80 Sermon Illustrations on Security

Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, security has become a billion dollar industry. In 2003, the government designated 37.7 billion dollars for homeland security. Indeed, this became the President’s top budget priority and remains a priority to this day.(1)

As a result, businesses are cashing in on the security industry. Richard Norton, the executive director of the International Biometric Industry Association, calls the security sector a “gold rush.” Businesses are scrambling to corner the security market; new industries are springing up to develop new technology from fingerprint scanners and voice identifiers to biometric identifiers on visas. Three hundred eighty million was spent on visa technology alone in 2003.(2)

Of course, you and I have our own personal safety systems as well. We buy cars with advanced security systems, homes with alarm systems, and computers with both virus protection software and encryption systems to protect us from robbers, identity thieves, and computer hackers! And yet, with all the monies spent on technological development, security systems, and government initiatives, 3,000 people lost their lives on September 11th because of plastic box cutters and domestic airplanes. As Christians we should reflect on safety and security asking, “In whom, or in what, can we put our trust for protection?”

Psalm 46 provides an alternative vision for security by painting a picture of a true and safe homeland found only in God’s presence. The psalm was written during or just prior to the exile of the people of Judah to Babylon, while armies were massing against them and invading their homeland. Cities were being sacked and destroyed, and the Temple of Solomon -- the preeminent symbol of God’s presence among God’s people -- was razed to the ground. Taken away from their homeland to a land of exile far away from perceived safety and security, the Israelites wondered about this same question: In whom, or in what, can we put our trust for protection?

In light of all the chaos surrounding the days of exile, the writer of this psalm remembers that the real source of security, protection, and solace comes through placing trust in God alone. The psalmist begins, “God is our refuge and our strength who is our ever present help in time of trouble” (46:1). The original language here suggests that God is abundantly available to help us in our time of need by providing a safe refuge, or hiding place from the storms of life. The writer argues that God is our refuge and strength, even if cataclysmic events happen on earth to threaten the very foundations of the cosmos. “Therefore, we will not fear though the earth should change, and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake” (Psalm 46:2-3). Whatever the threat, the writer reminds the people, God is their refuge.

Second, the psalmist locates our true home in God. The psalmist describes the city of God -- the place of God’s presence -- as a heavenly city with rivers of joy, where the streets are safe, and the God of the universe is near day and night. “God is in the midst of this city; she will not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns” (46:5). This city is our real home, our real place of refuge and security, and nothing in heaven or on earth can violate it! When we find our home in God, we traverse the ups and the downs of our lives, ever in the shelter of God’s presence, our secure dwelling place.

Third, the psalmist teaches that since God is in control over the earth, we can cease striving and rest. The psalmist reminds us to rest in the promise that God will be exalted among the nations, and God will be exalted in the earth. As we recognize our true home with God, we reveal the rest and security that inhabits a city-of-God kind-of-life even in the midst of the storm. Our refuge and our strength are with God.

Finally, the psalmist emphasizes God’s overarching care by repeating the refrain, “The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our stronghold” (46:7). Jacob wrestled with God and had tangible evidence of God’s strong hold upon him. God had a hold of Jacob, but Jacob also had a hold on God. The psalmist doesn’t want us to miss this powerful image: God has a strong grip on each one of us, a grip so strong that none of the most potent forces unleashed on us can loose that grip. Yet, we too must cling to God for our safety and security. When we place our trust in other things or people, we lose our grip on God. God will wrestle us out of trusting in anything else, in order to reveal our true, homeland security. “Cease striving and know that I am God” (46:10).

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1. Statistics cited from CQ DAILY MONITOR: AGENCY BY AGENCY ANALYSIS OF WHITE HOUSE BUDGET AND POLICY PROPOSALS, 7 February 2002, vol. 38, no. 15A.

2. IBID.

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Copyright © 2007 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #27792]

We saw yesterday how the psalmist sensed that despite his doubts and failures he was still accepted by God. But there’s more – he realizes also that God’s restraining hand has been constantly with him: “You hold me by my right hand” (Psa. 73:23). What was it, after all, that prevented him going over the brink? It was the protecting hand of God. God Himself had put it in his mind to go into the sanctuary and had thereby turned him round. Realizing that, he thinks of the future. What is the future going to be like? His conclusion is that the future is going to be just as secure, for: “You guide me with your counsel, and afterwards you will take me into glory” (v.24).

Can you sense the psalmist’s security as he contemplates the future? He is saying, in effect: “You are doing this now, holding me by my right hand, protecting me, restraining me, restoring me and delivering me, and I know You will keep on doing this right up to the time when I meet with you in glory.” How does God guide us? Through circumstances, through reason, through the fellowship of Christians, but mainly through the Scriptures. The Word of God, when we consult it, unfolds reality, dispels illusion and guides us safely through the snares and problems of this earthly way until we eventually arrive in glory. The psalmist had seen the end of the ungodly and it had helped to change his perspective. Now he sees the end of the godly and thus his perspective becomes even more clear. And what is the end of the godly? It is glory!

