Well, we're going to be going
over the book of Hebrews this evening. The 13th chapter. I
was thinking about these verses this week. I read a sermon by Charles Spurgeon
years ago. Most of the points I have, I
got from him. I'm a thief. I'm sorry. We always told you where we got
our things. There would be a lot of footnotes
down at the bottom of every page. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5 says,
Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content
with such things as you have. For he hath said, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee. Now we're told in that verse, that we should so live that we
are not accused of covetousness. This is something you read also
in Ephesians. Let me read this verse for you.
I'll just read it. Ephesians 5 verse 3 says, But
fornication and uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once
named among you as become of saints. It's something that should
never be named among the saints of God. foolish relationships with unmarried
people or uncleanness or covetousness. These strong desires, these unquenchable
appetites for things of the world, the gain of this world. These are things that should
never be named among the saints of God. And we're told here also
to be content now with such things as we have. That's a tough one. I'll just
be honest now. That's the word that's used,
that should be the word that's used to describe the life of
a child of God, a life of contentment, a life of contentment. You know,
a life of dissatisfaction or of murmuring and complaining
outwardly, which we all do, and all the more so inwardly complaining. Towards God and towards His good
providence in our lives is something that shouldn't happen. It shouldn't happen. Look at Philippians 4. Look what
Paul said. I like the way he puts this in
Philippians 4, verse 6. He says, be careful for nothing. Don't be full of care for anything. Don't be anxious. But in everything
by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known unto God." And then down further in that chapter,
look at verse 11, "'Not that I speak in respect of want, for
I have learned whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.'"
I love the way he puts that. I have learned that. That's just
not natural for a human being. That's something that's got to
be learned. Verse 12 says, "'I know how to be abased, I know
how to abound.' Everywhere and in all things I am instructed
both to be full and hungry, both to abound and succor need. So
I know that a life of hoarding up things for this world that
might be useful to others is just a life of foolishness. You
know, the Jews out in the wilderness were told that they could pick
up manna every morning, as much as they could eat, but if they
hoarded it up, do you remember what happened? It bred worms
and stank. And that's my friend, you know,
you spend your life hoarding up things in this world, and
sooner or later, it's all going to stink. That's exactly right. You can pull up everything around
you in life, and when you grow old, you can sit there in your
little dunghill, smelling the stuff you pulled up around you. It bred worms. So contentment,
first off, shows it in itself. our thankfulness unto God for
every mercy and every state in life in which we find ourselves.
We're to give thanks in all things. This is the will of God, the
will of Christ in Christ Jesus, the will of God in Christ Jesus
concerning you. That's God's will, to give thanks
in all things. I'm preaching at me. I am. I'm
preaching. Contentment is also an indication
to God and all men of a sense of our own worthiness. You know,
if you ever really think you deserve something, then you become discontent. When
you realize that before God, you don't deserve anything, humanly
speaking, then contentment should be much more natural for you.
You know, Jacob said in Genesis 32, 10, I love his statement,
he says, I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies thou
hast shown unto thy servant. Now you think about all the mercies
you receive in life. All the mercies. You know, you
can't, when you talk about the least of your mercies, you're
not going to think, well, it's my wife, that's the least of
my, it's not my husband, it's not my children or my grandchildren.
It isn't my job. It's not my home. Years ago, I had an old 73 Vega. It was an old clunker. Now, that
might be the least of his mistakes. I was not worthy of that. That's how Jacob said it. So, if your view is right, you
can say with Jacob, I'm not worthy of these things. Discontent in
the life of any man stems from a wrong view of his worth. And
if we have a true view of ourselves, whatever the Lord is pleased
to give us, in His infinite wisdom, in His amazing love and grace,
whatever it is, we should be thankful. We should be contented. We should. But the text goes
further than that. Back here in the text, look at
that in Hebrews 13. It just doesn't tell us to be
content, but it tells us the essence of our consolation. It's
summarized here by quoting a promise of God. You see that? For He
has said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Now that
should always be the basis of our attitudes in life. What He
said. Whatever my attitude. The basis
of my attitude in this life should be what he said. I love it. This is no new promise
here. It's just an old one that's spoken
again here. He says, I will never leave thee,
nor forsake thee. Now, there's nothing better in
the world than a word spoken by God Himself, even if He spoke
it thousands of years ago. So Paul here is being used to
quote an ancient promise that is still in effect today. He has said, I will never leave
thee nor forsake thee. And it's not literal here. If
you go through it, you're not going to find anywhere in the
scripture where it's actually quoted this exact way. But in
this text right here, there are five negatives. I will not No,
no, no, never leave thee, nor forsake thee. After you've heard
that song, I will not, I will not, that man, that song we sing,
that song was taken from this verse, if you take it literally.
