraps for a feast. He didn't actually give up much
of anything, did he? When he left his hovel, he was
glad to leave it. So when he had to forsake something,
he didn't need to make excuses. He didn't have anything to begin
with. So as these blind beggars, we
who come to Christ, we gladly forsake him for the riches of
the king. We too gladly forsake all our
works. What are our works? What are
our good works? They're nothing. There's no refuge
in our works. There's no salvation in my works.
So you ask me to forsake my works? Yes. There's no reason for that,
to keep them. They're nothing. We gladly forsake our self-righteousness
for the righteousness of Christ. But listen, you that are believers,
you that trust the Lord, He's not just the Savior of our souls,
is He? When Christ saved us, He saved
us body, soul, and spirit. He saves the whole man. So when Christ here says to surrender,
He is talking about the surrender of His whole self. If a man does not surrender his
whole self to Christ, he cannot be His disciple. This is not a request, is it? Is the Lord requesting you to
forsake all and follow Him? He's demanding. He's demanding. Listen, if you have not surrendered
all to Christ, all you are, all you have to
the Lord Jesus, it is because of this. You have not surrendered
anything to Him. It's like a poor man, the servant
comes and says, All is ready! Come to the house! And the poor
man says, Well, that's great! But he don't leave. What good is that? What is it
good to acknowledge these things in your mind, saying, He is the
Savior of my soul, but yet you do not commit your body to Him.
Your possessions to Him. Well, Lord, You could be the
Savior of my soul, but the body belongs to me. Then what? You've not surrendered. You've not surrendered. The Lord
says in this parable, in verses, let's see, 27 down to verse 32,
He said count the cost. You the desire to trust in Christ,
listen to me, you better count the cost. Are you able, are you sufficient
to build your own salvation? No. Are you sufficient to meet
God with your works? No. Well, what then must you
do? Surrender all. You must surrender
all. David said this, I will not serve
the Lord with that which cost me nothing. Yet there are men
serving Christ, so-called serving Christ. Well, they're serving Him in
their heart, right? What are you doing with your
body? What are you doing with your
possessions? He's the Savior of the whole
man. So what do we do? We surrender the whole man. We
trust in the Lord with the whole man. With all things. We trust the Lord. Go to Mark
chapter 8 and look at this. Look at what the Lord said in
Mark chapter 8. Look at verse 34. When He called the people unto
Him with His disciples, He said unto them, Whosoever will come
after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow
Me. Listen to these words. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it. Whosoever will save his life.
Listen, if you want to keep any of this life for yourself, you'll
lose it. You'll lose it. Why? Because of this. Listen
to me. You're not trusting in Christ alone. You're not trusting in Christ
alone. We must entrust Him completely
with all that we are and all that we have. And if we hang
on to the things of this life or put them into competition
with Him, you're really not serving Him. Who are you serving? We're serving ourself. But whosoever
shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, what happens?
You shall save it. A man said this one time, a man
is not a fool to give up what he cannot keep. Can you keep
anything in this life? Name one thing you keep. Our
brother right now has passed away this last week. Name one
thing he got to keep in this world. What do you suppose you'll
keep? A man is not a fool to give up
what he cannot keep. Listen, to gain that which you
cannot lose. If you have Christ, you never
lose that. The promises of God are yea and
amen in Christ. There is no way to lose it. So is it not reasonable then
to give up all this? What is? So to trust in Christ is to acknowledge
this, that we have no rights of our own. You got that? We talk about rights. We're a
country of rights. You've got a right to this. You've
got a right to that. With regards to God, what have
you got a right to? I have no right to anything of
myself. Why? Because I'm bought. He has bought me, lock, stock
and barrel. I am bought. I am His. I belong
to Him. I am His servant. He is not mine. I am His servant. And as such,
all I have is His. In regards to salvation, in regards
to physical life and property and everything I have. It belongs
to Him. Everything. Are you such a sinner
that have no righteousness of your own? Have nothing where which to offer
God? Listen to the gospel. Come to
Christ and feast on Him. Why? All is ready. Don't bring
anything. Don't pack up your shack and
your hovel and don't put it on your back and come to the kingdom.
