Promise of Fulfilled Needs

Introduction: The Directive to Honor God with Substance

0:02 Continue our studies in Proverbs chapter 3, in our verse-by-verse study in this most practical book of directives to the people of God. Part of the volume of God, which Paul says is God-breathed and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work. I would remind you that there is very little in the way of logical structure in the third chapter of Proverbs.

0:42 Rather, it is a collection of miscellaneous directives enforced by the strongest of motives, and we are studying together the fifth of these directives found in verses 9 and 10. Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase, so shall thy power be. Thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy vats shall overflow with new wine. This is obviously a very explicit word of directive, finding itself ranged under the general heading, the duty of the child of God to honor the Lord with his material possessions.

1:27 And I would, as we emphasized in our last study together, underscore again that this is not to be reduced, regarded primarily as a word concerning the Christian and his money or his material possessions, but it is the Christian and his honoring of his God by means of his material substance. For the command of the text is not give of your substance, but honor the Lord. And so the great focus of the text is the glory of God secured and expressed in the stewardship of the Lord. Now we'll take just a moment to review the command in verse 9,

Review of the Command: How to Honor God with Substance

2:10 which we studied two Lord's days ago, and then we will attempt to open up the promise in verse 10. We saw in the first place that the first phrase of the command is the general directive. We are to honor Jehovah with our substance, that is, with all that is legitimately ours, coming into our possession by labor, and by the sovereign providential dispensations of God. God is to be honored with all that can be called our substance.

2:45 And how do we honor him with our substance? We saw from the scriptures that there were at least four ways in which this is done. We honored him, first of all, by inwardly acknowledging that all of our substance comes from him, and rendering thanks to him in our hearts. Secondly, we honor the Lord with our substance by inwardly acquiescing to the measure that he gives or takes away.

3:13 If he is the sovereign disposer of our substance, we do not honor him if we fight, as it were, against the providences that dictate how much of that substance we shall have. Paul stated it very clearly when he said, I have learned how to be abased. I have learned, how to abound. You don't honor God with your substance when you grasp after the measure that he takes away.

3:43 Neither do you honor him if you refuse the measure that he places within your grasp. And so we honor the Lord with our substance in this second way. Thirdly, we honor him by outwardly distributing of our substance in acts of piety and of charity. And fourthly, we honor him with our substance by, proportionately returning some of that substance to the God from whom it comes.

4:11 And why should we do this? Simply because the honor of God is the end of all of his works in creation and in redemption. So this is not a little moralistic text, something tacked on as part of our duty undetached from the gospel. No, the end of redemption is to bring the rebel creature, who's rejected the glory of God as the end of his existence, back to the place where down to the minutest details of life, whether he eats or drinks or whatever he does, his end in view is the honor of the God who has redeemed him.

4:51 And then you have the specific directive of the second part of the command. Not only are we to honor him with our substance as the general characteristic of life, but more specifically, we are, we are to do so with the first fruits of all of our increase. That is, we are to bring a portion of all of our increase unto God as a distinct offering presented to him. And because of the concept of the first fruits, we saw in our study that this is a gospel duty, permeated with gospel motives.

5:26 It is a duty which demands faith, and a duty which demands keeping scrupulously careful, and a duty which demands keeping scrupulously careful, to be certain that we are bringing the first fruits of all of our increase, starting with the tithe as a minimum of our gross income, a tithe as the minimum of all of the additional things that God puts in our hands by way of unexpected gifts, by way of an inheritance that should come to us. Whatever is legitimately called our increase, God is to receive the first fruits. So much for the reason, and for the reason for which we are here today, we are here to give you an example of the promise. In the study of the Scriptures this morning,

The Character of the Promise: Conditional and Gracious

6:11 Pastor Blay set before us from that text in Solomon, something of the fragrance of the name of Christ. Christ in his person, his character and his work, is as ointment poured forth. And many of us experienced, I trust, something of a rekindling of our love to Christ, something of an outgoing, outgoing of our hearts and affection to him. But I'm so glad this happens to be the text in the course of our study, bringing us into a very practical realm of obedience to Christ.

6:47 For the acid test of whether or not what you felt this morning of the fragrance of the name of Jesus is a true spiritual experience lies right here. Is your obedience to Christ as definitive, as this command of Christ. For the proof of our love to him, according to his own words, is this, if ye love me, keep my commandments. It's one thing to have our affections kindled at the preaching of the glory of Christ.

7:24 It's another thing to test that kindling of our affections by this matter of obedience to his precepts. And so we come to consider that. We come to consider the promise of God attached to obedience to the precepts, not in any way disjointing ourselves from the perspective this morning, but simply looking upon our study tonight as the valid application and natural expression of our heart's affection to the Savior whose name, whose character is as ointment poured forth. Now the promise, how should we think our way through it?

8:04 How should we think our way through it? Now the promise, how should we think our way through it? Now the promise, how should we think our way through it? Now the promise, how should we think our way through it?

