Well, my text this morning is
Proverbs, the book of Proverbs, chapter 27 and verse one. Proverbs 27, verse one. Boast
not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may
bring forth. Proverbs 27, verse one. I've
called it biblical wisdom for a new year. The purpose of scripture,
as I've told you many times before, but it's worth repeating, the
purpose of scripture is to reveal the truth of salvation to the
elect of God. That's it. You say, oh, you've
been a bit narrow. No, you read his word. That's
what it says. Who does he reveal the mystery
of salvation to? It tells us. In Colossians, is
it? The mystery's revealed to his
saints. That's where he reveals the mystery
of salvation, to his people, to the elect of God. And he does
it in his word. And the word of God does it by
history books there are history books that throughout the history
which is true history and some of it very hard history you read
the book of judges we've been reading bits of the book of judges
recently wow it's hard work it really is but through that history
lying in there somewhere is the truth of God concerning salvation
he does it through history he does it through prophecy prophecy
all the books after, you know, from Isaiah onwards to the end
of the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation. He does it
through letters, letters, the New Testament letters. Oh, and
of course, history is the Gospels and the Acts, because they're
a historical account of what happened. He does it through
devotional poetry, the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon.
Sorry, not Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon. He does it through
the wisdom books and the proverbs Again, Ecclesiastes and Proverbs
itself. And that's what I want to look
at this morning. One of these Proverbs. And what is a proverb?
It's a short sentence of a moral saying. but it contains the deepest
spiritual wisdom. You know, like a nut, and I know
at least one of you is allergic to nuts, so be careful with this,
but a nut has got a hard shell, usually, on the outside of it.
There's the hard shell, but the bit you really want to get to
is the soft, fleshy bit in the middle, which is the nut itself,
the nut itself, the kernel, as it's called. That's what it's
like with these. They're a bit like nuts. There's
a hard shell which is useful in terms of practical everyday
teaching for this life, because this book does give practical
everyday teaching for this life. But if you stop there, you don't
get to the real core of it. There's a spiritual core to it.
I'll give you an example. Proverbs chapter three. Proverbs
chapter three in verse 13. Proverbs 3.13, it tells us, happy
is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.
And you say, well, that's evidently patently true in this world,
that as we go through this world in the flesh, it's better to
have a bit of wisdom and not be stupid. It's better to have
a bit of understanding and not be ignorant, isn't it? That's
very true, that's the shell on the outside. Look, the merchandise
of it is better than the merchandise of silver. You'll find, ultimately,
that wisdom is more valuable to you, understanding is more
valuable to you, than silver and gold. The gain thereof, more
than fine gold, is more precious than rubies, and all things that
thou canst desire are not to be compared to her. Wisdom. Happy is the man that finds wisdom.
So that's the shell on the outside. For sure, you could tell a classroom
of teenagers in secondary school that that's a wise thing to do
is to get wisdom and understanding while you can. But you know,
There's a key in there, there's a trigger in there. Rubies, rubies,
what did that make me think of? Now, others might think of other
things, but this is just an example. Rubies, Proverbs 31, verse 10. A virtuous woman, a good wife.
Who can find a good wife, a virtuous woman? She is more precious than
rubies. She's more, is it just talking
about the wisdom of having a good wife, who's a virtuous woman,
who's enterprising in business and looking after her family
is that what it's because lots of people think proverbs 31 is
just about what it is how good a thing it is to have a good
wife who is a virtuous woman no you have to dig a little bit
deeper yes of course it's saying that but that's just the practical
everyday shell of it the truth of it what's the woman in scripture
the church the church is the woman the church i don't know
if any of you get it but clay curtis sends out his sermon notes
they're excellent and one he just sent out the other day really
struck me powerfully the law of parents you know honor your
father and mother that your days may be long in all the earth
but he applied it beyond just the right thing to do to honor
your parents it's right you boys it's right that you honor your
parents you do what mum and dad tell you to do it's right that
you honor them but you know what it's really talking about just
like marriage in Ephesians 5 I speak of Christ and the Church. He's
talking about God the Father. Your parents? God the Father.
