WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.339 To sit and open your Bibles to Hebrews 13. 00:00:04.839 --> 00:00:07.080 Hebrews 13, we've finished up a series in Philippians. 00:00:07.080 --> 00:00:07.160 ! 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:32.859 So we'll get into a new series then. 00:00:33.380 --> 00:00:38.480 And so I was preparing this evening a sermon, which let me give you a little trailer for it. 00:00:38.480 --> 00:00:46.700 It's going to be on verse 17 about obeying your leaders, about what is the duty of a church family to the church elders, to their leaders. 00:00:48.679 --> 00:00:55.859 And as I was looking at earlier on in the week, I just saw really afresh the promise of verse 5. 00:00:56.420 --> 00:00:56.740 Is it? 00:00:56.740 --> 00:01:02.380 I'm halfway through verse 5 and start at verse 6. 00:01:02.460 --> 00:01:03.840 They're really wonderful words, aren't they? 00:01:04.219 --> 00:01:12.700 For he has said, or literally he himself has said, speaking about God, I will never leave you or forsake you. 00:01:14.700 --> 00:01:18.700 So we can confidently say this morning as to people of God, the Lord is my helper. 00:01:19.900 --> 00:01:21.060 I will not fear. 00:01:22.480 --> 00:01:23.620 And what can man do to me? 00:01:23.620 --> 00:01:30.439 They are the kind of verses, aren't they, that you can build your life on. 00:01:32.660 --> 00:01:37.400 They are the kind of verses that can get you through the darkest of days. 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:44.900 In many ways, those verses are the foundation of how you live out the Christian life. 00:01:44.900 --> 00:01:49.060 Certainly how you serve his church. 00:01:51.760 --> 00:01:58.920 We should build our lives, we should build our church on this fact that God is pledged to be with his people. 00:02:00.939 --> 00:02:02.700 And he covenants with them. 00:02:02.800 --> 00:02:09.120 He makes a solemn vow that he will never leave them, nor will he forsake them. 00:02:09.120 --> 00:02:15.659 There are times in our lives, aren't there, when God, I think, delights to come to us. 00:02:15.860 --> 00:02:19.280 And it's as if he pledges himself to us all over again. 00:02:21.140 --> 00:02:26.219 And during those times, we need to respond freshly and confidently to God. 00:02:27.340 --> 00:02:30.300 And we need to say to him those words in verse 6. 00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:31.740 The Lord is my helper. 00:02:32.099 --> 00:02:32.960 I will not fear. 00:02:33.080 --> 00:02:34.300 What can man do to me? 00:02:34.300 --> 00:02:35.740 I will not be afraid. 00:02:39.480 --> 00:02:42.860 It's an anchor, isn't it, this verse, that gives you hope this morning. 00:02:44.280 --> 00:02:47.219 For all your days, no matter how many God may give you. 00:02:47.380 --> 00:02:50.100 There's two backgrounds that you need to know. 00:02:51.160 --> 00:02:54.780 One is the general background in the epistle to the Hebrews. 00:02:56.340 --> 00:03:01.460 These Christians, these Hebrew Christians, you might know the book, 00:03:01.460 --> 00:03:03.860 and you might realize they were discouraged people. 00:03:05.160 --> 00:03:07.060 They were people under pressure. 00:03:08.140 --> 00:03:10.500 They were going through difficult and hard times. 00:03:11.900 --> 00:03:14.960 They'd been assaulted by the devil in all sorts of ways. 00:03:15.180 --> 00:03:18.500 And the danger was that they drifted from God. 00:03:18.580 --> 00:03:23.700 And they drifted from righteousness, right living, and they drifted from truth. 00:03:23.780 --> 00:03:25.439 You can see that in verse 7, can't you? 00:03:28.340 --> 00:03:29.820 Sorry, in verse 9. 00:03:29.819 --> 00:03:32.840 He says to them, do not be led away. 00:03:32.959 --> 00:03:37.419 Do not drift away by diverse and strange teachings. 00:03:37.419 --> 00:03:41.619 They were tending to drift away from righteousness. 00:03:43.319 --> 00:03:46.560 And so he has to say to them, God will judge, won't he? 00:03:46.619 --> 00:03:49.479 He will deal with the immoral and adulterous person. 00:03:49.479 --> 00:03:53.319 Keep your life free from the love of money. 00:03:54.239 --> 00:03:55.959 And so there's the general background. 00:03:57.319 --> 00:04:02.459 This sense of weakness and incapacity and insufficiency that these people had. 00:04:02.460 --> 00:04:08.280 They're in the middle of a period where it was so tempting to drift away from God. 00:04:09.980 --> 00:04:14.219 And the particular background is the immediate warning you find surrounding these verses. 