Thank you, Pastor. Well, what a good service we've
had thus far. What a good service. There is
a statement made by Solomon that has been particularly dear to
Shelby and I for all the time we've known one another. The
wise man said, trust in the Lord with all thine heart. And lean
not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him. Trust in the Lord with all your
heart. And lean not unto your own understanding. If you do the one, you can't
do the other. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart and lean not unto thine own understanding, but in all
thy ways acknowledge him. Acknowledge him as the Lord,
as your Lord. Acknowledge him as God, your
God. Acknowledge his will, his way,
being performed in the world in your life. In all thy ways
acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Now that's
a wonderful, wonderful two verses of scripture to commit to memory,
to remember, and to recite. But I have a question. Is it
really safe and wise to trust the Lord. Is it really safe and wise to
trust Him in all things, for all things, at all times? Is it really prudent to trust
the Lord with all your Is that really prudent? I know
this. Faith in Christ is nothing less
than the willing, deliberate, voluntary surrender of my life
to the rule and dominion of the Son of God as my Lord. Faith
in Christ is trust in Christ. Christ alone for my salvation. Trust in Christ alone as my sin
atoning substitute. Trust in Christ alone for all
my righteousness before God. Trust in Christ alone to keep
me by his grace and bring me at last into his heavenly kingdom.
But Christ is more, indescribably more, than a fire escape from
hell. for most people involved in religion,
in conservative religion, in reformed religion, if you like
that word. For most people, faith in Christ
is nothing more than trusting Christ to take you to heaven
when you die. Faith in Christ is nothing more
than saying, I believe in Jesus and I hope to go to heaven when
I die. But Christ is more than a fire
escape from hell. Salvation is more than the hope
of going to heaven and having eternal life when we die. We
often speak of Christ saving our souls, but that's not Bible
language. Christ doesn't save your soul.
He saves you, body, soul, and spirit, lock, stock, and barrel,
all of you, or he doesn't save you at all. When I was a young
man and began to have some sense of my guilt and sin before God,
terrified of God's justice, terrified of God's law, terrified of meeting
God, tormented with a guilty conscience, screaming day and
night, damning me before God, I didn't have a problem with
deciding whether or not I wanted to go to hell or deciding whether
or not I wanted to go to heaven when I die. I never did want
to go to hell, did you? I never did not want to go to
heaven when I died, you? That's not a problem. That's
not a problem. That's not the difficulty. Everybody I know
wants to go to heaven when they die. There was another problem,
a really big problem. Don Fortner likes to rule his
own life. I never did like for anybody
to tell me what to do. I had some scars on my body to
prove it. I didn't like for my mother to tell me what to do
or my daddy, and didn't usually pay any attention to him. I didn't
like for teachers to tell me what to do. I didn't like for
the law to tell me what to do. I didn't want anybody telling
me what to do. I was what men call a rebel, like you. And I didn't want God telling
me what to do. If God saves you, God's gonna tell you what to
do. If Christ saves you, Christ is going to tell you what to
do. He will be Lord of all, or he will be not Lord at all, and
he will not be your savior. The Lord Jesus demands that we
trust him. Trust Him with the rule and government
of our lives that we commit, consecrate, and devote our lives
to Him and Him alone. Turn to Mark chapter 8 for a
moment. Mark chapter 8. The Son of God demands absolute
surrender in the city of man's soul. He will have nothing less. Mark chapter 8 verse 34. And when he called the people
unto him, with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever
will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and
follow me. Now that's exactly what he told
the rich young ruler. Do you remember the rich young
ruler? Came to the Lord and said, good master, what good things
shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And the Lord Jesus
rebuked him and said, why do you call me good? Don't you know
that no man's good but God? And he said, yes. And when he
did that, that rich young ruler said, I acknowledge that you're
God. I acknowledge that you're God. That's something else. And
the Lord Jesus said to him, said, now what does God command? God commands that you love your
neighbor as yourself. Love God with all your heart
and soul, mind, and being. And the rich young ruler said,
well, I've done that all my life. I've always been a good boy.