PRAYER:

O Father, let the prospect of coming glory fill and thrill my soul this day and every day. Help me never to forget that no matter how hard and difficult my earthly pilgrimage may be, it is as nothing compared to the glory that lies ahead. Amen.

FURTHER STUDY: – 1 Pet. 1:1-6; Jude v.24; Gen. 28:15

1. Of what was Peter convinced?

2. How did Jude put it?

Psalm 32:7–9 — God’s Guidance — « Leader information shown in this fashion »

A. 7 You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah 8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. 9 Do not be like the horse or like the mule, Which have no understanding, Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, Else they will not come near you. (NKJV)

B. This Psalm is by David, recounting how he had suffered within himself when he had refused to acknowledge his sin, and then the joy the experienced once he had confessed and been forgiven

1. verse 7 concludes the first part of David’s thanksgiving prayer to God, in which he praises God for three additional benefits of his restored fellowship to the Lord

a. God changed from « judge to protector of his life »

b. God ensures that « no trouble can really harm him »

c. God encircles him « with the song of God’s mercies »

2. in verse 8 the teaching part of this Psalm begins

a. this fulfills David’s promise in his prayer of repentance: in Psalm 51:12–13 (NKJV): 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.

b. and he does so by recounting the Lord’s answer which contains both a promise and a warning

(A) the promise of the Lord is « … “I will instruct … I will teach … I will guide” … and of this we have deep need, both as individuals and as a church »

(B) the warning of the Lord is … « “Don’t be ‘horsish’ or mulish; don’t make it so that I have to enforce your obedience; listen and watch me and learn” … this, too, we have to take to heart as individuals and as a church »

Question: I’ve heard that once you become a Christian you can’t “lose” your salvation. Is this true? What about someone who stops coming to church or even living for Christ?

Answer: Once you become a believer you cannot lose the gift of grace and salvation that God has given to you. This is called the eternal security of the believer.

We know that we cannot lose our salvation because of the clear promises in John 3:16, Romans 10:10, 1 John 1:9 and many other places. Our salvation is not dependent upon our good works, but on God’s promise and gift to us in his son.

Is it possible for someone to say they are a Christian but not really be a believer? Of course!

The problem is not that they have lost their salvation, but that they never had it in the first place. The Bible talks about three different kinds of “security” that we can have in regards to our salvation.

• Some people have false security — They think they are a believer because they’ve come to church or been baptized or done good things. Jesus says that there will be people who call him, “Lord,” but who never had a relationship with him. We shouldn’t put our trust in anything but Christ’s ability to forgive and save us.

• Some believers have conditional security — These are believers who know Christ, but they think that their salvation is dependent on what they do or how they serve or how faithful they are. This “conditional” security often results in deep feelings of guilt and doubt — wondering if we’ve done enough to truly guarantee that we are saved. We “stay saved” the same way that we “became saved,” by grace alone.

• Other believers know they have eternal security — From passages such as John 10 and Romans 8, these believers have learned that nothing can snatch us from God’s hand and that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

Some suppose that this feeling of security will result in a Christian sinning more, with the feeling that it won’t really matter since they’re going to heaven anyway. The exact opposite is true! When we realize how secure we are in Christ’s love, it gives a sense of gratefulness for his grace that empowers our growth in him.

1. How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,

Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!

What more can He say that to you He hath said–

To you, who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

2. “Fear not, I am with thee — O be not dismayed,

For I am thy God, I will still give thee aid;

I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,

Upheld by my gracious, omnipotent hand.

3. “When through the deep waters I call thee to go,

The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;

For I will be with thee they troubles to bless,

And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

4. “When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,

My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply;

The flame shall not hurt thee – I only design

Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

5. “The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,

I will not, I will not desert to his foes;

That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake,

I’ll never – no, never – no, never forsake!”

[Tune “Foundation”]

Sixty years ago the entire world was at war. It was then that an Oxford don named C. S. Lewis preached his famous sermon “The Weight of Glory.” This is what he had to say:

“Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself. If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure, the search would never have begun.”

Lewis’ words could not be more appropriate for us today. It’s precisely during times of crisis that we must persevere all the more in our quest for beauty and truth.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #10764]

But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer. — Psalm 40:17.

Be not troubled with thoughts of the morrow

Of duties you surely must do

On the Lord cast Thy burden of sorrow

“It matters to Him about you”

Be not weary in fighting with Satan

But buckle His armor so true

He will make all your troubles to straighten

“It matters to Him about you”

Be not worried when trials are given

But trust Him to carry you through

He will make all the pathway to Heaven

“It matters to Him about you.”

Be patient until His appearing:

‘Tis dawn almost now, on your view:

The mists of this dark age are clearing -

He is planning in love about you.

”Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” – Helen Keller, American blind/deaf author & lecturer

Questions to Ponder

• How do I view security?

• How important is security in the decisions I make?

• In any of those cases, is my view hampering me, or leading me to poor decisions?

1. Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee;

Let the water and the blood,

From Thy wounded side which flowed,

Be of sin the double cure;

Save from wrath and make me pure.

2. Could my tears forever flow,

Could my zeal no respite know,

This for sin could not atone—

Thou must save, and Thou alone:

In my hand no price I bring,

Simply to Thy cross I cling.