8:05 Well, first of all, consider the promise in its character, secondly, the promise in its essence, and then a vital question about the promise, and then an important qualification of the promise. First of all, then, the promise. What is the character of this promise? There are two things that I want you to observe from the text.

8:29 First of all, it is characterized as a conditional promise. First of all, it is characterized as a conditional promise. The first word of the promise is the word, so, which becomes a vital link with the command which has preceded. Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy vats shall overflow with new wine.

8:57 It is, then, a conditional promise. It's another one of those promises which has stamped upon it, no good if detached. And once this promise is detached from the command which precedes, and we begin to plead its fulfillment, we are on that high road of presumption. He who expects the fulfillment of the promise, without careful compliance with the conditions, is guilty of gross presumption.

9:31 Now, the text is very explicit. Now, the text is very explicit. Thy barns shall be filled, thy vats shall overflow. It is a promise with certainty, a promise of individual application, thy barns, thy vats.

9:48 But, you see, we cannot press home the promise before God rightly, unless we see it in its conditional junction with the command. And then the second thing we observe about the character of the promise is that it is...

10:04 It is a gracious promise. Again and again, as we've been studying through this third chapter, I have emphasized that the promises which come at the end of these commands are not legal contracts in the sense that God owes us the thing that He promises. The duties described are right and good and necessary in themselves, if nothing was promised in our obedience. Remember, we considered this in the previous promise.

10:39 Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. Those three duties, the repudiation of self-confidence, the repudiation of sin, the command to fear the Lord, these things are right in and of themselves. If there were no promise attached to it, we ought to fear the Lord, we ought to depart from evil, because these things are right in themselves.

11:05 things are right and good and necessary. If God is God, then in the words of verse 9, it is right that he should be honored with all our substance. Anything less than this is the height of gross wickedness. If he is the giver of every good and perfect gift, and we do not acknowledge him as such, this I say is sin. God only requires what is right and is reasonable. So then the promise

11:37 is undeserved mercy. And he makes the promise as a gracious promise so that we might be encouraged to know that not only is it right to honor the Lord with our substance and the firstfruits of our increase, but it is in our own business. Best self-interest. Holiness and true human self-interest at every level are never at odds with one another. They are constantly fused together. And one of the biggest lies of the

12:15 devil, a lie that was spawned upon our first parents, is to get us to think that true self-interest and the path of holiness and obedience, are opposed to one another. Isn't this what the devil sought to bring into the mind of Adam and Eve? What did God say? God said, of all the trees you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou mayest not eat, for in the day that you eat you'll die. What is God

12:46 saying? He's saying it's in your own best self-interest to obey me. I say don't take of that tree, and I give as the reason that it will destroy you. Now God could have said, in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt no longer glorify me. Now that was true,

13:04 but God did not give that as the reason. He said to Adam and Eve, It is in your own best self-interest to stay clear of that tree. now what did the devil do? He could never get them to partake of that tree or , in the words we're using here tonight, to move out of the path of obedience to the will of God, until, until first of all he convinced them that it was not in their own best self-interest thus to obey God.

13:34 So what did he say? Hath God said, in the day you eat, you'll not die? And Eve says, yes, this is what God has said. And the Satan, the tempter, comes back with these words.

13:49 God knows that in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt become like him, knowing good from evil. You see what he's saying? You see, he's saying God gave that command not in your own best self-interest, but he gave it with a view to destroying your best self-interest. He's told you that the command was given for your good.

14:14 I say it is given for your evil. It is given to crimp and to constrict the sphere and the extent of your knowledge. And that lie has been given by the devil. From that day to this.

14:28 He's telling some of you that lie tonight. God comes to you in the gospel of his son saying, repent. Turn from your sins. Turn from a course of self-will.

14:40 Turn from a course of self-gratification. Turn from a path of self-justification and self-righteousness in repentance and faith. Cast yourself upon me. Why?

14:53 Because it is in your own best self-interest. There are many other reasons. But God appeals to this. He says, repent or perish.

15:03 In your own best self-interest that you repent. Believe and thou shalt be saved. And the devil says, no, no. God commands you to repent because he wants to put a worm in the gourd of true human pleasure.

15:17 He's come to some of you young people who've heard the claims of Christ year in and year out. Some of you young men and women. And you've had the gospel thunder in your ears. And at times it's...

15:28 It's thundered in your conscience. But just when the voice of God begins to break through to your conscience. And you begin seriously to contemplate whether or not this is indeed the time that you ought to repent and believe the gospel. There comes the subtle, the wicked whisperings of the devil saying, no, no.

15:48 Never do that. It will ruin your life. It will bring you to a state where life is drab and dull and heavy and joyless. You must have your fun.

16:02 You must know what life is with a capital L. What's he telling some of you tonight? He's saying it is not in your best self-interest to repent and to believe. But to continue in the ways of sin.

16:15 And in telling you that, Jesus exposed him and said, he is a liar and the father of lies. For the thief cometh not. But for to steal, to kill and to destroy.

16:27 And the devil has no end in view. But to kill and to destroy. But to kill and to destroy. But to kill and to destroy.