And the Lord Jesus said, all right, go and sell what you have,
give it to the poor, and come and follow me. Well, I can't
do that. Well, you'll go to hell then.
You'll go to hell then. Take up your cross. And follow
me. You bow to me and follow me. There's no other way to follow
me. You bow to my rule. You bow to my word. You bow to
my will. You bow to my dominion. There's
no other following me. Read on, Matthew chapter 8. Take
up his cross and follow me. Now watch this. How do you know
that's what that means? It helps a lot to read the next
verse. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it. But whosoever shall lose his
life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. But John, faith in Christ is
losing your life to him. Faith in Christ is losing your
life to him. 35, 36, 37 years ago, somewhere in there,
was my first visit to Appomattox, Virginia. And for a fellow like
me, that's not a pleasant place to visit, except for the fact
I've got some friends there and I was preaching there. Appomattox
Courthouse, you may recall, is the place where Mr. Lee signed
terms of surrender to Grant and the armies of the North. And
there's a picture. I think I will always remember
it till I die because I don't like it. I don't like it at all. I wish the war had turned out
otherwise. I wish we'd have whipped them
Yankees. But there's a picture, and the picture is of General
Lee with his troops. riding down that dirt road at
Appomattox Courthouse, or General Grant riding down that dirt road,
Lee riding beside him. But these troops are standing
on both sides of the road with their sabers and their bayonets
and their rifles and their pistols and their powder horns all stacked
in front of them in utter surrender. This is what faith in Christ
is. It is utter surrender to Him. Nothing lacking. Nothing lacking. I'm calling
for you now, this very hour, without moving your muscle, without
saying a word, without moving your lips, without saying a prayer,
I'm calling on you to come to Christ, to believe on the Son
of God, By that I mean I'm calling on you to give up yourself to
Christ and acknowledge that you're His, lock, stock and barrel from
this day forward. To devote your life, your entire
life, all your family, all your possessions, all your time, all
your talents, all your abilities, all your opportunities to devote
your life to the son of God, to his service, his kingdom,
his glory alone, acknowledging that you have no right to claim
anything as your own. Because fact is, Lonnie, if you're
his, nothing you have is yours. If you're his, nothing you have
is yours. You have no right to use anything
for yourself. Not even a right to have a thought
or a will of your own. We're talking about faith now.
I'm not talking about playing religion. I'm not talking about
going to church. I'm not talking about acting
good. I'm talking about faith in Christ. Every time I had the
privilege of baptizing believer. Every time I watch someone else
baptize a newborn believer, I rehearse in my mind and in my heart what
I myself confessed when I confessed Christ in believers baptism.
Buried with him because I was crucified with him. Risen with
him in the newness of life. As Paul puts it, risen to walk
with him in the newness of life. Do you remember what Jephthah
said to his daughter when he made that vow before God and
he came home and his daughter came out to meet him? He said,
oh, I've committed her to God. He said, I've lifted my hand
to God and I can't go back. That's what faith is. It's lifting
your hand, giving your life to Christ the Redeemer, and you
can't go back. Perhaps you think, well, Pastor,
that sounds great. It seems to be the right thing
to do, but it's just not practical. It's just not reasonable. Surely
the Lord doesn't expect me to totally give up myself to Him. Surely He doesn't expect anyone
to trust Him absolutely. Again, I ask, is it really safe
and wise to trust the Lord? I can't tell you that it's physically,
mathematically, economically, or philosophically safe to do
so. In fact, I must be honest with you and tell you that in
all earthly terms, faith in Christ is anything but reasonable. but I fully agree with Martin
Luther, who once made this statement. He said, the first thing that
faith does is knock the brains out of reason. Knock the brains
of reason out. The first thing faith does is
knock the brains of reason out. Let's see, turn to Matthew chapter
six. Matthew six. We won't read the whole chapter,
but listen to the Savior's words in this sixth chapter of Matthew.
