The title for the message this
evening is contentment, confidence and courage. Now, there are three
things that I am quite sure everybody listening wants to possess. Contentment. confidence and courage. And the command of verse five
is really a continuation of what he said in verse one, when he
says, let your conversation be without covetousness. He says
in verse one, let brotherly love continue. Secondly, love strangers. Be not forgetful to entertain
strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Then love people who are bound
for the gospel. Remember them that are in bonds
as bound with them, and them which suffer adversities yourselves,
being also in the body. Love your spouse. Marriage is
honorable in all, and to bed undefiled in whoremongers and
adulterers God will judge and love your neighbor. Let your conversation be without
covetousness. Love your neighbor. Now, why
am I saying that? Turn back to Exodus chapter 20. This is the 10th of the Ten Commandments. And this has to do more with
the heart than any other of the commandments. They all have to
do with the heart, but you can outwardly keep from killing somebody. You can outwardly keep from lying.
You can outwardly keep these other commandments, because this
is something that deals with the inside. Now, look what it
says in verse 17. This is the 10th commandment. Thou shalt
not covet. thy neighbor's house, thou shalt
not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant,
nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's."
Now, what is covetousness? It is desiring what belongs to
your neighbor. There is an element of covetousness
in every sin. For instance, our first parents
were coveting what belonged to God when they fell. They coveted
equality to Him. They were desiring that which
they did not have. Now, Paul tells us that covetousness
is idolatry. In Colossians chapter three,
verse five, that's what it is. It is idolatry. Now, this thing of covetousness
is expressed in many different ways. Complaining. Jealousy and envy. Craving what
we don't have. Anxiety over the future. All of those things are forms
of covetousness. It is the sin that is most inward,
and I believe most, well, they're all impossible to refrain from.
I realize that, but there's something about this. All I got to do is
say, don't covet. What are you going to do? That's
all I got to say. Don't covet. Don't covet. Turn to Romans chapter 7. Look
what Paul said. You know, it's interesting why
you're turning there. I was reading several things about covetousness
and I came across something where a priest, I can't get my mind
around the whole idea of men confessing their sins to another
man. I mean, that's, well, you know what that is. But at any
rate, the priest made this statement regarding the confessions people
made to him. He said, people have confessed every sin to me
but covetousness. That's the only one they haven't.
But yet, men and women are so full of covetousness. Look in
Romans chapter 7, verse 7. Paul says, what shall we say
then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known
sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust. wicked desire,
craving, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the
commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence, lust,
covetousness. As soon as I was commanded, don't
covet, covetousness just flew out of me. It just flowed from
me. That's all I did. Verse 8, for
without the law, sin was dead. When I didn't know what the law
said, I didn't realize what I was, for I was alive without the law
at once. But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died,
and the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to
be to death. For sin, taking occasion by the
commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore, the
law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Now, the Lord said to His disciples,
this is the only time He gave a double warning. He said, Beware
a lot. He said, Take heed a lot. But
regarding this thing of covetousness, He said, Beware and take heed
of covetousness. And here, the writer to Hebrew
says, let your conversation be without covetousness. And that's a command. Let your
conduct, let your thinking, let your manner of life be without
covetousness, be content Be satisfied with such things as you have. Now, somebody's thinking that
is impossible. That is utterly impossible. I mean, you cannot stop from
coveting. The only way you could ever be
free from covetousness is if you have everything and there
is nothing to covet. That's true. That's true. If you have Christ, what do you
have? Colossians, chapter three, verse
11, says Christ is all. In Colossians, chapter two, verse
10, verses nine and 10, we read, In him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead. Now that's, how big is that? In him dwells, resides all the
fullness of the Godhead and you are, what's the next word? Complete. You have all the fullness of
the Godhead in him. Let me show you this in Scripture.
Turn to Genesis chapter 33. Jacob and Esau. And we know something
about these fellows. They're two representative men.