The Mother Church. Not the Catholic Church, don't
swallow that nonsense. The true Church of God. The shell
of the practical everyday living, the law of parents, obey your
parents, contains the kernel, the real nut in the middle, of
deep spiritual truth. concerning Christ and his Church,
and obey the teaching that you get from the Scripture of the
people of God. And are we right to do this,
or are we wrong to do it? You see, there are those who
think they're highly knowledgeable in the Scriptures, and they say,
oh, this is over-spiritualizing the Scriptures. No, it's not.
Do you know why it's not? Because Christ told us. These
scriptures, all of them, these are they, he said. What do they
speak of? Him. So we must look for Christ in
all of the scriptures. Just as in every village in England
is a signpost pointing to London, every verse of scripture, if
you look for it hard enough, you will find a signpost that
gets you on the road to find Christ. they speak of Christ.
Proverbs 8 and verse 22, that chapter 8 of Proverbs is all
about wisdom. But what's it really about? Is
it about being worldly wise? No, it's about the wisdom which
is from God. The Lord possessed me in the
beginning of his way. Who? Wisdom is speaking. The
Lord possessed me, wisdom, in the beginning. Who's speaking?
It's Christ that's speaking. Christ is wisdom, because we
read in 1 Corinthians 1.30 that Christ is made unto us wisdom
from God. We read in Colossians that in
him, in Christ, dwell all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. If you're going to get wisdom,
it's not worldly wisdom, although that's valuable. The wisdom of,
you know, Don't put your hand into an adder's nest, you might
get bitten. That's good advice, don't do it, right? But wisdom
from God is what we really want. Wisdom from God. Christ is made
unto us wisdom from God. He is the one in whom dwell all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. When it says get wisdom, get
him, get him above all. That's the kernel of the nut.
So as we come to the end of one year and we mark the turning
of the new year in a day or two, I want to consider some biblical
wisdom from Proverbs 27 verse 1 with you. Boast not thyself
of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
The world says, the world all around us, you'll see it all
around you. I mean, it's almost like you've
just got to do it. If you're at work and you're
sending emails to colleagues, then for probably the first two
or three weeks of January, you will have, in capital letters,
H-N-Y in your email. Happy New Year. Because everybody
else does it, and there's something wrong with you if you don't do
it. At least that's how it used to be when I was working. The world
says, Happy New Year. It's nice to be friendly to one
another, isn't it? Merry Christmas, season's great. Happy New Year.
And then they say, ah, let's make it a good one. Let's make
it better. Last year was a bit, as the queen once said of one
of her years, it's a bit of an annus horribilis, a horrible
year. Let's hope it's better than last
year. Let's make it a good one in all that we do. Let's make
it a good new year. And I immediately think of what
Jesus said in his sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6, 27, which of
you, by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature. Let's make next year a good New
Year. How are you going to do that then? Proud, fallen, hopeless
man, how are you going to make it a good one? Look at all the
politicians, look at the world's politicians, look at the United
Nations, look at all of the things that are happening up at the
level of statesmen, and look what a complete shambles it is.
Make the next year a good one. What does scripture say about
it? Scripture says this, boast not thyself of tomorrow. Don't
brag and boast about what you're going to do in this next year.
You don't know what a day may bring forth. You don't know what
a year may bring forth. You don't know what's going to
happen other than what God has said will definitely happen in
his word. Boast not thyself of tomorrow. So I've got three points. Some
practical wisdom for the new year. This is at the shell level. This is the everyday living,
physical living in the flesh. It teaches us some wisdom, practical
wisdom for the new year. but it contains spiritual wisdom
for the new year, and it also contains spiritual positivity
for the future. So first of all, practical wisdom
for the new year. Practical wisdom for the new
year. Fleshly boasting is always foolish, isn't it? What does
it say? Pride comes before the fall.
