Dear congregation, God's word is a treasury of rich and precious promises, which the believer loves and embraces and uses in his or her life, especially when the going gets tough. And the going was getting very tough for the Hebrew Christians to which our chapter is addressed. They had grown disheartened, their knees were shaking, their hands were hanging down, and they were tempted to draw back from the confession that Christ was the supreme and only Savior. Going back to the Jewish rituals and ceremonies that they had known, seemed a tempting move politically. It would have given them safety. It would have protected them from persecution, which was now threatening them. And so the author to the Hebrews is all about putting courage into the souls of these fledgling believers. And he does this by reminding them of the promises of God. Discouraged believer here this morning, have you forgotten the promises of God? Well, there is throughout the scriptures scarcely such a beautiful promise as we find in the words of our text this morning. In Hebrews 13, 5 and 6, we find couched here, among other things, these wonderful words. Just listen to this for one moment. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Now, we need a short lesson in Greek here this morning before we go any further. Don't be scared. This will help you immensely. Because in the original Greek in which this letter was written, in this verse, we have five negatives. A negative is like the word no or not. I cannot do this is a negative word, not. Young people from English you may know that when you put two negatives together in English At least they cancel each other out So when I say for example, I cannot not do that That means I have to do that. So in English, two negatives cancel each other out. And that's why we encourage people in English not to do that, because that gets confusing after a while. But in Greek, the negatives never canceled each other out. If you piled two negatives on top of each other, it meant this was most certainly not the case. And here in our text, we have not just two negatives. But in the original, we have five negatives piled on top of each other. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. If you wanted to give some sense of it in English, this is how it would go. I will never, never leave you. I will never, no, never forsake you. Well, what a profound assurance that gives. Let's look at it together from our text as you can find it in verses 5 and 6. These words let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have for he hath 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. Our theme with God's help this morning is God's presence more than enough. We'll see, first of all, a comprehensive calling, secondly, a staggering promise, and thirdly and lastly, a bold strategy. God's presence more than enough. A comprehensive calling, a staggering promise, a bold strategy. Well, congregation, our text begins with a warning against covetousness and an encouragement to contentment. It's as if the author here puts these two things next to each other. No covetousness, but contentment. And contentment and covetousness are opposites of each other, aren't they? Because when we covet down deep in our hearts, we're saying, I want more. I want more. I want more. I don't have enough. I don't have enough. Covetousness desires what it does not have in order to rest and be happy. Whereas contentment, True contentment needs nothing more in order to rest in God and be happy in God. Now, it's important to remember that these Hebrew Christians were undergoing severe persecution. They had had a wave of persecution which they had resisted. You can read of this in chapter 10, verse 34. They had endured, the apostle says, the spoiling of their goods. Most likely people came in and they said, you're Christians? You profess Christ? Well, under the authority that's granted to us by the government, we can take your goods because you're not allowed to be Christians. And so people had come into their homes most likely and just taken their possessions. What would you think if that happened to you legally? People could do that because you named the name of Christ and there you were. Your goods, possessions taken away, your property destroyed. Suffering was there every day for these people. Intense. Not just outward, but inward as well. The taunts and the mockery of these people. It's hard to imagine it, but people are enduring that all over the world in places where the name of Christ cannot be named in truth. We don't have to go that far away to realize something of our own covetous hearts. We don't need our possessions taken away to be tempted to be covetous, do we? All of us covet a lot of the time. You look back on your week and just think of all the times you said or thought, oh, only I had this, I would be happy. Or if only this weren't in my life, I'd be happy, truly happy. Yes, many people covet more and more money because they think money is a ticket to happiness, but we can covet other things too. We can covet health, other people's health. other people's bodies, other people's reputations or jobs or families. If only I had more friends, more reliable friends, better friends like that one over there. Are we getting here at our heart sin? which is at the heart of our sin. As our catechism points out, coveting involves even that smallest inclination deep in our hearts that says, oh, I wish that I had this, or I wish I didn't have that. Let your conversation be without covetousness. In other words, let