Good evening. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 206. 206. Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater
than all my sin. How shall my tongue describe
it? Where shall this praise begin? Taking away my burden Setting
my spirit free For the wonderful grace of Jesus Reaches me Wonderful the matchless grace
of Jesus, Deeper than the mighty rolling sea, Higher than the
mountain, sparkling like a fountain, All sufficient grace for even
me. broader than the scope of my
transgression, greater far than all my sin and shame. O magnify the precious name of
Jesus, praise His name. Wonderful grace of Jesus! Reaching to all the lost. By it I have been pardoned, Saved
to the uttermost. Chains have contort us under,
Giving me liberty, for the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me. Wonderful the matchless grace
of Jesus, Deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Higher than the
mountain, sparkling like a fountain, all sufficient grace for even
me. Broader than the scope of my
transgression, greater far than all my sin and shame. O magnify the precious name of
Jesus, praise His name. Wonderful grace of Jesus, Reaching
the most defiled By its transforming power Making him God's dear child
Purchasing peace and heaven for all eternity. And the wonderful grace of Jesus
reaches me. Wonderful the matchless grace
of Jesus, Deeper than the mighty rolling sea, Higher than the
mountain, sparkling like a fountain, All sufficient grace for even
me, broader than the scope of my transgression, greater far
than all my sin and shame. O magnify the precious name of
Jesus, praise His name. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
355. 355. you. From every stormy wind that blows,
from every swelling tide of woes, there is a call. A sure retreat is found beneath
the mercy seat. There is a place where Jesus
The oil of gladness on our heads, a place that all besides more
sweet It is the blood-bought mercy seat. There is a seat. Where spirits fling, where friend
holds fellowship, With friend, though sundered far, By faith
they meet, Around one common mercy seat. Ah, whither could we flee, For
aid We're tainted, desolate, dismayed Or how the boast of
him defeat, Had suffering saints no mercy see? Ah, there on eagle wings we soar,
And sin and since more lives, no more, And heaven comes down,
our souls to greet while glory crowns the mercy seat. Good evening, can we turn to
Psalm number 89? Psalm 89. I will sing of the
mercies of the Lord forever with my mouth while I make known thy
faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, mercy shall
be built up forever. Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish
in the very heavens. I have made a covenant with my
chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant. Thy seed will I establish
forever and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah. And the heavens shall praise
thy wonders, O Lord, thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the
saints. For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord?
Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord?
God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and
to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. O Lord,
God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee? Or do thy
faithfulness round about thee? Thou rulest the raging of the
sea. When the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them. Thou hast
broken Rahab in pieces as one that is slain. Thou hast scattered
thine enemies with thy strong arm. The heavens are thine. The
earth also is thine. As for the world and the fullness
thereof, thou hast founded them. The north and the south, thou
hast created them. Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice
in thy name. Thou hast a mighty arm, strong
is thy hand, and high is thy right hand. Justice and judgment
are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before
thy face. Blessed is the people that know
the joyful sound. They shall walk, O Lord, in the
light of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice
all the day, and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. For thou
art the glory of their strength, and in thy favor our horn shall
be exalted. For the Lord is our defense,
and the Holy One of Israel is our King. When thou speakest
in vision to thy Holy One, and saidst, I have laid help upon
one that is mighty. I have exalted one chosen out
of the people. I have found David my servant.
With my holy oil have I anointed him, with whom my hand shall
be established. Mine arm shall also strengthen
him. The enemy shall not exact upon
him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him. And I will beat
down his foes before his face and plague them that hate him.
But my faithfulness and mercy shall be with him. And in my
name shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand also in the
sea and his right hand in the river. He shall cry unto me,
thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Also,
I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the
earth. My mercy will I keep for him forevermore, and my covenant
shall stand fast with him. His seat also will I make to
endure forever in his throne as the days of heaven. If his
children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments, if they
break my statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I
visit their transgression with a rod and their iniquity with
stripes. Nevertheless, my loving kindness
will I not utterly take from them. nor suffer my faithfulness
to fail. My covenant I will not break
nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. Once I have
sworn by my holiness that I will not lie under David, his seed
shall endure forever in his throne as the sun before me. It shall
be established forever as the moon, as a faithful witness in
heaven. Selah. I'll stop right there. Almighty God, we come to you
and we thank you so much for your mercy, Lord, unto us. New
every morning, we thank you, Lord. We couldn't go without
you, Lord. We don't want to go without you.
