God was pleased to grant me his
grace and faith in our Lord Jesus when I was 16 years old. Not
quite 17, just a few days before my 17th birthday. And I had a
man who lived next door to us. He was a government agent. I
don't know to this day what kind of agent he was. He never did
tell me. I guess he would have had to kill me if he had told
me. But he and I had a fairly good relationship. I was sitting
in his yard. I'm guessing he was probably
a little older than my dad. And I wasn't trying to buttonhole
him or talk him into a religious profession, but I was just telling
him what God had done for me. a month or so after the Lord
saved me. This fellow knew me all my life. He never one time warned me about
anything. Not one time. He never one time
cautioned me about my rebellion. He never once warned me about
drugs on the streets, drunkenness. Any of the immoral perversities
of the day, not one time. Never warned me to beware of
anything. But I had no more than told him what God had done for
me. He said, now Don, son, you don't
want to go to the deep end on this thing. You don't want to go overboard
with this. Isn't that sad? Don't want to
go overboard. with faith in Christ. I sure would like to. I've got a message for you from
three texts. We're going to begin in Proverbs chapter 3. Proverbs chapter 3. Then Exodus
chapter 34. And we'll wind up in Leviticus
25. Proverbs chapter 3 verse 5, the
wise man Solomon says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart. What does that mean? And lean
not unto thine own understanding. Bob Morrell, if you lean to your
own understanding, you can't trust him. That's what that means. Trust him or lean to your own
understanding, you can't do both. In all thy ways, in every step,
in every relationship, in every decision in every responsibility. In all thy ways acknowledge him,
the Lord, and he shall direct thy paths. Now here's a question,
and this is my subject. Is it really safe? Is it really
wise to trust him? Is it really safe? Is it really
wise to trust the Lord in all things and for all things to
trust Christ? Is it really prudent to trust
the Lord with all your heart? Now I know this, I know this.
Faith in Christ is nothing less than the willing deliberate,
voluntary surrender of my life to the rule and dominion of Jesus
Christ. We call for you to believe on
Christ. To believe on Christ is to surrender
yourself in the totality of your being to the dominion of God's
Son. It is trusting Christ alone for
my salvation. Trusting Him alone as my sin-atoning
substitute. It is trusting Him alone as my
righteousness before God. It is trusting Him alone to keep
me in His grace. It is trusting Him alone to cause
me to go on in the things of God. It is trusting Him alone
to bring me at last into heavenly glory. But Christ Jesus the Lord
is more than a fire escape from hell. Salvation is more than
the hope of going to heaven and entering into eternal life when
I die. We often speak of Christ saving
our souls. But that's not what the scriptures
speak of. In fact, the Bible never uses
such language. The Son of God did not die at
Calvary to save your soul. He died at Calvary to save you.
Did you get that? There's a huge difference. The
Lord Jesus saves sinners, body, soul, and spirit. He will either
save you, all of you, or He'll damn you, all of you. body, soul, and spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ demands
all of me. He won't have any less. He demands
all of you. He won't have any less. He demands
that we trust Him with the rule and government of our lives,
that we commit, consecrate, and devote ourselves to Him and to
Him alone. Turn to Mark chapter 8 for a
moment. Christ demands surrender, absolute
surrender in the city of Mansoul. Listen to what he says. Mark
chapter 8 verse 34. When he had called the people
unto him, with his disciples also he said unto them whosoever
will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me well I wonder what
that means people talk about I've got a Broken toe. I guess that's my cross. I have
to bear it for Jesus. No. That's not what it means. Let's see what it means. Read
the next line. For whosoever will save his life. I mean, David Wright, you want
to hang on to your life? I'll make my decisions. I'll
decide what I'm going to do. I'll control my life. You can
do that. But you'll lose it. Whosoever will save his life
shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake
and the Gospels, the same shall save it." What is faith in Christ? It is
losing your life gladly to the Son of God. Giving up the control. Giving up the rule. Giving up
the mastery of your own life to Christ Jesus, the Lord. Several
years ago, I was in Appomattox, Virginia for the first time.
I was, oh, 21, 22 years old. I was over there preaching in
a Bible conference, and I went over to Appomattox Courthouse.