Remember, two manner of men. You read about them in Genesis
25, Jacob and Esau. Jacob's the one God loved, Esau's
the one God hated. But their character is demonstrated
in this passage of Scripture. Now, this is where Jacob is scared
to death. He's finally coming back to Esau
after he's been gone 20 years, and he's afraid Esau is going
to hurt him. So he starts, remember, sending out a bunch of gifts
and camels and cattle and servants? Here's some, and then another
bunch will come, another bunch will come. And he thought maybe
he could keep Esau from being too mad at him. But here's what
Esau says about all this in Genesis chapter 33, verse 8. And he said,
What meanest thou by all this drove, which I meant? And he
said, Jacob said, These are to find grace in the sight of my
Lord. And Esau said, I have enough, my brother. Keep that thou hast
unto thyself. I've got I've got enough. Don't
need anything else. I've got enough. And Jacob said,
Nay, I pray thee, for if now I found grace in thy sight, then
receive my present at my hand. For therefore have I seen thy
face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased
with me. Take, I pray thee, my blessing that is brought to thee,
because God hath dealt graciously with me, because I have enough. Now the word enough here is a
different word than the word where Esau said, I had enough.
It's a completely different Hebrew word. And if you've got a marginal
reference, it says, I have all. I have all. I don't just have
enough. I don't have plenty. I have everything. I have all. Be content. with such things
as you have. Let your conversation be without
covetousness. Just be content. Now, does that
mean be satisfied with what you have materially? Well, that's
a good thing, isn't it? All of us live like kings. Be
content with what you have materially. Be content with your home and
your car and your position in life. That's a good place to
be. And there's freedom in that. I love that passage of scripture
where Paul says, having food and rain, but let us be there
with satisfied. Got something to eat? You got
some clothing? What else you need? Really? What
else you need? As far as that goes, that food
and that clothing, you have Christ as your clothing. You have his
grace. You have his spirit. You have
himself as your food. That's not only talking about
physical It's talking about spiritual too. Be content with such things
as you have. Be satisfied. But does that mean
it would be wrong for me to ever buy a new vehicle? Or move into
a new home? I feel quite sure that that's
really not what this passage of scripture is teaching. Now,
we should be content with the things that we have and we shouldn't
be. We ought to be content with the place God has put us. We
ought to be thankful for that. But when he says be content with
such things as you have, well, what do you have? I have Christ. I have the forgiveness of sins.
I have the promise of Romans 828 that everything is working
together for my good. I have justification before God. I stand before God without guilt
right now. I have the very righteousness
and merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have the promise of
God's favor. I have Christ in me, the hope
of glory. I have God the Holy Spirit. I have the keeping power of God. Turn with me to Romans 8, just
for a moment. Romans 8. Be content with such things as
you have. We've got some pretty glorious things, don't we? Be
satisfied with such things as you have. Now, Paul says in verse
31, What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us,
who can be against us? There is absolutely nothing to
intimidate me. God is for me. Verse 32. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Now, who's the us? The us is
everybody. The us is his elect. Those who he foreknow, those
who he predestinated, his people. But he has this, every one of
his people have this promise. There's nothing that could prevent
God from giving you all of his blessing because he spared not
his own son. So what could possibly prevent
him from freely giving you all things? He's already given everything. He gave you his son. Verse 33,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? There's
nothing to prosecute you for. It's God that justifies. Who
is he that can condemn? There's nothing to condemn you
for. It's Christ that died, yea, rather, that's risen again, who's
even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for
us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Now look
what you have. Look what you have. Of him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. Look what you have. What about
your past? We all have history, don't we?
We all have a past. Let me tell you something about
my past. In the land slain from the foundation of the world.
What a glorious past. According as he has chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world. I've got a glorious
present accepted in the beloved right now. I have a glorious
future. I'm going to be made just like Christ. It's guaranteed. It's already done by what he's
done. I have the promise of all I need. I have the promise that
he'll never leave me nor forsake me. I have the promise that I'll
have all I need materially and spiritually. What is there to
covet? Now, come on, what is there?
If I believe what I'm saying, what is there to covet. I even believe that everything
he withholds from me that I think I want is best, and I'm thankful
for that. There's nothing to covet. Whatever
he does is right. There's nothing to covet. Now,
I've heard numerous times over the years somebody responding
to this kind of preaching, salvation by grace, sovereign grace, salvation
utterly By the grace of God, there's got to be something else.
There's got to be something else. And the reason you say that is
because you've never heard, because there is nothing else. This is
the most glorious thing to simply be in Christ. This is what makes
somebody never thirst again. The Lord said, who shall drink
of this water, this natural water, they're going to thirst again.