when he calls for us to believe God, to trust Him. He says, if
your God, your Heavenly Father, watches over and feeds the sparrows,
don't you know that He'll watch over and feed you? He who has
numbered the very hairs of your head, don't you know that He'll
meet your every need? If your Heavenly Father clothes
the worthless grass of the field, If he clothes the worthless grass
of the field, don't you imagine that he'll clothe you? Trust
him, trust him. And look at verse 31. Therefore,
therefore, since God's numbered the hairs of your head, since
your father feeds the sparrows, since he clothes the lilies,
trust him. Therefore, take no thought, saying,
what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall
we be clothed? For after all these things do
the Gentiles seek. What's that mean? Everybody you
know lives for what they can get. That's exactly what it means.
Everybody you know, your mother, sister, brother, father, son,
daughter, husband, wife, any of them who don't know God, all
they live for, brother-in-law, is what they can get. That's
all they live for. No need to envy them. Oh, look
at that house. I wish I had one like that. That's
all he's got. Why would you want that? That's
all he's got. That's what the Gentiles seek
for. They spend their lives seeking to get more. They spend their
lives seeking to get more. That's what the heathens seek.
Read on now. For your heavenly Father knoweth
that ye have need of all these things. Your father knows that
you get hungry, you need something to eat. Your father knows that
you need some clothes to wear. Your father knows you need a
place to sleep, you need some shelter over your head. Now,
I've only got one child. Well, I have four now. I've got
a son-in-law and two grandchildren. So I've got four children. I
almost have a full family. Do you know what? I would be
embarrassed and angry. I'd be embarrassed and angry
if my daughter or my son-in-law or my grandson or my granddaughter
ever entertained the thought that they had a need I would
not supply. If I had the ability, if I had
the means. I'd be embarrassed and I'd be
angry and they would know it. I'm your daddy. I'm your daddy. You think I'm gonna let you go
hungry? You think I'm gonna leave you
alone? Your father knows that you have needed these things.
Now watch verse 33. But seek ye first. Make this the object
of your heart. Set your affection on things
above. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
And all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore
no thought for the moral, for the moral shall take thought
for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof. Can we really be expected to
put Christ first in everything? It's not only expected, pastor,
it's demanded. It's demanded. We're to trust
Him for everything. And I don't suggest, I don't
think, I don't imply that this faith is perfect. Far from it. I confess before you and before
God, my faith is so full of unbelief, when it is exercised at its best,
that were it not washed in the blood of Christ and robed in
His righteousness, my faith would carry me forever into the lowest
hell. But faith in Christ, though it
is not perfect in us, faith in Christ is that which trusts the
Son of God in all things and for all things absolutely. Such faith compels the believing
sinner to surrender continually to the Redeemer. If I believe
Him, I bow to Him. If I believe Him, I bow to Him. I know what you may be thinking,
but Brother Don, if I so trust Christ that I devote my entire
life to Him, how can I live in this world? How can I provide
for my family? If I allow nothing to keep me
from worshiping God and obeying Him, what will happen to my business? Is that really safe and wise? Now that's my subject. That's
the question I want to answer for you tonight from this book.
Turn to Exodus chapter 34. We'll begin there. Let's look into the book of God
and see if we can find what God says to us about these very practical
things. First, I want us to look at this text here in Exodus 34.
You'll remember that in the Old Testament, the Lord God commanded
every male in Israel, from 20 years old and upward, three times
a year, to go up to Jerusalem and worship God for a week. Every grown man, didn't matter
how many children he had, didn't matter how many wives he had,
didn't matter how much property he had, didn't matter how big
his business was, didn't matter how much cattle he had, every
grown man in Israel was required to leave his home and go up to
Jerusalem and stay there for a week and worship God. Now,
can you imagine what their neighbors must have thought? They had gone
into the land of Canaan, and they had run their enemies out.