your manner of life, that's what conversation means. It's an older word. Our King James version uses that quite a bit, but it means conduct. And actually it's a really interesting word because your conduct is a conversation, isn't it? Your walk is like a talk. That's what we want. We want the world even to look at our walk and say, I can't hear you speaking because your walk is so loud. Let your walk, your conversation be without covetousness. Your manner of life may be such that it's not ruled by covetous desires, which are never satisfied. Hold this world loosely. Yes, if God has given you a lot, which he has us in comparison with most in our world, be thankful in prosperity, enjoy the gifts that God has given to you, but hold them loosely. Persecution comes or affliction or trial comes and we have to let them go, then let your conversation be without covetousness. This sin of covetousness is really what makes our world go round, isn't it? Not just the world, but also in our own lives. It's that with which we so often get up in the morning. It's that which we see on screens all around us, and the media is constantly banking on our covetous hearts. The apostle says here, he doesn't say here, let covetousness be at a minimum. Let your manner of life be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have." Notice he's not just negative here. In fact, the balance of our verse is very positive. And he says it here, instead of covetousness, you need to have contentment. Well, contentment, what is that? So often there's such a bitter war going on in our hearts with Yes, I know I need to be content, but only if only this were true. Well, let's get one thing straight from the very outset, and that is that contentment does not mean that we deny or ignore trials or difficulties in our lives and pretend like they don't exist. The Bible never does that. Contentment doesn't mean that we shut off our minds to anything that is disagreeable, anything painful, acting as if it's not there. In the ancient world, there were Stoics who said, basically, you have to live in such a way that you shield your heart off from everything else and just kind of become hard to life and to this world and self-sufficient. The Bible never says that. In fact, that's the opposite of what the Bible says. The Bible doesn't want us to be self-sufficient. It wants us to find our sufficiency in God. And contentment includes honestly expressing and feeling what we miss when we miss things. Do you remember Job? This is what he said, shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil? See, he names those trials in his life for what they are. He acknowledges them. He doesn't simply turn a blind eye to them. Contentment is not simply wearing a mask and putting on a bright smile and pretending that everything's okay and acting even towards yourself as if everything is okay, that we have no trials, no problems, no burdens. No. In all this, Job did not sin with his lips. Contentment includes acknowledging the difficulties of our life for what they are, but not resting there. Instead, taking them to the Lord as Job also did and looking to him to build into our hearts contentment, real, true, mysterious contentment deep within our souls. And how does he do that? Well, He does that as He takes these promises with which the Scriptures are so full, and He brings them to bear in the midst of the difficulties of our life, whereby we crave so much. And He says to us, what you need to crave is not things, not earthly comforts, but your desires need to be for Me. Because I want to be your everything. And this is what we see in our second point. Let your manner of life be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have. Contentment does not come with looking around us simply with our physical eyes. It comes as we look with spiritual eyes to what God has given to us. Listen to how the apostle even says it here. Be content with such things as you have. What do you have, Christian? Yes, you have so much, don't you? You have friends and family. You, you have provisions. I trust basically you do, but more than that, what else do you have? Don't forget what you have. You have, don't you? A place where you can come and hear God's word. You have a church family. If you don't, you're most welcome to have a church family here. You have a place where you can pour out your heart. You have it. If you're a Christian here today, you have a God who never leaves you or forsakes you. You have him. Be content with such things as you have. You see, God has the believer, but the believer also has God. God is my portion. David says, are you content with such things as you have this morning? But the Lord goes even further. He doesn't simply say be content with what things you have, but he holds forth a promise here. The apostle does. He directs us to God, for he has said. Notice that. For he has said. Here's a man who loves the scriptures. He wants God's word. He wants God's perspective on everything. And trials have a way of driving us to the word of God, don't they? Has that never happened in your life? the book stays closed, or when you open it, it's kind of cold, and you close it again, and it's kind of never left the page. You know what I'm talking about. But then trial comes into your life, and you're exasperated. You don't turn to the book right away, but then you turn to it and you say, why did it take so long? And you open this book and you say, Lord, speak, because no one else can help me. Now speak, Lord. Thy word is my only rock and foundation. For