It's repeated five times. I will not, not, not, no, never
leave thee, nor forsake thee. That is a great promise. And
I want to show you the first time you find that promise in
Scripture. We read it in Genesis 28. Look
at Genesis 28 for a second here. Genesis 28, 15. The Lord said to Jacob, Behold,
I am with thee, I will keep thee in all places whither thou goest,
and shall bring thee again into this land, for I will not leave
thee until I have done that which I have spoken unto thee of. That's
the first time in Scripture that that promise. Now you think about
it. It's a promise to a young man,
troubled young man. This young man had just stole
his brother's birthright. His brother wanted to kill him.
His brother was so mad that when he found out that he didn't want
any females in his family from Ishmael's family, he went and
married one of them. You remember? That man was mad. He was out
to kill Jacob, and he sent him off to Paddanaran. That's 480
miles away. Now that was a long journey,
my friends, back in those days. That's a long journey today.
That boy was on foot. He got about 48 miles that day. Forty-eight miles before he laid
down, he lighted on that place. And it wasn't his design to lay
down there that night. It was just a casual decision
as far as he was concerned. But I'm telling you, he was exactly
where God wanted him at the right time and the right place. And
he gathered some stones up and he laid them all down there and
he put his head on top of them. And he had no bed. He had no
tent. He just had that wide open sky over his head. This was a
mama's boy. He wasn't used to that. His brother
might have been used to sleeping out and camping out, but Jacob
was not. He wasn't a guy of the field.
This was new territory for him, and the providence of God had
given him a new place. And while he was laying there,
a ladder came down from heaven in a dream. A ladder came down
into the heaven, from on the earth, reaching from the heavens
to the earth. There was a connection between
the heaven and earth, and the angels of God ascended and descended
on that ladder, and God stood at the top. That's a picture of how heaven
communicates with this earth. There's only one ladder between
heaven and earth. There's only one ladder. The
angels come down that ladder to minister, to bring whatever
heaven's got for us, it comes down that ladder. And whatever's
needed from the earth, any request that goes to heaven goes back
up that ladder. Look at a verse in John 1, 51. I know you folks have seen this
before. The first time I read this, I
thought, what is he talking about? John 1, verse 51. Nathanael said
in verse 49, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the
King of Israel. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree,
believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things
than these. He had told this man something about him, and
it just surprised the crowd. And look at the next verse. The
Lord said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Hereafter ye shall
see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending
upon the Son of Man. What's that? I'm Jacob's ladder.
I'm Jacob's ladder. That's exactly what that is.