Leave it there. Leave it there. Forsake it all
and come to Christ. Come to Christ for His flesh
is meat indeed and His blood is drink indeed and all who feast
on Him. Listen, we are cleansed from
all our sins. We are cleansed from all our
sins. We who believe and trust Him. We are free from the law of sin
and death. And listen, we are welcomed into
the presence of God. Welcomed. Why? We've been justified. That's what we've been going
over in Romans, isn't it? Who is he that condemneth? When we
come before God, listen, who's going to lay anything to my charge?
Who's going to condemn me? God justified me. God's the one
invited me here. God's the one told me everything's
ready. He can't lie. I trust Him. I come based on
His Word. His Son has made all things ready.
But for one to come to Christ, he must also leave everything
else behind. These blind and halt and homeless
people, they surely gave up everything. You can't stay where you are
and come at the same time. What do we forsake? We forsake
all. When we trust in the Lord, when
He says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, what is He saying?
He's saying trust everything to Him. Everything to Christ. And what do we get in return
for this? We get a King's Feast, eternal
life, peace with God, salvation. Yet there are those who have
much in this world, and they will not forsake it. They're loved by their family
and friends. And so with the lust of their
flesh, they make excuse. so as to why they will not trust
him, even because they love the things of the world more than
they love the king's son. Why do men not trust him? Because
they love the things of this life. That's it. There's your reason. Now surely if you will not come
to Christ, it is because of your unbelief, and therefore you will
not forsake all and come to Him, you will not believe on Him because
the things of life are of more value than Christ and His salvation. But Jesus makes it plain, if
you are to trust Me, you must forsake all and follow Me. So to us who have nothing, we
gladly forfeit everything. But the Father will not excuse
anyone that does not leave all and trust Christ. Listen to the
text in the Proverbs. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. What is it not to trust him?
Lean not to your own reasoning, your own understanding, your
own logic, your own feelings about the subject. You have to
abandon those to trust him. Anyone who will not trust him
completely Father will not receive. He tells those men, he said,
they will in no wise taste of my feast. They will in no wise
taste of my feast. Faith in Christ is nothing less
than a willing, deliberate, voluntary surrender of our lives to the
absolute rule of Christ as Savior and Lord. That's what it is.
It is an absolute surrender. Think of the two men that prayed.
Which one surrendered? There was the man, religious,
standing there in his garb, praying with himself. I thank thee that
I'm not like other men. See, he hadn't left. He hadn't
left his self-righteousness. He hadn't left his works. He's
still in his hovel thinking he's got a kingdom. But see that other man over there,
that publican, that evil, wicked man, falling on his face, saying,
Lord, be merciful to me, thee sinner. I don't know about anybody
else, I'm the sinner. I've got nothing, and I need
mercy. What did he do? He surrendered
everything to the mercy of God. I need mercy. We who are sinners
by birth and choice, we confess this, that our sin is rebellion
against the Most High. that we are worthy only of God's
vengeance and eternal damnation. All our goodness is wickedness
and all our righteousness is filthy rags. So when he tells
us to come, is it hard for us to leave those things? Is it hard for you to leave your
works and righteousness? Is it difficult? Do you want
to go back? Do you want to be saved by grace
and then return to the law? Is that what you want? That's
like going toward the king's palace and then going back to
the hovel. No, you forsake all that. We gladly do. Remember what Paul said about
his righteousness? He said, I count it as dung. That's all it's worth. It's dung. I'm not going to go
back and try to put on dung. No, I want to be found in His
righteousness, not having any of my own. Why? It's done. I
don't want any of my own. I want His. So we gladly forsake the refuge
of lies for the solid foundation. We submit that we are the property
of Jesus Christ. That's what it is to trust the
Lord. I am His property. He bought me. We belong to Him. And all we have is His. All we
do is for His honor and the furtherance of His kingdom. Yet some are going to reason
in their flesh. Well, that's not practical. That's
not practical, preacher, to forsake everything to Him. That's just not practical. That's not reasonable to devote
all to Christ. Surely the Lord wants us to use
our common sense. Not when your common sense denies
His word. We don't have a word like Abraham.