Fleshly boasting always is foolish. It doesn't make you any better
and people nearly always think the worst of you. If they hear
you bragging about who you are and what you've done and what
you're going to be, people will nearly always think worse of
you as a result of it, because pride comes before the fall.
Don't you think it's foolish, as it says in that old proverb?
If you're a chicken farmer, and you're planning on making lots
of money by all of your eggs hatching out, or your chickens'
eggs, to make more chickens, and you've got a hundred eggs
in the incubator, and you go, right, that's a hundred chickens,
definitely, what are you doing? You're counting your chickens
before they're hatched. Because if you ask you boys,
if you ask your grandma who had experience many years ago working
on a chicken farm, a hundred out of a hundred never ever hatch.
There's always ones with deformities and things wrong with them. It's
foolish to count your chickens before they hatch. Don't boast
yourself of how many chickens you'll have tomorrow. You don't
know what tomorrow will bring. Is that saying that we shouldn't
make any plans? Is that saying that we shouldn't
make any provision? Of course not. If you're in a
business like a chicken farm, you have to estimate what you
might get. You have to estimate so that you know what price you've
got to sell them at. You have to use reasonable expectation. You have to say, well, what's
happened in the past? Well, can I reasonably expect that in the
future? But you've always got to allow for the possibility
of complete catastrophe. You've always got to allow for
the fact that your hen house might burn down and kill all
your chickens, and you won't be able to do anything about
it. You've always got to allow for the fact that you don't 100%
know what's going to happen. You always have to remember.
You know, have you thought, you boys, think about this. This
may sound ever so trivial, but actually it's very profound.
Think about tomorrow. What day is it tomorrow, Timmy?
Monday, right, right. We don't know what's going to
happen tomorrow, do we? We can make plans. We hope we can make
plans. But we only actually know about
Monday when Monday is not tomorrow, but when Monday is today. Yesterday, today was tomorrow. But we don't know anything about
tomorrow. We don't know anything about
this day until it's today, do we? We don't know about tomorrow,
you see? We don't know about that. There's
no guarantees about tomorrow. Jesus said again in the Sermon
on the Mount at the end of chapter six, he said, sufficient unto
the day. He said, take no anxious thought
about tomorrow. You don't know what's gonna happen.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Let it come along
as it will. Just turn with me to James chapter
four, the epistle to James, of James chapter four and verse
13. James chapter 4 and verse 13. And there James says this, and
this is good advice. This is at a very practical,
fleshly level. Living in this world, he says,
go to now ye that say, today or tomorrow we will go unto such
and such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell
and get gain, whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.
For what is your life? It is even a vapor. that it appeareth
for a little time, you know like the steam comes off the saucepan
and where is it gone? A few seconds later, it's disappeared,
and then it vanishes away. For that ye ought to say, if
the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. But now
you rejoice in your boastings. All such rejoicing is evil. Therefore,
to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is
sin. So he's saying you don't know
what tomorrow is. When you make plans, know this,
that everything is in the hands of God. Everything is. Turn back
to Luke. the Gospel according to Luke,
and chapter 12. Luke chapter 12. In Luke chapter 12 and verse
16, just think on this. This is profound, is this. So many people in our society,
in our day, think that the key to happiness is accumulating
vast wealth. They think that the key to happiness
is having a great big win on the lottery. They pursue their
efforts and their dreams are all focused on that fleeting
idea. But look what this parable says.
Jesus, verse 16, Jesus spake a parable unto them. He spake
a parable unto them saying, The ground of a certain rich man
brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself,
saying, what shall I do? I've got such a big harvest.
What shall I do? I've no room where to bestow
my fruits. I haven't got barns that are
big enough to restore all this grain. And he said, I know what
I'll do. I will pull down my barns, these
little old barns, and I'll build great big ones. And there will
I put all of my fruits and my goods. Oh, I'm going to have
so much. And I will say to my soul, soul, Thou hast much goods
laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink,
and be merry." Well, you see, isn't that what our society does
all around us? We've got loads of money, loads
of money. We've got loads of stuff invested.