But who shall drink of the water that I shall give shall never
thirst again. I'm not thirsting for anything
else. I'm not coveting anything. I
just want to be found in Christ. That's it. That's it. What's
your one desire? When God comes looking for me,
I want to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's my one and
my only desire. And there's nothing to covet. You know, the gospel is just
so glorious. I think of what John Newton said,
content, content with beholding his face, my all to his pleasure
resign. No changes of season and place
would make any change in my mind. When blessed with a sense of
His love, a palace, a toy, would appear. And prisons would palaces
prove if Jesus would dwell with me there. You know, every believer
believes that and enters into it, just content for Him to know
me. I have nothing to covet. John Bunyan, I love thinking
about this, John Bunyan went to visit a widow, a very poor
widow, and eat with her. And he sat down for bread and
water. That's all she had to give him. Now, I want you ladies
to think about if somebody came to your house and all you had
to give them was bread and water. That was it. And she sat down
and she looked at Bunyan and said, Christ, did all this do?
Now, that's the attitude I want to have. Do you want to know how you can
personally glorify Christ the most? By being content with Him
only. That's it. Paul said, I've learned
in whatsoever state, I am therewith to be content. That's the first
point. Contentment. The second point
is confidence. Turn back to Hebrews chapter
13. Let your conversation, verse
five, your manner of life, your conduct be without covetousness
and be content, be satisfied with such things as you have.
For he has said. I will never leave thee nor forsake
thee. So that we may boldly. With confidence,
say the Lord is my helper. And I will not fear what man
can do unto me." Now, confidence. I want confidence, don't you?
I want confidence in the Lord. I want to have a personal confidence
in Him. I want to have confidence that I know Him, that He knows
me. I want to have confidence that I'm really, truly a believer.
I want this confidence of knowing His hand is upon me. And I want
this confidence of having Him say to me, I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. I want that, don't you? I'm not
just talking about having self-confidence. I'd rather feel like I'm able
to do something, like when I am going to perform some kind
of task, like trying to do some kind of plumbing, I like to think
I know what I'm doing. If I know what I'm doing, I feel a whole lot better
about it than when I don't, because I don't have any self-confidence.
But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about that kind of
self-confidence about being able to do something. I'm talking about
the confidence of knowing God's favor is toward me. I'm talking
about the confidence of knowing that he loves me, that I am my
beloved, and he is mine. That's the confidence I'm talking
about. I'm talking about the confidence to think that these
promises of the scripture apply to me. So I can boldly say the
Lord is my helper. I'm not going to fear what any
man can do to me. That's the kind of confidence I'm talking
about. Now, in the original, There are five negatives used. I will never, never, no, never,
never, never leave thee nor forsake thee. Now, that's God's promise
to every one of his children. Now, first, we really don't have any confidence
in anything unless he said it. Here's where our confidence begins.
The Lord said, he said, we have in his word. And this is for
every believer. He said that we wouldn't dare
take this to ourselves if he didn't say it. But because he
said it, we have confidence that it's true. He has said, I will
never leave you. I'll never forsake you. Five negatives now, Arthur Pink
wrote a book on numerology. And he knows a whole lot more
than I do, obviously, about stuff like that, but he said the number
five is the number for grace. And I can't remember why he said
that, but he did say that. He gave a good reason for it.
I remember when I was looking up a message I brought a few
months ago on the five stones of David, why five, and then
Pete said that that's the number of grace. I wish I could remember
why he said it. It made a lot of sense, and I'm
just tantalizing you all to talk like this, and I can't remember.
Sorry. But I'll find out and let you know at another time.
But at any rate, five negatives, I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee. And I love this argument. He
doesn't say be content with such things as you have, or I'll take
away what you do have. He doesn't say be content with
such things as you have, or I'll take it out the coffin. He doesn't
say, be content with such things as you have, or I'm going to
send you trials and you're really going to be sorry that you had
such a rotten attitude. He doesn't say anything like
that. That's the way we think. But here's what he said. Be content
with such things as you have, for I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. It's not going to happen. Remember, at the end of this,
I will say when I can read my title clear, the mansions in
the sky, you know, that hearing him say to me, I'll never leave
you nor forsake you. And believer, you will never
be left. You will never be abandoned by
the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't care how far you wander
off. I don't care how deep down into the muck and the mire you
sink. I don't care how far you fall,
what is the promise? I will never leave you nor forsake
you. The Lord said my sheep shall
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
I'll never loosen my grip. I'll never leave you. I'll never
forsake you. Now let me give you four reasons
why the Lord will not forsake his people. Four reasons why
he will not forsake me for any reason. Here's the first reason. Because he said he wouldn't.