I am Jacob's ladder. I am the connection between heaven
and earth. Anything that comes down from
heaven to this earth, it comes through Christ. Anything that
goes from this earth to heaven goes through that mediator. There's
one mediator between God and man. That's Christ Jesus, the
man Christ Jesus. He's Jacob's ladder. And that's
a perfect fitting picture. Here's a young man, a troubled
man. He's got a heart load of trouble, leaving everything he's
ever known, and he sees Christ. He gets a glimpse of the Son
of God, and God Almighty says, I'm going to be with you wherever
you go. I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. And I'm
telling you, that's a great picture for young people. We pray about our children, and
you've got a young group here. They say you're as old as you
feel. Well, I'm old. I tell you right
now, I'm old. But there are some young people
here. And you start out in life and you're going into fearful
territory. You don't know what lies ahead. You wonder if you'll
ever succeed in anything. I'm just here to tell you that
if you have got a glimpse of the Son of God and you've seen
Christ, if God Almighty has shown you Jacob's letter, you have
this promise. I will not, not, not, no, never
will forsake you. Nine, I'll keep you in all places whither
thou goest, and bring you again into this land. You know, if
he is going through that place, That was His land. He owned it
all. And you know, you're going through
this life, and I want you to know, if you're a child of God,
you're an heir of it all. This whole world, everything
in this world, belongs to a child of God. We have infinite resources
through this One who saved us. He'll never leave us or forsake
us. And you know, I was talking about
being a fugitive and not knowing which way to go. But even when
your life's up in the air, and I'm sure that's exactly how Jacob
felt. His life was up in the air. The
Lord God Almighty had made an oath to him, entered into a covenant
with him. I'm never going to leave. Never
going to leave. He blessed that boy when he was
young. And you can read the rest of
the book of Genesis. He blessed him to the day He was laying
his hands on his sons and blessing them, leaning on his staff. Bless him all his life. All his life. If God be for us,
who can be against us? And the second time you read
this promise, look over here at Deuteronomy 31. Moses went and spake these words
unto all Israel. He said unto them, I am a hundred
and twenty years old this day. I can no more go out and come
in. Also the Lord hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this
Jordan. The Lord thy God, he will go
over before thee, and he will destroy these nations from before
thee, and thou shalt possess them. And Joshua, he shall go
over before thee, as the Lord hath said. And the Lord shall
do unto them as he did to Sion and to Og the king of the Amorites.
and unto the land of them whom he destroyed. And the Lord shall
give them up before your face, that ye may do unto them according
to all the commandments which I have commanded you. So be strong
and of good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them. For the
Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee, he will not fail
thee, nor forsake thee." And Moses then called unto Joshua
and said unto him, in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and
of good courage, For thou must go with this people into the
land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them,
and thou shalt cause them to inherit it. And the Lord, he
it is that doth go before thee, and he will be with thee. He
will not fail thee, neither forsake thee. Fear not, neither be dismayed." So the second time the promise
is given, it's given to a group of troubled people. Now you know Moses, the Bible
says, when he died, his eyes had not dimmed and his strength
had not abated. And he's a good picture of the
law, because when the law was taken out of the way, the strength
of the law had not abated. The law still could see you just
like it always could see you. It saw you as a sinner. It saw
me as a sinner. The strength of the law He never
lost his strength, just like Moses. And it was proper that
he would have his eyesight and his strength when he was taken.
But that isn't the main thing I want you to see. He was taken
unexpectedly from these people, and that's the point. The point
is that as you go through life, and as you and I go through life,
often times as a group, we're troubled because people are unexpectedly
taken among our midst. You've seen it over the years.
how many good friends I've had that the Lord's called home. People who were pillars. I think
of Cecil Roach. He was a pillar. Charlie Payne. Pillars. We could go on naming them. So to speak, fathers of the nations. Whenever the people of Israel
needed food or water, they went to Moses. When his hands were
up in the air, they were winning the victory. When his hands were
hanging down, they were losing. He was a very important man. And these folks were trembling
at the thought of losing him. And he told them, the Lord has
promised, he will never leave. By the way, Joshua over here
is going to lead you in. I just want to repeat this to
you. Don't you forget, the Lord will not forsake you. He'll not
forsake you. You know, life's just full of
changes, and the troubles of youth and the troubles of age
are all just troubles. And we watch people we love and
trust go on, move. Folks, if we counted so high,
I've got to tell you, I came here a couple weeks ago because
I didn't know if I'd hear Henry again for a while. But I want you to know, I will
not, not, not, no, never leave. Never will he leave his people. They're always going to have
a Joshua. The Lord's always going to provide
someone to step up They may have a different ministry, they may
do things differently, but they're going to be God-ordained people
here with the same authority as the people who went before.
John, you know, pastor of the church, he's not an apostle,
but he's here with the same authority as the apostles. You know that?
