Matthew 10 Our Lord Jesus Here talks about what we're not
to fear in verse 28 He said don't be afraid of people that can
kill your body But they can't do a thing in the world to your
soul There's a lot of things that could kill this body heart
attacks cancer car wrecks, a lot of things could kill this body. But that's all it can do. None
of those things can destroy a soul. But he says, fear him which is
able to destroy both soul and body in hell. And then he starts talking about
the value of things. He sets a value on some things. to showing us how that we really
need to understand the value and the preciousness that we
are to the Lord Jesus Christ. Are not to spare a soul for a
father. That's the tenth part of a penny. Now you know a penny ain't worth
nothing. You break it down into ten parts. one-tenth of a penny by two sparrows. And then he says, and one of
them shall not fall, go to the ground, and get anything to eat.
Now I watch sparrows. We have sparrows all over the
place. And they just down on the ground just picking all the
time, you know, trying to find something to eat. And they'll
be up there and want to go down. And that's why our Lord says
there's not one of them that goes down there and gets anything,
that our Father doesn't direct them. that our Father, that's
what He says, shall not fall on the ground without your...
that don't mean He's going to die. That means He goes to the ground
to get something to eat. And if the Father feeds the sparrows,
imagine what He'll do for us. We don't think anything about
sparrows. But He says that they're special. That He feeds the sparrows. And look what He goes on to say.
But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear you not
therefore, for you are more valiant than many sparrows. And I want
to get my subject there from the hairs of your head are all
numbered. Our Lord has a wonderful, gracious,
powerful way of speaking to his people. And He does it to quieten
their fears, to quieten their fears, to cheer them up. I looked
up that word when He says, be of good cheer. He said, let your
spirits be lifted up. And that's what He says. He says,
you know, He says things that so cheers us up, so lifts our
spirits up. And He speaks here about something
so insignificant as the hairs of our head. So insignificant as the hairs
of our head. And he says that they're numbered. What does he mean that they're
numbered? That means that from the day before you're born to
the day you die, he's got his hand on you. He's watching out
for you. Now I want you to see four things, very quickly, four
simple things from this verse of scripture. First of all, we
see God's predestination, God's foreordination. That's the first
thing we see is predestination. God foreordains everything. And
He says, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Now that
was in that Bible before you and I was ever born. So this tells us, it could have
been said this way, have all been numbered. Have all been
numbered. It concerns the past as well
as the future. It extends, and you know what
he says, he numbers the hairs of our head. If he's interested
in that number in the hairs of our head, what does he think
about us, personally? What is his view of us? If he numbers the hairs on your
head, if he numbers them, I can't even count the hairs that's on
my comb when I comb my hair. But he numbers them. He knows
the number of them before that's put on my head. He not only numbers them, but
He changes the color as it suits Him. He'll take away the dark and
bring on the gray. You can color it all you want
to, but still yet, it's God's cut numbers, theirs, and seeing
a hair does not affect our relationship with God. We can cut it, it don't
reflect our relationship with God. We can color it, it doesn't
reflect our relationship with God. You know why? Because He says they're numbered.