16:31 But to drive you into hell with him. And to have you mingle your cries and groans with his own. Jesus has come, he says, to give unto his own life and that more abundant.

16:47 What is true in the broad sense of this principle is true in this text. This is a gracious promise. The Lord is saying, it's right that you should honor me with your substance. It's right that you should honor me with the firstfruits.

17:03 It's right that you should honor me with the firstfruits of all your increase. But it is also in your own best self-interest so to do. And the same devil who tells the lie to the unconverted to keep them from repentance tells that lie to Christians to keep them from obedience to this verse. God says, honor me with your substance and the firstfruits of all your increase and gracious results will follow that will be to your own good.

17:32 And the devil comes along and says, No, no, you can't afford to tithe. Oh, you can't afford to honor the Lord with your substance. You see, if you do that, your bills won't get paid and this won't be done. What is he saying?

17:43 He's saying it's not in your self-interest so to do. Now, who are you going to believe?

17:49 The gracious promises of the sovereign God or the subtle whisperings of the father of lies? This, I say, is the character of the promise. It is conditional. Never plead the promise unless it's attached to the command and secondly, it is gracious.

The Essence of the Promise: Fulfilled Basic Material Needs

18:08 Well, now in the second place, what's the essence of the promise? Precisely what does the promise mean? Look at the phrases as they come before us. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty.

18:21 Anyone here own a barn?

18:24 One? Anybody else? All right, John, let's you and I go in the back room and I'll expound the promise to you because nobody else owns a barn so it must not apply. Anybody else?

18:37 Anybody here own a wine vat?

18:48 Any government agents present, take note. All right, you see what I'm driving at. On the surface of things, we could possibly look over this and say, well, that's a great promise for farmers or for maybe some of the Christians living out in California in the wine-growing section, but what does it say to us? Well, first of all, understand the meaning as it came through to Solomon's son or to his pupil and then, we shall understand its application to us.

19:23 The essence of the promise is this. Thy barn shall be filled with plenty. The barn was the place where grain, the stable food, was stored. Bread to the man in this day was not what it is to us.

19:39 Some additional commodity along with the main substance of our meat and taters. Bread was the staff of life. Hence, when Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he did not say, give us this day our daily beef or chicken. He said, give us this day our daily bread.

19:59 Bread was the staff of life. Bread was made of grain. Hence, the promise, thy barn shall be filled with plenty, is a promise in which God is saying that everything that is necessary for eating, possibly for selling and distributing, would be granted in abundance. And you just need to think of some of the instances, in the word of God.

20:22 When Joseph was elevated to that place of importance and given great wisdom from God in terms of the coming of the famine, what did he do? He built great granaries. And it was that great accumulation of grain which was the means by which God spared many during that famine. You remember the story in Luke 12, the parable of the man who had great increase and said, I'll pull down my barns and build greater barns.

20:51 All right then, you can see how the promise fell upon the ear of someone in Solomon's time. The essence of the promise was that if you honor the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of all your increase, you will never be the loser. Thereby, your barn, the symbol of the supply of life's basic necessities, shall be filled with plenty. Now the phrase, thy vats shall overflow with new wine.

21:19 As grain was the stable food, so the fruit of the vine was the stable liquid for nourishment and personal enjoyment. In the psalm of praise, in Psalm 104 in verse 14, the psalmist gives thanks for something that some people would frown upon. He causes the grass to grow for the cattle and herb for the service of man, that he may bring forth food out of the earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread that strengtheneth man's heart. And here wine is viewed as the gift of God,

22:03 not only as a stable liquid, but as something that brought delight as well as nourishment. And you will find the trilogy of grain, of wine, and of oil, a description of God supplying the basic, the basic commodities of his people's temporal needs. I shall give you just two instances. There are many others.

22:26 Deuteronomy chapter 11 and verse 13 and following. We're trying to discover the essence of this promise. We've seen what is signified by the barns. We are now seeking to discover what is signified by the vats that overflow with new wine.

22:44 Deuteronomy 11, 13. And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently, unto my commandments, which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and serve him with all your heart, and with all your soul, that I will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy grain, and thy new wine, and thine oil. Grain, wine, oil, symbolizing that in the path of obedience, Israel would have all of her needs met for her staple foods and for her basic nourishment.

23:27 Now to the prophecy of Joel, chapter 2. Joel, chapter 2,

23:34 beginning with verse 21.

23:44 Joel sees before him the devastation of God's judgment upon the land. The great army of locusts have come, or will come and utterly strip all of the foliage and all of the food. And the great army of locusts have come, and all of the food. And all of the food.

23:56 And all of the food. And all of the food. And all of the food. And all of the food.

23:57 And all of the food. And all of the food. And all that bears any kind of vegetable life. And now the gracious promise of God breaks through against the backdrop of divine judgment.

24:06 Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice, for the Lord hath done great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, and for the tree beareth its fruit, and the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he giveth you the former rain in just measure, and he causes to come down to you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain in the first month. Now what will be the blessing that comes from the restoration of the normal rainfall upon Zion?

