We turn in Scripture to Hebrews chapter 13. Our Scripture reading this afternoon is Hebrews chapter 13. We read this chapter not too long ago when we looked at what good works are. We looked at verses 20 and 21. under that theme, but what are good works? That's Lord's Day 33. This afternoon we read it, especially because of the second half of verse 5, which we take as the text. But we read the whole chapter first, Hebrews chapter 13. Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the body. Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye 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. Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. Pray for us, for we trust we have a good conscience in all things, willing to live honestly. But I beseech you, the rather, to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation. That is, allow it. Allow, suffer the word of exhortation. Submit to it. For I have written a letter unto you in few words. Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty, with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you. Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints. They of Italy salute you. Grace be with you all. Amen. So far we read God's holy and infallible Word. May God place His blessing upon the reading of that Word. The text is, verse 5 and the second half, "'For He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.'" Beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ, There are so many changes that we experience in life, aren't there? Nothing lasts. Everything is constantly changing. Talk to the elderly for 20 minutes, just about any general conversation, and they will probably tell you in one way or another how fast things change, and how things have changed from 60, 70, 80 years ago. I think our church family feels this same thing, how things can change and change so quickly. You know, a few weeks ago, not that long ago, I was about to start a new series on worship, about 15 sermons on worship, going through what worship consists of and then all the different elements in the worship service. I plan to start that series in the last Lord's Day, Lord's Day 35, when we looked at the second commandment and the regulative principle of worship. And then, after I had that planned, things changed. We were supposed to have an internship for six months, and that too quickly has changed. Think of the changes that we felt through the controversy. There's definitely things that have changed through the controversy. Families have left us. Relationships are not what they were, and you could ask, for what reason? These are very hard things. Things change. People change. Think of different relationships that change. Children grow up and move out of the house, and there you are with an empty home. Boyfriends and girlfriends break up, get married, and that's a change. A spouse dies. Suddenly, something really big has changed. Our health takes a turn for the worse. Maybe we never get it back. Family, friends move away. Some of us have moved multiple times in our lives. We've experienced these kinds of changes. For the Hebrew Christians to whom this passage was written, it was no different. They were going through much change in their lives, too. Persecution. As they were persecuted by their own family members. Family breakups, losing their homes, forced to move away. It's hard. It's hard. There's a sense of loss, a sense of alienation. Sometimes a very stark reminder that life is short because time moves so quickly and things change. And that's how you tell time sometimes and it moves fast. Sometimes you start thinking to yourself, what if? I remember on vacation, driving back home, and seeing old high school friends, and all kinds of memories, and I had to say to my wife, we have rich experiences because we've experienced this, and we've experienced that, and we've experienced that. And you have rich experiences, and at the same time, you ask what if? What if I could be part of the same church my whole life? All these what ifs, because there's blessings there too. It's hard. There's the temptation to covet. To covet those things that you once had, but now you lost, or they were taken away from you. To covet those things that might have been, but now it's clear that they're not meant to be. This isn't the Lord's will. How comforting, congregation, in the midst of a life characterized by so much change, There is this one sure and steadfast constant. God never leaves us. Our Jehovah God, no matter where we go or where He leads us, He doesn't change. Your Savior, Jesus Christ, we read it in the passage, Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever. Jesus doesn't change. The One who shed His blood for you on the cross, He doesn't change. God doesn't change in His love for us. Many things do change. And the one thing that would completely destroy us if it did change, that won't change. It won't change. God and His unconditional love for us does not change. And God, who has made us His covenant people, who has adopted us as His children, who has brought us into His family, He will never leave us. nor forsake us. For He has said." That's how the text begins, right? For He has said. And God's Word is changeless. What God says is sure and firm. And He has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Congregation, as I come to the end of my work in