And I tell you what, if He numbers the hairs of our heads, what
about us personally? Look over at Psalm 139. I want
you to see this here. Psalm 139. If He numbers the
hairs of our head, what does He think about us? And I'll tell
you what, all he's got to do is say one word, drop just a
crumb into your heart, and I'll tell you what, he can just touch
your heart that quick. But look what he says here in
Psalm 139 and verse 14. Or verse 13, let's start at verse
13. This is what David says now.
We're talking about have all our hairs have been numbered,
the past as well as the present. He says, For thou hast possessed
my reins, possessed the way that I take,
thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee, for
I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works,
and that my soul knoweth right well. Now listen to this, My
substance, my body, was not hid from thee when I was made in
secret. Before I was ever in, when I
was made in secret, nobody even knew I existed until my brother
decided, said, oh listen, I'm going to have a baby. He said,
my substance, when I was made in secret and curiously wrought
in the lowest parts of the earth. Now listen, thine eyes did see
my substance. You saw my body. You saw me. yet being unperfect and in thy
book you put every member of my body everything about me in
your book which in continuance were fashioned when as yet not
one of them existed yet they didn't even exist but you put
it all in your book you put it all in your book oh my so everything
about us and everything about The ones that he says the hairs
of their head are numbered. Everything about us, he's telling
us, is foreknown. Even to the amount of hair that's
on our head. And when it's cut, it doesn't
affect us. When we color it, it doesn't
affect us. It doesn't change our relationship. It don't affect
our hair. It don't affect our life. It
don't affect our health. And all that goes through our
life, everything in our life, He's telling us, even to the
numbers of the hairs upon our head, that it absolutely, He's
got His affection, His love set upon us. And everything in our
life is ordained. If He numbers the hairs upon
our head, what about the rest of our life? He ordains everything, ever sorrow,
ever joy, ever tear, ever laughter. Every pain, every time that a
pain is taken away, He ordains everything. And He counts it
as the hairs of your head. He said, I'm interested in you. And who does the numbering here?
Who does the counting here? Our Lord Jesus Christ is speaking.
That's who's counting them. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
And why does our Lord tell us that he numbers the hairs of
her head. Why does he tell us that your hairs are the very
hair? He says the very. He stresses that the very hairs
of your head are numbered. He could have said, I count the
hairs on your head. He could have said, you're going
to have this many hairs on your head, you ain't going to have,
but no, he says, he said the very He makes an emphasis on
the very hairs of your head are numbered. Why does our Lord say
this to us about this? Well, I tell you, I'm going to
give you three or four reasons if I can. First, He says it to
make us brave. Boy, if the Lord tells you that
the hairs of your head are numbered, then what does it mean about
all the rest of our life? To make us brave. Now look in
Acts chapter 27. This is exactly what happens. Acts 27 verse 34. The apostle
Paul here is on a ship, and they've been in a storm for 14 days. And he says, make us brave, to
give us courage under trial. If He numbers the hairs of our
head, what's He going to take care of? If He numbers the hairs
of our head, what's He going to do forth when we're in a trial? Paul said here, told those soldiers
and sailors on this boat, on this ship, he said, Verse 34,
Acts 27, Verse 34, Acts 27, Verse 34, Acts 27, Verse 34, Acts 27, Verse
34, Acts 27, Verse 34, Acts 27, Verse 34, Acts 27, Verse 34, Acts 27, Verse 34, Acts 27, Verse 34, Acts 27,
Verse 34, Acts 27, Verse 34, Acts 27, Verse 34, Acts 27, Verse 34, Acts 27, Verse 34, Acts 27,
Verse 34, Acts 27, Verse 34, Acts 27, Verse 34, Acts 27, Verse 34, Acts 27, Verse 34, Acts 27,
Verse 34, Acts 27, Verse 34, Acts 27, Verse 34, Acts 27, Verse
34, Acts 27, Verse 34, Acts 27, Verse 34, Acts 27, Verse 34,
Acts 27, Verse What he meant was that there's
nothing going to hurt you. You're not going to be hurt in
any way. We're going to lose this ship.
Everything's going to go. But I tell you what, I'm going
to protect you down to the very hair of your head. Not one of
them will perish. That's what he told them. and
not only to make us brave, to make us courageous under trials,
but to teach us to be submissive. If our Lord counts and numbers
the hairs of our head, how we should submit to Him. If He takes
that kind of interest in us and watches over us and cares for
us that much, how should we submit to Him and His will and His power
and everything that comes our way by His blessed hand. And
here's another thing, a woman asked me the other day, she said,
do you ever feel like you're without hope? And I said, oh,
no, no, no, no. She said, that's right, you go
to church all the time, don't you? I said, yeah. And I said, that's where I get
my hope. And I tell you what, when God says I'll number the
hairs of your head, that ought to make you hopeful. Oh, how
hopeful we ought to be. We're sitting here and everyone's
got hair on our heads. And I'll tell you what, in the
Lord Jesus Christ, He's got every one of them numbered. And so
that tells us, beloved, that if He numbers the hair, what
else is He going to do for us? How hopeful we ought to be. When we sung that song, when
I pass through the air, farewell, farewell, sweet air, prayer,
I'll drop this flesh and rise. Oh, what a blessed hope we have.