Preaches the same gospel as the apostles. That's it. I'll never leave my
people. And look at the third time this
is used in 2 Chronicles 28. I'm using all these. I have an
advantage tonight. I grabbed a few of these so I can mark
my place. 1 Chronicles 28. Yeah. Verse 20, David said to Solomon
his son, Good courage, and do it, fear
not, nor be dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God, will be
with thee. He will not fail thee, nor forsake
thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service
of the house of the Lord." You can look back there in verse
10 in the same chapter. He says, take heed now, for the
Lord hath chosen thee to build a house for a sanctuary. Be strong
and do it. This is a promise. You had a
promise to a young man. You had a promise to a troubled
group. You have a promise to those who have a work to do for
God Almighty. A work to do for the Lord. And
that's not just the pastors, preachers and teachers. You know,
everybody in the church has a function. I mean, really, you think, how
many people are sitting in a congregation that are there as a result of
the testimony, the witness or the influence and the friendship
of somebody else sitting in that church? That's how people come in and
they hear the gospel. Everybody has a ministry, a work
to do. And I'm telling you, he's saying
here, you take heed now. The Lord hath chosen me to build
a house for a sanctuary. Be strong and do it. Be resolved
and vigorous to get it done. Don't let anything stand in the
way. That's given to a people with a work, no matter how great
or how small that enterprise might be. Be of good courage,
he said, do it. You might feel afraid, you might
be discouraged, but if God's called you to a work, do it. You feel unequal to the task,
well, duh. John said that earlier. Who's
able? Who's sufficient for these things?
There's no man that can stand in a pulpit and preach life into
a dead sinner. You can talk to his head, you
can talk to his... look him straight in the eyes,
but if God Almighty's got to do something for him, and he
has to bless a work and bless a people. It just has to be done
that way. God calls people, calls people
to a work, and he's promised he'll never leave nor forsake
them. Now the fourth time this promise is used, Look over at
1 Kings 8. You see what I'm saying? In all of these
verses, you won't find it exactly the way it's quoted by Paul in
Hebrews. And I do believe Hebrews is written
by Paul. I know there's a lot of controversy
on that. This is after Solomon finished
building the temple. In verse 55, he stood and blessed
all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying, Blessed
be the Lord that hath given rest unto his people Israel. According
to all that he promised, there hath not failed one word of all
his promise." Good promise. I love that. Not a word. Not
a word. There hath not failed one word
of all his promise. which he promised. I love the
way that's just repeated. You see how many times the word
promise is used in that verse? According to all he promised,
there hath not failed one word of all the good promise that
he promised by the hand of Moses his servant. The Lord our God
be with you, or be with us, as he was with our fathers. Let
him not leave us, nor forsake us. There it is again. And I
want you to see this. Look at the next verse. that
He may incline our hearts unto Him to walk in all His ways and
to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments
which He hath commanded of our fathers." It's wonderful that
He's with us when we're young, when we've first seen the Lord.
Young men, young people. It's wonderful as you're starting
life that He's with us. And it's wonderful that when
you go through troubles and unexpected things occur, people are taken
out from among you, He's still with you. And it's wonderful
that when there's a work going on, that He's with you. But this
is probably the greatest sense of this promise here. And I want
you to see that again. He will not leave us nor forsake
us that He may incline our hearts unto Him. You see, the promise
of our Lord's presence is not only to be a helper in everyday
affairs, such as feeding us and clothing us and giving us our
homes and our employment, but the promise here is stated to
chase away all the fears you and I might have of the worst
possible thing that could ever happen to any of us, and that
is that we would be left to ourselves. You see it? God, to leave us alone to our
own hearts He will not forleave us or forsake you that he may
incline your hearts unto him." Now I'm just telling you, that
is a wonderful promise. Because if he were to take that
promise from us, we'd be gone. I'll never leave you to yourselves. That's exactly what's being said. I am the Lord God, I change not.
Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed." It's his immutability,
his unchanging character, his unchanging love that keeps him
from forsaking us. Because I'm going to tell you, I'd fall a thousand times a day.
I told this brother as I was walking in, he said, just come
from work. I said, yeah, I feel like I've
got the dust of Babylon on my feet. All day long, a constant attack.
