CHRIST SANCTUARY                8th August 2010  

                                    _______________________________________________  

The Trustworthiness of God – Andrew Lim – Psalm 56  –  8 August 2010

Life is hard
None of us is spared / from the hardships of life
We all go through pain

The plain fact is life is not easy
And on a larger scale / we live in a world that’s constantly bombarded
by war / terrorism / earthquakes / famine / racial injustice
– then / there’s the constant threat
of nuclear technology falling into irresponsible hands

On a smaller scale
we have to put up with the sheer grind of ordinary day to day existence
– your falling tree pushes your roof in / in a storm
– you reverse and smash your garage door in
– your car engine seizes up / the microwave breaks down
– the freezer packs up / your luggage goes missing at the airport
– your catch a major cold the day before a major exam
– you tear your new dress on the way to a wedding

But it gets more in your face
You’re hanging on to an unhappy marriage
You’ve lost someone you love
You’ve been betrayed by a friend / had some injustice done to you
– an insensitive husband / an uncaring father
– there’s little money in the house
– having to cope with a severely handicapped child
– having to live with chronic / persistent pain
– diagnosed with a life-threatening illness

There are endless ways you and I can be afflicted
and it can cause you to wonder whether God is a God
on Whom we can trust

Trusting is hard because God sometimes doesn’t seem to care
The Bible is realistic enough to record the cries
of people who seemed to have been forsaken by God

* Jeremiah complained that God had made him a laughing stork
He cursed the man who brought good news to his father
that a son had been born

* The psalmist cried:
“Why do you stand far off ?
“Why do you hide Yourself in times of trouble?” / 10:1
“My soul thirsts for God / When can I go to meet with God ?
While men say to me / all day long: ‘Where is your God?’”

* Gideon asked / “Why has the Lord forsaken us?” / Judges 6:13

So the question we naturally ask is: “Where is God in all of this?”
“Does He know my pain and suffering / does He even care?
Will He really rescue people who call out to Him?

If we’re honest / many of us will have to admit
that we do struggle with the question of trust
We don’t find trusting God easy

When it comes to issues in our lives / that matter most greatly to us
many of us don’t really believe that God can take care of us

We may not necessarily admit it / but bottom line
many of us simply do not trust God

We’re terrified / He might not give us / what we want
We’re terrifies / He might put us in places / we dread to be in
He might fail us

We may read our Bibles / pray / and commit our problems to God
but when it comes to trusting God
especially with things dearest to us / we’re terrified

We quietly conclude that unless we look out for ourselves
God’s not going to look out for us

So / with many Christians / there is a basic distrust of God

If I may add / God may be left out as well
in what are seemingly / our most spiritual activities
We get ministries done / through our own drive and skill
and we sustain ministries / by the power of our own strength

I speak as someone who preaches weekly / and I confess
that it is easy to get bogged down and locked up
in your studies
– check up on the commentaries / locate the right context
do the research / put in the hours
and all that time not turning to God in prayer
which would reveal a posture of trusting in God

So even in matters of serving God / we could be distrusting God

Jesus rightly says / “When I return / will I find much faith?”

As a pastor / I encourage people to live holy lives
But I am aware that vital as it is
choosing to live holy before God is easier than trusting God

It was Jerry Bridges who pointed out
that obeying God is easier than trusting Him

When God tells us to obey Him / He gives us such moral laws
as “Don’t steal” Don’t lie” “Don’t kill” “Don’t be idolatrous”
we can see that these laws are rational and reasonable
we know why it is good not to steal or to lie / or take someone’s life

In asking us to obey Him / God is asking stuff that are rational to us
And we are asked to do so

within well-defined boundaries of God’s revealed will

But when we’re asked to trust God
we’re often asked to do what would appear to be so irrational
we’re asked to trust

– that the terribly dim diagnosis we’ve just been given
will actually lead us to a good place
– that this professor

who appears so mean and unkind and unhelpful
is actually put there for my good

Further / when we’re asked to trust God
we’re often to do so in very ill-defined boundaries

We are always having to cope with the unknown
What will the oncologist say in the next visit?
Would the cancer cells have been be wiped off?
When will someone come alone / takes notice of me
and take a liking to me?

Will my financial situation ever get better?

Unlike obeying God / trusting God is worked out
in an arena / that has no boundaries
We do not know the extent / the duration
or the frequency of the painful / adverse circumstances
in which we must trust God

I think Bridges is right
Far easier to obey God than trust Him

And yet / it is just as important to trust God as it is to obey Him

When you disobey God / you rebel against His authority
and despise His holiness

But when you distrust God / you question His sovereignty
and doubt His goodness

In both disobeying Him and distrusting Him
you abuse and offend God’s character

The most crucial point about trusting
has got to do with the object of our trust

Now / it is all very well for me to urge you to trust God
but unless we identify the object of our trust
we’re not going to get very far

When people say: “Just trust” we need to ask: “Trust in what?”