00:04:14.219 --> 00:04:14.939 Can you see it? 00:04:15.040 --> 00:04:21.220 It's this warning against ambitions and striving and affections being set on the wrong things. 00:04:21.220 --> 00:04:26.880 So he says to them, he says, keep your life free from the love of money. 00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:31.700 He appeals to them, don't love money. 00:04:32.760 --> 00:04:36.300 It's a warning against covetousness, that tenth commandment. 00:04:38.060 --> 00:04:40.280 It's a broader warning than that, isn't it? 00:04:40.300 --> 00:04:42.520 About our ambitions and our affections. 00:04:42.680 --> 00:04:45.200 Don't set them on the wrong thing. 00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:54.500 Don't put your confidence and hope for security in things or people other than God. 00:04:56.459 --> 00:05:00.819 And there are times, aren't there, when you and I need to be freshly warned against that kind of thing. 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:10.759 Where we need to be armed against the ever-present tendency to put our ambitions and our affections in the wrong places. 00:05:10.759 --> 00:05:17.339 To put our confidence and our ambitions somewhere else than in God. 00:05:19.300 --> 00:05:20.779 And to do that secretly. 00:05:23.279 --> 00:05:30.420 So that on the surface, our real confidence and our real ambition and our real affection is centered on him. 00:05:30.539 --> 00:05:38.719 But beneath the surface, how easy it is to find that we're drifting. 00:05:38.720 --> 00:05:42.900 Drifting never begins publicly, does it? 00:05:44.500 --> 00:05:47.180 And drifting spiritually always begins privately. 00:05:48.020 --> 00:05:48.760 And secretly. 00:05:49.900 --> 00:05:51.900 In the hidden areas of our lives. 00:05:53.500 --> 00:05:57.040 And so as we come to these verses, I hope that we're encouraged and exhorted from God. 00:05:58.160 --> 00:05:59.180 From this particular word. 00:05:59.260 --> 00:05:59.820 Can you see it again? 00:05:59.960 --> 00:06:03.120 I will never leave you, nor forsake you. 00:06:03.480 --> 00:06:07.120 And because of that, we can confidently say, the Lord is my help, but I'll not be afraid. 00:06:07.120 --> 00:06:10.040 I want to ask three questions. 00:06:10.500 --> 00:06:12.560 The longest section is the answer to the first one. 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:16.500 The first question is, what is it that God is pledging to us? 00:06:16.819 --> 00:06:17.379 Us, his people. 00:06:18.860 --> 00:06:23.439 And secondly, how can we be sure of what he's pledging? 00:06:24.459 --> 00:06:27.000 And the third thing is, what difference it will make in our lives? 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:31.180 So the first point, what is God pledging to his people? 00:06:31.259 --> 00:06:32.899 What is God guaranteeing in this verse? 00:06:33.579 --> 00:06:35.819 When he says, I will never leave you, nor forsake you. 00:06:37.540 --> 00:06:39.100 It's almost too obvious, isn't it? 00:06:40.360 --> 00:06:41.060 It's too obvious. 00:06:41.160 --> 00:06:41.839 What's he promising? 00:06:41.939 --> 00:06:43.000 He's promising his presence. 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:49.399 He is guaranteeing his abiding presence with his people. 00:06:49.399 --> 00:06:54.839 That's precisely where God wants us to focus our attention upon. 00:06:54.979 --> 00:07:02.179 Because if God's people were to realize that, that is the key to everything in the Christian life. 00:07:03.500 --> 00:07:08.159 That's why this promise is repeated again and again and again in the Bible. 00:07:08.339 --> 00:07:09.500 I don't know if you picked that up. 00:07:13.060 --> 00:07:16.939 He says, doesn't it, where I have said, where he has said it. 00:07:16.939 --> 00:07:22.279 And so as you read this verse, you think, well, where has he said it? 00:07:22.379 --> 00:07:24.339 Where has he said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you? 00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:30.980 And the answer is, he said it again and again and again in the Bible. 00:07:31.019 --> 00:07:35.759 Because it's the secret of everything for God's people at every stage of their lives. 00:07:35.860 --> 00:07:37.480 I will not leave you, nor forsake you. 00:07:39.060 --> 00:07:42.019 And so therefore, we may confidently say, the Lord is my helper. 00:07:42.959 --> 00:07:44.779 And so you find God saying it in Genesis 28. 00:07:44.779 --> 00:07:45.579 He goes to Jacob. 