Randolph in these next few weeks, I want to remind you, and I want to, I need to remind myself of these precious truths. God has promised never to leave us or forsake us. He leads us. He guides us. Sometimes the path seems uncertain from our point of view. But God knows the way, He knows the way that we take, and He is with us, and that doesn't change. In fact, isn't that similar to what Jesus said to Thomas the night before Jesus' crucifixion? And He was telling all His disciples how He was about to leave them, and Thomas says to Him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? And Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me. Jesus is the way. Walk by faith. Look to Jesus. He is the way, and nothing will separate you from the love of God, which is in Jesus. Our calling is simply to trust, to trust what God has said, to follow Jesus, who is the way, and trust that God is true to His word. He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you." That's the beautiful truth we look at briefly this afternoon. We take as our theme God's promise to never leave us nor forsake us. We look at that theme under three points. First, we see that this is a beautiful promise. We look at what the promise is. Second, this is a certain promise because of the one who says it. And third, an encouraging promise. It gives us courage and contentment as we look to the future. I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." That's a beautiful promise. What does that mean? First, let us consider what a dreadful thing it would be to be forsaken. To be forsaken means to be abandoned, to be left on the side of the road, left for dead. It means to be deserted. To be forsaken is to be left in a state of utter hopelessness and helplessness. To be forsaken is agony. Jesus understood that. And to be forsaken of God is utter agony. How can we get a sense of what it means to be forsaken? Oh, it is really such a frightening and horrible thought. We're reluctant to contemplate what that would be like. To be forsaken of one's spouse, for a husband to just up and leave his wife. To be forsaken of one's best friend, or one's parents, or one's children. Perhaps that's the most tragic thing that a person can go through. It's not like they died. They've left you. To be forsaken is to be utterly friendless, hopeless, and helpless. In the Bible, we read of Job, we read of David, they were men who understood what it meant to be forsaken. Job 19 verse 19, Job says, Job is in misery. He knows who his Redeemer is, and he knows his Redeemer lives, that's also Job 19, but Job is in misery right now because Job has been forsaken. David writes in Psalm 142 verse 4, I looked on my right hand and beheld, but there was no man that would know me. Refuge failed me. No man cared for my soul. David was in agony. There was no one there. It is the one who feels utterly forsaken and abandoned who loses all sense and purpose of living. He's isolated. He's cut off from everyone else and everything else. It's alienating. But the text here is talking about being forsaken of God. Contemplate that for a moment, to be forsaken of God. In Psalm 88, we have a very painful psalm, powerful psalm, describing one who feels himself forsaken of God. We read there, verses 14 through 18, I am afflicted and ready to die for my youth up. While I suffer thy terrors, I am distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me. Thy terrors have cut me off. They came round about me daily like water. They compassed me about together. Lover and friend hast thou put far from me and mine acquaintances into darkness. We probably know the title in this altar, An Outpouring of Sorrow. The psalmist feels forsaken of God. Now to feel abandoned of God and actually to be abandoned of God are two different things. But how truly horrible is the thought of actually being abandoned of God? To look up to heaven and to see only the blackness of God's wrath? To bow down in prayer and to sense only that you are the target of God's anger? To call out to God and yet only feel all the waves of God's wrath and billows, the waves and billows rolling over you of God's wrath. To have the sense that your prayers will not be heard because God has shut you out. It's dreadful to talk about it. But that's exactly the power of the text, congregation. God comes to us and he says, he makes a promise, and he says, I will never leave thee, and I will never forsake thee. You don't have to worry about those things, congregation. God does not want you to worry about it. He says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. It's a beautiful promise. Now to grasp the comfort and the power of these words, we should point out a few special things about the language that's used here and how it's put. First, notice that in the original, you can't really notice this here, but in the original, the language of the text is the strongest possible language that is used, that could be used. In the original Greek, there are actually five negatives in the text. So to explain how it reads, we could translate it very informally, you understand, but we could translate it like this. For he hath said, I will never, never leave thee. I will never, never, never forsake thee. So the negatives, as it were, are heaped up together in order to banish all doubt from our minds so that we don't even consider the possibility that God