Now, for you who know me, I'm a genuine Southerner. I'm so
Southern, if I couldn't be Southern, I'd at least be ashamed. I'm
a genuine southerner. And Appomattox is not the place
that I particularly enjoy going to visit. That's the place where
Mr. Lee signed the terms of surrender. And they have a horrible picture
there. A horrible picture. It's a picture
of the actual surrender. Now whether it was painted from
imagination or painted from someone who was actually there, I have
no idea. But standing at attention with
their powder horns and their sabers and their rifles all stacked
in front of them. As the Union troops rode down
the road to Appomattox Courthouse stood the Confederate soldiers
at attention and they stacked arms in front of them. How come? That's called absolute surrender. Got no conditions. No qualifications. We're whipped. You win. Do with
us what you will. All we can plead is mercy. That's
what Christ demands. He demands that you quit fighting
him. That you surrender to him. That
you stack arms before him. That you bow to him. Absolute
surrender. We must give up ourselves to
Christ. To believe on Him is to acknowledge
that I'm His. Lock, stock, and barrel. I am, from this day forward,
His servant. I'm calling on you to devote
your life, your entire life, all that you are, all that you
have, all your time, all your money, all your family, all your
sons, all your daughters, all your grandchildren, everything
to him. Totally to him. To his service,
to his kingdom, to his glory, to his cause alone, acknowledging
that you have nothing. You have nothing. You have no
right to claim anything for yourself. No right to use anything for
yourself. No right to even have a thought
or a will of your own. Brother Todd has already identified
for you what baptism is. The believer's confession of
faith in Christ. It is our visible identification
with Christ and his gospel. It is our willful confession
of how God saves sinners by the substitutionary sacrifice of
his dear son. And it's something else. With
that confession of faith in Christ, every time I baptize somebody,
I repeat for myself what I experienced 42 years ago. I'm dead with Christ. I'm His. I rise now to walk with
Him in the newness of life. I've lifted my hands to God.
Can't go back. I'm His. Now that's what baptism
is. I'm His. Perhaps you think, Pastor,
that sounds great. It seems to me to be the right
thing. But it's just not practical. It's just not reasonable. Surely,
the Lord doesn't expect me to totally gift 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 is in
any logical, reasonable, mathematical, scientific, or physical sense,
safe or wise. I wouldn't lie to you. I wouldn't
lie to you. When I was in college, I went
to two seminaries, two Bible colleges, highly reputed as far
as fundamentalist Bible colleges are concerned. You know what
they taught us from the beginning? We had evangelism classes, especially
the preachers or the fellows who were in pastoral or missionary
courses. We had evangelism classes, and
they taught us to strike while the iron's hot. Preach to a crescendo
and build folks up to the time when you have an altar call and
you trick them while they're not thinking into making a profession
of faith. No, I'm not here to trick you. I'm calling on you to surrender
to the Son of God. To surrender to Him. That which
is demanded of God can't be put on a human graph or scale. In
fact, I honestly have to tell you that faith in Christ on any
basis of earthly human judgment is a foolish thing. On any basis of earthly judgment,
on any basis of logic or reason, it's a foolish thing. Martin
Luther once wrote, the first thing that faith does is knock
the brains of reason out. Just knocks the brains of reason
out. Listen to our Savior's words,
Matthew chapter 6. When He calls us to believe God,
to trust Him, He says this, If the Lord God, your Heavenly Father,
watches over and feeds the sparrow, The worthless sparrow. You can
buy them two for a penny. A worthless sparrow. Nobody even
bothers to shoot one except the mean boy, because you can't eat
them. Nobody bothers to catch one because you can't do anything
with them. Just a worthless sparrow. If your heavenly father watches
over and feeds worthless sparrows, don't you imagine he'll watch
over you and feed you? He who has numbered the very
hairs of your head. He who before the world began
counted up the hairs on your head and determined the number
of the hairs on your head from the day you were born to the
day you leave this world. Don't you suspect that He'll
protect you and take care of you and provide your every need.