00:07:46.939 --> 00:07:49.639 And he says to Jacob, I will never leave you, nor forsake you. 00:07:50.719 --> 00:07:52.100 Or you go to Matthew 28. 00:07:52.920 --> 00:07:55.540 Where the risen Jesus speaks to his disciples. 00:07:55.740 --> 00:07:56.459 And he says, do you remember? 00:07:56.779 --> 00:07:58.699 I am with you to the end of the age. 00:07:59.019 --> 00:08:03.300 And throughout the whole of the Bible, God is constantly affirming to his people. 00:08:04.519 --> 00:08:05.220 I am with you. 00:08:07.720 --> 00:08:09.240 That's one of the most famous occasions. 00:08:09.360 --> 00:08:11.339 It's when Moses is afraid. 00:08:11.339 --> 00:08:15.019 And he's apprehensive about what God is calling him to do. 00:08:16.219 --> 00:08:18.459 And God says to him in Exodus 33. 00:08:18.659 --> 00:08:20.859 He says, my presence will go with you. 00:08:22.159 --> 00:08:23.299 And Moses responds. 00:08:23.399 --> 00:08:24.979 He's begun to understand what this means. 00:08:25.039 --> 00:08:28.919 And he says, if your presence will not go with us, God, we will not go. 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:34.879 And what Moses is saying, and what God is teaching his people here, and all the way through the Bible, 00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:40.899 is that everything that you as a believer in God need is found in God. 00:08:40.899 --> 00:08:44.439 And in what God is to him. 00:08:47.579 --> 00:08:50.539 And it's because we've either not grasped that, 00:08:51.539 --> 00:08:55.620 or because deep down in our hearts we've not believed it. 00:08:55.720 --> 00:08:56.500 We act. 00:08:57.740 --> 00:09:01.100 And we find ourselves with our ambitions elsewhere. 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:06.919 Our help and our security elsewhere, somewhere else. 00:09:06.919 --> 00:09:11.539 And our whole life taking a different shape from the shape that God intends it to. 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:19.379 I say to you this morning, God knows how little we've really taken it in. 00:09:21.039 --> 00:09:25.639 That everything the believer needs in this world is found in God. 00:09:27.079 --> 00:09:28.579 And all that God is to him. 00:09:30.159 --> 00:09:32.559 And that's what God is pressing upon you this morning. 00:09:32.559 --> 00:09:37.179 It's not, you'll notice, in his gifts. 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:40.439 It's not in his blessings. 00:09:41.219 --> 00:09:42.679 That you find all that you need. 00:09:44.559 --> 00:09:45.739 It's in God. 00:09:48.219 --> 00:09:51.699 It's in God you are able to call upon the things that you need. 00:09:52.459 --> 00:09:53.679 And he will provide you with them. 00:09:55.919 --> 00:09:58.859 The believer's sufficiency is in God. 00:09:58.860 --> 00:10:02.539 And in what he is in himself to us. 00:10:04.279 --> 00:10:08.519 And that's why true contentment and true fulfillment always escape the Christian 00:10:08.519 --> 00:10:13.960 who's secretly living with something else at the center of their life other than God. 00:10:15.980 --> 00:10:19.039 And you could give examples of that in your own life and I could in mine. 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:25.459 We've been created and we've been redeemed in such a way that underscores this truth 00:10:25.459 --> 00:10:30.740 that there is fullness that precisely matches the empty human heart. 00:10:32.799 --> 00:10:33.839 In God. 00:10:35.279 --> 00:10:42.480 There's a fullness in God that precisely answers every ache and every cry that's in your heart. 00:10:42.480 --> 00:10:49.720 The answer to your issues and your concerns and your anxieties is found in him. 00:10:51.240 --> 00:10:55.100 And the reason why contentment and fulfillment escape us so often 00:10:55.100 --> 00:11:01.000 and frustration and a kind of spirit of grumbling and discontentment fill our hearts 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:05.960 is that we've put our affections somewhere else other than in God. 00:11:05.960 --> 00:11:15.040 You know the hymn, O Jesus, joy of loving hearts, thou faint of life, thou light of men. 00:11:16.259 --> 00:11:21.120 From fullest bliss that earth imparts we turn unfilled to you again. 00:11:21.460 --> 00:11:23.900 We turn unfilled to you again. 00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:30.500 It's the presence of God which God pledges to the believer. 00:11:30.500 --> 00:11:35.620 You get it in the Psalms. 00:11:35.740 --> 00:11:36.820 Do you remember David is in the wilderness? 