could ever leave us or forsake us. He says, I will never, no, never, no, never forsake you. I will not, not, not, no, never forsake my people. Now we understand if God says something once, that's enough. God says something once and that's the end of the matter. But here God says it, as it were, five times. He will never, never, never, never, never forsake you. And the consequences, really, we may not tolerate. in our minds, any unbelief that would question whether God would ever abandon us or permit us to perish on our own. You can't go there. You may not go there. That's disbelief. That's offensive to God because He has said, I will never, never, never, never, never forsake you. Second, notice this. This is a promise, the way God puts it, it's a promise concerning God Himself. This is not merely a promise that God will take care of our earthly needs, that God will take care of us. It's not a promise merely that God will give us certain spiritual blessings merely of themselves, or that God will deliver us from trouble. No, this is a promise concerning God himself. He says, I, I will never leave thee. I will never forsake thee. Not merely my mercies, not merely my blessings, but me. That's really the heart and soul of it all. I, who am the substance of all my promises, in me, in I, in whom is the fullness of riches and blessings, I will never forsake you. Not merely my mercies or my spiritual blessings, I, I won't forsake you. And of course, that means I will always be with you. with my very own presence, with my blessings, with my power, I will always be with you. When you go through hardships, when you make those changes in life, when I lead you from one state to another, when you have an unexpected future in front of you, when others do abandon you, I, I will be with you. And then third notice, that this is a promise only God could give. We might hear this kind of language being used among us. Think of a mother whispering to her infant child and she says tenderly, I will never leave you. I will always be with you. That mother doesn't know how soon she'll be called to heavenly glory. Those really aren't words for that mother to say, as is. Think of a husband who may speak into the ears of his wife where he promises in front of the church, I will never leave you or forsake you. That's why he qualifies it, until death do us part. Best friends may speak this way to each other, but they forget how changeable human friendships are as the years pass by. That's the reality. What we need to see is that these kinds of words are not for mere mortal lips to utter. We are like the grass. We sang it. We're like the flower that blossoms one day and fades the next. We can't make these kinds of promises, but God may. Because He alone is able to keep this kind of promise. God does not change. From everlasting to everlasting, He is the same. And God has chosen to speak this way. He has said, I will never leave you. Never, unto all eternity. When God says never, that means never. Having this kind of promise, what else do you need? There's nothing more you could ask for, really. Nothing else in life or in death or time or eternity, nothing on earth or in heaven that you could ask for or possibly need that is not contained in this promise. God, the Creator, the Redeemer. has said, I am with you, I will never leave you. It's a beautiful promise. Now before we move on, there's even more we should notice about these words, and that is that these words are a quotation from the Old Testament Scriptures. The writer to the Hebrews is taking this promise of God from the Old Testament. He knows his Old Testament very well. That's evidence throughout the book of Hebrews in a very unique and powerful way. And now here too, he takes this Old Testament passage and he applies it to the persecuted Christians to whom he's writing. And he says, this is true for you, Hebrews, Jewish Christians. God has promised you never to forsake you. And now if we would take the time to look at the Old Testament passages where this kind of language is found, I think the meaning of this text will become richer. There are five places, five places in the Old Testament where the writer to the Hebrews could be quoting from. Five places where God speaks this kind of way to his people. And of course, there's more passages like it, but I'm picking out especially five passages here. First of all, we find this promise of God in Genesis 28, verse 15. Remember in Genesis 28, the young man Jacob is fleeing from the wrath of his brother Esau. He's just stolen the birthright blessing and his mother is sending him to his uncle Laban. Afraid and lonely in an unknown territory, Jacob makes his way to Bethel and there he rests, right? Having a rock for his pillow. And there to give Jacob encouragement, God speaks to Jacob and he says this, and behold, I am with thee. and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and bring thee again into this land. For, Jacob, I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." God says to the young man, Jacob, I will not leave thee. Though you need to leave everything behind, all your family, you're not going to see your mother again in this life, all your relationships and all your friends, you leave it behind, but I will not leave you. That applies to us today. Maybe young people. who feel similar to Jacob. You have a future ahead of you and