"My helper," Hebrews 13:5-6

Now we ended off hearing about a number of things that we know, and I'd like to speak about a number of things that we have to help us in this world. And our brother did a good job in laying before us the evil of this world, and it does rub off on us, it affects us, and sometimes we're unaware of its effect. And we come to the Word of God, that's the cleansing that makes us aware of it.

Just two verses in Hebrews chapter 13, verse number five, Hebrews 13, verse number five. Let your conversation, that simply means behavior, your manner of life, let your conversation be without covetousness, I think we all know what covetousness is, the want for other things. Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have, for he has said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

So that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Now, I have been enjoying that little expression, the Lord is my helper. And it's been quite a study to go through it, there's a number of doubles that are found in these two verses, and that's really what I wanna bring before you just in the closing part of this first session.

I want you to think first of how the Spirit of God sets up verse number six. Verse number five, let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have. Now, the grammar of that little word, content with, is something that is ongoing all the time, present participle.

Now what that world is gonna do to you and I is, it's gonna get us occupied with what we don't have, and we're gonna overlook what we do have, and the heart starts going after what we don't have. Now what the Word of God will do is, it'll bring before us what we do have. And in this world, I believe we can live a victorious Christian life that glorifies God.

I don't believe when we read in the Word of God where we discover just how wicked and evil the world is, and we start to read in the Word of God about how deceitful our hearts are and how crafty the devil is. I do not believe that as believers we need to go through this world with a great deal of fear, almost scared to take a step for fear that something might happen. I believe that God has given us, as we've been hearing, the Word of God, the anointing, the Spirit of God, the very life of God.

God has given us tools. He has fully equipped us. What does the verse say? So that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper.

I don't have to meekly cower in the corner and almost, if the question was asked, are you a Christian? I am. No. I believe in confidence on the Word of God, resting upon what God has given me, truth.

That's why it's so important. And I think it's tremendous what we kind of need to talk about for a few minutes because you and I are always trying to gauge truth by how we feel. That's almost something that we, it's naturally built into us.

I think it's a work of the flesh. And it's almost like our appreciation of truth is connected with how it affects me, how I feel. But dear child of God, God has given us truth for the mind, to know it.

Who cares about the feeling? Forget the feeling. I was thinking of this, trying to understand this, trying to get it across the way I've been enjoying it. How do I enter into the enjoyment of this? I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.

Can I feel that? Is there a light? Is there a sensation? Is there a sparkle? I don't know. How can I understand the Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me? Well, it's the same idea as this. When you got up this morning, did you think about gravity? No, I didn't.

But it's there. Whether you felt it or not or stopped where you were walking and said, hey, you know what's holding me to this earth? Gravity. Air.

How many people thought about air when they got up this morning? You know, I breathed air all night. I'm breathing air now. It's a truth.

It's a fact. It's right there. Whether you think about it or not, it's there.

The same thing applies to this verse. As a born again Christian, the Lord is my helper. Whether I actually stop and think about it, whether I let it roll over my mind, the Lord is my helper.

But what I have been enjoying from it is this. I have been stopping and thinking about it. Very simple.

The Lord is my helper. Isn't that tremendous to think of it? You know, sometimes we get great encouragement from people that we look up to, don't we? To be honest, we all have idols, you know, in the right sense, brother. There are godly men that I look up to.

And my, man, I could name a number of names. If some preacher called me on the phone and said, Scott, I've got a free day. I would like to come and I would like to shadow you all day and I would like to be your helper.

I'd be lost for words. I'd probably do a somersault. I'd be like, what, me? You want to come and help me? Listen, the Lord is my helper.

Every single believer can enjoy that. This is not something that's reserved for 30 and above, all right? This is not something that's reserved. Now, I know you're just a young believer.

Let's say 8, 9, or 10, or whatever. And you got to wait until you mature and become 16, 17, 18, 50, whatever. Isn't it something to think every single believer in Christ, no matter what the age, no matter what the understanding of the Word of God is, whether you're in grade 6 or you're working at a job, whatever it is, isn't it something to think? The Lord.

The Lord is my helper. In this world, wherever I find myself. It's interesting.

He has said, who is the He? The Lord. That's the equivalent of the Hebrew word Jehovah. I think sometimes we don't take a lot of time to look into what these words mean.

You go back and take a time at what Jehovah means. Jehovah is made up of three Hebrew verbs. Do you know how you and I think? We think this way.

Past, present, and future. That's our perspective. Do you know what Jehovah means? Future.

Present. Past. That's Jehovah.

God puts the future first. This is God saying, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Jehovah is guaranteeing this to me.

Scott, I will be in your future. I am the covenant-keeping, promise-honoring God. And I will be in your future.

Now listen, dear child of God. You tell me, can anything in the world offer you that? You see what I mean by entering into the enjoyment of it? Letting that just filter into your everyday life. You ever sometimes... I use this very simple illustration to help you kind of understand the way it was going through my mind.

You know, sometimes as older I get, I'm starting to lose things now. And I will exhaust all of my efforts trying to find it. I'm racking my brain.