00:11:39.019 --> 00:11:41.200 He's in an awful condition but it doesn't matter to him. 00:11:41.259 --> 00:11:42.860 He says, O God, you are my God. 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:44.019 Earnestly I seek you. 00:11:45.139 --> 00:11:46.620 My soul thirsts for you. 00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:50.899 My flesh faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there's no water. 00:11:51.360 --> 00:11:55.000 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food. 00:11:55.080 --> 00:11:58.019 And my mouth will praise you with joyful lips. 00:11:58.019 --> 00:12:04.039 When I remember you upon my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night. 00:12:04.319 --> 00:12:05.340 For you have been my help. 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:09.460 And in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. 00:12:11.220 --> 00:12:14.980 You see what's happened in that Psalm is God has become everything to him. 00:12:15.279 --> 00:12:16.500 Now what are the implications for that? 00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:23.659 What is it that God is pledging to his people when he pledges them his presence? 00:12:23.659 --> 00:12:31.279 I think we can get to it when we look at how he deals with different people in the Old Testament. 00:12:32.899 --> 00:12:36.860 So look with me at Genesis 28 in verse 15 when he comes to Jacob. 00:12:38.219 --> 00:12:40.100 And God meets with Jacob at Bethel. 00:12:40.699 --> 00:12:43.759 And Jacob is in the midst of such distress and need. 00:12:43.959 --> 00:12:46.059 And God says to him, Genesis 28, 15, 00:12:46.059 --> 00:12:52.319 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. 00:12:53.939 --> 00:12:58.439 For I will not leave you until I've done what I promised you. 00:13:00.679 --> 00:13:01.559 There is, there isn't there? 00:13:01.599 --> 00:13:06.939 There's the guarantee of God's perseverance and persistence with his people. 00:13:06.940 --> 00:13:13.740 And the purpose of Jacob's dream there at Bethel was to assure him that God would stick with him. 00:13:14.860 --> 00:13:17.120 That God would never give up on him. 00:13:18.740 --> 00:13:20.220 And that's a remarkable thing, isn't it? 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:24.040 Because God is saying to Jacob, who was the most difficult of characters, 00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:25.600 who wasn't a particularly lovable man, 00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:29.360 Jacob was a guy who was twisted in his own personality. 00:13:30.040 --> 00:13:31.440 He was ambitious for himself. 00:13:32.340 --> 00:13:34.620 He was pretty dishonest in the way that he lived. 00:13:34.620 --> 00:13:38.940 And he really was a very frightened man as he considered the future. 00:13:40.340 --> 00:13:44.080 He's been trying to set his path in life himself. 00:13:44.419 --> 00:13:46.279 He'd been guiding his own steps. 00:13:47.220 --> 00:13:48.879 His own kind of future. 00:13:50.740 --> 00:13:52.879 And Jacob finds the past catching up with him. 00:13:53.799 --> 00:13:55.259 In the person of Esau. 00:13:56.639 --> 00:13:59.039 And he's a frightened man in Genesis 28. 00:14:00.680 --> 00:14:02.399 And God meets with him and God says to him, 00:14:02.500 --> 00:14:03.480 I will not leave you. 00:14:03.480 --> 00:14:05.360 My presence is going to be with you. 00:14:05.720 --> 00:14:06.060 Why? 00:14:08.620 --> 00:14:11.700 He says, I will not let you go until that which I've committed to you. 00:14:13.139 --> 00:14:15.000 He's going to persist with Jacob. 00:14:15.080 --> 00:14:16.180 He's going to go on dealing with him. 00:14:17.759 --> 00:14:19.800 And through his own disobedience and twisting, 00:14:19.800 --> 00:14:25.879 God will bring him to the place where wounded and limping Jacob goes into a new beginning. 00:14:25.879 --> 00:14:29.320 He's a prince with God. 00:14:30.580 --> 00:14:32.500 And God is there persisting with him. 00:14:32.539 --> 00:14:34.299 That is what God is guaranteeing. 00:14:34.759 --> 00:14:36.240 When he guarantees his presence. 00:14:36.340 --> 00:14:37.480 We saw it in Philippians, didn't we? 00:14:37.700 --> 00:14:43.059 That he who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 00:14:43.059 --> 00:14:50.500 And if you're anything like me, that's something that you greatly need to be assured of in your heart and life. 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:55.699 There are many of us here who are God's difficult people. 