Those fellows were anxious to get even. They were anxious to
get even. They wanted to slaughter every
Jew there, just like they do to this day. They were anxious
to get even. We've been watching our calendars.
Fellas, did you know those Jews, every year, go up to Jerusalem. They start leaving home. And
they're gone for a week. Seven days and seven nights before
they come back. Do it three times a year. Let's
get together. Next time they leave, we can
go in and take everything they've got. Nobody there to stop us. We can take everything they've
got. And any smart fellow would say, well, Man, I'll tell you
what, Larry. You and Brother Lonnie and Brother
Lowell and Lester, y'all go up this year and Brother Louie and
Brother, what's his name? Brother Terry. Brother Terry,
we'll stay here and watch the stuff this time. And then next
time, next time we'll go up. Well, that makes good sense,
doesn't it? Doesn't make any sense at all. What are you gonna
do to stop anything? Well, it doesn't make any sense
for everybody to go up and forsake everything and worship at Jerusalem.
It doesn't except for one thing. Exodus 34 verse 24. Look what
God says. Exodus 34 beginning verse 23.
Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before
the Lord God, the God of Israel. Now watch this. For I will cast
out the nations before thee and enlarge thy borders. Neither
shall any man desire thy land when thou shalt go up to appear
before the Lord thy God thrice in the year. I'll fix it so nobody want anything
you got. I'll fix it. So those three weeks
out of every year, the fellow who would steal you blind, he
won't even want your car sitting in the parking lot. He won't
want your wife. He will not want that prize bull
you've got. I'll fix it so they'll not want
what you have. I've been asked a number of times
over the years before Shelby was, our daughter was grown and
Shelby was able to start traveling with me. I used to travel all
the time by myself, just about, except in the summertime. And
they said, don't you worry about Shelby, leaving her on that hill
out there by herself, nobody around, no neighbors close by.
I said, no, no, I don't worry about her. Sometimes I kind of
speak a little jest, and I said, I worry about the fellow that
breaks in on her. She's got guns everywhere. She knows how to shoot. But that
wasn't it at all. No, I don't worry about her.
I don't worry about her. You see, I'm God's servant. I'm
on God's business. doing God's work. He'll take
care of my family. And you know what he does? He
always took care of them. Always took care of them. He
fixes it. So nobody wants what you've got
as you seek to serve him. Now we have a similar passage
and similar circumstance back here in Leviticus 25. Again,
I want you to look at this for a text. Leviticus 25, beginning
verse 18. In this passage of the law concerning
the year of Jubilee, God doesn't require the children of Israel
to neglect their livelihoods for a week, but for a year. He required them to keep a Sabbath
year. Every 50 years they had to keep
a Sabbath year by law. Now during this Sabbath year,
they weren't allowed to plant any crops or gather crops from
the previous year. They weren't allowed to sow their
fields. They weren't even allowed to gather things that grew on
their own. They were required to trust the
God they worship to provide for them and to provide for their
family for three years. for three years. God required
these people to trust him and obey him because they trusted
him. Now, I'm the Lord your God. I'm gonna feed you for three
years. You trust me. You trust me. Look at verse 20,
chapter 25, verse 18. Wherefore, you shall do my statutes
and keep my judgments to do them. And you shall dwell in the land
in safety. And the land shall yield her
fruit. And you shall eat your field and dwell therein in safety. And if you shall say, what shall
we eat in the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow nor
gather in our increase. Then I will command my blessing
upon you in the sixth year. and it shall bring forth fruit
for three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year,
and eat yet of the old fruit until the ninth year. Until her
fruits come in, ye shall eat of the old store. Now here are
three promises. God promised them safety. Ye
shall dwell in the land in safety. Dwell, remember last night, safe,
and comfortable. You'll dwell in safety and you'll
know you're dwelling in safety. You'll be able to sit back and
not fret. You'll be able to sit back and
not worry. And then he promised them plenty. He said, you shall
eat your fill. Eat your fill. You won't for nothing. The Lord
God on the Sabbath day caused twice as much manna to fall as
fell any other day, so that on the seventh day, on Friday, so
that on the Sabbath day, the Jews could eat all they wanted
with nothing gathered. He caused the manna not to breed
worms over the night, on Friday night. He caused the manna to
fall plentifully on Friday. Our Lord multiplied the loaves
and fishes. Five loaves and two small fishes.