Oh, we're completely, we've got financial security for the rest
of our lives. But God said unto him, you think
of the rich and famous. What do we hear every day of
the rich and famous? Same thing we read about the
patriarchs in Genesis, and he died, and he died, and he died. God said unto him, thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall
those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth
up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. Do you see,
we don't know We don't know what's coming. And we don't, we have
no ability to add one cubit to our stature. Apply that to your
education, let's say. Yes, get the best education you
can. Work hard to pass your exams
with the best grades you can. But always think like this. What
tomorrow brings is in the hands of God. All I can do is make
reasonable provision. All I can do is not be irresponsible. All I can do is that. The future
is in the hands of God. Apply it to your education. Apply
it to your career. Apply it to your business. Oh,
I'm going to do this. Oh, now don't get me wrong. You
must have plans. If you don't have plans, you
don't do anything. You never achieve anything if
you don't have plans. If you ever watch those grand
designs programs on building houses, I remember one episode
of that that was the most graphic. It was this guy that set out
to build this very, very big project, and he had no plans
at all. He said, I'll just make it up
as I go along. And the conclusion of the program was it was an
utter and complete disaster. You must have plans, but don't
think that you can determine the future. Be responsible. Have
plans. But in your business, know this.
You can only do that which is right. What must you do? Work hard. Work honestly. Never
seek to defraud. Always be honest in your dealings.
Do that which is right. Don't be lazy. But don't think
you can do anything other than that to guarantee your future. Same applies to your family.
Strive to do that which is right. That's the teaching of Scripture.
but don't be anxiously concerned about tomorrow. You'll hear those
who say, oh, save yourself for tomorrow. You don't want to tire
yourself out today. Save yourself for tomorrow. What
does scripture say? What does the word of God say?
Ecclesiastes 9 verse 10. Whatsoever your hand finds to
do, do it with your might, for there is no work, no device,
nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave. And that's where you're
going. we're all heading to the grave. Don't save it up for then
you might be dead. If it's there to be done, do
it now. If it's there to be done, do it while you can. This is
the teaching of scripture. But always know that, always
know this, my days, just like the heart of the king is in the
hands of God, if the heart of the king is in the hands of God,
surely my days are in the hands of God. He orders my affairs. Expect nothing more or less than
that which God ordains as right for your tomorrow. That's why
I commend to you that article by Todd Nybert in the Bulletin. It's about a woman at church
talking to her pastor and her daughter. I might get the details
wrong, but you can read it in two or three minutes. And the
daughter had been saved from some terrible life-threatening
illness. And the woman said to the pastor,
Wasn't our God good to us in making my daughter better? And
the pastor was just about to say yes, of course he was, when
he said, well, yes, but if your daughter hadn't survived, God
still would have been good to us. It still would have been
good if God hadn't. caused your daughter to get better.
All things work together for good to those that love God,
who are called according to his purpose. Here's a beatitude. Blessed is the man that expects
nothing. Yeah? Blessed is the man that
expects nothing. Why? Because he'll never be disappointed. Isn't that true? Blessed is...
I always used to say to be a good project manager, you have to
be an optimistic pessimist. You have to be a pessimist in
that you're never disappointed. If you say, oh, this terrible
thing could happen, then you're not going to be disappointed.
It's not going to come as a surprise to you. and then you're optimistic
that you might be able to do something about it if it does
happen. So it's wrong to be careless with the affairs of this life
and to make no provision for the future. Don't use this verse as an excuse
for not making provision for the future. I mean, think of
your family, think of those who are dependent on you, and think
about not making provision with life insurance. or through your
pension or whatever else it is that you might do, because who
knows? Tomorrow might be your last day.
And how will it be for those that depend on you in that day?
No, make reasonable provision, but boast not thyself of tomorrow. Don't boast about what you're
going to achieve and the success you're going to have tomorrow.