I thought of Abraham. When the Lord commanded Abraham,
go take your son, and just in case We without confusion. I want you to take your only
son, Isaac, the one you love very specific, and I want you
to take him to this mountain. I'm gonna show you and I want
you to kill it. Now, I had a friend of mine that wrote religious
fella. He wrote a play for his church,
and it was all about Abraham's struggle when God told him kill
his son. And the play was It was about
that night before he took Isaac and all this conjecture, all
this foolish conjecture that Abraham really struggled with
this. Scripture says Abraham did not
struggle with this. Scripture says he rose early
in the morning, sat on his ass, took his son. He was as good
as dead when God said it. Why? How could he trust the Lord? Is that unreasonable? Now most
people think that would be unreasonable. Why would Abraham do that? Because
he had a promise from God before this, that in Isaac should all
the seed of the world be blessed. He knew this, that if he had
to kill him, God raised him from the dead. He believed God. He
trusted God. Therefore, he offered everything
to God based on God's word, not on his reason. Now, I don't have
that. If I go and kill my son, it would be murder because I
don't have a promise. I don't have a promise from God about
that, my son. That would be foolish if I did
that. But I know this, any what we call common sense or reasoning,
if it defies the promises of God, it is unbelief. It is unbelief. Yet some say it's not reasonable
to devote all to Christ. Surely I have to do something.
How many times have you heard that? Yes, I believe salvation
is all of Christ, but I still have to do something. Why? Because you think it's reasonable.
You have to abandon that reasoning. That's foolishness because it
defies the Word of God. Salvation is of the Lord completely. Therefore, you may ask yourself,
is it safe? Is it wise to trust the Lord?
The Word of God says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart.
Don't lean to your own understanding. My friends, this matter of complete
trust in Christ is totally against the worldly wisdom. It is contrary
to human reasoning. and worldly science and mathematics. When I said I thought of mathematics,
do you think it was reasonable for Elijah and that widow woman? It just didn't add up, did it?
They got this much oil, they got this much flour, and God
says, I'm going to sustain you through three years of famine.
Now anybody that using mathematics can measure out that oil and
understand they only got one up for one cake. But faith has
a different mathematics. Here's a totally different, God,
Christ fed 5,000 with just a few loaves. Faith in Christ is totally contrary
to human wisdom. Why? Because the carnal mind
is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. Paul said that the things of
the Spirit of God to man are foolishness. What I'm talking
about to the world is foolish. For you to trust the Lord with
everything is foolish. Not to us who trust Him. But all who are called of the
Holy Spirit, we trust Him without fear and without anxiety. Why? Because of this. He says to us,
be anxious for nothing. Remember that parable when he's
teaching, he said, have you considered the lilies of the field or the
birds of the air? They don't do anything to merit
their food, their clothes. God feeds them. God clothes them. Are you not much of more value
to God than they? Why would you not trust all these
things to Him? Believer in Christ, our Lord
is telling us to take no anxious thought for this life, but requires
us to completely lean on Him for all our provisions. Our Lord, Jesus, demands of us
to seek Him first. He said, look, your Father knows
you have need of these things. Trust Him for these things. The
only thing you need to be focused on is this, the Kingdom of God. He said, seek first, above all
these other things, the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
What is He saying? Seek Me, trust Me, believe on Me. These things
are frivolous to Me to provide these things for you. Is it hard
for the Lord to provide for you things? Do you suppose it's hard for
Him to provide your food? Clothes? Health? Life? Is it hard? No. He's done the hardest part, hasn't
he? He did that at Calvary. He saved
us. Now, is our faith in Christ perfect?
No. Is it perfect? You know, we sing that song and
I get kind of guilty when I sing it. I surrendered all. I mean,
I feel guilty. Why? Because my flesh still pulls
and tugs. My flesh still says the same
thing. Is it reasonable to trust Him
in this? I still contend with the flesh, don't you? Who means is our faith perfect? Even our faith must be washed
in the blood of Christ. Isn't that right? But true faith does trust Christ
in all things and trust Christ for all things. So then, when
the doubts of the flesh arise, when vile mistrust of God raises
its ugly head, to question God's faithfulness and power to provide.