He who clothes the lilies of the field. just the wild flowers
spring up on their own and close them and makes them prettier
than anything you put in your garden. And then they are cut
down with the winter frost like that are mowed away and nobody
thinks a thing about it. Don't you imagine He'll clothe
you too? Matthew 6, 31. Trust Him. Oh, trust Him. Therefore
take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or what shall we
drink? Or wherewithal shall we be clothed?
Why? That's what the pagans lived
for. After these things, what did
the Gentiles think? That's what your neighbors all lived for.
That's what they're biting their fingers right now, just chewing
their nails down to the knuckles, trying to figure out what's going
to happen with the stock market tomorrow. Scared to death. That's all they live
for. Don't begrudge them that. Let
them have it. But don't you do it. Don't you do it. After all
these things do the Gentiles seek. For your Heavenly Father
knoweth that you have need of these things. He knows you need
to have something to eat. He knows you've got to have a
roof over your head. He knows you've got to have clothes on
your back. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things shall be
added to you. Take no thought therefore for
the moral. Now I know you don't have any
problem with this, but sometimes I get to threaten
about stuff. Do you? I can't tell you how I hate to
acknowledge it. I worry like women sometimes. I really do. I used to worry about my daughter. She never gave me any reason
to. I never spent five minutes concerned about what that girl
was doing. It was worry about what I thought she might do.
Worried about what might happen when she got older. Worried about
how she might marry, who she might marry. Started planning
when she was a little girl, you know, man, I'd nudge her over
to meet this fella, nudge her over to meet that fella, nudge
her over to meet the other fella. I'm tickled that she didn't marry
any of them. I really am. I was concerned
about it. But you know what I've never
worried about? I have never one time concerned myself about something
that had already happened. Anybody here? We worry about
stuff that might happen. The Lord says, don't worry about
tomorrow. You might not be there tomorrow. And tomorrow will have
plenty to bother you on its own. Don't sit around and fret. Trust
God for today. And tomorrow, trust Him for today.
And tomorrow, trust Him for today. And tomorrow, trust Him for today.
Sufficient to every day is the evil thereof. Can we really be
expected to trust Christ, really to put Christ first in everything,
is not only expected, it's demanded. Exodus 34. Faith in Christ is never perfect.
But true faith, that which trusts the Son of God in all things
and for all things, is that which trusts Him absolutely. Such faith
compels the believing heart to surrender all things to Christ's
dominion. I know what you're thinking.
I know what you're thinking. Because we can't kick reason
out the door. Brother Don, if I did that, that sounds good,
but if I devote my life entirely to Christ, how can I live in
this world? How can I provide for myself
and my family If I allow nothing to keep me from worshiping God,
nothing to keep me from obeying Him, what's going to happen to
my business? Is it really safe and wise to
trust Him? A few years ago, I was preaching
out in California at Rescue. I got there twice a year. And
several folks attended the conference out there. And I heard some ladies
talking to my wife, Shelby. Most of you know her. She's a
jewel. Next to Christ, best thing ever happened to me. She's a
jewel. And I always kindly listen when
two women get together and are talking about me. And especially
if Shelby's talking about me, because I know she's going to
convince them I'm something else. And these two ladies were asking
Shelby, talking to her, and asking about our lives, and found out,
you know, their nose was round enough to find out we didn't
have anything, don't own anything, live in a parsonage. And they said,
well, If something happens to Brother Don, what's going to
happen to you? If he dies before you do, what's
going to happen to you? And that little old sweet, sweet gal,
always been big in my eyes, she just grew huge. She said, God's
always taking care of me. Something happens to Don, he'll
take care of me then too. Is that really smart? Is that really
the way you want to live? Oh, I want to so bad. I want to live constantly on
the bounty of His hand. Constantly on the bounty of His
hand, surrendering everything to Him. Exodus 34. You remember in the Old Testament,
The Lord God required every male in Israel to leave his land,
his herds, his fields, his business, his home. Most of them admit
leaving wife and children. Leave them three times a year,
no matter where they lived, and travel to Jerusalem, and there
spend a week worshiping him. Now stop and think about that
for a minute. They're pagans around them. These idolaters
all around them, just like folks live around you. They would be
observant of some things. These Jews, these folks take
religion seriously. They take this thing seriously.