We ask that you would let us gather around the mercy seat,
Lord, around your son. Lord, we thank you for this place
you've given us to come and hear the truth, Lord. We ask that
you would be with our families that don't know you, Lord, and
don't care anything about you, Lord. Please, Lord, have mercy
on them, if you will. Lord, I pray for the sick and
the afflicted of this congregation. I pray that if it be your will,
you bring them back to worship with us. Thank you, Lord, again
for your mercy and for a pastor that studies and brings the truth
to us. Lord, thank you so much. We ask
all these things in Christ's name. Amen. Hymn number 249. 249. Just as
I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me and that now
it's become to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am and waiting not
to rid my soul of one dark part to Thee whose blood can cleanse
each heart, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a calm, with many a doubt Findings and fears within Without
a limb of God I come, I come. Just as I am poor, wretched,
blind, Sighed Richard's hue. Ring of the mind, yea, all I
need in thee to find, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, Thou wilt receive
We'll welcome pardon, clinch relief Because I promise I'll
believe O Lamb of God, I come ? I come ? Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10. Matthew 10, 29. Are not two sparrows sold for
a farthing? That's one-tenth of a penny.
That's what that farthing is, one-tenth of a Roman penny. That's
what a farthing is. "...are not two sparrows, so
for a farthing. And one of them shall not fall
on the ground without your Father." Now when he says fall on the
ground, he don't mean that he's going to fall out of the air
and die. It means that God directs him to where something to eat,
directs him to land, lets him go right where something needs
to be. And He directs their path of a sparrow. Then He says, The very hairs
of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not, therefore, ye are
of more value than many sparrows. Now I want you to look there
how valuable we are. The very hairs of your head are
numbered. Our Lord Jesus Christ has such a wonderful, gracious
way and powerful way of speaking to His people. to quieten their
fears, quieten their anxieties, to cheer them up, cheer them
up. And here he speaks about sparrows, how little they cost,
but yet you're so much more valuable than sparrows, and so much more
valuable that he numbers the hairs of your head. He said a
sparrow ain't gonna go down to the ground unless I direct it.
But if you think that's something, Let me tell you something else
I know about you. I know the hairs of your head. I number
the hairs of your head. And there are four things, four
things I want us to look at here in this verse of Scripture. The
hairs of your head are all numbered. First thing I want us to look
about is predestination for a nation. That's the first thing we have
to understand about this here. It could be read this way. Have
all been numbered. not I number all, but have all
the hairs of your head been numbered? When did He reckon He numbered
the hairs of our head? He predestinated us before the
foundation of the world. He knowed who we were, where
we were, and what we was, and where we'd be, and everything
about us. And so it has to do with predestination. It extends,
and our Lord uses this thing here, it's showing the minutest,
the least part about us, the least part about us. to show
us how INTERESTED He is in us, how PRECIOUS we are to Him. It
extends to EVERYTHING about a man. He just used the Harris as an
ILLUSTRATION of what His people are to Him, and it extends to
EVERYTHING, not only about the Harris, but EVERYTHING about
the man. He said, If I remember you, Harris,
what about you? If a parrot don't fall to the
ground, unless I directed, what about you? I said, I've got to
pay such attention to you that I know the hairs of your head.
And I predestined, I numbered the hairs of your head. Now I'll
tell you what, that just goes to show you how the Lord takes
such an interest in His people. That even the things that we
don't even pay attention to much. that he pays attention to. Oh
my, it extends not only to the Chazabahid, but to the whole
man, his whole being is known to God. Look with me in Psalm
139. Look over here in Psalm 139.
Look down in verse 16. Have you all been numbered? God predestinates, He foreordains
things to happen. He read tonight out of the 89th
Psalm, and that was God making a covenant with David, which
was Christ's seed, David's son was the Lord Jesus Christ, and
He made a covenant with him, and He says that all that was
made a covenant with, we were in that covenant. He said, I'll
chastise them. If they go astray, I'll chastise
them. I'll bring them back. Not one of them's gonna fail.