you feel uncertain. You feel afraid or lonely. Big changes coming up. You need to make more and more changes on your own. You need to start adulting. Make those decisions. And God's word to us is, to you, is I will not leave you. Though you might move to a new house or a new church, marry into a new family and leave much behind, I will not leave you. Second, we find this promise of God in Deuteronomy 31, verses 6 through 8. In Deuteronomy 31, verses 6 through 8, Moses is speaking to the Israelites just before he's going to die. And Joshua is going to have to take his place, leading the people into the land of Canaan. And Moses is encouraging the people of God with these words. He says, verse 6, "'Be strong and of a good courage. Fear not, nor be afraid of them. the enemies of the land, for the Lord thy God, He it is that doth go with thee. He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." And then in verses 7 and 8, he turns to Joshua, who needs to fill his spot when he dies, and he tells Joshua the same thing. God will not fail thee, neither forsake thee, fear not, nor be dismayed. Imagine the scene there. Moses is 120 years old. He's been the leader of God's people for 40 years, ever since their beginning as a nation. And for 40 years, the people have relied upon him for everything. He alone was the mediator who could approach God for them. And now this great leader of God's people is going to die and leave them. How concerned they must have been. And God tells them through the Mediator, He says, I will never leave thee. Your earthly servants, your Mediator, Moses, will leave you. I will take him to glory, but I won't leave you nor forsake you. And that applies to us in a similar kind of sense. We could apply that. God says, though you have pastors who come and go, I am with you. God says, I'm the one who gave you Moses. I'm the one who's given you ministers to tend to you and to serve you, and I will raise up for you the next spiritual servant that you need. And generation after generation, decade after decade, we've experienced that. Even with the elders and the deacons, one generation of elders grows older, and God has another generation of elders that he has graciously prepared to take their place. And God says, I'm faithful. I will supply you what you need. I will never leave you nor forsake you." Third, we find this promise again soon after in Joshua 1 verse 5. In Joshua 1 verse 5, that well-known passage where God speaks to Joshua before He leads the people, before Joshua takes up the work and He's going to lead the people over the Jordan River into the Promised Land. And God says to Joshua, He says, As I was with Moses, so will I be with thee. You see the giants in the land, the sons of Anak? You see the walled cities and fortifications? No man will be able to stand before thee. As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. Why? I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. Joshua's called to lead an entire nation, two million, into battle against the giants and enemies of the land and God comes and gives Joshua this comforting promise, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. That applies to us too. What are the battles that we need to face in the future? Maybe we've been having help in our battles and now we need to fight these battles on our own because there's changes. What's gonna happen? What struggles against sin will we face? Thought about this for myself and my family. What will we experience in our future? What new responsibilities for me, for you? Whatever the case, God's word to us is this, I will never fail you nor forsake you. It's a beautiful promise. Fourth, we find this promise in 1 Chronicles 28, verse 20. Another pivotal moment in history. 1 Chronicles 28, verse 20, where David is about to die. Well, he knows his time is coming, and he speaks encouraging words to his son Solomon, because Solomon's going to have to build the temple after David dies. And we read, David said to Solomon, his son, be strong and of good courage and do it. Fear not, nor be dismayed, for the Lord God, Jehovah God, even my God, even my God, who was with me, who never left me, nor forsook me, I'm adding that, even my God will be with thee. He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou has finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord. Solomon was about to undertake a very great, important work in the kingdom. And David assured Solomon that God would be with him. And that applies to us today. What's going on in your life? What are the new callings that will come ahead in the months ahead? I can say this to the office bearers. What will be the work that God gives you? And you won't have a pastor for a time. Work that requires that most care and wisdom and diligence. Well, we know God has been there with us in the past. We've experienced in very powerful and intimate ways how God hears and answers our prayers. We've witnessed it. We've witnessed it together. God's promises are sure. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Fifth, we find this passage in Isaiah 41, verse 17. Isaiah 41 verse 17, it's more general. God is speaking through the prophet Isaiah and he's giving words of comfort to his church and he says to the church, as he says to us, When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them." And so here the promise is made very general to the whole congregation. Whenever you as God's people stand in need of anything, and you are spiritually thirsty, and you need the Lord, He will be there with exactly what you need. And so you see, there's nothing left out of this promise. God says over and over again, I will never, never leave you. And I will never, never, never forsake you. It's a beautiful promise. It's a beautiful promise. But as we know, the promise is only as valuable as the one who's making the promise. The promise of a deceiver and a habitual liar does not mean very much. Those are promises that are easily made and easily broken. But we can look at the promises of God, who is true and faithful, and we can know these promises are certain. And this promise, which God spoke to His people of old time, and which He speaks also to you and me today, this is a certain promise. It's a certain promise first because of God's relationship to us as our Father. One question that I like to ask at the time of confession of faith before the consistory is this. If you could describe God with only one word, how would you describe God? It's such a joyful thing when that's the idea that comes to mind. Father. That's my relationship to God Almighty. He's my Father. God does not make this promise to those whom He doesn't know. God does not make this promise to those whom He hates. He doesn't make this promise to just anyone. He doesn't just throw it out there. But He makes it to you, specifically you, His children. He is the one who has begotten you again to a lively hope. He is the one who gave you Christ as your high priest, as your prophet, as your king. He is the one who's taken you into his home. He is the one who's carried you all the days of old. He loves you with the perfect love that far exceeds the love that an earthly father has. So you know this promise is certain. Consider these verses. Psalm 27, verse 10. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. We're going to sing that. Though even my father and my mother, those who are dearest to me, should leave me, God will take me up. Isaiah 49, verse 15. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget. but I will not forget thee." How dear and precious to a mother is her newborn child. That child is the world to her. And God says, though a mother may forget her newborn child, we would say, that's impossible. But the Lord says, that may happen, but I, this cannot happen, that I forget you. Consider the words of Jesus in Matthew 7, verse 11. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him? And God doesn't give us merely good things. He gives us everything that we stand in need of. He knows how to give good gifts. And in His love, He gives those. He makes sure. He gave us Jesus. And God is not only our Father, but He is our eternal Father. His relationship with us will never change. You will always be calling Him your Father. And His word, therefore, is certain. I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Consider not only that relationship, God is our Father, but consider the relationship of Jesus Christ as our husband. We're the church of Christ. We're the bride of Christ. And He has spoken vows over us. We are the one for whom He died, whom He purchased with His own blood, and whom He loves and cherishes. And just as God hates putting away, and Jesus hates putting away, so Christ will never forsake or abandon His bride. He will be faithful to her to all eternity, and He will be faithful to His promise. And that's how we also reflect Christ as husbands. being true to those promises we made. Never to leave nor forsake the precious bride God has given to us. But then this promise is certain also when we look at things from a different point of view, when we look at our past. I can say that for myself over these past nine years. I kind of touched on it in the back this morning with some people we were talking to. Did God ever leave me or forsake me during these past nine years? was not my God always with me, so that I could even say to my wife every Saturday, God is good, God is good, because he led us through another week. Isn't that true for you too? You've gone through deep waters, you've gone through the refiner's fire many times, perhaps, but has God ever forsaken you? Wasn't it just in those times when you were in the heat, that God's faithfulness to his promises shone more brightly? Have you not experienced that? We're not always faithful to God. We're not. But God is always faithful to us. Has God ever forsaken any of his people? Children, you can go home this afternoon, even you little children, you can go home and you can ask your dad or your mom, you can say, mother, father, Has anyone ever perished who trusted in God? Anyone who was a child of God for whom Christ died, did God ever abandon them? Ever? And what your parents will have to say is, not one, my child, not one. In the entire history of all the world over the last 6,000 years of all the millions of Christians and all who put their trust in Him, never, was one ever abandoned. And then maybe your parents say that, and then they might think a little bit more, and then they might say, except for one, except for one, Jesus Christ. It's because he was forsaken that we shall never be forsaken. He was cast out, put outside the camp, that we might always have a place in God's house. He was cast out as punishment for