And I tell you what, and this is another thing, when He says
that He numbers the hairs of our head, He tells us this, so
that we'll be full of joy. Don't it fill you with joy to
know that Christ numbers the hairs of your head? You know, some of you don't pay
that much attention to it. But He's numbering all that. Oh, when we see the most minute
things, the minutest things are predestinated to the number of
the hairs on your head. It ought to make us strong. It
helps our faith. If God arranges the hairs on
our heads, we are indeed blessed to be the subjects of God's purpose
and grace. Oh, how blessed, how glorious,
how precious we must be that He said, I'll number the hairs
of your head. I'll number the hairs of your head. And I tell you, here's the second
thing, not only do we see in this verse of scripture here,
predestination, God's forward nation, but we see here God's
knowledge of us. We see here our Lord's knowledge
of us. We're known so well to the Lord Jesus Christ as to have
the numbers, the hairs upon our head counted by the Lord Jesus
Himself. Huh? You think you know something? Oh my. What is the character
of this knowledge of God towards us? It deals with the very least
things. It deals with the tiniest things,
right down to the hairs on your head. Oh my, and it's complete,
not only is it minute, but it's complete. If He numbers the hairs of your
head, imagine what He knows about you. All of us, all of our being,
every speck of us, inside and out. Thoughts, intents, motives,
desires, wills, affections, everything about us. Our Lord Jesus Christ
has complete and perfect knowledge of every single one of us. We're
well, well known by our omniscient Lord Jesus Christ. And His knowledge
of us is perfect. It's perfect. And I'm glad it's
perfect. That's a wonderful thing to know
that His knowledge of us is so perfect that even before somebody
does something, He said, you know what you're going to do?
This is what you're going to do. Oh no, I ain't going to do
that. Well, yes you are. Simon Peter said, I won't do
that. Yes, you will. John said, I'd call fire. No,
you won't. Our Lord has faith. Before anybody does anything,
He can tell them exactly what they're going to do. He told our Lord Jesus Christ
how He was going to pray when He was on this earth. He told
how that our Lord Jesus Christ are ever saying, He would say
while He's on the cross. He said everything in the Old
Testament that our Lord Jesus Christ would say, the prayers
He would pray, and the people He would be with and around.
Oh my, so He has intimate, intimate knowledge of us. People say,
oh man, I know myself pretty well. Well,
I know enough about myself that I don't trust myself. You know, Proverbs 28, I think
28 says this, only a fool trusts in his own heart. And I tell
you, I don't trust me. You know why I don't trust me?
Because I know me. And you know what I know that's
even better than that? God knows me. Shirley, before
we left tonight, come up here. She says, you know, I'm nothing.
I'm nothing. I'm nothing. I said, you keep
good company. The apostle Paul says, though
I be the chiefest apostle, I'm the chiefest apostle, though
I be nothing. Nothing. Now, how in the world
somebody become nothing? When you're in the presence of
God. He has such an intimate knowledge
of us that He makes us admit that we absolutely are nothing
without Him. Not only are nothing, but can
do nothing. And I tell you what, He knows
us better than we could ever possibly know ourselves and thank
God He knows us Like you don't know us. We all got a pretty
good acquaintance of one another. We've been together for a lot
of, a lot of years. And we got a pretty good acquaintance
and pretty know an awful lot about one another. But compared to what God knows,
we're dumb as a box of rocks is what we know about one another.