00:14:55.700 --> 00:15:03.280 We recognize, don't we, that God has got a thousand times right to give up on us. 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:12.600 We know, if we're honest with ourselves, just how disobedient we've been, how fractious we are, how awkward we can be. 00:15:12.600 --> 00:15:22.200 And yet God comes to us this morning and what he says to you as you repent and trust in his son again, he says, I will not leave you. 00:15:25.740 --> 00:15:32.480 There might be some of us who are here this morning in church and there have been times in our lives where we might have wished that God would stop with us. 00:15:34.300 --> 00:15:35.680 That he would finish with us. 00:15:35.679 --> 00:15:41.719 I was preaching in Northern Ireland yesterday and I had spoken over the tea. 00:15:42.319 --> 00:15:47.379 There was a guy who came up to me, lean, not an ounce of fat on him, covered in tattoos. 00:15:47.500 --> 00:15:48.339 He'd been a paratrooper. 00:15:50.419 --> 00:15:54.839 And when he spoke about the past, I thought this would be great. 00:15:55.039 --> 00:16:00.159 He said to me that when he got into the army, he said, I never expected it to be so hard. 00:16:02.539 --> 00:16:03.740 The pressure I was under. 00:16:05.679 --> 00:16:08.739 He spoke about the times that he had fallen. 00:16:11.219 --> 00:16:14.479 He says, I have shamed the name of my saviour. 00:16:16.620 --> 00:16:19.759 He said, I've been to places that I blush even to remember. 00:16:22.899 --> 00:16:26.439 He'd been brought up in a church in Northern Ireland and he'd gone far away from God. 00:16:26.500 --> 00:16:29.059 He said, I cried out that God would get off my back. 00:16:29.059 --> 00:16:39.759 And then he said, I'm here to tell you that I bless God that he pursued me into every corner of the world and he would not let me go. 00:16:41.639 --> 00:16:49.379 Eight years ago, whenever that was, that God had begun something in him when he was far away and God had pursued him to the end. 00:16:49.379 --> 00:16:57.919 Second place these words occur is in the book of Joshua. 00:16:59.240 --> 00:17:02.080 Joshua is a book, isn't it, of new beginnings and new challenges. 00:17:02.740 --> 00:17:07.599 Moses' mighty ministry is ended and Joshua is receiving a new challenge from God. 00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:15.919 And God comes to him and says, no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. 00:17:16.519 --> 00:17:19.419 Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. 00:17:19.519 --> 00:17:21.219 I will not leave you or forsake you. 00:17:23.079 --> 00:17:24.879 That's what he's assuring Joshua. 00:17:25.980 --> 00:17:29.639 He's saying this was the secret of Moses' ministry. 00:17:29.640 --> 00:17:37.740 The secret of Moses, all his mighty works that God did through Moses, it wasn't about Moses. 00:17:38.780 --> 00:17:40.200 But God was with him. 00:17:40.259 --> 00:17:40.960 That's the secret. 00:17:42.580 --> 00:17:47.360 And God says to Joshua, you might feel yourself really weak and really inexperienced. 00:17:47.480 --> 00:17:50.600 And you might recognize all your insufficiencies and insecurities. 00:17:50.920 --> 00:17:51.860 But I will be with you. 00:17:53.740 --> 00:17:55.020 Nothing else matters. 00:17:55.019 --> 00:18:02.119 And so you can be the poorest, neediest soul that other people might look at and write off. 00:18:02.220 --> 00:18:04.940 But if God is with you, you can say with the apostle, can't you? 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:07.039 If God be for us, who can be against us? 00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:13.259 And so what is our hope here in this church of serving God? 00:18:13.339 --> 00:18:18.879 Our hope is that as we gather together in this place to bear witness to the Lord Jesus Christ, 00:18:18.960 --> 00:18:22.019 to call on God's name, our hope is not in men. 00:18:22.019 --> 00:18:26.599 It's not in the gifts of people or different personalities. 00:18:26.859 --> 00:18:28.259 Our hope is in God. 00:18:29.519 --> 00:18:30.980 That God is with us. 00:18:32.500 --> 00:18:36.379 That as we gather Sunday by Sunday, the morning and the evening to worship, 00:18:37.480 --> 00:18:39.259 that we would know his presence. 00:18:41.180 --> 00:18:44.839 And that if people are drawn in, if you invite people, if you're new here today, 00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:48.500 our prayer is that you will realize that God is amongst us. 00:18:48.720 --> 00:18:49.460 That's our desire. 