It must be killed. The evil thoughts tell us, if
I surrender this, surely that's not reasonable. How can I live? How can I provide? If I forsake the worship of Christ,
what will happen to my job, my family, my life? Is it reasonably Is it reasonable
then to trust Christ completely? Why are we here? For you that trust Him, for you
that say, I do, I leave all to follow Him. Why do we come here? What's the
purpose? Because He commands us to. Listen to this. Forsake not the
assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is. Anybody
misunderstand that? Is that hard to understand? Don't
forsake it. As you see the day approaching,
exhorting one another in love. This is what we do. We exhort
one another to continue what? Trusting Him. Don't you need
to be exhorted to that? What does that? Other believers
trusting Him. It encourages us to trust Him.
So when He says, ìForsake not the assembling of yourselves
together as manners some is,î have we not made excuses? Is
it really reasonable for us to be there? I can do it over the
Internet. Is it reasonable for me to give
up my family, my job, my livelihood, to go somewhere where the gospel
is preached? What are you doing? Are you trusting
him? He said don't forsake yourselves,
disseminate yourselves together. Why in the world would we make
excuses? What is that but unbelief? That's
all it is. And we consider this that He's
here. Isn't that right? Is that true? Do you really trust
that that's so? If He's here, why would He not be? Is it all
possible? Now listen, when I say that,
usually the sheep who are always faithful, they're the ones who
beat themselves up about that. Non-intentional. If there are
things that hinder us, we all understand that. But I'm telling
you that this is... Again, we're going to be bucked
up with these providences. Providences are going to come
up and faith is going to be tested. I'm going to give you a couple of
examples of what it is to trust the Lord. Look at Exodus chapter
34. I'm gonna be quick about this,
I gotta get going. Exodus 34. Two examples here of God demanding
the trust of his people. Exodus 34, verse 23. He said, Thrice in the years
shall all your male children appear before the Lord God, the
God of Israel. For I will cast out the nations
before thee, and enlarge thy borders, neither shall any man
desire thy land, when thou shalt go up and appear before the Lord
thy God thrice in the year." God commanded these men to leave
their homes and go to Jerusalem three times a year on specific
dates every year. leave their children and their
wives and their properties unguarded, unprotected three times a year. Now listen, if you were a thief,
right, wouldn't it be reasonable for you to want to rob them on
those days? Look guys, they go every year
on this day. Let's go in and take them. And yet God swears this, that
they would not be touched. I tell you what, which is more
reasonable? To stay at home and forsake the
word of God? Or to just trust the Lord and
go as he commands? We find out this, that nobody
took their stuff. He said, none of the nations
will desire your land, and they didn't. Believer in Christ, let us trust
the Lord. Trust the Lord. Let us be faithful to worship.
No matter the loss of business, no matter the loss of the consequence,
no matter the loss of families, for those that trust the Lord
will not be the loser. If you go to worship this morning
and somebody goes in your house and takes everything you have,
were you the loser? Have you lost anything? If you
come to the worship of God and you go home and the Lord takes
you home, have you really lost anything? You haven't lost anything,
have you? Those who trust God will not
be the loser. In Leviticus chapter 25, I'm
not going to read it for you, but you know, God even commands
them not to do anything for one year. That's amazing! He says in the
whole year, I don't want you to plant, I don't want you to
pull up not one fruit, don't go grab one piece of fruit from
the tree. Why? Because I'm going to provide
for you for three years. Now is that not amazing faith?
I mean they couldn't go to the grocery store, everything they
had had to be planted. And imagine, storing up all this
stuff and it not going bad? Isn't that something? You had enough food for three
years. Somebody might come in and say,
well man, that's not wise. No, you're unwise to not trust
God. Believer, our God promises us
that we will lose nothing. by our obedience and submission
to Him. He promises us safety. Is it
not true that we are safe? If you're in Christ, are you
safe? Are you safe? No matter what takes place, no
matter what providence comes our way, Nothing can remove us
from His love or care. You got that? Nothing. We don't
lose anything. We don't lose anything. Our Lord
promises us plenty. In Leviticus, He says you're
going to eat to your fill. He says you're not going to do
anything, you're not going to plant anything, you're not going to pluck anything,
but you're going to have so much food that you can eat to your
full all the time. Isn't this true with the Gospel?