And that's what he's telling us here. He said, if you think
something is important in this world, he said, I'm gonna tell
you what is really important to me. You are, you are. And I'll just use the hairs of
your head as an illustration. Look what he said here in verse
16. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect, and in thy
book, and in thy book, all my members,
and it says over in the margin, all of them, all my members were
written, all my, in which were continuously fashioned, in this
writ there was none of them, and in the margin it says, or
what days they should be fashioned. He said, I'm gonna tell you the
days that you should be fashioned. He said, you saw me before I
ever was. You wrote everything about me
in your book. And he says, you determined to
fashion us in a certain way. And that's why I saw that our
Lord is interested in us, us personally. Everything about
us is foreknown of God Almighty, everything about us. Oh my, not
only foreknown, but foreordained, predestinated, if I can say it
that way. You know, if we cut our hair
or color our hair, will it affect us in any way? Affect our relationship
with God? Will it affect our health? You
think that's what he's really talking about? He's talking about
US! US! Oh my, EVERYTHING that a
believer goes through in this world. I'll tell you what, It's
foreordained. Every heartache, every sorrow,
every tear, every trouble, everything that happens to us in this world,
God foreordained it to happen. And He just uses the hairs of
our head to deal with that issue. He counted them. He said, the
very hairs of your head are numbered. Who's counting here? Who's talking
here? Who's doing the counting? The
Lord is. And what He's talking about is,
is the very hairs of your head are numbered. That means that
He, He pays such close attention to us. So close attention to
us. Why does our Lord tells us that
the hairs of our head are numbered? Well, I think it's to make us
look to Him and Him alone and to cause us to understand that
I mean nothing can touch us. Look over in Acts 27 verse 34. You all remember this story over
here in Acts when Paul was on that ship and the ship had a
bad wreck and it got in a bad storm and everybody was, oh my,
hadn't seen the sun or moon for days and days and days. And look
what he says now, oh my, though they had tarried 14 days, hadn't
taken nothing to eat, they'd all been fasting. And then he
says in Acts 27, 34, wherefore I pray you to take some meat,
take something to eat, for this is for your health. Now listen
to this, for there shall not an hair fall from the head of
any of you. Do you think that's what He really
meant, that not a hair of your, what He said is, God is gonna
keep you, He's gonna save you, He's gonna see you safely to
the shore. You're gonna be saved out of
this storm, you're gonna be saved from this shipwreck. And that's
why He says, not a hair of your head shall be perished, not a
hair of it. And oh my, another reason why
He tells us this, in this predestination for a nation is, to teach us
to be submissive to it. If He takes such an interest
in something so benign, something so... not so much, teach us to be in
submission to Him. If He pays that much attention
to us, how we submit to Him and everything. give ourselves up
to him. Lord, I'm in your hands, have
thine own way, you sing it all the time, have thine own way,
oh Lord, have thine own way. Thou art the potter, I'm the
clay. And also because he tells us
about the hairs of our head being numbered, it caused us to be
hopeful. Oh my, to be so hopeful. Why shouldn't we be hopeful if
God takes that much interest in us? Takes that much, how many,
do you all count the hairs that just fall out of your head? Comb your hairs and it comes
out and you're combing full old dead hair. Do you count it? No,
of course you don't. And He's not telling us about
this number in the hairs of our head, He's telling us how INTERESTED
He is, how PRECIOUS we are to Him, how VALUABLE we are to Him,
how MUCH He CARES for us! That's all He's telling us about,
and oh, what REASON to be HOPEFUL! If God Almighty takes ATTENTION
to the hairs on your head, how much more does He take ATTENTION
to YOU! YOU! YOU! And I'll tell you something
else it ought to do for us, it ought to produce JOY! Oh joy,
to think that God Almighty is interested in me, interested
in the points of number in the hairs of my head, to count to
know just exactly before I was, the hairs on my head was already
predetermined. Everything about me was already
predetermined. How tall I would be, the color
of my eyes, everything about me was already predetermined
before I was ever brought into this world. That's how valuable,
that's how precious, that's what Christ thinks about us before
the world began. He said, before I ever put your
name in my book, He said, I numbered the hairs of your head. And when we see the minutest,
minutest things that are predestinated, oh my, it ought to help our faith,
IT OUGHT TO MAKE US LOOK TO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND ADORE
HIM, AND WORSHIP HIM. IF GOD ARRANGES SOMETHING SO
MINUTE AS THE HAIR'S ON OUR HEAD, WE ARE INDEED BLESSED OF GOD,
HOW BLESSED WE ARE TO BE THE SUBJECT OF GOD'S PURPOSE AND
GRACE GIVEN US IN CHRIST BEFORE THE WORLD EVER BEGAN. All these things are not afterthoughts.