he has said, here's a man who loved the scriptures. When you read Hebrews, he can hardly get through a verse without quoting the scriptures. This is a man who's learned to need the word of God more than his daily bread. You cannot live by bread alone. You need the Word of God to feed your souls. Trials do that in our lives. They send us to the Word of God. For he has said, congregation, he's spoken. God has spoken. He's not silent. He's spoken. And my, what has he spoken? But notice here how the apostle doesn't even say, for God has said. It's remarkable. For he has said. Just a personal pronoun. to stay with our grammar lesson here. For he has said. But you all know who this he is, don't you? We use personal pronouns like that, he, she, when we all know what we're talking about. We all know who we're talking about. And it's as if the author says, let your manner of life be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have. For he, for he, do you remember he? Have you forgotten him? God, who's always with us, he's there with us. He ought to have the affection of our heart, the focus of our mind, for he hath said. You have that, don't you, when you're with people and you've lost a father and you're there as siblings and you say, you know, he used to say, and you all know who you're talking about, or a mother, she, remember she used to say. Because your minds all go to the same place. And that's what Hebrews wants. He wants all of our minds to go to the same place. He has said. Is your mind coming along? He hath said. Well, what has he said? I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. Well, where has he said this? Where has he said this? Well, the interesting thing is that he said this five times in the Scriptures, in the Old Testament Scriptures, with so many words. There's five negatives in this verse, but there's also five times in the Old Testament Scriptures where we have this verse. And we should look at them, each at a turn, because you'll learn a lesson from each one of them. The first time we have this promise of God is in Genesis 28, verse 15. And this promise doesn't come to aged Abraham after he has done this great act of sacrificing his son to God, and then God comes and says, Abraham, I'll never leave you or forsake you. No. This promise comes to a fugitive Jacob running for his life, all alone with his brother at his heels, an uncertain future ahead of him, and a stone for his pillow. Is there someone like Jacob here today, on the run, being pursued, your future so uncertain, your sin haunting you, and there mysteriously In the depths of the night, there's a vision of God, and God comes. God appears there at the head of this ladder, and He says to wandering, sinful Jacob, He says, I will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and I will bring thee back again to this land, for I will not leave thee. until I have done that which I have spoken to thee." Oh, what a one-sided promise of God! Jacob here is penniless. He is in trouble. He's all alone. But here is a promise that addresses every one of his needs, every one of his concerns. He can carry this promise into the future. Unknown as it is, and he can learn to find contentment in a God who says, Jacob, I will never leave you. My presence is more than enough for you. The second time we have this remarkable promise is in Deuteronomy 31 verse 6. There, Moses is addressing the young people who have come up there in the wilderness and who are going to cross the Jordan. And they face, too, an uncertain future. Don't you think? The fierce enemies, the strong giants, the walled cities, Challenges they have never seen before. Perhaps there's someone here this morning who can relate to that. You're on the cusp of something you have no idea what it's going to turn out to be. And Moses, their leader, their tested, tried leader, he's going to be taken from them. That must not have been a good feeling. He had led them for 40 years. This is the one to whom they looked. He had been the mouthpiece of God to them. And now they're going to be without Him. And He says in Deuteronomy 31 verse 6, Through God, He says to the people, Be strong and of a good courage. Fear not, nor be afraid of them for the Lord thy God, it is He that doth go before thee. He will not fail thee nor forsake thee. Imagine that. To go into battle with this, that God is with you. He won't leave you. He won't start with you and then pull back and leave you there. Trampled underfoot by your enemies. We'll never leave you. We'll never forsake you. My presence is more than enough. And then just a few pages later, in Joshua 1 verse 5, we have the third instance of this promise where God comes with this promise to Joshua personally. What a weight of responsibility rests on Joshua. He has to stand where Moses stood. And these shoes are far too big to fill. He's in charge, but he's relatively young. He's relatively untried. He's facing the fiercest enemies with millions of people looking to him for direction. Is there someone who feels like that here? Your children are looking to you, your family is looking to you, those around you are looking to you, and you can't do it. You know you can't do it. One thing is for sure, you can't do it. You've made up your mind, I can't do what I'm being asked to do. And then God comes with one of these promises out of his storehouse filled with treasures. And he says to Joshua, there shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. God's presence is more than enough. Then there's a fifth instance of this promise. Actually, this is the fourth now, sorry. 