You eat to your full all the time. How much cleansing do you
need? How much mercy do you need? How
much grace do you need? You eat to your full. If you were to take a thimble
of water out of the ocean, could you drain it? Neither can you drain the mercy
of God. You have that. You are safe in Christ. Our Lord
promises our yea and amen in Christ. The scripture says, the earth
is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Isn't that true? Is that true? If that's true, is it then safe
to trust him? It is. The apostle said, surely our
God shall supply all your needs according, listen, to the riches
of his glory by, listen to why he's gonna do it, by Jesus Christ.
He's going to supply all your needs. Not some of them, all
of them. All of them. Our Lord promises that we shall
never lack anything. Have you ever lacked of the infinite
love of God? Have you ever lacked of the grace
and forgiveness of God? Have you ever lacked of His presence?
I know this, we lack in the feeling of His presence, but we really
never lack His presence. He said, I will never leave thee,
nor forsake thee. When has He ever left you? Tell me one time, you who trust
in Him, that He's ever left you. Name one. He has never left you. Now, according to our reason,
he should have left me a long time ago, if I want to base things
on my reason. But I don't. He said, I will
never, no never, no never leave thee, nor forsake thee. And if God has sent his son to
die in our stead, if we are in union with him, how then shall
we ever be separated from his love? Paul said, I am persuaded
that neither life nor death, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Is it safe to
trust the Lord? Yes. The only thing that is not
safe is to trust in you. It is not safe to trust in your
reasoning. It is not safe to trust in your
feelings. It is not safe to trust in Providence. It is only safe to trust in the
Lord. Well, how much? With all your
heart. And do what? Don't lean on your
own understanding. That's temptation. Don't do it. In all your ways, in all the
dark providences of life, when you can't see in front of you,
what are we to do? Trust in the Lord. And He has sworn this. He will
direct our paths. When you were lost and blind,
didn't He direct your path to the Gospel? You weren't looking for it. And
yet, even unknowingly, God directed your path. How much more now
after you trust him will he direct your path? Is the Lord's arm short that
he cannot multiply the loaves? Is his faithfulness to us dependent
upon us in any way? No. Is it reasonable, then, to believe
on Christ and offer all our bodies, all our heart, all our mind,
all our soul to Him? Isn't that just reasonable? Go
to this last place and we'll close. Look at this. Hebrews
chapter 12. Make sure I got it right. Just
a second. I'm sorry. Romans. Romans. Chapter 12. The apostle said, I beseech you,
therefore, brethren, because of the mercies of God, that you present your bodies
living sacrifices. You know what's harder? A one-time
sacrifice or a living sacrifice? A living sacrifice is constant.
If you offer your body to die, you only got to do that once.
We're called to offer our bodies daily. And what's the reason? Because of His mercies. Isn't
that good enough? Present your bodies a living
sacrifice, listen, holy and acceptable. Now who made them holy and acceptable?
He did. Which is your reasonable service? Isn't it just reasonable to trust
him? All's ready. Leave your shack, your poverty, your works, your religion, which
are what? Nothing. And come to Christ. That is the most reasonable thing
a man could do. My you can't keep any of this
anyway. Is it reasonable to grab ahold
of something that is eternal? That's reasonable. I pray God
give us grace to see that and forsake all constantly, perpetually,
not for salvation, but because of it. Isn't that great? It's
not for my salvation. I'm forsaking everything. It's
because of it. Because of it. God give us grace to do it. Let's
stand and be dismissed in prayer. Our gracious Father in heaven,
I plead with you to beg with you, please. Only you can make
this effectual to our hearts. We cannot provide for ourselves.
We cannot sustain ourselves. We cannot keep ourselves. We
cannot save ourselves. It is only reasonable to trust
in you with all our hearts, not to trust in anything we think
or feel or do. In all our ways, acknowledge
your sovereignty and your grace, your love and your mercy, your
blood and your righteousness. And you will direct our paths,
and our paths are directed to you. We will come to you. I pray that you'd save the lost
and comfort the saved. In Christ's name, amen.