24:42 And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and with oil. See the trilogy again? Wheat, grain. Wine and oil.

24:59 So what is God saying then? What is the essence of the second part of the promise? It is simply an extension of what we have in the first. It is a promise given in grace, conditioned on obedience to the command that all the basic material needs of his people shall be met.

25:19 Matthew Henry very perceptively comments, God does not say that their money bag shall be burst, but their barns shall be filled. Not that their wardrobes shall overflow, but their presses shall overflow. In other words, God shall bless them with an increase of that which is for use, not for show or for ornament. He will bless them with that which is for spending and laying out, not for hoarding and laying up.

25:54 You see the pragmatism here? Honor the Lord with thy substance and the firstfruits of all thine increase, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty. Filled to what end? To hoard it up?

26:08 To be indifferent to the cry of the poor? No. Filled barns for the supply of my own needs, but in New Testament terminology, that I may not only have my own needs, Matthew Ephesians 4, let him that stole steal no more, but let him work with his hands, that he may have to give to him, that hath need. And then I invite the poor and the needy to the barns that God has filled.

26:35 And I say, here's the monument of my God in his faithful covenant promise. Come and share in the abundance he has given, as I have sought to honor him with my substance and the firstfruits of all my increase. Lawson, a Scottish commentator on the Proverbs, also has a perceptive comment which I read to you. God has the Son, and winds and rain and creatures of every description in his hand.

27:04 And these he manages in such a manner as that none shall be a loser by him, nor a gainer by withholding from him. Robbers of God are visited with a curse,

27:18 which like a moth wastes, or like a fire destroys their substance. Liberality opens the windows of heaven, destroys the devouring locust, and destroys the living. And I say, here's the monument of my God, that I may not only have my substance, but I have the power to do so. And I say, here's the monument of my God, and I say, here's the monument of my God, and I say, here's the monument of my God, and I say, here's the monument of my God, and turns the barren field into a delightful land.

27:36 Hence the substance of this promise is that God has such a control of the sun, wind, plates, hail, and everything that can affect filled barns and overflowing vats, that he will order all the dispensations of his promise, of his providence, in order to fulfill the promise to his people, and so God has inseparably joined liberality with prosperity, giving with receiving, honoring him with being honored in our substance.

28:13 Now notice that this promise is not hedged up with little parentheses saying, and it is good only in an affluent society, or it is good only in a stable economy. We look through the word of God and find that in times when there was no promise, no affluence, God fulfilled that promise. Think of that widow who goes out to take her little hand of meal and her little bit of oil and have her last meal and die. And as she honored the Lord by giving to the prophet of God who said, make me a cake first,

28:51 her own supply was never dwindled all the days of the famine. What an unlikely time for the promise to be fulfilled, but it was fulfilled nonetheless. And so we must look upon this promise as a promise, the fulfillment of which is not dependent upon the state of the economy, and we may be called upon to put that to the test in the days ahead.

29:17 It is not dependent upon the state of the economy, not dependent upon a general state of affluence in the society, but its fulfillment is dependent upon the almighty power of the God who has given it. Hence it's a call to faith. That's why God says in a similar context in Malachi 3.10, Prove me now herewith.

Tempting God vs. Proving God

29:41 Prove me. Now what's the difference between tempting God and proving God? Well, when you tempt God, you strike out and do something for which you have no biblical warrant and then you ask God to bail you out.

29:56 That's tempting God. Oh God, I kind of like this girl or this fellow and we're going to go ahead and make plans to get married and if it's not your will, you just put me in the hospital. or send an earthquake on our wedding day. That's tempting God.

30:18 It's setting out in a course of action for which you have no biblical warrant and then expecting God to intervene in order to hinder you from doing something that you shouldn't. That's tempting God. That's what the devil tried to get our Lord to do. Jump off the temple, the pinnacle of the temple.

30:36 The angels will pick you up before you hit the bottom. Jesus said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. I have no warrant for jumping. I'm jumping off the top of pinnacles of the temple and if I do so without a warrant, I tempt my Father.

30:51 But now, what is proving God? Proving God is saying, Lord, here's a course of obedience and for the life of me, I don't see how I can walk it, but you've commanded it and in my heart you've put a longing to perform it and I step out without any human knowledge of how I shall be able to fulfill it or how the promise will be, be fulfilled contingent upon that promise, but Lord, I put you to the test in obedience to the precepts of the Word of God. See the difference? Now, God says, Honor the Lord with thy substance and the firstfruits of all thine increase.

31:30 Now, prove it. You say, I don't see how mathematically if I start tithing of my gross income, I don't see how I can meet my bills. All right? Prove me now here.

31:44 It's set the Lord of hosts. You're not being reckless. You're not being foolish. You're saying, here's the text.

31:52 Lord, I'm to honor you with the firstfruits, not the pickings of the leftovers.

31:57 And when that check comes through on Friday, every other week or every week, once a month, the first thing I'm going to do is sit down and I'm going to take the firstfruits and set it apart as an offering unto my God.