There are Christian teachers
who will tell you to have faith in faith
which amounts to asking you to trust on the very act of trusting

That’s not what the Bible teaches
That is positive thinking / that’s a form of self-hypnosis
That’s psyching yourself up into believing
That’s you / talking to yourself / saying to yourself
“I had better hurry up and believe “before it melts”

When you’re faced with a difficult situation
you  cannot try to whip up enough faith to trust
and hope that it will be big enough to do the job
And when we have not been delivered
we shake our heads and say
“I’ve failed because my faith is not big enough for the task
If only my faith was big enough / I would’ve got the job
but my faith was too weak / so I lost out”

But you could stand there all day till the cows come home
and you’ll never pull it off / because in order to be trusting
you’ve got to put your trust on someone

Trusting is nothing / unless you are trusting in something / someone
– faith itself has no power of its own
– it is not faith that moves mountain

The power of faith lies in the object of the faith
Faith is only as valid / as its object is valid

You can believe with all your heart / soul and mind / until you turn blue
but if your faith is founded on a lie / you’re deluded

But if you read the stories Jesus tells us / you will come to see
that virtually everyone who came to Him for help
brought along a faith that was weak and imperfect
and yet / in spite of their weak faith / Jesus met their need

A classic case in point / is the incident when the disciples
were crossing the sea / when a storm broke out
Jesus stilled the storm in spite of their weak faith
He didn’t turn to them as said:
“If your faith was stronger I would calm the sea
but because your faith is so weak I’m going to let the boat sink”

No! / He went ahead and saved them / in spite of their weak faith
because what counted / was not the size of their faith / but the sort
Although their faith was almost non-existent
it was fixed on the right object / Jesus

What little faith they were able to muster they had faith in Jesus

It was not faith in their faith / that saved them
It was faith in Jesus / that saved them

Didn’t Jesus say: “If you have faith as small as the mustard seed
you can say to this mountain “Move from here to there
and it will move” / Matt 17:20

You imagine yourself trying to walk over a frozen lake in winter
– you are not walking very confidently / you don’t venture too far out
– you are keeping a nervous eye on the ice / looking for cracks
– you have little faith in the ice

Then you see a man / in the middle of the frozen lake
– he’s sitting on a wooden crate / hunched over a hole in the ice / fishing!
and having a time of his life / enjoying his fishing
– He has great faith in the ice

Now / the crucial question is this:
Which one of you was more secure
– he with his great faith / or you with your little faith?

Is the man with the great faith / more secure
than you with your little faith?  / The answer is “No”
The fisherman / with his great faith on the ice
was no safer / than you with your little faith
You / with your little faith
were just as safe / as the fisherman who had great faith

Why?  Because it wasn’t his faith that held him up / It was the ice

If it had been the size of your faith that mattered
you would’ve sunk / for you had virtually none

But with your little faith
you were just as safe as the fisherman with his great faith
because it was the same ice / that held you both up!!

But there was an advantage the fisherman had that you didn’t have
Because he was unafraid of the ice cracking
– he had a time of his life / enjoying his fishing

But the crucial point is this
If you asked the fisherman
“How is it / that you’ve got enough nerve to do that”
he’ll probably say to you: “I live in this area / I know the ice”

Now / don’t let that pass you too quickly:
Listen to his words again: “I live in this area / I know the ice”

He knows the ice

I think of Psalm 91:1
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty”

It is he who knows His God / who will dare rest in Him

And that / made all the difference between fear and enjoyment
And that / is what is going to make a difference
between someone with a weak faith / and someone with a strong faith

What’s that!! / A knowledge of the object of their faith

And the object of our faith / is God

God’s trustworthiness is clearly taught in the Scriptures

Psalm 40:4 / “Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust”
Psalm 2:12 / “Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him”
Psalm 34:22 / “The LORD redeems the life of his servants
none of those who take refuge in him will be left desolated”
Proverbs 29:25 / “Fear of man will prove to be a snare
but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe”

Romans 10:11 / “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame”
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding / in all your ways
acknowledge him / and He will make your paths straight
Jeremiah 17:7 / “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD
whose confidence is in him”

But where do we begin to trust God?