That's why we and you don't pay any attention to them. But God
does, that's how He pays attention to us. He said, you know, He
knows our thoughts are for all. By Him, actions are weighed.
He knows the reason why we do what we do. He knows what we're
gonna do before we do it. He knows what we're gonna think
before we think it. He knows what we're gonna say
before we say it. And that, why should that shot,
you know, and that he's just using the hairs of our head as
an illustration, as an illustration. And oh my,
to be the subject of God's purpose in grace. Oh my, how glorious
it is. Here's the second thing, not
only as it tells us about predestination for nation, but it shows us how
well, what the character of this knowledge is towards us. What
do you think God's knowledge of us is? What do you think God's
knowledge of us is? What do you think His knowledge
of us is? What character is His knowledge of us? Well, some people
say, Boy, if the Lord knew you like I know you, He wouldn't
have anything to do with you. I remember a fella telling his
wife one time, he said, if those folks up there knew how bad you
was, they wouldn't even let you come up there. If they knew how sinful you was,
they wouldn't even want you in their building. But all I'm telling you, he knows
us, I mean he knows us inside and out. But He just uses the
hairs on our head as an illustration of how well He knows us and the
knowledge that He has of us. If He counts the stars in the
heavens and put them all there and calls them all by name, what
do you think He knows about us? If He measures the nations and
counts them just as a drop in the bucket and as a bare dust
on a balance that don't even show up when you put anything
on it, if that's the way it is, how much do you think He knows
about us? Oh my, and I tell you, to me,
to me, I think that's one of the most blessed things to me
is that God's knowledge of me, He knew me before I was. He knew
me since I've been. And He knows me till the end
of time. He knows me. He knows everything
about me. There's nothing hid from Him
that can't be seen or known. We can hide things from our wife. We can hide them for our husbands.
We can hide them for our children. We can hide them from the preacher.
We can hide them from one another. But I tell you, we can't hide
nothing from God. He's watching the hairs of your
head. So just imagine what He knows about us and all the very
minute, the minutest things about us. Oh my. And I'll tell you, he knows us
completely. Absolutely completely. He knows
the whole man. Oh, all of his being is well
known. By everything about us, well
known by our mission, Lord. I want to look in Galatians,
I think it's chapter three. I think it's where I want to
look. I thought about this. Let's see if I can find it. If I can find it over here. Yeah,
yeah, Galatians three. talking about God's knowledge. You know it's like Paul when
he knocked him down on the Damascus Road. He called him by name. Called him by name. Saul! Saul! How long did he know
Saul? which became the apostle Paul.
He said, I separated you from your mother's womb. That's how
long I've known you. I separated you from your mother's
womb. And you know what I did after I separated you from your
mother's womb? I called you by my grace. And that's what God's done for
us. He separated us from our mother's womb and called us by
His grace. And why did He do that? To reveal
His Son in us. Now look over here in Galatians
3, 9. Look what it says. But now, after that you have
known God. We know God. We know God. Known, after that you have known
God. Not some things about Him, knowing.
But I like it like this that says even better, or rather are
known of God. We know God, but he turned around
and said, but rather, I'd rather be known of God. I'd rather be known of God. I
know God, but I'd rather be known of Him. I'd rather be known of
Him. Oh my, he has a perfect knowledge,
absolutely perfect knowledge of everything, everything. And
oh, not only is it a perfect knowledge, but it's an intimate,
intimate, intimate knowledge. You know, we don't even know
ourselves like we know enough about ourselves. We don't trust
ourselves, but God knows us better than we know ourselves or everybody
else ever knows us. You know, we all want to be liked.
We all want to be respected. We all want to be admired. We
all want to be thought well of. But oh my, you can't know me. You can't
really, really know me. All you know about me is what
I let you see in public. That's all you know about me.
What I reveal of myself. But God has that intimate, intimate
knowledge. He told Jeremiah, before you
was in your mama's belly, I knew thee. I knew thee. What did you know about him?
I knew who he was, I knew who his mama was, I knew what I was
gonna do with him, and I knew when I was gonna do it, and I
knew exactly what he was gonna say and do everything until I,
he said, well, I'll separate you, you know, before he's in
your mother's belly. But now somewhere down the line, he's
gonna be put in a dungeon, and then he's gonna be down in that
dungeon, he's gonna be in that miry clay down in there, and
it's gonna take 30 men to get him out. Oh my. You don't want God to know you
like that, do you? But He does. Oh, He has such an intimate knowledge
of us. We can't number one thing a fellow never ought to do. You
remember David numbered the children of Israel. He numbered the children
of Israel. He was the king and he wanted
to know how many people his king owned. Joab told him, said, Don't
do it, don't do it, they're the Lord's people, don't number them.