32:12 And when I've done that, I say, now, Lord, you've got to stretch the rest. I don't know how it's going to make it. And you say, but Lord, I'm going to prove you.

32:25 Oh, but you said it doesn't make sense business-wise. Thank God it doesn't.

32:31 There'd be no proving God. There'd be no element of faith. It'd be walking by pure sight. You see the difference between the two?

32:40 And in the context of material substance, God says, prove me now herewith. Take this promise. And as you can plead it before God, in its conditional element, O God of grace, who has told me that it is in my best self-interest to honor you with my substance and the firstfruits of all my increase, I determine to do so. Lord, fulfill this word of your promise in my life.

Is This a Gospel Promise? New Testament Affirmation

33:09 This, I believe, is the proper understanding of the promise in its essence. Having then looked at the promise in its character, conditional and gracious, the promise in...

33:21 In its essence, the meaning of the words, thy barns filled with plenty, thy vats overflowing with new wine. Consider in the third place a very vital question which arises out of the text. And the question is this. Since this promise was uttered in the context of the Old Testament theocracy, that is, the condition in which God was the God of that nation which dwelt in Palestine, can we expect the fulfillment of this promise in the same way in the New Testament economy in which many of those promises about land and grain and cows and cattle and fruitful wombs

34:04 and all the rest no longer apply in the same way? In other words, is this promise materially affected by the progression of God's dealings with His people? Now, you better ask that question. For gross mishandling of the word, what of God has occurred when men have failed to take into account what we could call the history of redemption?

34:30 That God is dealing with His people in history and that there is development, there is type, there is symbol, and there is fulfillment. And certainly the New Testament makes abundantly clear that many of the promises to earthly Israel concerning a land and an inheritance were symbolized, symbols of greater spiritual realities which have come to pass in the New Testament so that the earthly, physical, substantial reality in that sense is no longer applicable. Now, what do we do with a promise like this? Is this a promise that has a peculiar

35:13 and an exclusive reference to those living in Israel under the theocracy when God promised the early and the latter rain if they obeyed full barns, overflowing winebaths? Well, that's a very vital question. You may have never raised it, but I'm glad I have, and I hope from now on you will whenever you find a promise like this. Now, what's the answer?

35:41 How should we find the answer? Well, generally speaking, you find the answer to a question like this by going to the final, fullest revelation of the mind of God in the New Testament and you interpret it as a promise. And you interpret it as a promise. And you interpret it as a promise.

35:53 And you interpret it as a promise. And you interpret it as a promise. And you interpret the old by the full light of the new and not the other way around.

36:01 Confusion exists when people interpret the new under the shadowy light of the old. No, no. We interpret the old under the full blazing light of the New Testament.

36:16 People have all kinds of weird views about prophetic events because they go to the Old Testament and they attach a meaning upon the words that they want to attach rather than seeing them as a promise. Meaning the New Testament attaches upon them.

36:33 Well then, without going into all the implications of that with reference to the ordinances and many other factors, does the New Testament say that in the path of obedience to Jehovah Jesus material needs will be met? Are there any explicit statements? And the answer is an affirmative, a ringing affirmative that leads us to believe that the promise of the text tonight is a gospel promise, a promise that is yea and amen in Christ Jesus. Two statements from the lips of our Lord, two statements from the pen of the Apostle Paul.

37:13 I'm sure that many of you have already thought of the first one.

37:18 Matthew chapter 6 and verse 33. Hear the king who's announced the coming of the kingdom in his own person and work, not as some future semi-political state of unconverted people and save people in this mixed mumbo-jumbo. No, no, no, no, no. The kingdom Jesus announced is not a kingdom you enter by having Abraham's blood in your physical veins.

37:50 He said, Repent ye and believe the gospel for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Except a man be born again he cannot enter the kingdom. And this idea that some people are candidates for some kind of kingdom of God simply because they've got the right kind of Jewish blood in their veins is a contradiction of the whole teaching of the word of God.

38:16 The king is on the mount and he says the members of my kingdom are not A.B. Finkelstein or any of his first and second cousins, but listen, it's those that are poor in spirit, those that mourn, those that are meek, those that hunger and thirst, spiritual qualifications only wrought by the new birth in the power of the Holy Spirit. And in the midst of giving the standards of that kingdom consistent with the law of God, our Lord moves into the very practical realm of the interest of the subjects of the kingdom because they've still got to eat and drink.

38:58 The manifestation of the kingdom now is still here on this earth. It hasn't had its, its full development in that world to come in which we need not eat or drink. But we need to eat and drink now. And we need clothing now.

39:15 Will the subjects of the king find themselves bereft of these necessities? Will they find themselves with poverty of spirit and no promise that there should be anything other than absolute destitution and poverty of body? Well, our Lord knows that such things concern the subjects, the subjects of His kingdom. And so He tells them in verse 25 of Matthew 6, Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor for your body what ye shall put on.

39:46 And He begins to reason with them. He gives them illustrations and then He comes to that wonderful climax in verse 33. But seek ye first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things, things shall be added unto you. What things?