Be like Nehemiah. I love this verse in Nehemiah,
Nehemiah chapter 4. Nehemiah was the rebuilding of
the temple in about 450, 500, 600, somewhere around there,
600 BC or thereabouts. And it was in the face of extreme
opposition from the world round about. And as fast as they were
trying to rebuild the walls and put the gates on, the enemies
were coming and disrupting them, and making life difficult for
them, and interrupting their supplies, and all that sort of
thing. And Nehemiah, chapter 4, verse 9, Nehemiah says this,
we made our prayer unto our God, and then you might think, and
just left it there. No, and we set a watch against them, day
and night. We made our prayer to our God.
We know that the future is in the hands of God. God, order
things according to the counsel of your own will. Did we just
sit and do nothing? No. We made reasonable provision. We set a watch against them day
and night. We put a guard on the walls. We didn't just leave
it open. You know, it's having this responsible
attitude to the future is what the scripture teaches us. So
that's, as it were, the practical wisdom for the new year. What's
it going to be this coming year? what our God ordains for us is
what it's going to be, and that will be good. If you're one of
his people, what God ordains for this coming year is bound
to be good for you. It cannot be other than good
for you, for he causes all things to work together for your eternal
good to those who are called according to his eternal purpose. Nothing can frustrate that. But
here is some spiritual wisdom contained in this verse. Boast
not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what the day
will bring. Some of you listening to this, you're not wholly committed
to God. You're not wholly committed to
his service. You know God is true. You've heard it often enough.
You cannot deny it. You're aware of the lie of Satan
that society all around us has swallowed. You know that the
great gurus of evolutionary materialistic explanations of everything, you
know that they're telling lies, you know that they can't even
truly believe it themselves, because they know how utterly
impossible what they say is. It's just that they've formed
a great big club together under the influence of Satan's false
prophet and the beast, to try and convince everybody else that
there is no truth in it. And you get the most gracious
sounding of people, like Sir David Attenborough, who've swallowed
it as well, and everybody bows down at the feet of David Attenborough.
Oh, if David Attenborough says it, then it must be so. No, you've...
rumbled that, you've sussed that out, you know that that isn't
true, you're alert to Satan's lie, you're alert to the reality
of sin and of the certainty of judgment to come, for you know
it's appointed to man to die once and then comes the judgment.
But you know, circumstances just now, well it's a bit difficult
in my life, you know, you don't understand how society's changed
and for me and my generation things are different than they
were for your generation. It's so difficult to commit to
God's service now. I just can't do it. I mean, this
repentance and faith thing. I know God's true, I believe
it all, but not just now, not just now. I can't do it just
now. So you boast about tomorrow. And you say, I can't do it now,
but at some future time, before I get sick, or old, before I
die, I'll make my peace with God then. Because I know God's
true, but just now I can't do it, I can't do it. What makes
you think? What makes you boast? that tomorrow
will be easier than today. What makes you boast that tomorrow
will be easier than today? In Acts 24 that we read earlier,
we read about Felix who said, when I have a more convenient
time, I will hear you again about this gospel. The gospel that
Paul preached made him tremble. He knew the truth of it. He knew
there's a God in heaven. He knew that there's a judgment
to come. He trembled over that, but it wasn't a convenient day
for him. Is it a convenient day for you today? Boast not thyself
because of tomorrow. You don't know whether tomorrow
you will have a chance to make your peace with God. The sins
you love today will be just as cherished tomorrow. And what
then? What then? 2 Corinthians 6 verse
2 says this, for he, that is God, God says, I have heard you
in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored
thee. What day is that? What's that
accepted time? What's that day of salvation?
Behold, now. is the accepted time. Behold,
now is the day of salvation. Don't boast yourself of the peace
you'll make with God tomorrow. Today is the day of salvation.
There's an urgency about salvation. There's an urgency about commitment
to God. It's like Lot leaving Sodom.