I'll not leave you to yourself. It's the immutable character
of God. It's the only hope we have because
you and I change daily. You know that? We change daily. If He could turn from His eternal
purpose, if His love could change, He would have forsaken me a long,
long time ago. within seconds of my conversion,
because I'm sure I blew it shortly thereafter. He deals with us in a way of
grace, not in a way of justice. Now, I will say that it's because
of his justice and dealing in justice with the Lord Jesus Christ
that he can deal with us in a way of grace. But I'm thankful it's
grace, it's mercy. I don't ever want what I've got
coming to me. I don't. I hear people say, I
just want what I've got coming to me. Oh no, you don't. No,
you don't. Trust me. He'll never leave us
or forsake us to our own hearts, which by nature are so wicked
that the Scripture says who can know it? Who can know it? You
can't know it. He will never leave us or forsake
us to our own corruption. You know, the old man that we
lived with, you know, I was reading an article this week about how
the Canaanites didn't get chased out of Canaan. They were put
into tribute. They had to serve the Israelites. And as long as you're in this
flesh, you've got Canaanites roaming the land now. It's just
going to be that way. Just got to get used to it. It
should trouble us. But they do serve a purpose,
you know. They paid a tribute. What kind
of tribute? How do my troubles and my old
man actually serve a purpose? They remind me how depraved I
am by nature and how much I need the grace of God. That's right. That's exactly right. If my old
man makes me get out and seek God's face, it's doing a good
job. You know, Esau served Jacob. He said he'd be a servant. And
he did. He served. He put that boy on
the road. It was because of Esau that Jacob
saw that ladder. That's a fact. He went on up
there and got him a wife and came back. Esau served a purpose. When it was all over, Esau hugged
his neck and they went on their way. I'm telling you, the Esau's
of this world and the Troubles and the Canaanites that roam
in our flesh are all working together for the good of them
that love God. We will never be left to our own corruptions
because sin shall no longer have dominion over you. That's a promise.
We have victory. I love that word, victory. We
have victory through Christ Jesus our Lord. You know, we're more
than conquerors. Did you know that? We're not
just getting by. We are more than conquerors through
Jesus Christ our Lord. More than conquerors. He'll never
leave us or forsake us to our strengths. You know, we're always
talking about our weaknesses. Let me tell you something. Your
strengths will get you. That's right. Your strengths
will get you. He's not going to leave us to our strengths.
He's never going to leave us or forsake us to our own wisdom.
There are a lot of folks that are wise people. A lot of wise
people in this world. But I'm going to tell you, our
ways are not His ways. Our thoughts are not His thoughts.
And He's not going to leave us or forsake us. He'll turn our
hearts towards Him. He's not going to leave us or
forsake us to Satan. I'm not afraid of Satan. He's
conquered. He's not going to leave us or
forsake us to this world. You know that? He's never going
to let a child of God live through this world to live to gain the
approval of this world, or to sit around worrying about the
frown of this world. You know, I want to turn your
hearts. That's exactly what he's saying. Thank God, and this very thing
I'm confident, this very thing, that he that hath begun a good
work in you will perform it until the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I said all that. So that
I could read the next verse. So that we may boldly say. I
love that. He hath said so that we may boldly
say. Now here's something you can
boldly say. The Lord is my helper. The Lord
is my helper. I will not fear. what man shall
do unto me." Because of what he said, I've
got a reason for contentment. Because of what he said, I've
got a reason for courage. I have a reason to be content
with this life. And frankly, I have every reason as a young
man or as an old man or as a middle-aged man to live a fearless existence
because the Lord has been pleased to show Himself to me. Teach
me His gospel. Call me His own. I'm telling
you now, I know in this world people marry and get divorced. That kind of thing happens. But
the Lord, He's very serious about His bride. He's very serious. He loved her,
gave Himself for her. He's washing her with His Word.
And you know, He's such a great bridegroom, He's going to present
her unto Himself. You know, most of the time, the
daddy comes down and says, who gives this woman? And the father
speaks, oh no, the Lord is going to present her unto Himself.
Why? Because it's all His doing. First to last. His care of us. It's all His doing. What a wonderful,
mighty Savior we have. I'll stop there.