Do you know every Saturday, they don't do anything except worship
God? That's all they do. Every Saturday. No matter what's
going on, they just worship God. They quit worrying to worship
God. I mean, if the enemy's around,
they quit fighting to worship God by the time worship comes.
Man, what happened to those folks? You know, every single month,
they observe a special day of worship. Every month. And three
times a year, not just once, three times a year, They have
a week-long Bible conference up at Jerusalem. And every man
in the whole nation is required to go up there and spend a week.
And now we've been watching them. It's time for them to go. Fellas,
when they leave, we can go in and take everything they've got.
We can go in there and take everything they've got. Let's see. The Jews might reasonably fear
that, except for one thing. Exodus 34, 24. Let's begin at
verse 23. Three times in the year shall
all your men, children, appear before the Lord God, the God
of Israel. For I will cast out the nations
before thee, and enlarge thy borders, neither shall What does it say? Neither shall
any man desire thy land when thou shalt go up to appear before
the Lord thy God three times in the year. Now he might want
it the day before you leave. And he might connive and do everything
he can to get it the day you get back. But while you're gone,
he won't want it. Well, I wonder what caused that?
Do you really? And all of this was just symbolical. All of this was just symbolical.
Leviticus 25. Here we have a similar situation. In this passage, the law of God. The Lord God doesn't require the
children of Israel to neglect their livelihoods for a week.
No. How would you think if you were
required to give up everything for a year? Take a sabbatical for a year
with no pay. Everything. Everything. One full
year. every seven years, verses one
through seven. And during this sabbatical year,
they were not allowed to gather crops from the previous year.
They weren't even allowed to gather crops that grew on their
own. If you raise a garden, you have volunteer potatoes that
pop up. That's all right. You can leave them in the ground.
You have volunteer melons that grow. Leave them on the top of
the ground. You have volunteer plants to come up. Volunteer
grapes. Volunteer blackberries. Oh, without
doing a thing, they just come up. If they've ever been planted
there, don't even go gather them. You're not allowed to get anything
out of that garden. Nothing out of the fields. You were not allowed
to take from the previous year, and you weren't allowed to plant
that year. So that means that you can't get anything from your
garden or from your fields for three years. for three years. They had to trust the God they
worshipped, the God they served, miraculously, with no visible
indication to encourage them, with not one visible sign to
lean on. They had to trust him to miraculously
provide for them for three years. Now pastor, that's a test. That's a proving of faith. Look
at verse 18. Was this wise? Was it safe? Wherefore ye shall do all my
statutes, and keep all 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 fill, and dwell therein in safety. And
if ye shall say, what shall we eat 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." Did God really say that? He said,
I'll command my blessing on your fields, and your gardens, and
your crops, and your herds. I'll command my blessing on them
in the sixth year. And that which normally produces
goods for one year at a time. Been doing it now for 49 years. I'll cause it now to bring forth
abundantly for three years. That's what it said. In other
words, the Lord gave this promise. You'll lose nothing by worshiping
me. You shall sow in the eighth year and eat yet of the old fruit
until the ninth year. until the fruits be come in.
You shall eat of the old store. The fact is, rather than losing
by obedience, they gained much. Now I know for some of you, some
younger and some older, this is going to come as a shock to
you. For 42 blessed years, I've been
a constant gainer in God's providence. I've never lost a thing. And
I don't hold anything in my hands. For 42 years. When I was 18 years old, I could preach a pretty
good sermon. on God's faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. I
had it all lined up pretty good. I knew the character of God,
the attributes of God, and I knew the theological revelation of
Scripture and the doctrinal content of Scripture in that regard.
And I could dot the I's across my T's real well. But Brother
Fred, I didn't know one thing about God's faithfulness. Didn't
know one thing about it. I've heard Brother Mahan say
many times, folks used to ask Ralph Barnard, said, Brother
Barnard, do you believe everything in the Bible? He said, I don't
know. I haven't experienced it all yet. And when I was 21, 22
years old, I used to think, why on earth would a fellow say something
like that? Well, now I'm beginning to learn. I'll tell you exactly
what you believe. You believe exactly what you
experience. No more. No more. Until you experience
it, you can't believe it. And now, I've been experiencing
God's faithfulness for a long time. And he has proved himself
faithful. He promised these people safety. Verses 18 and 19, he said, you
shall dwell in the land in safety. Do you know what that means?