00:18:49.460 --> 00:18:53.019 Don't they all, they've got a preacher here. 00:18:54.900 --> 00:18:57.799 The thing that matters most is that God is in this place. 00:18:59.380 --> 00:19:01.799 And that they will bow down and worship. 00:19:04.680 --> 00:19:06.140 And so do you see the importance of this message? 00:19:06.240 --> 00:19:08.299 As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. 00:19:08.360 --> 00:19:10.000 He's covenanting his presence. 00:19:10.299 --> 00:19:13.600 The third place this verse occurs is in Nehemiah. 00:19:13.599 --> 00:19:19.579 And in Nehemiah 9, there's this remarkable prayer by Ezra. 00:19:20.379 --> 00:19:24.659 And Ezra prays and he speaks about the unfaithfulness of God's people again and again. 00:19:25.039 --> 00:19:27.139 But he also speaks about the faithfulness of God. 00:19:29.539 --> 00:19:33.359 He tells us, he says, God, you did this for them. 00:19:33.419 --> 00:19:34.459 You fulfilled this promise. 00:19:34.639 --> 00:19:35.319 You are righteous. 00:19:35.579 --> 00:19:37.699 You saw the affliction of our fathers. 00:19:37.700 --> 00:19:39.039 And you came down. 00:19:39.960 --> 00:19:42.059 But God's people, they turned against you. 00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:43.539 They murmured against you. 00:19:43.620 --> 00:19:44.480 They went away from you. 00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:45.759 They went after other gods. 00:19:46.200 --> 00:19:47.420 But you did not leave them. 00:19:49.059 --> 00:19:50.500 You did not forsake them. 00:19:51.980 --> 00:19:55.759 And even in the disciplining of God's people, God was pursuing them. 00:19:55.759 --> 00:20:08.440 The point of the whole story is that when God pledges his presence, he pledges us a grace that is so amazing that our minds cannot contain it. 00:20:10.559 --> 00:20:19.019 A grace that comes to us and says, even when we have forsaken him, he says to us, I will not forsake you. 00:20:21.779 --> 00:20:23.079 So God is pledging his presence. 00:20:23.200 --> 00:20:24.519 How can you be sure about this? 00:20:24.519 --> 00:20:26.779 How can you be sure of this? 00:20:27.400 --> 00:20:28.259 That's the second question. 00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:30.160 There's two guarantees, I think. 00:20:31.119 --> 00:20:33.379 The first guarantee is that of God's words. 00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:36.099 As it always is. 00:20:36.160 --> 00:20:36.940 But here more especially. 00:20:37.400 --> 00:20:43.099 Since I, for he had said, I will never leave you. 00:20:44.799 --> 00:20:48.480 I is expressed in the strongest negative. 00:20:48.660 --> 00:20:50.759 You'll kind of find it anywhere in the Bible. 00:20:50.900 --> 00:20:51.980 I don't know if you've thought about this. 00:20:51.980 --> 00:20:56.400 There's five negatives in verse five. 00:20:58.400 --> 00:20:59.319 That are in those verses. 00:20:59.579 --> 00:21:02.200 No, I will never leave you. 00:21:02.620 --> 00:21:05.279 No, I will never, never forsake you. 00:21:05.279 --> 00:21:13.720 One of our hymns, how firm a foundation you saints of the Lord tries to put it in that verse, doesn't it? 00:21:15.079 --> 00:21:17.779 It says, that soul or all hell should endeavor to shake. 00:21:18.200 --> 00:21:20.660 I'll never, no, never, no, never forsake. 00:21:20.660 --> 00:21:25.759 But can you see the significance of it? 00:21:25.800 --> 00:21:29.800 So if I say to Claire, tomorrow night I'll be home at five. 00:21:31.360 --> 00:21:33.220 She may accept my word, my own cheek. 00:21:33.220 --> 00:21:43.740 But if I come to her and I say to her in the morning, now nothing, nothing will prevent me from being home at five o'clock. 00:21:44.960 --> 00:21:48.180 No circumstance will stop me being home at five. 00:21:48.440 --> 00:21:50.920 No obstacle, no change of mind. 00:21:51.100 --> 00:21:55.860 There is nothing in heaven and on earth, darling, that will prevent me from being home at five o'clock. 00:21:56.799 --> 00:21:57.980 She'll think I've lost my mind. 00:21:57.980 --> 00:22:03.279 But can you see the negative underlines that? 00:22:05.099 --> 00:22:07.360 This is a sense that God is speaking. 00:22:07.480 --> 00:22:10.880 He undergirds it by this negative that's repeated five times. 00:22:12.620 --> 00:22:17.900 I will never, never, never, never, never forsake you by any means. 00:22:19.279 --> 00:22:23.480 And God piles up a language in this verse because he wants you to have reassurance. 