our sins. But he paid the debts. He made the perfect covering for all our sins. He satisfied God's justice through the suffering he experienced in being forsaken of God. And he was received back into God's fellowship. And it's because of his sufferings that we will never be forsaken. As God says in Isaiah 54 verse 10, the mountains might depart, think about that, the mountains might depart, the hills might be removed, but God's kindness shall never depart from His people, neither shall the covenant of His peace be removed. God's promise is certain. God's promise is certain because In Christ, there's no reason anymore that God should forsake us. Think about that. That's what we need to understand about the cross. When Jesus died on the cross, all our sins were washed away. And they will never be brought back to be brought against us. Through faith, Christ's righteousness is imputed to us, so that it is now in Christ, as if we have kept God's law perfectly ourselves, so that now in Christ, why should God forsake us? If while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, how much more now, having the payment made, shall we not be saved? In fact, what we should always remember is that it was God's love that sent Jesus to die for us in the first place. Because He loved you, even then when you were a child of wrath. God's promise is certain, also because of God's honor. Think about what we heard this morning about God's own jealousy for His name. He is holy, He is devoted to His own name, His own reputation, and for His own namesake, He will fulfill His promises. He will prove for the honor of His own reputation, His faithfulness to His promises. So the promise is certain. God will never leave you nor forsake you. So we see how beautiful this promise is. It's a promise concerning God Himself that He repeats over and over again so that we know it and we understand it. And we see how certain this promise is that we can put all our confidence in God's Word. We must not put it anywhere else. Let us also now see briefly how encouraging this promise is. It's a promise that gives us strength and confidence. It's an encouraging promise in the sense that it gives courage. Verse 6 touches on that. So that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Think about it for these Hebrew Christians to whom the writer writes these words. They were facing persecution because they were Christians. And the writer reminds them of God's promises in order to encourage them. God will never leave you nor forsake you. So you can boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man will do unto me. You can burn my body. I confess I'm willing to lose limb and life for the sake of Christ. Because I know even in death, God will never leave me nor forsake me. And death is but bringing me closer to his throne in glory. And it gives courage then. And then it also gives us contentment for this earthly life. That's the beginning of verse 5. Let your conversation be without covetousness. I touched upon that in the beginning. When we feel a sense of loss, in life because of different changes we experience. When we feel that sense of alienation, of being a pilgrim and a stranger in life, then there is the temptation to covet, to covet that which is not God's will for us. And God says, let your life, let your behavior be without covetousness. Why must we not covet? Why don't we need to covet? Because He's promised He will be with us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. Having God, we have everything, and we can go wherever He calls us to go. We must not, we need not covet. Beloved, we don't know what the future holds for us. In a certain sense, we know what the future holds for us in Christ. The future is certain, victory, glory. But we don't know the changes that we will have to go through in this life. That's true for you, That's true for me. It's true for all of us. It's true for us as a church body. It's true for us as individuals. What new and challenging experiences will we have to go through? What callings will God give us? In what ways will God impress upon us our great dependence upon Him? We don't know. But that's no reason to be discouraged, or to fret, or to fear. Because we know, we know for certain this one thing. God is with us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He is faithful to lead us and guide us. He is Jehovah. Faithful. Beloved, this is a promise that won't change. It's a promise you can repeat over and over again. It will never wear out. You can say it with meaning as many times as you want. It won't wear out on you. It's a promise that will provide you encouragement and strength and a firm foundation to stand on. God is the God of the unconditional covenant. And this God is our God. And He has said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father, apply this word to our lives, to our hearts. May we take it home with us. May we talk about it. May we enjoy the comfort that comes from it. May we trust in Thy Word. And may we trust Thy promises more than we trust our own judgment. And may Thy name be glorified through all these things too. We thank Thee for Jesus. We thank Thee for His cross and we thank Thee that all these promises make sense to us because we know Jesus and we know Thee through Jesus. Bless us, shape us by this word. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.