40:09 Food, raiment, the necessities for existence on this earth. Here is the promise of our Lord that the interests of the kingdom of God do not overlook what is necessary for our daily subsistence. Rather, He says, in seeking the higher, all the lesser shall be added. And then there is that wonderful promise of our Lord in Mark chapter 10.

40:40 Remember now, it's this vital question. Can we apply the promise of Proverbs 3.10 in this gospel economy, in this gospel age? I contend that we can and I'm seeking to demonstrate that that contention is a valid one.

40:57 Mark chapter 10, verses 30 and 31.

41:02 Verse 29, I'm sorry. Mark 30, verse 29, 29. Peter's asked the question, Lord, we've left all and have followed Thee. In essence, what do we get for this?

41:15 Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or mother or father or children or land for my sake and for the gospel's sake, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, a hundredfold more in this time. What? Houses, brethren, lands.

41:44 Now he says it won't all be rosy. It will be with persecution. There will be opposition because it's in this mixed state when the righteous are the minority and when they are light and they are salt, but in the midst of all the hostility of the world, our Lord is saying the kind providence of their heavenly Father will see to it that their material needs shall be met and yea, something better than that, he says, in the world to come. Only two ages.

42:13 Note that. This one and the world to come. The present earthly state and the future eternal state and in the world to come eternal life. And how wonderfully God has fulfilled this promise to his servants again and again and again.

42:32 Pastor Blaze and I were just reflecting on this text just yesterday as we flew out of the London airport and he had to say, goodbye to his bride-to-be and something of the bitter tears of that separation came to his eyes and this verse sprung into my mind and I quoted it to him as we walked down the ramp to get in the VC-10 to fly across the Atlantic. And I think in my own experience how true this has been in leaving my own dear wife and children for those two weeks. God multiplied to me not wives in the sense of the full and God, ordained relationship in all of its levels but loving Christian women

43:16 who cared for my temple needs. Loving Christian men who cared for my needs. Little children who snuggled up to me like my own would to meet some of those emotional needs in my own heart and I literally have brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers all around the world because of the gospel. Now there's some persecution in the midst of it.

43:41 I've got a few enemies around the world. I would rejoice at nothing more than to hear that somebody kicked the last shovel full of dirt on me and that the fire had come and burned up all the tapes. Our Lord makes abundantly clear that the promise in Proverbs is not limited to the theocracy. It's a promise that comes right through into the full-blown development of New Testament teaching.

44:11 Now look carefully at the statement of the Apostle Paul in two instances likewise. First of all, 2 Corinthians chapter 9. And this is a promise and this is particularly relevant because it's in a context dealing with material substance.

44:28 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9 are the fullest treatment in the New Testament in all of the word of God concerning the subject of the Christian's giving. And in the midst of reasoning with the people of God at Corinth, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9, 6 to 11 these very interesting words that bear directly upon our text tonight. But this I say, he that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly. And he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully.

45:02 And it's in the context not of sowing seed out in the field. He's using it as an illustration of how much they will give for this offering for the poor saints in Judea. And he says there is a law of horticulture that is operative in the realm of the Spirit. The man who goes out with his big bag of seed and he looks upon it and says, oh, that's a lot of seed.

45:22 It costs a lot of money. It's a lot of work. I just can't go out there and throw seed hither and yon. And he goes out and he just takes a little seed and he drops it here.

45:31 And 20 feet later on the field he drops another little seed over here. And he walks another 40 feet and he drops another little seed. Paul says when harvest time comes it's going to be much for him. He sowed sparingly.

45:44 He'll reap sparingly. But here's the man who takes his big seed bag and he looks over his field and he estimates if he takes a certain measure in each hand he ought to just about be able by the time he gets to the last few square yards empty the last few grains in his bag and he goes out and he sows abundantly. Scatters his seed far and wide and empties out the last seed. What happens, Paul says, in the time of the harvest he reaps abundantly.

46:14 Now he says, in the light of that principle let each man do as he purposed in his heart not grudgingly nor of necessity for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound unto you that ye having always all sufficiency in everything may abound unto every good work as it is written he hath scattered abroad he hath given to the poor his righteousness abideth forever. Now here's the promise. And he that supplieth seed to the sower and bread for food shall supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the fruits of your righteousness.

46:58 You see the picture? How does God multiply seed for sowing to the farmer? When he sows abundantly he not only gets a big harvest he's got more seed that's left to ripen to be sown the next. That's how you get seed to sow the following year.

47:15 You let some of it come to an advanced stage of ripeness until, as we say, it's gone to seed and the seed is collected. Now that poor man that sowed sparingly he not only has very little to bring into his granary and then hence into his wife's cupboards to make bread he has very little with which to sow the following year. You see the process of giving in abundance follows through at every level. Then he says in verse 11 Ye being enriched in everything unto all liberality which worketh through us thanksgiving unto God.

47:51 Here's a promise to the person who honors the Lord with his life. His substance and the firstfruits of all his increase that his barn shall be filled with plenty and his own vat shall overflow with new wine. Therefore in answer to the vital question is this promise a gospel promise? I would give a ringing affirmative.