And that's enough. The Lord's word is faithful.
He cannot lie. He made this promise. He said
he wouldn't, and he will not do it. He's always faithful to
his word. He said he wouldn't, and he won't. Here's the second reason he won't
forsake me. Because of his relationship with me. He's my husband. And he won't divorce me. He just
won't do it. He said, I hate divorce and he
will not divorce me. He's my husband. He's my Lord. He's my savior. But I like thinking
about this of him being my husband. I'm not I'm I'm a rotten wife. I'm like Gomer. But what a husband
he is. Here's the third reason. Because
of union with himself. For him to forsake me, he'd have
to forsake himself. What's that passage of scripture
there in 2 Timothy 2, verse 13? If we believe not, yet he abided
faithful. He cannot forsake himself or
cannot deny himself. He's got to be faithful. For
him to forsake me, he'd be forsaken himself because I'm one with
him. I'm united to him. Always have been. I'm in the
beloved. And for him to forsake me, he'd
have to forsake himself. That can't happen. This thing
of union with Christ is so glorious. It's beyond understanding, but
boy, we sure believe it, don't we? United to him. He can't forsake
me. And here's the fourth reason.
And in some respects, I like this reason best. He won't forsake
me because He doesn't have a reason to. Why would He? I'm perfect. Why
would He? I have no sin. 1 John 3 verse
5 says, He was manifested to take away our sin. Now did He
do it? He did it. He was manifested
to take away our sin and in Him is no sin. He doesn't have a
reason to forsake me. Now, I can think of all kinds
of reasons, and I felt forsaken. I felt far off. I felt down.
I felt low. I felt all those things I told
you. But here's the fact of the matter. He does not have a reason
because every believer stands before him wholly unblameable
and unapprovable. That's why he will not forsake
his people. Aren't you thankful for that
promise? He said, I'll never leave you. nor forsake you."
And that's why we can boldly say, we can say this with confidence. It's from what he said. This
is where our confidence comes from. He said, I will never leave
you nor forsake you. Courage. Verse 6, so that we may boldly
say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall
do unto me. Now there's courage. Turn to
Psalm 27 for a moment. Psalm 27. David says, The Lord is my light
and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When
the wicked, even mine enemies, my foes, came upon me to eat
up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though in host an army
should camp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should
rise up against me, in this will I be confident. One thing have
I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may
dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold
the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple." Now this
is the one thing I desire. He's not talking about a physical
temple. He's not talking about a building.
Christ Jesus is the house of the Lord, and this is the one
thing I've desired, to dwell in His house, to only be found
in Him, to inquire into His temple and behold His beauty. As God is my witness, all I want is to be found in
Christ. That's it. And with him as my
helper, what do I have to fear? I want you to think of how powerful
the Lord is and how weak men are. You take the strongest man
alive, and what is he? He's altogether vanity. His breath is in his nostrils.
It can be removed just like that. I think of what our Lord said
to Pilate. Pilate said, answer shall not
me. He was offended. Knowest thou
not that I have power to crucify thee, and I have power to release
thee? The Lord said, you don't have any power at all over me. None, not us, except it be given
thee from above. What man is there to fear? Proverbs 21 verse 1 says the
king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water
he turneth it whither so ever he will. Turn to Matthew chapter
10. Verse 28. Fear not them which kill the
body, but are not able to kill the
soul. You know, there are people who
can kill you. You can be put into positions
where you might get murdered. It might be in serving the Lord.
You get put into positions where you might be put to death. If you are, he did it. He allowed
it. You don't need to fear that one
who can kill you. That person is in the Lord's
hands, isn't he? Fear not them which kill the
body but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him
which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for
farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without
your father. Look how much control he has
over everything. I mean, when a sparrow falls
to the ground, that was of the Lord. Verse 30, but the very
hairs of your head are all numbered. The Lord God knows exactly how
much hair you have. It's all numbered by him. That
means he cares. Fear not. Therefore, you are
more value than many sparrows. The Lord is my helper. The Lord
God Almighty. The Lord God omniscient who has
all wisdom. The Lord God omnipresent who's
everywhere and I can't go anywhere where he's not. The Lord is my
helper. And this thing of the Lord being
my helper, what does that mean? Does that mean, well, he helped
me get this job, or he helped me achieve this certain thing? And that's good. We ask the Lord
to help us in everything. I mean, anything, ask the Lord
to help you. But when I think of the Lord's
help, I tell you what, He helped me when He stood at my surety.