Well, he decided to number them. I want to know how many people
I reign over. So he had them all counted, had
them all counted. And God gave him three choices
for numbering the children of Israel. You know why you don't
number people? Because first of all, you don't know who God's
elect are. Uh-huh. We don't know who they are. And
that's what David did. He was numbering because he wanted
to find out how many people he was reigning over. God gave him
a choice. He said, you can either have
a plague for three months, you can fall before your enemies,
and I forget what the third one is, but anyway, David said, Lord,
I'll fall into your hands, whatever you will to do, that'll be all
right. That's why, you know, God numbers things. We can't
number things. I could go through here tonight
and tell you how many people's in this building, but I can't
tell you how many people are the Lord's people in this building.
I can't do that. And that's exactly why you don't
number people. But God numbers us. You know, when Christ, Christ
is the king, he don't have to count how many people he's reigning
over. You know how many he's reigning over? A multitude that
no man can number. Jesus. He runs a 10,000 times
10,000 thousands. Oh. He don't have to get, he don't
have to say, I need a census taken. No, he don't. If he looks
at the hairs of their head, just imagine what he does for them
and how he looks at them. Oh my. And I tell you, his knowledge
of us not only is intimate, but it's tender. His knowledge of
us is so tender, so tender. You know, a mother, a mother
cherishes the hairs of her child. I tell you, you get these little
old babies, hold them in your arm, and smell them, they smell
so good. I was looking at a little baby
today, where you are, the grandbaby there, and I was telling Tim
about how much hair that little fella had. He said, he done had
a haircut once. He's just five months old, done had a haircut
once. Oh my, a mother's, the tenderness of a mother is nothing
compared to the tenderness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why last
week we talked about He looked at that great multitude and He
was moved with compassion. What moved Him? They were as
sheep without a shepherd. But that's one thing we'll never
be, we'll never be sheep without a shepherd. will never be sheep
without a shepherd. Oh, and he is tender. He is so
tender to us. He let, you know, whenever time
John is mentioned, you know what it says about him? He who leaned
on Jesus' breast. Every time he's mentioned, he
who leaned on Jesus' breast. That disciple who leaned on Jesus'
breast. Oh, how tender he is. How tender
He is, oh my. And when a child gets sick, or
a child gets troubled, a child gets in bad shape, oh my. How the heart of the mother goes
out. But that ain't nothing compared to our Lord Jesus Christ. He
enters into everything about us. Every trial we go through,
He's in it with us. And all the years that go by,
years that go by. I was, you know, I can look in
the mirror and I said, How can that same person be ME? I don't
know if you all do that or not, but I do! But I'll tell you the
years, but I'll tell you the Lord Jesus Christ has been me
every day of every year and every minute of every day! I started pastoring this church
when I was 28 years old. I'm 74 now, and God has been
with me from my mother's womb, and He'll be with me till I enter
into glory. I was telling Shirley, her and
I was talking, I don't know if on the way home or on the way
here, but we was talking about it. I said, you know, they call
Israel the Holy Land. And they call church buildings
holy places. They call this here a holy place
and all that. The only holy place we are in
this world right now is in Christ. There's not a spot on this earth
that's holy. The only wholeness we have is
what the wholeness we have in Christ. And the only holy land
we'll ever be in is when we get to glory and land on the other
side in Emmanuel's land, then we'll be in a holy land. Ain't that right? Not till then,
not till then. Oh my, and I'll tell you what,
don't touch a hair of his head. You ever hear anybody say, don't
you dare touch a hair of his head. If you dare, I tell you,
you're going to have to answer to me. That's what God says about,
don't you touch a hair of his head. You'll have to answer to
me. And I tell you, not only is it tender and intimate, but
it's constant. It's absolutely constant. God constantly, constantly,
continually watches over us. And he uses the hairs of our
head to tell us how it is. And oh, how precious we must
be to Him. How precious we must be to Him
when the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Oh my, how
precious we must be to Him. How precious His people must
be to Him. Oh, how precious they must be,
how valuable they must be that He looks on the hairs of their
head and said, now this is how many hairs I'm gonna allow you
to have in your lifetime. It's how many more have you to
have. I want you to know how valuable and how precious you
are to me. I'm going to look on your head and count the hairs
that's in your head. That's how valuable you are to
me. How precious you are to me. If each hair is valued and so
precious to God, what must the heart be? What must the will
be? What must the head be worth? What must our bodies be worth?