48:13 It is. It is a promise which comes under the description of 2 Corinthians 1.20 How many soever be the promises of God in him is the yea and in him is the amen. Oh the blessedness of being a Christian and seeing that every area of my life is under the canopy of the grace of God and under the canopy of the promises of God sealed in the very blood of God.

Vital Qualification: A General Principle, Not an Absolute Guarantee

48:45 Now there is finally a vital qualification of this promise. We've looked at the character of the promise the essence of the promise a vital qualification a question and now finally a vital qualification. Now listen carefully as I make a statement that I've thought out with some degree of precision and I want you to get it word for word. This promise is not underscore it red, blue, pink whatever color strikes your eye with the most force this promise is not to be regarded as the full statement of God on the subject of the promise of God.

49:27 Of the relationship of honoring God to material substance and material prosperity. Let me give it to you again. This promise is not to be regarded as the full statement of God on the subject of the relationship to honoring God with our material substance and material prosperity. This promise is a statement of general principle which is which will generally prevail.

50:02 It is parallel to the previous promise that we studied concerning the relationship between godliness and physical health. God says if you're not wise in your own eyes if you fear me and depart from evil it shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. We saw in the exposition of that promise that this is the general principle holiness and health are parallel realities. Sin and ill health and sickness are parallel realities.

50:38 But in the exposition of that we saw that this was the general but not the exhaustive treatment of the subject the relationship between health and godliness. Apply every one of those principles to this promise. It is a statement of the general principle not an exhaustive statement of all the principles which are present in this very vital area. How do we know that?

51:07 Well just look at the immediate context. What follows this promise? My son despised not the chastening of the lord nor be weary of his reproof for whom the lord loveth he reproveth even as a father the son in whom he delighted. And what is one of the ways that god chastises his children?

51:27 With reference to material possessions. That is one of the ways. Look at the rest of scripture. Job came into very difficult times in terms of material prosperity.

51:40 He lost all his livestock in a day. He lost all of his loved ones in a day. He lost all of his health a few days later and it was not because he was not honoring god with his substance. It is because he was so meticulous in doing so that god made him a proving ground for a very vital spiritual lesson.

52:07 It was god who said to satan hast thou beheld this man who walks in integrity and in righteousness and in holiness.

52:17 And so when people say if you are passing through times of material difficulty and when it does not seem that your barns are filled and your vats overflow this means automatically you are living in sin. We must be very careful. The same way we must be careful when men say that sickness is always the direct result of disobedience and sin. No, no, we must qualify the text not bleed it of its comfort but we must not regard it in such a way that it becomes a bludgeon to a sensitive conscience.

52:52 Look at Paul that honored servant of Christ who certainly honored the lord with his substance and the first fruits of his increase. He said he had to learn not only how to abound but he said I have learned how to be abased and in the context of Philippians 4 that abasement was not the abasement of personal abuse to his name and character it was the abasement of coming upon hard times materially. Look at verse 10 I rejoice greatly now at length you've revived your thought of me wherein you did indeed take thought but you lacked opportunity. What's he referring to?

53:31 He's referring to the things that were sent to him to supply his material needs. Verses 17 and following but he says I speak not excuse me not that I speak in respect of want for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therein to be content I know how to be abased I know what it is to have less than three squares a day I know what it is to have less than that which sends me to my bed with a feeling of being satisfied and filled materially I know also how to abound and how to abound in everything and in all things I've learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry both to abound

54:15 and to be in want and one of the marks of his apostleship in 2 Corinthians 11 27 is a statement of this very thing he says in verse 27 of 2 Corinthians 11 in labor in travail in watchings often in hunger and in thirst in hunger and nakedness and I say to T.L. Osborne and all his crowd who write up their packs of plenty and say give God five dollars through our outfit and inside of three months your bank account will flourish and all this other business without any qualification giving the impression that if there's

55:00 sustained poverty there must be unbelief or sustained disobedience it is not true it is not true it is not true it is not true it is not true it is not true it is not true it is not true the word of God will not support it the best in that cruel to name names no because they send their propaganda to my house and they send it to some of your homes and they spread it to the Christian church and it's a canker and then look at our blessed Lord who honored the Lord with his substance more than he who honored the Lord with the first fruits of all his increase more than he he who could say I do always the things that I do

55:45 that please my Father is the one of whom it is said the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head and when he wanted to pay his taxes to render what was proper he had to tell Peter go down there a ways and catch a fish and open its mouth and pull out the coin to pay the taxes he didn't have any coins rattling around in his pocket you see this promise must be qualified by the fuller teaching of scripture concerning the relationship between honoring the Lord

56:28 and material prosperity and then there is a fifth example that we need to keep before us that qualifies this it is the people of God as they must bear the judgments of God that come upon all men in general there are times when God's judgment comes upon a given area of the world we see it biblically and when it does the people of God often have to bear that judgment in a material way and I could give you many examples in scripture I think most of you are sufficiently acquainted with the word of God to think of them on your own now you say oh pastor here you have built up our expectations and you had us dripping with eagerness to claim the promise