He just kept handing them out. Just kept handing them out. How
could he do that? He's God. It wasn't a magic trick,
he's God. He's just multiplying loaves
and fishes. They're his loaves and fishes, he made them. And
when they got done eating all they wanted to, they took up
12 baskets full. You remember Philippians chapter
four, the apostle Paul writes to the Philippian saints He had
received a gift from them. I've been in this place many
times in the last 45 years. Somebody who actually needed
things worse than I did, made great sacrifice to give me something. And Paul had received from them
their gift, from their pastor, Paphroditus, all this sweet-smelling
savory. And Paul's thinking, how can
I take this? How can I take this? And this
is what he said to them, but my God shall supply all your
need, not out of his riches in glory, but according to his riches
in glory by Christ Jesus. What a word. What a word. If Jay Rockefeller should give
me something out of his riches, he might give me a penny, a dollar,
or a million dollars and never miss it. But if he takes on taking
care of me according to his riches, shoot, I can take care of you
the rest of my life. I can take care of anything, because his
riches are beyond anything I can imagine. Will you hear me? Our God. shall supply our need
according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. And then the
Lord promised that his people would lack no provision. He said,
I will command my blessing in the sixth year, and it shall
bring forth fruit for three years. So that this was a standing miracle
of providence. At other times, the land would
yield crops for the next year. But in the sixth year, the fields
had bumper crops that would last for three years. All of this
is intended to be an encouragement to us from our God. Here he teaches
us, you and me, to obey him in all things. To put him first in all things.
confidently, trusting Him, casting all our care on Him. And He assures
us that we will never suffer loss by doing so. I call on you
to believe on the Son of God. A few weeks ago, It's been a
few months ago now, a couple months ago, Brother Eric Richards
and his wife Amy. Amy was raised in our congregation.
She married Brother Walter Groover's grandson. He lives in Houston,
Texas. He's a preacher. Folks out in
San Diego, California, where I've been going, trying to help
get a work established for the last four or five years, called Eric
his pastor, and he had asked me about it. He felt strongly
inclined to go out there, and I said to him, Eric, If I were
you, I'd throw caution to the wind, and I'd be moved soon as
I could get out there. Well, that's not reasonable.
I ain't gonna take it. What about my job? I've got a
business. Get rid of it. What about my wife and any children
God gives us? Throw caution to the wind. Throw
caution to the wind. We're God's people and God's
servants. to do that which God calls you
and causes you to want to do for his glory. All of this is
intended to teach us to trust him. God says, them that honor
me, I will honor. Now let me call your attention
to five things very briefly. I encourage you to write them
down. First, our text speaks about the obedience of faith
and teaches us that obedience arises from faith in Christ. Look at verse 25. Wherefore ye
shall do my statutes and keep my judgments, and do them, and
ye shall dwell in the land in safety. Now, there's no keeping
of God's statutes, no doing of God's judgments apart from faith
in Christ. This is his commandment. that
we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ. That's
God's commandment. We fulfill the law not by writing
out ten commandments and putting a check back, well, I did this
today and did that today. Well, tomorrow I'm going to work
on that some, and the next day I'm going to work on that a little
bit. I did this today, did that today. That's not it. We fulfill
the law by faith in Christ. Come to God, bring in Christ,
righteousness, Christ obedience, Christ death. That's how we fulfill
the law. That's God's commandment. And
throughout the book of Leviticus, the Lord God calls us to obedience. To obedience to that which he
has revealed in the book. and he does it on one basis,
on one basis. Look at the last verse of this
chapter, verse 55. This is repeated over and over
again through the books of the law, over and over again here
in Leviticus. For unto me, the children of
Israel are servants. They are my servants, whom I
brought forth out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your
God. God calls for you Me to obey
him in everything Because you're my servants Because I'm the Lord
your God Because I brought you out of the land of Egypt Hold
your hands here and turn over to first Corinthians chapter
6 First Corinthians chapter 6 verse
9 Know you not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God and Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind. That takes in about everybody.
Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. That got the
rest of us. And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but
ye are sanctified. But ye are justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. And look at
verse 19. What? Know ye not that your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have
of God, and ye are not your own? Ye are not your own. Ye are not
your own. Oh God, burn that in my soul.
Ye are not your own. for you're bought with a price.
Christ bought me with his blood. Therefore, glorify God in your
body and in your spirits, which are God's. The Lord God demands
that we constantly acknowledge that he's God, our God, that
we belong to him and nothing we have is ours. Many, many years
ago, when businessmen had to travel and be gone for months
at a time. There was a wealthy businessman in London who had
to be gone overseas for almost a year. He and his wife had two
sons, twin boys. They were half of their daddy's
age, 10 or 12 years old. Man, he missed those boys. Before
he got home, about the time he was to get home, Both the boys
got sick and soon died, and his wife was beside herself as to
how she was going to handle this with her husband. Finally, time
came for him to come home. She had had the boys embalmed,
and they were in the family room in their large house. And he
came home, and his wife met him, but the boys didn't. And he was
concerned. He said, well, the boy said,
we'll see him in just a minute. He said, I need to talk to you.
He said, well, I'd like to see my son. She said, well, I've
got something. Just sit down. I want to talk to you for a minute. She
said, while you were away, I was invited to a lavish event. And you know Mr. Smith runs the
jewelry store. He allowed me to borrow some
beautiful, beautiful jewelry, earrings, necklace, and bracelet.
And I wore those, and I got so attached to them. And I know
they're his, but I'd sure like to keep them. What do you think
I ought to do? He said, woman, they're not yours. You give them
back. Where are my boys? She said, well, come on. We'll
go in here. And there laid those two boys. And she said, the Lord gave us
two jewels. But they weren't ours. They were
his. and he's called for us to give him up. You see, nothing is mine. Nothing is yours. It's God's. It's God's. I've got one grandson. You know what I'd like for God
to do for him? I'll tell you what my ambitions
are for him. I pray God will save him. I pray God will make
him a preacher. And if God Almighty should be
pleased to send him to New Guinea to pick up right where the cliff
headers left off and I never see him again. Nothing pleased
me more. He's God, not mine. God's not
mine. You understand that? Faith declares
that Christ is Lord. I belong to him. And that inspires
obedience. Obedience to the will of God
is always costly. It always causes problems. It
always requires us to make choices, sometimes painful choices. But
God still requires obedience. And as we obey him, he takes
care of our problems. Here's the second thing. Our
text speaks clearly about the danger of worldliness. We must never allow the cares
of the world to keep us from worshiping and serving and obeying
God. And when I speak about worldliness,
I'm not talking about wearing stylish clothes or wearing long
hair or going to the picture show or having a television in
your house or smoking cigarettes or drinking wine or any of that
stuff. That's all I'm talking about. I'm talking about the
love of the world. If any man love the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. If this world has my heart,
I don't know God. If this world has your heart,
your faith is but a delusion. It is the love of the world more
than anything else that keeps people who profess to love Christ
from doing that which they know to be God's will and God's purpose,
the cares of the world. Little by little, choke out the influence of the
word. What do you do, pastor? Break
them off. Break them off. I pray for my
wife and for my daughter, for my son-in-law and for my granddaughter
and my grandson, for everyone under my influence, for you to
whom I preach, and for myself. I pray that God will not do something by which he destroys the reprobate. Joe, I pray God won't do this
to you and Abby. That's what I pray for you. God
says he hath set the world in their heart so that no man can
find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. God sets the world in man's heart.