What God knows about us. And you know what? That makes
me appreciate you that much more that you'll continue to come
knowing that God knows everything there is to know about you. You
just keep coming and God keeps telling you the same thing over
and over and over again. You just keep coming and it's
the same thing. Oh, listen. Oh, it gives me courage. It gives
me strength. It gives me faith that God knows me. And He numbers
the hairs on my head. And not only is it intimate,
but His knowledge of us is tender. His knowledge of us is so tender
that he numbers the hairs of our head. You know a mama, a
mother will have a baby. When we had ours, you know you'd
take this here baby shampoo and stuff and you'd scratch the little
head and get the stuff off of it, you know. And then you'd
get this soft little brush and you'd comb their hair, you know.
You'd turn it up this way and turn it around that way. Oh my,
I just tried to make that hair just, you know, put little bows
on it. paste them on there and everything. Make them look pretty.
You just, you just want, you just, you love that little baby
and you're so tender with it and loved it so much and you
just pet it's little old hair and comb it's little old hair
and put stuff on it's little old hair. Oh my, you're sympathetic
with your baby. Oh, there's something wrong with
it. You're so, it hurts you and it grieves you and it hurts so
bad. Well, I'll tell you what, God's love's tender toward us.
Oh, how tender. How tender to say, I number the
hairs of your head. Do you know how tender you are
and how much I care about you? I cherish you. And I'm going to enter in, just
as a mother enters into the love of her child and cares for her
child and sympathetic with her child and takes care of her child.
God has entered into our tribes. And we're in a trial. Our Lord
enters into it. He enters into it with us. We
don't go through nothing that Christ hasn't been there and
gone with us. Hasn't been through anything.
I'll give you an example. When our Lord Jesus Christ came
walking on the water to come to the boat, ship, in the middle
of the night. Simon Peter says the Lord looked
out there, seeing him walking on the water and coming toward
him. He said, Lord, if that's you, tell me to come to you.
He said, come on. He stepped off that boat, stepped
down like that, right there and went walking toward the Lord
Jesus Christ. Of course, he went down. But
what I'm telling you is that Christ goes where sometimes He'll
tell us to come and go to Him. And beloved, if we keep our eyes
on Him, we'll never go down. Simon Peter got his eyes off
Christ and got it on the waves, and down he went. But I'll tell
you one thing he did, me and you ain't never done. He did
walk on the water. He did do that. that our Lord
Jesus Christ goes through us through our trials. He goes with
us through all of our years. I started reading the Bible and
having an interest in religion when I was 23 years old. I moved
down here when I was 24. Moved on to place when I was
25. And I read the Bible, read the Bible, read the Bible, read
the Bible. But the Lord has been with us
and been with you and me year after year after year after year
after year. Huh? We've changed. Our hair's changed. Our age has
changed. Our abilities have changed. Our
desires have changed. But God's went through every
single one of them with us. Oh, He goes through the sicknesses
with us. And you know, have any of y'all
ever said this? Don't touch a hair of His head.
Don't you touch a hair of His head. If you touch a hair of
His head, I'm gonna get you. That's the way the Lord is with us.
You touch a hair of His head, you're mine. I'm gonna get you. That's the way our Lord does.
And not only is it intimate and it's tender, But it's constant. It's constant. It never changes. It never stops. If He numbers
the hairs of our head, and we was born, and then we start growing
hair, getting more, and losing some, and go on, you know, and
He numbers them. Year in and year out, day in
and day out. And it's constant. It's constant. Not a hair falls from our head
that God don't know it. showing us how constant His care
for us is. And this is the third thing I
want to say about it. Predestination is for ordination.
The very hairs of your head are numbered. The knowledge that
He has of us, showing us by cause He numbers the hairs of our head.
And then this third thing it tells us is how much God, the
price He puts on us, how He values us, Now he don't value us because
there's something special about us. That's not what I'm saying.