Not just physical safety and security. This word safely means
you will be both safe and inwardly confident and secure. You'll neither experience evil
nor the fear of it. Now, I've never experienced any
evil. God give me grace not to know
the fear of it. That's what the word means. He
promised them plenty. Verse 19, you shall eat your
fill. When we're obedient, when we follow Christ, when we
believe Him, when we walk in obedience to
the revealed will of God, we may cheerfully and confidently
trust Him to provide for us, to provide all that we need.
All the time. All the time. Paul wrote to the Philippians,
and he said, out of your need, you've supplied my needs. I said, oh, thank you. Oh, thank
you for your kindness, your thoughtfulness, your generosity. But having said
all that, I've said enough, my God shall supply all your need
according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. What a statement. He didn't say my God shall supply
all of your need out of his riches in glory. That'd be pretty good.
That'd be pretty good. But if I start to give you supply
according to my riches You ain't gonna get much. And if I start
to give you supply out of my riches, no need to stop by the
house. You'll waste your gas. But God,
our Father, supplies our need, all our need, according to His
riches in glory by Christ Jesus. That's how He supplies for His
own. And our Lord promised that these folks would not lack provision
during the year in which they worshipped and served Him. And
they would not lack provision in the year in which they sowed,
and they would not lack provision until they reaped again. He said,
I will command my blessing in the sixth year, and it shall
bring forth fruit for three years. But Brother Don, it looks like
That was a standing miracle in Old Testament history that every
seven years, every seven years, God miraculously showed three
years of wonder providing for us all. That's what it looks
like to me. A standing miracle. I'm here
to tell you Our God still multiplies loaves and fishes. You just take
a few loaves of bread. That doesn't mean loaves like
we buy in the store. That's what we'll pack for his
lunch, just a few pieces of bread and two small fish. Sitting up
there, 5,000 men plus women and children, 20,000 people. Y'all
sitting down there, The Lord's fixing to put on a banquet. And he started breaking the loaves. And just kept breaking them.
And breaking them. And the fish, you know, it's
a fish. It was small. And that basket. And that basket. And that basket. And when it
got done, they took up 12 bushel baskets. And you take 20,000
and everybody stole. Everybody went home. Oh, what
a meal. Oh, that's good. And there was
more when it got done than when it started. That's according
to his riches in glory. Standing miracles. We are standing
miracles of God's grace. Now let me make five statements
and I'll wrap this up. Number one. This kind of obedience, obedience
to Christ, arises from faith. Verse 18, Leviticus 25. Wherefore ye shall do all my
statutes, and keep all my judgments, and do them, and ye shall dwell
in the land in safety. You'll be kept secure and you'll
know it. No evil shall befall you and
you'll have no fear of it. There's no keeping of God's statutes
and judgments except by faith in Christ. When we come to God,
bringing Christ Jesus the Lord, we bring God everything required
in the law. Perfect righteousness, perfect
atonement, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect manhood. We
bring it to God and God says that's enough. I'll take that.
And this faith, this faith that trusts Christ alone, keeping
all God's statutes, bringing to God perfect righteousness,
is that faith that causes men and women to walk before God
in obedience. Throughout the book of Leviticus,
the Lord God calls for obedience. Obedience to that which is revealed
in the book. And he calls for obedience upon
one basis. Look at the end of chapter 25
here, verse 55. Why should Larry Brown and Don
Fortner surrender everything to Christ? Why should Tommy Robbins and
his wife surrender everything to Christ? And they have. I've
watched them. I've watched them. Exemplary. Exemplary. Why should Walter
and Betty Groover surrender everything to Christ? Go down there to Mexico.
Why should Cliff and Marty Heller, an 80-year-old couple, be climbing
the mountains in New Guinea? Surrender everything to Christ.