1 Chronicles 28 verse 20. David is giving up the charge of the kingdom to Solomon. He's preparing to die and Solomon will succeed him as king. Solomon will need wisdom. He's young. And David was such a leader, such a courageous leader. He was a man after God's own heart. He will face insurmountable challenges again. But God says to him through his father, be strong and of good courage and do it. Fear not, nor be dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God, will be with thee. He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord. Friend, don't be dismayed this morning. When it feels like you're not up to the challenge at all, when you'd much rather run for your life and leave it to anyone but yourself. God comes into your situation this morning and he says to you, my presence is more than enough. But you say, I feel so weak, so unutterably weak. I feel like I can't take the next step. I can't breathe the next breath. Well, my friend, look at Isaiah 41 verse 17, the last instance in which we have this promise in the Old Testament. Listen, listen carefully. When the poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst. Is that you? I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. This promise is not for leaders like Joshua and Solomon. This promise is for those who are so low, they're poor, they're needy. And it pictures them in the lowest possible state, unable even to get water, to find water. and your tongue feels for thirst. You can hardly speak anymore. You can hardly ask any more. That's how low you are, the lowest possible condition. God says, I hear you. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. And there are so many echoes of this promise, dear friends. He's the covenant-keeping God. He's the faithful one. His mercies are new every morning. Can a woman forget her sucking child? Yes, she can. It's rare, but it's possible. But I will never forget you. I cannot. your walls engraven upon the palms of my hand. I am with you always, even until the end of the world. Oh, no wonder he says here to the Hebrews, let your conversation be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have for he has said, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. And he, friends, can say it. When he says it, it's not like when I say it or when you say it. You know, we say that sometimes to people. I'll never leave you. I'll never leave your side. I'll be with you. Don't worry. And sometimes we really want it. We can't follow through. We can't guarantee all our promises ourselves, can we? But here's one. The Almighty God. He can because He's Almighty God, and He will because He's a willing Father. And He wants you so much to know that He will not forsake you, that He puts four knots. Four no's, four never's, as it were, right there, so that you may know that he will never forsake you. Under no circumstances will he leave you. I will help you without qualification. Under all circumstances, you can be quintuply sure. I will never remove the support I have promised to you. I will never leave you to yourself. I will not desert you. Friends, what a promise. If it's right in your soul, you feel it's so undeserved because daily you and I leave God. In our coldness, in our disobedience, we leave the Lord. We love, don't we, dear believers? If you had to live with yourself, you couldn't do it, could you? More than a few months, maybe more than a few days. I will never leave you, that you whom the Lord promises this to. This is like a Jacob, a sinner, a fledgling sinner who deserves to be left forever. We're so unworthy, aren't we, congregation, that God would say this to us? Friends, the reason he can say this, and this is why I can proclaim this to you this morning, is because this promise, I will never, no never, no never, no never leave you or forsake you. It's anchored. This promise is anchored in the bedrock of Calvary. where there was one who had no promise like this. There was one who cried in dereliction from the cross, why has thou forsaken me? In order that there from the cross, he can say to the malefactor, to Jacob, to people like you and me, you shall be with me. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Friends, this promise is sealed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He took the casting out that you and I deserve. And from the cross, heaven says to sinners like you and like me, I will never No, never forsake you. Look, here is the proof. God commendeth his love towards us in that while we are yet sinners, Christ died. Christ took the forsaken us. And so that you here this morning who feel that the Lord should forsake you. He says, I won't. I won't. I won't. I can't. And I will not forsake you. I have to speak to you among us who are without God this morning. You know, there are people in the world, but also in the church, of whom the scriptures say you're without God. And because of that, you're without hope in the world. If you're without God this morning, you're missing everything. You need this god so desperately, but you don't have him And that's not because he's not willing to be your god. He declared it In the sacrament of baptism and he declares it in his word. He is willing to be called the god of jacobs People running from him people lost in their sin He comes this morning and from the cross he says, it's here where you receive this promise. Come sinner, come. Now, today, you're not safe without this God. You're lonely, you're desolate, you're hopeless. Beneath all the