And oh, what is our souls worth? If the hairs are numbered, what's
the soul worth? If we're that close to the Lord
and that valuable to the Lord and that precious to the Lord,
what must our souls be worth? What must He have paid our Redeemer? How much must He have paid? What
did it cost Him to buy us just a number of the hairs of our
head? How much blood was shed? How much death was endured? How
much grief did he bury? How much sorrow did he carry?
How much ridicule did he endure? How many slaps did he take? How
many stripes was on his back? Oh my! And he did that to buy
our souls because we're so precious to him. Oh, how could anyone
think that he'd ever lose someone that that's precious to him that
he numbers the hairs of their head? Oh my, how valuable, how
valuable, how precious we must be to our Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you something else
we see here, and this will be my last thing, this is my fourth
thing. We see how God preserves us, we see preservation. as Bruce
Crabtree says, perseverance. You know, that s a good way to
say it, we re preserved and we persevere all at the same time,
and I tell you what, but we see preservation here. We see how
God preserves His people. If the highs of our head are
numbered, and how much more is He going
to preserve us? If He s interested in that, what
is He interested in here? You know, if He preserves this,
how much more is He going to preserve us? The smallest, smallest
slots, lost as we are, are secured by His promise. Look in Luke
21 with me, over in Luke 21, Luke 21. In verse 18. Let's do this. You know, he told Paul, said,
no man shall fall upon you to harm you. Nobody shall harm you.
Oh my. Look what he said here in Luke
21, 18. There shall not an hair of your
head perish. You know why He says that? Because
I'm going to preserve you. He said, They're going to HATE
you, but I'm going to preserve you. He said, You're going to
have to have a lot of PATIENCE in this world, but I'm going
to preserve you, I'm going to preserve you. Oh, my, I'm going
to KEEP you, I'm going to preserve you. And I tell you, when it
talks about Christ and His preserving us, bless His holy name, when
we talk about preserved, I mean, you know, from ANYTHING, ANYTHING,
ANYTHING that can harm us except what the Lord wills. If He wills
something to bother us, to trouble us, or to cause us to be sick,
or cause anything to happen in our life, it'll only be by His
will. But until that time comes, He'll
preserve us, and I'll tell you, I know this, and I know this
by experience, and you do too, that He preserves us DURING whatever
we're going through. whatever we're going through,
He preserves us through it. How do we get through it if He
didn't preserve us, huh? Oh, my! Fear, and that's what
our Lord said back over there in Matthew, He says, Fear not
those that destroy the body. Oh, don't be afraid of them,
right there in verse 28 FEAR NOT THEM WHICH KILL THE
BODY, BUT ARE NOT ABLE TO KILL THE SOUL. THEY CAN DO SOMETHING
WITH THE BODY. OH MY, BUT FEAR HIM ABLE TO DESTROY
BOTH SOUL AND BODY. And you know, I don't know how
to say this other than He preserves us from having necessity. Now
what does that mean? That means if any of you went
hungry, if you went naked, Everything, the Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. He gives us everything that's
necessary for us in this world. We need clothes, He provides
them. We need health, He gives it to us. We need money, He provides
it. We need a car, He provides it.
You know, I heard people say, I need to pray if the Lord wants
me to buy a car or not. Just go buy it! He provides for
it, you don't have to pray over it. I don't know if the Lord
would have me to have a car or not. Well then walk then or get
a bicycle. People do the dumbest thing.
If the Lord blesses you with the means to get an automobile,
by all means get it. And thank Him for it. You know
people are so but he preserves us. There's not a necessity.