Why? Why? Why should you, rather than buying
this or buying that or getting this toy or getting that toy,
do this? Why? Why? Verse 55, unto me the
children of Israel are servants. They are my servants, whom I
brought forth out of the land of Egypt. I'm the Lord your God. What could be more reasonable? You're my servants. I bought
you with my own blood. I brought you out of Egypt. That
place of bondage. Out from under the tyranny of
that man who hated you. Out from under the tyranny of
hell itself. I brought you by the power of
my arm. You're mine. I brought you across
the Red Sea. I buried Satan and hell and all
your sins in the sea. You're mine. You're mine. That
gives me the right to expect this from you. Now, what other motive do you
need? What other motive? I'm the Lord your God. You're
bought with a price, children of God. You're not your own. You're not your own. 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 our God and we belong to Him. Nothing we are and nothing we
have is exempted. Everything consecrated to Him. Now I'm here to tell you something.
I pray God will give you grace right now to believe on His Son.
Right where you're sitting, oh may He open heaven and drop down
the bucket of His grace in your heart right now. But I want to
tell you something. Obedience to the will of God
is always costly. It always causes problems. It's
never easy. It always requires that we make
choices, choices that are sometimes very painful. But God still demands
it. And bless His name, He fully
deserves it. Number two, nothing is more likely to keep
you from obedience than worldliness. Now, when I talk about worldliness,
I chose the word deliberately so I could say this. I'm not
talking about the way you comb your hair. I'm not talking about
whether or not you dress in the latest fashion or whether you
dress like a hermit living out in the sticks somewhere. I'm
not talking about whether you watch TV or don't watch TV. I'm
talking about what John calls the love of this world. Some
of the most worldly people I've met in my life wouldn't let their
wives wear makeup for anything in the world. Some of the most
worldly people I've met in my life Look like they lived 150,
200 years ago. The way they dress, make the
kids dress. Worldly folks. They hang on to everything and
reach for more. Worldly folks. Love not the world. Neither the things that are in
the world. If any man loved the world, the love of God is not
in him. Our Lord speaks of that seed
that's sown among thorns. Turn over if you will to Ecclesiastes
3, I'll show you this. He speaks of that seed that's
sown among thorns and he talks about the cares of the world
and the deceitfulness of riches. Let me tell you about the cares
of the world. The cares of the world, hey you are hugging up
Andrew. Educate him. Raise him up. See to it he goes to school.
See to it he's not over, not neglected by anything. He has
opportunities. You see to it that he has opportunity
to go to college. Legitimate cares. The cares of
raising a family. The cares of providing for them.
You men, it's your responsibility. I've been there, I know. I know.
The care, all the care of taking care of the family. And those
cares, oh, how they press. And darling, you can't do that
and take care of your family. If you do that, you've got to
neglect that girl. She's got to do lots of things. She's got to not be involved
in everything everybody else is involved in. You can't do
that! too. She needs the Redeemer and
I do too. More than anything else. Got
to have Him. I don't have to have anything
else. Got to have Him. My family doesn't have to have
anything else. Got to have Him. Got to worship
God. Got to be with God's people.
Got to be in the will of God walking with Christ by faith. That's what it is to believe
in. That's what it is to believe in. Ecclesiastes 3, verse 10. Most people seem to think that
Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes as a man going through a time
of terrible depression and it's just a sad, sad story about a
man who couldn't muster faith in God. Nothing could be further
from the truth. Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes by inspiration just
like he did in Song of Solomon. Verse 10. I've seen the travail
which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He hath made everything beautiful
in his own time. Isn't that good? Now read these
next words and sit up and pay attention. Also, 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. Oh God, don't set the world in my heart.
I pray he won't set it in yours. Third, the Lord God promises
and pledges his providence to protect and to provide for us
as we seek to worship and serve and honor Him in this world.
Verse 18, Leviticus 25. 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 cast out, or you shall eat your field and
dwell therein in safety. Verse 21. Then will I command
my blessing upon you. And the sixth year, in the sixth
year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. Our Lord
Jesus, in Matthew chapter 6 and in Luke chapter 12, tells us
to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And
all these things be added to us is referring specifically
to this passage of scripture. This is what he's talking about.
Do you remember what God promised you? He promised he'd take care
of you. He promised he would. The Lord pledges his providence
in our behalf. He tells us that our primary
purpose on this earth is and must be the will and glory and
kingdom of God, and he says, I'll take care of you. Surely,
that ought to be enough for every believing heart. Our Savior said,
your heavenly Father knoweth you have need of these things.