But when he says the very hairs of your head are numbered, what
he's saying is that you, you personally, you are precious
to me. You're valuable to me. I paid
for you. I bought you. I loved you. I've done everything that was
necessary for you to be mine. Oh God, God highly, highly loves
His people. Numbers their hairs and this
tells us everything. If He values the hair on our
head, what must our heads be worth? Oh my! What if our hairs are
numbered and what's our heads worth? What's our bodies worth?
If He values the hairs on our head, what about our heads on
our head and what about our bodies? And then how much must our souls
be worth? If He numbers the hairs on our
head, how much then must our souls be worth? Huh? How valuable, how precious. If
He numbers the hairs of our head and He says those. How valuable then and how precious
did our souls cost? What is our soul worth to the
Lord Jesus Christ? He said what would a man give
in exchange for his soul? I wouldn't give anything in exchange
for my soul. Christ has bought and paid for
it. I can't give it away. I can't do anything with it.
It's His. It belongs to Him! Oh my, the price! Oh, the price
that He paid in numbers! Imagine what He did for our souls! What must they have cost our
Redeemer? They cost Him His blood! They cost Him His life! They cost Him His tears! That cost his heart to just stop
beating one day. And the most precious thing,
two of the most precious things he said on the cross, two things.
I'm going to try to preach on one of them Sunday morning. The
first one was, Father, forgive them. They know not what they
do. Father, forgive them. They're
ignorant of me. They're ignorant of my love for
them. They're ignorant that I number their ages. They're ignorant
of who it was that came into this world to do this for them.
And the last thing He said, the second most precious thing He
said on that cross was this, It is finished. One word. Oh my, Father forgive them. That's
been accomplished. The hairs on the head are numbered.
It's finished. It's finished. It's done. You know, I don't want to, I
hope you all understand me. When Mary got sick, she lost
all of her hair three times. And when she died, you know,
she wore that blonde wig when she died. She didn't have a hair
on her head. Put a wig on her. She said, make
sure it's fixed on there right. But the Lord numbered every one
of them. He meant for her to do that,
go through that. He meant for all of us to go through that.
Ain't that precious? Ain't that a blessing? We may leave this world and all
I have be God. But God will know where every
single one of them is at. And when we come out of the grave,
there ain't going to be no wigs. There's going to be real hair. There's going to be the real
stuff. There's going to be the real stuff. Oh my. And how can
anyone, oh since he numbers the hairs on my head, how can anyone
think that he could ever lose me? and forgive me. If he got
the numbers of the hairs of his head numbered, you think he's
going to forget the rest of you? Oh, if God values us so much,
and if God loves us that much, how much should we value and
love one another for such a value on one another? Here's the last
thing. Not only predestination for a
nation, not only knowledge, And not only the value that God places
upon us, we see our preservation right here. We see that we're
going to be preserved. If the hairs of our head are
numbered, well, if He numbers the hairs of our head, don't
you reckon He's going to preserve the rest of us? Going to keep
the rest of us? Huh? Oh my! And that's what He's
telling us is that nothing can harm you. Nothing can harm you. Nothing. The smallest loss, I
don't care how much we lose, we're secured by this blessed
promise. Look with me in Luke 21. Luke 21, verse 18. This is
what our Master said. Luke 21, 18. Oh, this tells us
that we're going to be preserved. We're preserved. God preserves
us. Look what He says in Luke 21.18. What our Lord Jesus says. Now
He's talking about whatever we go through in this life. Look
what He says. But there shall not in hair of your head perish. There's not a hair on your head
that shall perish. What he's saying is that I'm
going to keep you. I'm going to preserve you. And
no matter what happens in this world, not one hair on your head
will perish. You're mine. You belong to me. We're preserved from persecution.
Our Lord Jesus Christ told us here in Matthew 10, Fear not
them that can kill the body. Oh, we're preserved from persecution.