I'm trying to backtrack. And where was I? Did I lift it up? Did I put it down? Where did it go? And then after about a half an hour, you know what hits me? I have got the spirit of God in me that knows exactly where that thing is. Yeah.

It's not a mystery to him. Then I start to pray. Lord, could you please direct my... Where it is? That was secondary.

What did I do first? Me. I'm going to try to find it. I'm going to put my brain to it, my energies.

You know what God wants? He says, Scott, you make me number one. You let me be your helper. I'm not here just to be brought into the big issues, you know, of life.

I'm thinking of Mr. Dear Robert Ramsey back home. I remember him in a Bible study. He's a young believer.

He used to bring out the illustration about praying about everything. And he says, you might find this funny. Maybe some of you might have heard him say this.

He says, you know, I involve God in everything. And he says, I'll go downtown and I know where I need to go for the business, whatever it is. He says, I pray that God will open up a parking spot right in front of the business.

Amen. Now, we would almost sit there and go, oh, come on. I mean, is God really interested in whether I walk 10 feet or 100 feet? But you know what Mr. Ramsey would tell us? The parking spot will be open.

And just before I get out of the car, I would just thank God. But why is it that we think these little, ah, God's not interested in that. Maybe there's someone here today, a young believer in school, and there's a test.

You ever think about praying about it? You don't think that God, your Savior, your Lord, you don't think He wants to help you in that test? Absolutely. We've been hearing about the flesh and the devil. They will say, no, don't be so foolish.

That's crazy Christianity. No, it's not. I'll give you a little tip.

What I did, ah, hey, I love being in America, but I'll tell you what I hate. Oh, that's a strong word. I'll tell you what scares the life out of me, is those U.S. Customs guys.

I mean, sweaty palms, sweat running down the back of the neck. That's how I'm walking up to that fellow. They must train them not to smile.

And they just make you feel like you did something wrong, even though you did nothing wrong. So Thursday, I was approaching the U.S. Customs guy, and I was just quoting this verse. The Lord is my helper.

I'm not going to fear what he's going to say. Then I thought of the Proverbs. The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord, and he turneth it whithersoever he willeth.

You know, dear child of God, that brought a great level of comfort. The U.S. Customs man will just do what God wants him to do with me. That gave me a lot of peace.

It really did. Now the next time I come in, I'll have to go over the verse again, because I have an awful habit of forgetting. Yes, listen to the verse.

I want you to come back to the verse. Let your conversation be without covishness. How much of your time is spent with what you don't have? You're thinking about what you want.

It's all out there. It's all natural. It's physical.

We can live our Christian lives like that. Or we can reverse it. And we can get occupied with and be content with such things as you have.

If the Lord wants me to have more, he'll bring it. Because he's my helper. See, it's a total reversal of the way the mind thinks.

Look at what it says in verse number five. For he, now if you have a Newberry Bible, I'm a big supporter of Mr. Newberry. You'll notice that the he is italicized.

It's big. It's bold. That's an emphatic pronoun.

Now you want to know what the Spirit of God is doing? It's a very interesting thing. You do a little study on Greek grammar. You look at the verb there that's in our English language, hath said.

That's representing a Greek verb. In the Greek verb, you have the pronoun is built into the verb. You know what the Spirit of God does? He adds a pronoun at the first of it.

So I'll give it to you just in our English. For he, he hath said. Do you know what the Spirit of God is doing? Dear child of God, you get your eyes occupied on who's saying this.

It's the Lord. It is the Lord. I think that's beautiful.

Sometimes people say things, and it doesn't really mean a lot on who's saying it. But could I encourage your heart? You pick up this book, and you just take it literally. Literally.

This is God's Word. Don't try to look for reason on top of the Word of God. That's what's happening to a lot of people today.

They take a simple verse, and they try to almost reason it away with so much intelligence. Instead of just exercising simple faith. Can I encourage individuals that are looking for help in their life? There's doors to be gone through.

There's all kinds of things that are facing us. You can take that to God in 2012. And you can lay it out in prayer.

And you can come to this book. And you will get a clear answer from God. Do we believe that? Or do we think that it has to come from preachers? Well, I've got a problem.

I'm going to go talk to a preacher. Well, that's fine if that gives you help. But don't let it supplant this, the book.

Get to know your Savior. Get to know the one who wants to help you. Commune, as we've been hearing, that anointing.

I've got something in me from the moment of salvation that responds to this Word. And when you're praying about something, and you're reading through the Word of God, and something just seems to jump off the page, you just exercise simple faith. Just take it.

You know what the flesh will say? It can't be that easy. Do you not remember the moment you got saved? I remember the moment I got saved. Just that simple understanding.

Christ died for me. What was the very next thought? It can't be that easy. There must be more to it.

Questioning the Word of God right from the birth, wasn't it? And remember your mind, you just went back to, but the Bible says. I can enjoy that right now. Twenty-two years on the road to heaven.

Still got the same heart that questions. Can't be that simple. Yeah, it is that simple.

That's just how God deals with me, and deals with us. Look at verse number... Let's look at verse number... At the end of verse five. I will never leave... Now look at this double.