So they can't know him. So they can't see him. So they
can't understand his words. So they can't know his way. They
can't know his gospel. Third, I want you to see that
the promise here given of God's special providence teaches us
plainly that the Lord our God, our great savior, pledges his
providence to protect and provide for us as we seek to serve and
honor and worship him in this world. Verse 18, wherefore you
shall do my statutes and keep my judgments and do them and
you shall dwell in the land in safety and the land shall yield
her fruit and you shall eat your field and dwell there in safety. Verse 21, then I will command
my blessing upon you in the sixth year and it shall bring forth
fruit for three years. Our Lord Jesus obviously has
this passage of scripture in mind and refers to it in Matthew
6 and in Luke 8, where he tells us to seek first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness. Our God here pledges his providence
on our behalf. Your heavenly father knoweth
you have need of these things. That means everything's all right.
How shall he who spared not his own son, but delivered him up
for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us
all things? God, forgive my doubting heart. God who sacrificed his son for
me, what do you reckon he won't give
me? Isaiah 43 is I gave people for you, Ethiopia for you, and
Saba for you, nations for you, people for your life. There's
nobody I wouldn't sacrifice for you. Nothing I will sacrifice
for you. I gave my son for you. Whatever
it takes for God to take care of you to the very best of God's
ability. Oh, what a word! Whatever it
takes for God to take care of you, to the very best of God's
ability, that's what God does if you're His. Besides, it's
God's blessing, not our industry or skill or foresight or wisdom. That's the source of our safety
and our provision. Number four, look at verse 20. Fear. Fear. Fear, more than anything else,
keeps us from obeying God without hesitation. God came to Abraham and said,
Abraham, matter of fact, the book starts out this way, chapter
22, verse 1 of Genesis, After all these things, the Lord did
tempt Abraham. My soul, go back and read from
chapter 12 through chapter 21. Looks to me like he had a lifetime
of temptations already. After all these things, the Lord
did tempt Abraham. He said, Abraham, take your son,
your only son Isaac, whom you dearly love, and go to a mountain,
I'm going to tell you about, and there sacrifice him to me.
But wait three days. Wait three days. You sit and think about it for
three days. Look that boy in the eye every day, every night
while he goes to sleep. You think about it for three
days. And after three days, sacrifice him to me. Can you imagine the
thoughts must have gone through Abraham's mind in those three
days? What am I going to tell Sarah? How am I going to explain? I better talk this over with
Sarah. Can you imagine thoughts must have gone through his mind?
No, Abraham took Isaac, and after three days he said to his servant,
I and the lad will go yonder and worship God, and we will
come again in three days. We. You see, Abraham believed
God. He believed God. God promised
Abraham that out of Isaac, the Redeemer, the Son of God, the
promised seed of woman was coming into this world and Abraham believed
God. And he sacrificed his son and
received him as one raised from the dead. Well, he didn't really
ask God about that. God said you didn't withhold
your only son from me. He took his son to sacrifice
him, knowing full well God would fulfill his promise, though the
promise seems to contradict everything reason can think about. He will
come back and worship God. Look at verse 20. If ye shall say, what shall we
eat the seventh year? Behold, we sow not, nor gather
our increase. Let me give you a fortnight paraphrase
of that. If I worship God rather than work today, I may not be
able to meet my obligations this month. If I worship God rather
than spend the evening in frivolity with my family watching gun smoke
or something, or going out to dinner with some friends, what
will they think of me? If I give my money to support
the gospel of Christ, how can I wisely and prudently expect
to provide for my family? God expects me to exercise wisdom,
doesn't he? You remember Zedekiah, king of
Judah? Jeremiah told him that by God's
words that you go down with the king of Babylon into captivity. That's what God's commanded.