My daughter is now 37 years old. And my son-in-law, I think Doug
just turned 42. I think that's right. Yeah, 42,
just turned 42. Now, he hasn't been in my house
as long as Faith has. He's only been in the house a little over
15 years. But if I tell them, if I, they
come to me, got anything going on, any kind of problem, doesn't
matter what it is, anything, I'll take care of it. Do you
know what I expect of them? I don't expect to hear about
it again. I expect them to believe I'll take care of it. If I have
to hire somebody else to do it, I'll take care of it. I know. All time faith growing up. All
she had to do was let me know something she was concerned about,
and I'll take care of it. And you know what? When she was
7 and not 37, she really believed I could. And she was confident. Don't have to worry about that
anymore. Damn take care of it. Our Heavenly Father declares
whatever comes down the road, whatever you meet, whatever you
face, I know, I take care of it. Has He ever failed to? We have
every reason to believe Him. We fear losing money, losing
friends, losing relationships, losing the good opinion of our
family, or losing some little toy if we devote ourselves to
Christ. How little we credit God's faithfulness. Has he not promised that he who
works all things together for our good, he who spared not his
own son but delivered him up for us all, to freely give us
all things." He promised he would. He promised he would. Besides,
it's God's blessing, not our industry, not our foresight,
not our skill, that's the source of all safety and provision.
And yet, This fourth thing is true. More than anything else,
more than anything else, that which keeps us from obedience. And the problem, David, is not,
usually is not that we don't know what we ought to do, is
it? How many times in your life as a believer have you really
not known what you ought to do? How many times? Any of you. How
many times in your life as a believer you've been faced with two pretty
sharp choices and you didn't know which one you ought to take?
How many times? Not often. Not often. If ever. But what
keeps us from doing what we know God would have us to do? Fear. Fear. Fear of losing something. If I worship God today rather
than working, I might not be able to meet my obligations.
If I worship God today rather than spend the evening in frivolity
with my family or friends, what will they think of me? They've
come all the way from North Carolina to visit me this week and I just
can't leave them and go worship God. Well, I believe I'd rather
do that than go to hell with them. If I give my money to support
the cause of Christ, how can I wisely and prudently expect
to provide for my family? There was a king in Judah by
the name of Zedekiah, a whining, whimpering, wimpish king who
discovered painfully that it would have been far, far more
safe, far more wise to obey God than to have been kept from obedience
by his fear. His fear of some Jews who had
gone over to the Babylonians and the Babylonian king himself.
He said, He said to Jeremiah, I can't do this. I can't do what
you've commanded me. I can't do what God's commanded
me because of the fear of the Jews and of the king of Babylon. And in the eleventh year of his
reign, the king of Babylon came in, plucked out his eyes, bound
him, and carried him captive with all his kingdom into Babylon. Oh God, teach me not to live
with fear, but with faith. One last thing. Look at Leviticus
25, 21. Here's a promise. We will never impoverish ourselves. We will never suffer any loss
by honoring our Redeemer. Then will I command my blessing
upon you. I've been young and now I'm old. And I've never seen the righteous
forsaken. I've never seen his seed-begging
bread. If you have, I'll sit down and
shut up and let you talk. I've never seen it happen. Our Lord said to his disciples,
when I sent you without purse and script and shoes, I sent
you out to preach my gospel. I sent you out two by two and
I told you, don't you dare Carry any money
in your pocket. Don't take your money. Leave
it home. Don't do it. And don't take an extra pair
of shoes and don't take an extra coat. All you need is one. That's
all you need. And don't pack your own lunch. Don't do it. Don't do it. You
just go preach the gospel. You go do what I commanded you. I sent you out and I told you
don't go from house to house. Don't go knocking on the door
with your hand out and go begging. It's another sermon, preachers.
Begging. God told me I ought to go do
this. Now I'm going to go beg you to give me some money so
I can go do it. Stay at home. Don't go begging. Don't go begging.
If God told you to do it, you can do it. And you can do it
whether anybody else is involved or whether they're not. Don't
go begging. He said, when I sent you out
like that, Like ye anything? Like ye anything? Like ye anything?