You know, I'll put it off till tomorrow. If you do, Lot, you'll
go up in fire and brimstone like the rest of them. It's like Christian
when he left Vanity Fair. It was an urgency about it. Let
me ask you. If you're aware that your house
is on fire today, yeah? Your house is on fire today.
What are you going to do? I'll call the fire brigade tomorrow,
it'll be alright. Hmm? Will you? I think you'll
find a pile of ashes if you do. You call the fire brigade now
while it's today. It's the same urgency with salvation. But others of you, that's those
of you that agree that there is a God and that one day you've
got to make your peace with him, but tomorrow you boast that you'll
do it then. Others might be like verse 7,
just look at verse 7 of chapter 27. The full soul loatheth and
honeycomb, but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. Others might be like full souls
in terms of spiritually full souls, by which I mean professors
of true religion, but full of doctrinal satisfaction, very
satisfied with what we know. You have to keep asking yourself,
am I just merely satisfied with the doctrine I know? Or am I
100% committed to the service of Christ? You know, when it
comes to the practical side of it, because there's teaching
in that as well, isn't it? You know, like the feasting and excess
of this last week, when we all like to get together and have
feasts together and enjoy one another's company, and we end
up, let's be honest about it, we end up often having eaten
too much. And even then, the tastiest of
food becomes repulsive. Oh, you know, I love, I love,
oh, let me give you an example. I love smoked salmon on cream
cheese on blinis. I love it, but at the moment,
I don't want any of that. I've had enough. I love lovely
honey roast gammon ham, but at the moment, no thank you, I've
had enough. I don't want any more. Too much turkey. Oh no,
please, not another turkey sandwich. But the hungry soul, to the hungry
soul, you see the full self, but to the hungry soul, every
bit of thing, so long as it's nutritious, it doesn't matter
what the food is. If you're hungry, you love it.
If you're thirsty, genuinely thirsty, a glass of cool water
is the thing. Jesus said, blessed are they
that hunger and thirst after righteousness, the true righteousness,
which alone is by faith of Jesus Christ in all that he has accomplished
in salvation, in dying for his people, in being made sin for
his people, that they might be made the righteousness of God
in him, in hungering after that righteousness, thirsting after
that righteousness, because the promise is this, That hungry
soul shall be filled, shall be satisfied with that. Full souls
that are professors of true religion, but full of doctrinal satisfaction,
they don't want any more. They say, oh, I'll put it off.
I know, yes, maybe you're right. I'll put it off for a future
date. I'll get right with God on a future date. You agree.
Yes, I know I can be puffed up with head knowledge. Yes, I know
I'm not right with God. I know that there's an element
of me that's like the people at Laodicea. You know, in Revelation
3, the letter to the Laodiceans, Jesus says to him, the risen
Christ says to them, you say, I am rich and increased with
goods and have need of nothing. And you know not that you are
wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. And you
say, Yes, yes, I hear what you're saying, I hear what you're saying.
And you know, I can hear that knock at the door. Verse 20,
Jesus says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any will
open to me, I will come in. I know, I know I need to do that.
I know I need, as verse 18 of that chapter three of Revelation
says, I need to buy of Christ gold tried in the fire. What's
it talking about? It's talking about the treasures
of salvation. the truth of sins forgiven in
His shed blood, that you may be rich, rich in the forgiveness
of sins, rich in eternal life that God gives to those that
are His people, a white raiment of the righteousness of God which
is made over to us by the death of Christ, that you may be clothed,
and that the shame of your nakedness because of your sin might not
appear, it's covered by all that He has done. This is what to
buy of Him, without money and without price, to anoint your
eyes with eye salve, that you may see spiritual truth. But
when are you going to do it? When are you going to do it?