Attitude Towards the Promise: Expectancy of Faith and Flexibility of Submission

57:13 and now you have snatched it out of our mouths oh no I haven't no I haven't I just don't want you to get yourself so blooded with that you get belly aches on it and no promise of God is for our good unless viewed in its larger biblical context or else we shall find ourselves tortured with that which ought to be to our comfort well then you say pastor if it's not an absolute promise in that sense there needs to be the vital qualification what should our attitude to this promise be and I close the message by giving you two points your attitude should be number one the expectancy of true faith by that I mean

57:58 as you do what verse 9 says you expect that in your case it shall be so that God will fulfill the promise your bonds be filled with plenty your vats shall overflow and when you set aside the first fruits of your increase you pray to the Lord and say Lord I'm doing what you say and I'm doing it because I love you I'm doing it because all I have is yours you've redeemed me locked stock barreled bank accountants check account everything I have Lord I would be less than a saint man if I did not honor you with my substance and the first fruits of all my increase then in the expectancy of faith you say Lord now here's your promise

58:42 you've promised that my barn should be filled that you will meet my material needs and Lord I plead that promise before you there should be the expectancy of faith coupled with the second thing the flexibility of submission the expectancy of faith but then suppose the barn instead of being filled with grain burns down or suppose the harvest burns before it can be gathered what do we do then? do we are we driven into disillusionment accusations of God unbelief bitterness no no for the expectancy of faith was joined

59:26 with the flexibility of submission the Lord giveth the Lord taketh away blessed be the name of the Lord or in the words of Habakkuk turn please to that classic passage Habakkuk chapter 3 and verse 17 Habakkuk or Habakkuk chapter 3 and verse 17 for though the fig tree shall not flourish neither shall fruit be in the vines the labor of the olive shall fail in the field shall fail in the field shall fail shall yield no food the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls yet will I

60:10 rejoice in Jehovah I will joy in the God of my salvation the Lord is my strength and he maketh my feet like hind's feet and he will make me to walk upon high places there's the flexibility of submission for you see I do not need filled barns and overflowing vats truly to live all I need is the knowledge of God to live and if in the context of knowing him and obeying him he should even allow me to come to absolute poverty if he should allow me to starve to death all that death could do

60:55 was usher me in to the fullest expression of the life that he promises me in his son and so unlike the sinner who finds himself comfortable amidst his material possessions the child of God never has as his resting place the fulfillment of this promise his resting place is his God and if his God is pleased to overlay his communion with him with filled barns and overflowing vats of wine he receives them as the gift of God he praises God for them but if God takes them all away he says what

61:37 I will joy in the God of my salvation and I will rejoice in Jehovah now see sinner friend you have nothing like that upon which to rest if God were to send a blast of his providence to strip you of all your material and physical comforts what would you have left nothing but bitterness hopelessness thank God for the privilege of being a Christian are you all uptight about the economic insecurity of our day shame on you

62:21 shame on you as a Christian uptight to the place where you're restless at night and you're fretful not that you don't pray not that you're not concerned to exercise whatever influence you can exercise in terms of your own personal life in terms of your life at the polls I'm not speaking about that but I'm amazed at how many Christians spend more time speculating about what's going to happen to the economy than pleading the promises of God that he will care for his own what is it to be worldly it's to face any crisis like the world does that's one aspect of worldliness what does the world do when it sees the economy beginning to shake

63:05 like this the child of God says I'm not dependent upon the state of the economy for the meeting of my material needs but upon the faithfulness of my sovereign God who has saved me now is that just pious talk well God may bring us into conditions where we'll find out whether it is I think some of the most precious times in my life have been when God knocked out every single human means of knowing literally where the next dime was coming from how blessed to live upon the promises of God I submit to you my dear brothers and sisters this is God's gracious promise honor him with your substance

63:49 and the first fruits of all your increase so shall thy barns be filled with plenty thy vats shall overflow with new wine are you doing what God says in verse 9 some of you may not be as I've said before I repeat again I never look into the recording treasurer's book I don't know who gives what except what before God my wife and I give and I don't care to know but I leave the question with your conscience in the presence of God what does God know about you tonight does he know that you're honoring him with your substance and the first fruits of all your increase if he knows it then he's committed

64:34 to fulfill his promise so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy vats shall overflow with new wine oh that you children may learn this early when you get that dollar for your birthday present you take out the Lord's portion that's increase honor the Lord with it learn early what it is and you'll to obey the promise obey the command that you might plead the promise before him and dear friend outside of Christ this promise isn't yours it's a promise that is sealed up in the blood of Christ and is the heritage only of those that are in Christ but oh you could be found in him and in him

65:19 then all the promises are yours and the only way to be in him is the old path of repentance and faith and faith and true conversion turning from your ways of pride and robbing God of the glory do him in all of life as well as in your pocketbook and fleeing to his dear son who died for the worst of sin and asking him to have mercy upon you and magnify his grace in your salvation let us pray