If you don't, the king of Babylon is going to destroy Jerusalem
and the temple and take you into captivity. And Zedekiah said
to Jeremiah, well, I would do that. I'm ready to do that. I'm ready to go with the king
of Assyria down into Babylon. I'm ready to do that. But I'm
afraid of the Jews. My people wouldn't like that.
That would create an insurrection in Judah. Jeremiah said, you
go as God said. 11 years later, that wimpish
king found himself in the hands of the Babylonians. They plucked
out his eyes, destroyed the temple, destroyed the city, destroyed
the wall, and carried everything into captivity. Fear, fear. more than anything else, causes
us to hesitate when it comes to obeying God. Fear of security,
fear of place, fear of family, fear of friends, fear of reputation,
fear, fear. God teach me to believe God and
cease from fear. Cease from fear. Number five,
look at verse 21. Here, the Lord tells us plainly
that we will never impoverish ourselves and never suffer any
loss by honoring him. Then will I command my blessing
upon you in the sixth year. Our church building, as most
of you know, sits just off Main Highway coming out of Danville.
Highway 150, a lot of traffic, a lot of traffic. Everybody around,
they don't like the fact that I'm there, but everybody knows
I'm there. And not everybody knows I'm in my office, day and
night, most of the time. If I'm in town, you can find
me in the office. And consequently, we get a good many people who
come to the door or call begging. I've had all kinds of stories.
I can't tell you the stories I've had. Aunt Jenny died, and
I'm on my way to the funeral, and I need some money to get
there. I've just been out of work for a couple of weeks. I
just need something to get me by. I need to buy some groceries.
I mean, just every kind of story under the sun. And we do what
we can to help folks when we're able to. But let me tell you
what I've never experienced. I've been pastoring now for over
40 years. Tell you something I've never had happen in 40 years.
Not once, Terry, in 40 years. Not one time. I've never had
anybody knock on my door begging for bread who worshiped God. Not one time. Sometimes I'll
even ask, well, have you talked to your pastor? He said, well,
I would, but I can't remember his name. I go to the back of the church
down the road, which one? Well, I just can't remember name
right now. I've got any truth. But I've
never had one person, not in 40 years, come knock on my door,
want gas money or food money or groceries or whatever. I've
never had it happen in 40 years who worship God. I believe I
know scripture. Yeah, I had been young and now
I'm old. Yet have I not seen the righteous
forsaken, nor his seed baking bread. Not one time. Several years ago, Shelby and
I were out in California. Back then, I could hear a little
better than I do now. And I like to listen to two conversations
at once. And I'd always listen to folks talking to her. And
somebody was asking her, said, they realize that you don't have
any property, live in a parsonage, don't have any Money saved up,
don't have anything to fall back on. Time to get tough. And they
said, don't you worry about what you're going to do when something
happens to Brother Don? Now, she's always been a mighty
big lady in my sight. But she grew about 20 feet that
day. She said, the Lord's always taking care of me. I expect he'll
take care of me when Don's gone. Look up here. Look up here. Do
I look like I've been very hungry? Now, I don't dress best of anybody
in the country, but I've always had breeches to wear and a coat
to put on. I've never gone to my closet and looked for a pair
of pants and didn't find a pair. I've never gone to my cabinet and
looked for some grits and didn't find some grits. I've never needed
a place to sleep and didn't have a place to sleep. It's never
happened. Not in all these years. How come? God said, I'll bless
you. I'll bless you. And he has. And
you know what I expect him to do tomorrow? I expect him to
bless me. I just expect it. That's God.
That's his character. He's my father. Simon Peter one
time, he said, Lord, we've forsaken all and followed you. Look what
we gave up. You ever get thinking like that? Boy, I've done my
part. Man, I have sacrificed. And the Lord said, You have,
have you? Lacked ye anything? Lacked ye anything? Lacked ye anything? Nothing, Lord. Nothing, Lord. Is it really safe and wise to
trust the Lord. If you can take this man's word
for anything, for 45 years, I have everyday
experience that says it's the safest, wisest thing a man can
do. God help you now to trust Him.
Amen.