I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Why the two opposites? Leave, forsake. Do you know what the word leave means? I love the thought.

I want you to think of someone holding a rope. And there's tension on the rope. Do you know what the word leave means? It just means to relax the hold.

You haven't really let go of it, alright? All you've done is you've just relaxed. Just a little bit of slippage. And then he goes to the other extreme.

I will never leave thee, nor forsake. That's to just take the rope and throw it. Do you know the promise I have for my Savior in this world? God will never relax His hold on me.

Not even for a second. God will never, on the extreme, take the rope and say, You're on your own. Completely forsaken.

Isn't that wonderful, dear child of God, what we have? Someone says, but I don't feel it. You've missed the point. We're looking at what we can know.

It's written in the word of God. This is a promise from God. It's wonderful.

Here's another double that's emphasized. Look at end of verse 5. I will never. Now, Mr. Newberry will show you that's a double negative.

He's saying this. I will never, no never, leave thee. And if you look at it in the Greek, I will never, no never, leave thee.

I will never, no never, forsake thee. Not only do you have the double, the leave and the forsake. Not only do you have the double negatives, but you have the double negative twice.

Can you hear that from God? What a guarantee. God is telling me, spot. It's almost like it's not strong enough for him to say, I'll never leave you.

I will never, no never, leave you. I will never, no never, forsake you. And not a wonder you come to the next verse, so that we may boldly, with great confidence, the Lord is my helper.

I will not fear. What shall man do unto me? That's a question at the very last. There's three phrases there.

The Lord is my helper. What can I fear? What can man do unto me? Tremendous. Now listen, you know what I've been enjoying with this? I'm coming to an end.

I've been enjoying this. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. You go through the Old Testament, and roughly, okay, four times that's found in the Old Testament.

Plain and simple. There's other verses that will make reference to it, but there's about four certain places where it's quoted. Now listen, here's what I've been thinking about it.

If you're like me, I try to read the Bible once a year. Now I was thinking about the life of the Lord Jesus. When the Lord Jesus was on this earth as a man, he only had the Old Testament.

I don't know whether he read the Word of God once a year or twice a year. I don't know how many times. I know the Lord Jesus read the Bible.

I know he prayed to his father and communed with his father on a daily basis. Morning by morning thou openest mine ear and so on. There are all kinds of references to it.

Do you know what I thought? Let's assume the Lord Jesus read the Old Testament once a year. Four times he would come across that verse, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. He was the only man that couldn't claim that verse.

Because he knew that there was coming a day when his God would completely leave and forsake him. So that I would never experience it. Tremendous.

I thought, listen. Nobody put confidence in God like the Lord Jesus. Nobody.

Nobody read the Word of God with such desire and a longing to hear his God like the Lord Jesus. Would it must have been on a particular day when that verse would come up? I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. And his mind would rush ahead to Calvary.

There is coming a day. There is going to be a point, a span of six hours on this earth. Hanging nailed to a cross with the deluge, the avalanche of God's judgment for sin upon him.

When he would be forsaken of his God. I tell you, that touches me. And here I am today with a guarantee from God himself.

I don't know what the future holds. Do you know that? But you know what I can carry with me into the future? God will never leave me. He'll never forsake me.

It's interesting to go through those four. With this I end. You go to Genesis 28.

Jacob has left home. He's going down now to be with Laban for 20 some years. Remember the dream? Remember the staircase? God says, I'll bring you back.

Here is Jacob leaving unknown land and he's going into unknown territory. Do you know what God said to him? I'll never leave thee. I'll never forsake thee.

Lovely to think about that. Deuteronomy 31, 6 to 8. You know what's happening here? Moses standing before the people. And Moses had led the people for 40 years.

There's Joshua beside him. And Moses says, I'm not going to be your leader anymore. I can't go into the land.

Joshua is going to take you into the land. What a comfort it must have been to the people when Moses said, the Lord will never leave thee. Never forsake you.

I think we can all understand this. We all know of individuals that were tremendous leaders amongst us. And they're not here anymore.

Isn't it wonderful to know that the Lord will never leave us? Never forsake us. I hope none of us are living for God because of a man. Live for God because of God.

Don't get your eyes too much on men. Get it on God. I was thinking of Joshua.

Now it's a personal kind of interview. Moses is talking to Joshua. And Joshua, you're going to take the people into the land.

And you can just imagine Joshua looking at this massive amount of people and this, how am I ever going to do it? I've always looked up to you, Moses. I've always been following you. Moses looks at Joshua and says, don't worry.

God will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. What a comfort it must have been as Joshua stepped across that river knowing that the Lord, his helper, stepping across with him. Tremendous.

Finally, 1 Chronicles 28. There's the older man, David. There's the young man, Solomon, coming to the throne.

A temple needs to be built. People need to be governed. And you can almost see young Solomon.

But how am I going to look after God's people? David, you're not going to be here. You're dying. David turns to Solomon and he says, the Lord has said, I'll never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

So look at how it affected those individuals. Look at the work they did for God. Dear child of God, let us take God's word.

Let us enter into the promise what God has given us. And let us move in that enjoyment. The Lord is my helper.