Trusting God begins with knowing God

For how can you trust / whom you do not know
You can’t trust someone / until you come to know his heart
– you want to know who he is / what he’s like
– whether he truly has your welfare in his heart / and so on

The Psalmist said:
“Those who know Your name will put their trust in You
for you / LORD / have never forsaken those who seek you”
Ps 9:10

And in the Book of Daniel / we read:
“The people who know their God
will display strength and take action” / Daniel 11:32

Amy Carmichael / missionary to India
tells us that her ability to trust God
began with her confidence in God’s character

She believed that God is both a loving Father and a sovereign God

You ask / “If the basis of trusting God is knowing God’s character
what aspects of knowing God do I begin?

There are three essential characters about God 

you’ve got to believe in
if you are to trust Him / for your fear and pain

When you can know in your mind / and believe in your heart
all these three things about God / you will be able to trust Him fully

• God is completely sovereign
• God is infinitely wise
• God is perfectly loving

God / because He is loving / always wills what is best for us
God / because He is wise / always knows what is best
God / because He is sovereign / has the power to bring it about

Firstly / God is completely sovereign

Remember the seven areas that God is sovereign over our lives

ONE / God is sovereign over both the good and the evil

We need to learn to say / in the providence of God / I had an accident
and became paralyzed from my waist down”

* Isaiah 45:7 / “I form the light and I create darkness
I bring prosperity and I create disaster
I / the Lord / do all these things”

TWO / God is sovereign over rulers and kings

If you are living under a repressive military regime / remember
* Daniel 2:20-21 / “Wisdom and might are His
He changes the times and the seasons
He removes kings and raises up kings
He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to those who have understanding”

THREE / God is sovereign over natural disasters

Think of the tree that fell and broke your roof!
* “Even the wind and the sea obey Him” / Mark 4:39, 41

FOUR / God is sovereign over diseases and physical defects

Is your health failing you?
* Exodus 4:11 / The LORD said / “Who gave man his mouth?
Who makes him deaf or mute?
Who gives him sight or makes him blind?
Is it not I / the LORD?”

FIVE / God is sovereignty over the mistakes of other people

You thought your doctor had misdiagnose your illness
You blame the other driver for cutting into your lane
* Gen  50:20 / You intended to harm me
but God intended it for good to accomplish

SIX / God is sovereign over the actions of other people
– especially bad things they do to grieve us

You are not / never / ever at the mercy of a government official
a professor  / a supervisor / an employer / a boss
* “Who can speak / and have it happen
if the Lord has not decreed it” Lam 3:37

SEVEN / God is sovereign over life and death

If you’ve been diagnosed with a deadly disease / remember
* 1 Samuel 2:6 / “The Lord brings death / The Lord makes alive
He brings down to the grave / and raises up”

Now / all this does not mean / that if you believe God is sovereign
that you will be spared from trouble

You will hurt / and suffer grief
but you will not grieve as those Who have no hope

Secondly / God is infinitely wise

He knows the end from the beginning
He knows what is best for you and your family

Isaiah says / “His understanding / no one can fathom” / Isaiah 40:28
The psalmist says / “His understanding has no limit” / Psalm 147:5
Daniel says / “He knows what lies in the darkness” / Dan. 2:22

* Last week we heard of the missionary couple in Nigeria
who went through horrendous suffering but God in His wisdom
could see a good end for why they should suffer

* And remember too that long before it happened
God already had in mind to prosper Joseph
But to get there Joseph had to be thrown into the pit
sold into Egypt / unjustly accused / imprisoned / forgotten

But God is wise and He can see through all circumstances
He knows the best path you should be taking
He knows which set of circumstances / will come together
to bring you / ultimately to the place that is best for you

And if you can get yourselves to believe that God is infinitely wise
then / even though / you can’t see
how it’s all going to stack for good / you can trust Him

Thirdly / God is perfectly loving
And because He is perfectly loving
He will not ever give anything to you
that would ultimately harm you

When you can get to the point of believing 

that God is perfectly loving
then / even though you may be walking through a dark valley
you can rest assured and secure
that what is happening to you right now
happens because He perfectly loves you

Now let’s put them together

One / He is loving  / He wills what is good for you
Two / He is wise / He knows what is good for you
Three / He is sovereign / He can bring good to come your way

If you fully believe that God is such a God
you’ll be equipped and strengthened to face any hardship
that life can throw at you

You will come to believe / that what He has chosen for you
is far better / than what you could’ve chosen for yourself

Now / we often talk about the need to trust God in our adversity
But we forget that in times of prosperity we need to trust God as well

Prosperity is often harder to live with than adversity

Thomas Carlyle / the Scottish essayist / who once said
“Show me one man who can handle prosperity
and I will show you a hundred who can handle adversity”