Don't fear them. Don't worry about it. What else
can they do? We're preserved from anything
that can harm us unless God in His sovereign will means for
us to go through something. I was reading Job yesterday and
he was meeting to worship the Lord. And he got up from doing that
and this man come running to him and told him what happened.
And then while he was yet speaking, somebody else come. While he
was yet speaking, somebody else come. And while he was yet speaking,
and while he was yet speaking, Job's lost everything in a day
just that quick. And beloved, God kept Job and double blessed
Him at the end of that trial. Blessed Him twice. And we're
preserved from any necessity. Whatever we need, whatever necessity
we have, He will see that we have it. Whatever is necessary
for you to have in this life, not that you say what you want,
but whatever is necessary for you to have, He'll see that you've
got that. And most of the time, you won't
even know you need it until he gives it to you. You say, oh
my, well I'm sure glad I got that. I needed that. Oh my. And here's the thing,
he's going to preserve us from death. Preserve us, how can he
preserve you from death? We're all going to die. No, we're
not. We're going to live. You know what Paul said? He said, for me to die is what? Gain. Everybody else thinks death
is a loss. It's so and so, we lost so and
so. But for the believer, death is gain. We just start living. That's
living. And you know when our Lord Jesus
Christ resurrects us, He's going to resurrect the whole man. And
I'll tell you something, beloved, and I'm trying to wind this thing
up. We can count money. Every one of us here can count
what little money we got. We can count our goods. We can go
through our house and count our furniture. We can go through
our house and count our cars. We can go to the bank and count
our money. If we got cattle, we can count our cattle. But
one thing we can't do, we can't count the hairs on our head. But God does. Let's trust him
and don't be afraid and let me close with these verses scriptures
Isaiah 46 look at it with me Isaiah 46. I'm gonna close with
this. I believe this will be a blessing to you Isaiah 46 in
verse 3 Oh, we can count a lot of things
we can count I go in my office in there and count my books I
don't want to, but I could. You can count anything. But boy, we can't number the
hours of our head, but God can and God does. Look what he said
here. Isaiah 46 and verse 3. Hearken
unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house
of Israel, that remnant of election, which are, listen to this, born
by me from the belly, picked up and carried from the belly,
which are carried from the womb. He said, I pick you up and carry
you from the belly, from the womb. And then how long does
he carry us? Even to your old age, I am he,
even to your whore hairs. That word whore means gray. Even to your old age, your gray
hairs will I carry you. I have made and I will bear.
Even I will carry and deliver you." Think that's something? They're all numbered. Put a cap on it, they still number.
Get it all mixed up, they still number. Don't comb it, they still
number. Oh, bless His name. Ain't no
one like Him. Oh, what a wonderful Savior is
Jesus our Lord. Oh, our Father. Oh, blessed Savior. Blessed Father in Heaven. Oh,
how blessed indeed You are. Oh, the care You have for us,
the love You have for us. The way you encourage us and
cheer us up and give us courage. Lord, you bless us so. Lord,
the things, the minutest details, Lord, you take an interest in.
Oh, it just astounds us. We stand in awe. We stand in
wonder. And Lord Jesus, we thank you
that you carry us. You carry us. You carry us. And Lord, You won't set us down
until You set us in glory with You. Oh, bless Your name. God bless these dear saints as
they go to their homes, get up in the morning, go to their jobs.
Pray Your blessings upon them. Pray Your blessings upon those
who are worried and troubled and have some anxiety. Pray for those who are not with
us. Lord, you know we love them. We know that there's times that
people get tired, children get sick. But Lord, we love them
and we miss them and pray that you would bless them. Please
meet our needs and bring glory to Yourself through us for Christ's
sake. Amen. Amen. There is a name I love to hear. I love to sing His Word. It sounds like music in my ear. The sweetest name on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Because He first loved me. Amen. Good night and God bless
you. See you Sunday, Lord willing.