00:22:26.200 --> 00:22:27.720 And he gives it to us. 00:22:27.980 --> 00:22:34.680 Our word, however emphasized, is unreliable, isn't it? 00:22:37.200 --> 00:22:40.319 There are promises that you have made that you've not kept, the same as me. 00:22:42.299 --> 00:22:46.599 But God's promise has never, never been known to fail. 00:22:48.660 --> 00:22:52.019 He goes on, and you'll notice, not only to tell us that his word is our guarantee, 00:22:52.019 --> 00:22:55.559 but his very honor is bound up with his guarantee. 00:22:55.559 --> 00:22:59.480 Look at halfway through verse five. 00:22:59.639 --> 00:23:01.279 There's kind of a little interesting phrase. 00:23:01.700 --> 00:23:04.039 It says, for he has said. 00:23:04.379 --> 00:23:07.159 Literally, it's he himself has said. 00:23:07.160 --> 00:23:17.180 And if we've read through the book of Hebrews, we will know Hebrews six tells us that God can swear by no one higher than himself. 00:23:17.180 --> 00:23:26.640 And so when we want to swear in an acceptable way, we invoke something that is higher than ourselves. 00:23:26.640 --> 00:23:30.500 So we swear on God's name. 00:23:30.500 --> 00:23:31.900 I swear on the Bible. 00:23:31.900 --> 00:23:34.320 People say, I swear on my children's life. 00:23:37.860 --> 00:23:42.180 They're seeking to swear by something that is higher than they are. 00:23:42.180 --> 00:23:48.660 But Hebrews six is telling you that God can swear by nothing higher than he is. 00:23:49.779 --> 00:23:51.160 No one higher than him. 00:23:52.720 --> 00:23:59.360 His name is his oath because his honor is bound up by what he's saying. 00:23:59.740 --> 00:24:01.880 He by himself hath sworn. 00:24:03.019 --> 00:24:04.380 I on his oath depend. 00:24:04.380 --> 00:24:08.460 Now the point is this. 00:24:08.600 --> 00:24:11.720 God has tied his honor to his covenant promises. 00:24:13.640 --> 00:24:22.540 And so behind this promise of I will never leave you nor forsake you is the character and the covenant of God. 00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:26.420 Find out what difference does this make. 00:24:27.560 --> 00:24:30.740 There are two answers I think that come out of verses five and six of Hebrews 30. 00:24:30.980 --> 00:24:32.220 One is contentment in the present. 00:24:32.220 --> 00:24:33.579 So can you see it? 00:24:33.600 --> 00:24:34.480 Look at verse five. 00:24:34.480 --> 00:24:37.400 Keep your life from the love of money. 00:24:37.839 --> 00:24:39.240 And be content with what you have. 00:24:40.880 --> 00:24:41.759 Because, why? 00:24:42.940 --> 00:24:46.640 For he has said, he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. 00:24:49.039 --> 00:24:53.079 That contentment there is particularly related to covetousness, grasping. 00:24:54.720 --> 00:24:57.279 And false ambition and false affections. 00:24:57.279 --> 00:25:04.139 And the apostle is saying to you and I, he's saying, find your contentment in God. 00:25:04.720 --> 00:25:06.220 Make him your chief joy. 00:25:08.299 --> 00:25:12.839 John of Philippians 3, two weeks ago, I have learned in whatever state I am to be content, he says. 00:25:15.099 --> 00:25:16.539 And it's an important confession, isn't it? 00:25:16.559 --> 00:25:18.599 Because we saw that it needs to be learned. 00:25:18.920 --> 00:25:21.180 And it's often a difficult school to go through. 00:25:21.180 --> 00:25:30.160 But to recognize that the one place we are going to find true contentment is when we have our heart set on God. 00:25:32.560 --> 00:25:34.680 And so it's one of the basic lessons in life, isn't it? 00:25:34.680 --> 00:25:40.880 Be content with the things that you have. 00:25:41.900 --> 00:25:44.620 Because he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. 00:25:47.060 --> 00:25:51.779 The other fruit of God's promise and God's presence will be confidence. 00:25:52.140 --> 00:25:53.120 Confidence about the future. 00:25:55.019 --> 00:25:59.820 And let me point out that this is a confidence that's based on faith and not on sight. 00:25:59.819 --> 00:26:08.240 Because as I've talked this morning about the presence of God, the presence of God isn't visible. 00:26:09.899 --> 00:26:11.519 The world doesn't see it. 00:26:13.500 --> 00:26:17.339 Other people don't look on and see the presence of God. 00:26:19.039 --> 00:26:23.339 Like they did with the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day. 00:26:23.879 --> 00:26:24.779 We don't have that. 00:26:26.399 --> 00:26:28.740 God's presence is an invisible presence. 