Our Lord said: “It is easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle
than fort a rich man to enter the kingdom of God”

In fact it can be harder to trust God when things are going well
David refers to such times as times when
“the boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places” / Ps. 16:6
there’s peace in the household
the kids are doing well in school / there’s money in the house
work is going good / there is good health all round

In times like that one of the greatest temptations you’ll face
is for you to begin to think / that you can make it without God
that you can provide for yourself

This problem is as old as the human pride

Moses warned the Israelites / “Watch out!
“When you eat and are satisfied
when you build fine houses and settle down
when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase
and all you have is multiplied
then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD
You may say to yourself / “My power and the strength of my hands
have produced this wealth for me
But remember the LORD your God / for it is he
who gives you the ability to produce wealth” Deuteronomy 8:12-14; 17,18

It is easy to forget that it is God who puts breath into our lungs
– it’s He / who pumps blood through our hearts
and wires the neuron in our brain to help you think rationally

Are we just as thankful when the larder is full
as we are miserable when it is empty
Are we just as expressive of out thankfulness
when the larder is full
as we are expressive of our distress when it is empty

We need to trust God / both in good times as well as bad

As soon as Solomon says / “The name of the LORD is a strong tower
the righteous run to it and are safe” / he says in the very next breath
“The wealth of the rich is their fortified city
they imagine it an unscalable wall” / Proverbs 18:10, 11

Everyone of us has his/her own “fortified cities”
What might some of your “fortified cities” be?

– your great-paying job / your skill / a secure insurance policy
– a healthy sum stacked away for your retirement

Whatever you put your trust on / other than God
becomes your fortified city
and with it comes what you imagine to be unscalable walls

Be careful / God will bring them down with a mighty crash
so you may come to see / on whom you are trusting

The psalmist comes to see this / Psalms 20:6-8
“Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed
He answers him from his holy heaven
with the saving power of his right hand
Some trust in chariots and some in horses
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God
They are brought to their knees and fall
but we rise up and stand firm

The psalmist said / “I do not trust in my bow” /Ps. 44:6

Have you ever thought / that God is looking for our trust

God invariably never uses a person / till He has proves that person
and nine times out of ten / God proves us on the point of trust

He proved Abraham / on the point of trust
You’re may not know where you’re going / but will you trust me ?

He proved Jonah / on the point of trust
Nineveh may be an evil city / but will you trust me ?

He proved Moses / on the point of trust
T

he Egyptians may be indomitable / but will you trust me ?

He proved Gideon / on the point of trust
The Medianites may be powerful / but will you trust me ?

I sometimes imagine that there must have been names
we hear of no more because in their distrust of God
God allowed them to pass on into obscurity

But on the other hand / if you trust God
He will take great delight in you

Hudson Taylor pioneer missionary to China / had a great faith
He always believed that God knew all his needs
and can be trusted to meet all of them

On one occasion Taylor’s assets were down to a mere handful of coins
Can you imagine / running an entire mission field
with virtually no resource left

That evening / he took out a letter pad
and wrote these words to a friend:
“We have 87 cents / and all the promises of God”

That / is trust
Is it any wonder / why the Overseas Missionary Fellowship
is still with us to this day?

Let me close with giving you a few practical helps in growing trust

In any given day / most of us let our own thoughts speak to us
far more often / than we allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us
from the Word of God

We need to be hearing what God is saying to us
more than the voices we speak to ourselves

* When faced with a bad gloomy medical report from labs / pause and ask:
“Do I believe that the Lord gives / and ONLY the Lord can take away”
Can I see God’s hand in this?

* When something huge breaks down 

that will cost you expensively / ask:
“Do I think that this breakdown / takes God by surprise?”
Do I not believe that He knows / He is wise / and He is loving
and He will see me through this / and provide for me”

* Your final exam starts next week / and someone’s pinched your class notes
you can tell yourself / “Does this take God by surprise
Has He not allowed this for a bigger purpose?
Do I not know / that God cares for me and He’ll help me through”

* You’ve just been hit / with a huge disappointment
say you get another rejection letter / from a job you’ve applied for
you can say to yourself: “God is closing this door
because there is another one opening up for me?”

For some of you this morning / you are not in a good place
– there’s been some anxiety / some disappointment / some setback
– there’s the worry / the uncertainties of the future / some failure

And God is saying to you this morning:
“Trust me / Stake everything on me
And watch me pull you through
But you’ve got to trust me only / unreservedly”

Remember what God says:
Those who trust in Him / will never be put to shame