veneer, you know it, don't you? I hope you do. I hope you know it. There's nothing in this world that can satisfy your longing. No matter how much you covet, no matter how much you lost, no matter how much you desire, your heart will be a desolate wilderness here and to all eternity. unless you come to the cross, you acknowledge your sin before God, and you rest the whole weight of your existence upon Calvary, upon Christ. And when you do that, the Lord repeats this triple negative also over you, and He'll give you this, I will never forsake you no matter what. That can be yours also today through faith and repentance, through fleeing to God. He's calling you in his word today. Come sinners, poor and needy, parched and desolate, coveting. Come and rest, and I will never leave you or forsake you. And when the Lord says that, congregation, we have, as we see in our third point briefly, a bold strategy. You know the promises of God, congregation, they're so wonderful because they're so usable. You know, the promises of God don't do us any good if we simply leave them out there. We don't plead them or use them or embrace them. God makes room for His promises in our lives, often through affliction, often through deep ways, and God wants us to do so this morning. And that's why our text doesn't stop with verse five. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. But it goes on to say so that we might boldly say the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do unto me? Do you see the echo? that the Lord is wanting from your heart and from your life. It doesn't simply say, the Lord says, He said, I will never leave you or forsake you. So that we might say, do you say it this morning? Do you echo the Lord's own word this morning? We ought to, and we ought to in five ways this morning, very briefly. First of all, we need to echo it back to ourselves. You know what I'm talking about, don't you, dear believer? There you are in the midst of a perplexing difficulty, and your heart is all tight with fear. And you think it's a lost cause. You think there's no hope anymore. But then God comes and He speaks. He's not silent and He says, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. But you need to start saying that to your heart. You need to start talking to yourself. You need to do what Psalm 42 does. My soul, why are you cast down? Hope in God. Hear His promise. Be of good courage. Wait on Him. He will never leave me. He will never forsake me. His presence is more than enough. I have a helper in Him. What shall I fear? I will not fear what man shall do unto me. So we say it to ourselves, but we also should say it to each other. That's why we're here, aren't we? Together. That's why the apostle is addressing here these Hebrew Christians. He's telling it to them. God will never leave you. Say it. Say it yourself. God will help you in your helplessness. God can give you all that you need because he is everything. People bang on your door and plunder your stuff. God is your helper. You don't need to fear. When your health seems to be fleeting away, God has said, your health may go, but I will never leave you nor forsake you. Friends may leave you, but God will never forsake you. He cannot. He said it loud and clear. He can never do it. His presence is more than enough. And so we say it to ourselves and we say it to each other, but we say it thirdly to our world when it comes knocking and tempting. When it comes persecuting and mocking us, we say world, We're not afraid of you. We're not afraid what men can do to us. What can you do to us? Yes, you can sue us. Yes, you can put us in prison. Yes, you can take our belongings. Yes, you can rage against us. Yes, you can even hurt us. But, world, you cannot take this God away from us. You cannot rob us. You cannot rob us of the promises of God because He has promised, no, never, not, never, not, it won't happen. So we say it to ourselves, we say it to each other, we say it to the world, and we say it forcefully to the devil when he comes to assault us. He doesn't cease to assault us. He comes. Notice how the apostle puts in that word, boldly. He doesn't simply say, so that we might say, so that we might boldly. The Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man, what the creature, what you devil will do to me. You can't move those nevers, those negatives of God. You can't get around them. And so I'm bold in my God, no matter what. Friends, the Bible does not call us to timidity. but to boldness against every assault of our archenemy, Satan, so that I might boldly say. We ought to leave this place with a holy boldness against the world, against sin, against the devil, so that we might boldly say. And fifthly and lastly, shouldn't we say this to the Lord, also boldly, Lord, Thou art my helper in the strife. Thou art my strong defender. No matter what, I hang upon all these negatives. I rest the weight of my soul for time and eternity on Thee and on Thee alone. And so, congregation, I don't know what waits you and awaits me outside these doors, walled cities, fierce giants, terrible trouble, poverty, disgrace. loneliness, bad news, the devil. God is with you. He will never leave you. If that devil comes today and he says he's going to leave you, You just tell him that word never. If he says it again, you say never. If he says it again, you say never. God's given you five nevers to put into his face and he'll leave and God will stay. Oh friends, I don't need a full bank account. I don't need to covet because this God is more than enough. Amen.