Tomorrow? I'm going to put it off till
tomorrow. Boast not yourself of tomorrow, for you don't know
what a day will bring. You don't know. You don't know
whether you'll have a tomorrow in which to make your peace with
God. All previous arguments apply
equally to that situation. Today is the day of salvation. You who are lukewarm concerning
your walk with Christ, will you hear the voice of Christ and
open the door? For he says, I will come into
him and will sup with him and he with me, not tomorrow, but
today. There's practical advice. concerning
not thinking that you can order things for tomorrow. And there's
spiritual advice, don't put it off. Today is the day of salvation.
But you know something, there's a third thing. It doesn't say
it specifically in the verse, but it implies that there is
spiritual positivity re-tomorrow. that we must be aware of. In
Matthew 6, 34, at the end of chapter 6 in the Sermon on the
Mount of Matthew, Jesus says, Now, the sense of that is to
take no anxious thought, no worried thought about tomorrow. Now,
I've already said, that doesn't mean don't make reasonable, responsible
plans and provisions for tomorrow. Does it? Doesn't, can't mean
that. It can't mean, spend all that you have on Monday, if it
means leaving yourself with nothing for the rest of the week, can
it? You know? Or spend all that you have this
year on that experience, and it leaves you with nothing for
the future. It cannot mean that, and I'll tell you why it cannot
mean that. Because Paul wrote to Timothy, and this is scripture,
this is the word of God. First Timothy five, verse eight.
If any man provide not for his own, his own family, and especially
of those of his own house, he has denied the faith and is worse
than an infidel. No, we make reasonable provision. We make sure the insurances are
in place. We make sure the will is legally
enforceable. We make sure that our affairs
are in order. We do those things right, but
we know that we can't guarantee anything. All we can do is that
which looks after those that depend upon us for the future.
like Nehemiah's dependence on God plus setting a watch. We ought to be positive in this
way practically regarding tomorrow. Yes, we must make that kind of
provision without assuming, without falsely kidding ourselves that
we can guarantee it. But there's a spiritually positive
approach to tomorrow as well. Don't boast of tomorrow. Don't
procrastinate what needs to be done today. Don't put it off
till tomorrow. But don't be frightened of tomorrow. Child of God, don't be frightened
of tomorrow. Don't. It's a day, listen to
this, it's a day ordained for you in the purposes of God. That article of Todd's in the
bulletin ends with Romans 8, 28. Of course, we all know it.
All things work together for good to those that love God who
are the called according to his purpose. The key is that most
people that read that and put their trust and hopes and lean
upon it think that all just means what they count as good things.
No, all things, all things, all things. It's a day ordained for
you. Tomorrow is a day ordained for
you in the purposes of God. Listen to this. What may be my
future lot, well I know concerns me not. This does set my heart
at rest. What my God appoints is best. Can you apply that to every part
of your life? to whatever you're doing, to
your money, to your business, to your family, to everything
that you do, what my God appoints is best. I wonder if Job would
have thought he'd had a happy new year when God, in his eternal
purposes of good, took his family and his possessions away from
him and covered him in boils for that period of time. What
my God ordains, appoints his best. Tomorrow is one day. Have you thought of it like this?
Tomorrow is one day nearer to glory. 2019 is one year nearer to being
in glory with our God in glory. Perhaps Christ will return. When
is he going to return? Oh, well, he didn't return in
2018. Well, not yet anyway. But God's kingdom will come.
It might be next year. When do you think it will come?
Ah, Jesus says, in such an hour as ye think not, is when the
Son of Man comes. Do you think he'll come next
year? Because if you think he won't come next year, there's
a good chance that he will come next year. In such an hour as
ye think not, the Son of Man cometh. So let us look to the
new year, not with boasting of all that we're going to accomplish
because we have no ultimate control over that, but let's approach
it with a good resolution. This, for believers, a good resolution
to be 100% committed to God's service. What's he telling me
to do? What should I do? Hearing his voice, learning to
pray to him according to his will, thy kingdom come. And Christ
helping us will have quiet confidence of faith. It's the confidence
of faith that whatever our God ordains for us is right, because
it's all aimed for the eternal good of his people. Boast not
thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring
forth. Boast not, but God knows, and
we can trust him. Amen.