And He agreed to bear the complete responsibility of my salvation.
Oh, how He helped me then. He helped me when he kept the
law for me and obeyed God for me. He helped me when he put
away my sins. He helped me when he justified
me, when he was raised from the dead. He helped me when he ascended
back to the Father as my great high priest and intercessor.
He helped me when he gave me a new heart, when he said, live,
and I lived. He helps me now as he preserves
me. And I'll tell you what, I understand
his help. Most of all, when I stand before judgment, before God in
judgment, and he says, present and accountable, I'm going to
say, the Lord is my helper. And I will not fear what man
can do unto me. With him as my helper, I'm courageous. I'm like that mouse riding on
that elephant's back. And that elephant was going across
a wooden bridge, and it was creaking and groaning and trembling. And
that mouse said to the elephant, he said, we sure gave that a
good shaking. With the Lord as my helper, I
will not fear what man shall do unto me. May the Lord enable me and you
for our conversation to be without covetousness. May you and I be
enabled to truly be content with such things as we have. May you and I have the confidence,
the confidence Because of what he said. He said, I'll never
leave you nor forsake you. It's not going to happen. So
that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper. And may we have
this courage where we will not fear what any man can do because
of our fear of the Lord himself. Now, we're going to have a baptism
and let me remind you what baptism is. Courtney Howard is going
to confess Christ and believers baptism. When I'm baptized. First of all, it's an act of
obedience to the Lord. That's very important. I've heard
people use the argument, well, I don't feel led to be baptized.
And I've always found that kind of amusing. It's kind of like
my dad telling me to do something. I'd say, I don't feel like to
do that. Well, there would be some severe repercussions to
that. You're commanded to. Every believer
is commanded to confess Christ in believer's baptism. What does baptism mean? Baptism
by immersion. I am saying publicly. That my
hope of salvation, and my only hope of salvation, is that when
Christ lived and obeyed the law, I was in Him. And when He died,
I was in Him. And when He was raised from the
dead, I was in Him. This is my hope, and I, in the
act of baptism, reject all other hopes. Who should be baptized? Anybody
who believes. What's the one requirement for
baptism? Faith in Christ. That's it. Really believing that He is your
only hope. That you look to Him only. You're resting in Him as the
reason God will accept you. No other reasons. That's the
requirement for baptism. Anybody who believes. Well, I
don't know enough. When will we ever know enough?
I don't think I have enough experience as a believer. No doubt. All
that stuff doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter. Do
you believe the gospel? Now, here, let me leave you with
this scripture. This is one of my favorite scriptures.
I've got a lot of favorite scriptures. This is one of my favorite, favorite
ones. It's where the Ethiopian eunuch has listened to Philip
preach the gospel. And no doubt, Philip said something
about baptism because he said, see, here's water. What does
hinder me from being baptized? Now, I know the sermon he heard.
He heard from Isaiah 53, the substitutionary work of Christ
on the cross. And he looked at himself, and
he thought, is there a reason why I shouldn't be baptized?
And he was humbly asking this. He thought, maybe I shouldn't.
Maybe I don't know enough. Maybe I don't understand enough.
Maybe I should wait and see if I hold out. I remember one time
somebody said, you've got to wait three years after you ask
for baptism and see how you look. I'm going to just creep, you
know, see how you hold on, see if you live a holy life for 30
years. You know, that, you know, just. More religion is a wicked thing,
but in any rate, in this thing of what hinders me right now,
me, what hinders me from being baptized? And Philip said, if
you believe with all your heart, you may. And what was his answer? I believe that Jesus Christ is
the son of God. He didn't say, I believe I'm
saved. He didn't say, I believe I'm a Christian. He didn't say,
I believe I'm one of the elect. He didn't say, I believe that
I've been regenerated. He said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. Do you believe that? That is who is to confess Christ
in Believer's Baptism. Duane, could you come and lead
us in?