00:26:29.819 --> 00:26:32.299 And Moses recognized that, didn't he? 00:26:32.519 --> 00:26:36.399 In Hebrews 11 he tells us that Moses endured. 00:26:36.559 --> 00:26:37.439 He kept on going. 00:26:37.559 --> 00:26:41.099 How did Moses endure with the anger of Pharaoh breathing down his neck? 00:26:41.179 --> 00:26:43.419 The problems of leading miserable Israel. 00:26:44.539 --> 00:26:46.159 How did Moses endure? 00:26:46.720 --> 00:26:50.839 It tells us that he endured as seeing him who is invisible. 00:26:53.200 --> 00:26:55.519 And that confidence is the confidence of faith. 00:26:55.519 --> 00:26:56.980 It's the confidence of faith. 00:26:56.980 --> 00:26:57.960 It's the confidence of faith. 00:26:57.960 --> 00:26:58.460 It's the confidence of faith. 00:26:58.460 --> 00:26:58.460 00:26:58.460 --> 00:26:59.059 It's the confidence of faith. 00:26:59.059 --> 00:27:06.599 It's the confidence which says, even though everything in my life seems to be collapsing around me, yet God has said, I will never leave you. 00:27:06.859 --> 00:27:08.099 And I will never forsake you. 00:27:09.500 --> 00:27:14.299 And we endure as seeing him who is invisible. 00:27:14.299 --> 00:27:21.480 And you might be tempted to think, isn't that placing your confidence in what is unreal? 00:27:23.279 --> 00:27:27.919 Pretending to yourself that things are really other than they are. 00:27:28.039 --> 00:27:29.700 Are other than they really are. 00:27:29.700 --> 00:27:37.539 But of course what faith does is faith doesn't lead us out of the world of reality into the world of unreality. 00:27:37.920 --> 00:27:40.340 Faith opens up to you and I the real world. 00:27:42.940 --> 00:27:50.279 And so that when a person is trusting in something else other than the living God, it's he or she who is living in the world of unreality. 00:27:50.279 --> 00:27:56.759 Because the world of reality is the world where God is at the center. 00:27:59.319 --> 00:28:03.099 It's why Elisha cries, doesn't he, for his young servant. 00:28:03.200 --> 00:28:05.460 Do you remember Elisha had a young servant who was afraid. 00:28:06.200 --> 00:28:10.079 And Elisha prayed, Lord, open the young man's eyes. 00:28:11.759 --> 00:28:16.480 And the Lord opened the young man's eyes and he saw the hosts and the armies of God. 00:28:17.019 --> 00:28:17.599 Round about him. 00:28:20.279 --> 00:28:25.039 And he said, he who is with us is greater than he who is against us. 00:28:27.200 --> 00:28:30.960 And that is the confidence that God means you to have. 00:28:32.480 --> 00:28:40.859 As we go into this week, the confidence that enables us to say, because the Lord is with us, the Lord is my helper. 00:28:42.039 --> 00:28:43.299 Of whom shall I be afraid? 00:28:46.379 --> 00:28:48.660 So let me talk to the children for a moment. 00:28:50.279 --> 00:28:55.680 As you kind of go into this week, and maybe you've got to go to school, maybe you've got things this week that you find really difficult. 00:28:57.180 --> 00:29:01.460 Do you realize that as you trust God, God is with you. 00:29:03.059 --> 00:29:04.500 And he will not leave you. 00:29:04.660 --> 00:29:06.119 He will not forsake you. 00:29:07.779 --> 00:29:10.980 And because of that, you can say, well, the Lord is my helper. 00:29:10.980 --> 00:29:12.720 I won't be afraid. 00:29:13.200 --> 00:29:14.940 What can man do to me? 00:29:17.839 --> 00:29:20.079 To the man here facing temptation. 00:29:21.660 --> 00:29:23.640 Struggling and battling with it. 00:29:25.240 --> 00:29:27.640 To practice the presence of God. 00:29:27.839 --> 00:29:30.539 To say today, I'm doing this week. 00:29:30.539 --> 00:29:34.339 God will never leave me. 00:29:35.339 --> 00:29:36.920 He'll never forsake me. 00:29:37.559 --> 00:29:38.519 He is my helper. 00:29:38.680 --> 00:29:40.220 And so, I don't need fear. 00:29:41.899 --> 00:29:42.940 What can man do to me? 00:29:45.740 --> 00:29:50.019 To the moment bound up with frustration and discontentment. 00:29:50.019 --> 00:29:55.859 To recognize that the greatest thing you need, you already have. 00:29:56.039 --> 00:29:56.779 He is with you. 00:29:58.759 --> 00:30:00.019 He can be your helper. 00:30:00.200 --> 00:30:00.980 He is your helper. 00:30:01.180 --> 00:30:02.559 And so, you need not fear. 00:30:04.619 --> 00:30:08.319 And so, if God be for us, and if God be with us, 00:30:09.759 --> 00:30:11.180 who can stand against us? 00:30:13.019 --> 00:30:16.259 May God give us this great confidence this week. 00:30:16.799 --> 00:30:17.359 Let's pray together. 00:30:17.359 --> 00:30:17.480 Amen.