I told I told Dave and I Could not when I was a boy when I was
a boy a kid and I come back from Vietnam and I spent 18 months
in mental hospitals and in all these different hospitals and
I was going through all this stuff and then end up where I
am right now and I could not dream this big. I could not dream
as big as what God's done for me. Can you dream that big when
you was a kid? Could you believe you'd live
like you do? Own what you own, possess what
you, you couldn't, you can't dream that big. Now that's how
great God is. That's how he preserves us and
how he provides everything that we need. I told somebody the
other day, I'm going to tell you all something that happened
to us years and years ago. It was time for our kids to go
to school. And I mean, we were struggling financially. Oh, we
were struggling. And we didn't have the money
to go buy our kids school clothes and buy their winter coats. We
didn't have the money. Went to the mailbox, got the
mail, 358, that was our mailbox, so Route
6, before it become, what is it now? Yeah, Bowling
Road, 1262 Bowling Road. But anyway, I went to the mailbox,
and there was a $100 bill in the mail. Guess what we did with it? Went
and bought school clothes and coats. You think the Lord can't
provide for you? Tell you another little story.
Let's talk about God preserving us. When Joshie was born, little
Joshie, he's 33 now, I believe. But when he was born, we kept
him to house an awful lot. One night, he got sick. Oh, he
got so sick. He was burning up, burning up
with a fever. He was burning up. And I was
laying with him in the bed, little old bitty fellow. And oh, my,
he's burning up. And I was debating whether we
ought to take him to the emergency room, do what, we need to do
something, do something. But I turned my, you know, I
hugged him up to me and I said, Lord, And this is the honest
God's truth. I said, Lord, we don't have the
money. If we take him to the doctor,
take him to the hospital, it'll be so much that we'll never get
out. We just can't get out of it. And I said, Lord, please,
please take care of this baby. In two hours, that baby was like
nothing ever happened to him. I was being honest with God. I could not do certain things
that you know that if you do it, you're in trouble. But God, that's what I'm talking
about. God preserves us and gives us our necessities. How many
times have you been in that situation in your life? That God's provided
your necessities. Provided your necessities. One
fellow sent me 25 $1 bills in the mail one time. $1 bill. I tell you, the Lord has provided
for us countless times over the years, and He has you. He has
you. He has you. All right. I tell you, God will keep each
hair of your head, and I'll tell you something else. You know
what? He's going to preserve us from
death. And what do I mean by that? In death, it's not a loss. Paul said, For me to die is gain. I'm in a strait betwixt two,
wanting to depart and be with Christ, which is far better,
but I have to stay here. Oh, my. Oh, in death we're not
going to be losers, but we're going to gainers. You know what
resurrection is going to do for us? It's going to restore the
whole man, everything about us. Brand new person, brand new man. Oh, brand new person. We can
count money. We can count goods. We can count
cattle. But we can't count the hairs
of our head. But God does. God does. Let's trust Him. Look in Isaiah
46 with me and I'll close. Isaiah 46 and I'll close. Look down in verse 3 and 4. Oh, we can count a lot of things,
but we can't count the hairs of our head, but God does. And
He says, Harken unto Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant
of the house of Israel, listen to this, which are born by Me
from the belly, What does that mean? He said, from the day we
come out of our mother's womb, He carried us, He born us, picked
us up, carried us. And that's why He said, which
carried, born by me from the belly, which are carried from
the womb. He carried us from the womb,
and how long is He going to carry us? Even to your old age, I am
He. Even to your gray hairs, I will
carry you. I have made and I will bear,
even I will carry and deliver you. I took you out of your mama's
belly, carried you. Now you're old and you're gray-headed,
and I'm still carrying you. Oh, I'm looking at a lot of people
the Lord's carried for a long time. Oh, what a blessed savior is
Jesus our Lord. Oh, there's nobody like him.
Oh, Lord. Blessed be your name, oh, Lord,
our God. How precious, how precious, how
blessed you are to us. And Lord, to find out that we're
so precious, so valuable to you, that you love us with such care,
take such an interest in us, in such an intimate, tender,
glorious way. Oh Lord, we get overwhelmed with
your goodness and your grace. Get overwhelmed with how you
look upon us and how you treat us and how you preserve us and
protect us and take such an intimate, intimate interest in us. Oh Lord,
blessed be your name. God bless these dear saints.
as they go their ways. We have some, Lord, who have
physical problems. Lord, we know that you're able
to fix it, able to take care of it according to your own will
and good pleasure. And Lord, we pray that you'd
save your people in this place, your sheep. And oh, Lord, keep
us cleaving and believing to you. Oh Lord, how we need
you. How we need you. Oh Lord, how
we need you. Amen. Amen. All right. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me Thy great salvation so rich. It is rich, ain't it? It is rich
because it comes from the most wealthiest being in eternity
to the poorest people, and He gives it free. I'll see
you Wednesday night, Lord willing.