3. When I draw my final breath,

When my eyes shall close in death,

When I rise to worlds unknown

And behold Thee on Thy throne,

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee.

[Tune “Toplady”]

[Alternate words and versification:

1. Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee;

Let the water and the blood,

From Thy riven side which flowed,

Be of sin the double cure;

Save from wrath and make me pure.

2. Not the laboUs of my hands

Can fulfill Thy law’s commands;

Could my zeal no respite know,

Could my tears forever flow,

All for sin could not atone;

Thou must save, and Thou alone.

3. Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to the cross I cling;

Naked, come to Thee for dress;

Helpless, look to Thee for grace;

Foul, I to the fountain fly;

Wash me, Savior, or I die.

4. While I draw this fleeting breath,

When mine eyes shall close in death,

When I soar to worlds unknown,

See Thee on Thy judgment throne,

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in thee.]

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This year Kathy and I will celebrate eleven years of marriage. Having been both married and single, I would choose to be married any day! One of the most miserable periods in my life was when I was single! I never knew where I stood with a girl! I was always in doubt. Things could be fine one day, Jiltsville the next! Had to be concerned about matching clothes, ironed shirts, zits, and bathing regularly. One little mistake and it could be all over. Not now. Secure. I always know where I stand with Kathy.

Jesus forgives all past, present and future sin. God's wrath cannot touch believers.

Many years ago, a father and his daughter were walking through the grass on the Canadian prairie. In the distance, they saw a prairie fire; they realized it eventually would engulf them. The father knew there was only one way of escape: they would quickly begin a fire right where they were and burn a large patch of grass.

When the huge fire drew near, they then would stand on the section that had already burned. When the fire approached them, the girl was terrified by the raging flames. But her father assured her, "The flames can't get to us. We are standing where the fire has already been!"

Are you afraid of God's judgment? If you have trusted Christ as Savior, you can never come under His wrath. When you depend on Him, you are secure; you are where the wrath of God already has been.

[see also #2074, #4430, #5905 for same idea]

#729

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CAN GOD BE TRUSTED? [outline of article at end]

HE WILL COVER YOU WITH HIS PINIONS, AND UNDER HIS WINGS YOU WILL FIND REFUGE. (Psalm 91:4, NRSV)

Many adults can recall a certain childhood feeling that has now pretty much faded away. Unhappily, one of the things that fades away is a childlike feeling of security in the nest. It's a sense that you are loved, protected, and perfectly safe. It's a sense, above all, that somebody else is in charge. In properly functioning homes, children often have this feeling. Adults do not, and they miss it.

Years ago, on the old CANDID CAMERA television program, a very large and dangerous-looking truck driver -- a man of about 50 -- was asked in an interview what age he would be if he could be any age he wanted. There was a silence for a while as the trucker contemplated the question. What was he thinking? Was he hankering for age 65 and retirement so he could trade his Kenworth four-and-a-quarter semi down to a John Deere riding lawn mower? Or was he yearning for age 18 and the chance to go back and take some turn he had missed?

Finally he turned to the interviewer and said that if it was up to him he'd like to be three. Three? Why three? the interviewer wanted to know. "Well," said the trucker, "when you're three you don't have any responsibilities."

When I first heard the interview I thought this man was trying to be cute. I now think he said something wistful. What he knew was that when you are a child, and if your family is running the right way, your burdens are usually small. You can go to bed without worrying about ice backup under your shingles. You don't wonder if the tingling in your leg might be a symptom of some exotic nerve disease. You don't wrestle half the night with a tax deduction you claimed, wondering whether a federal investigator might find it a little too creative. No, you squirm deliciously in your bed, drowsily aware of the murmur of adult conversations elsewhere in the house. You hover wonderfully at the edge of slumber. Then you let go and fall away.

You dare to do this not only because you fully expect that in the morning you shall be resurrected. You also dare to do it because you are sleeping under your parents' wings. If parents take proper care of you, you can give yourself up to sleep, secure in the knowledge that somebody else is in charge; somebody big and strong and experienced. As far as children know, parents stay up all night, checking doors and windows, adjusting temperature controls, fearlessly driving away marauders. They never go off duty. If a shadow falls over the house, or demons begin to stir, or a storm rises, parents will handle it. That's one reason children sleep so well. Their nest is sheltered and feathered.

I think children might be alarmed to discover how much adults crave this same sense of security. ADULTS need to be sheltered, warmed, embraced. Some of us have been betrayed. Some of us have grown old and are not happy about it.

People get betrayed, or they get old or sick. Some are deeply disappointed that their lives have not turned out as they had hoped. Others have been staggered by a report that has just come back from a pathology lab. Still others are unspeakably ignored by people they treasure. Some are simply high-tension human beings, strung tight as piano wire.

To all such folk, the psalmist speaks a word of comfort. It is one of the great themes of the Scriptures: God is our shelter. HE WILL COVER YOU WITH HIS PINIONS, AND UNDER HIS WINGS YOU WILL FIND REFUGE.

The image here is that of an eagle, or maybe a hen; in any case, it's a picture of a bird that senses danger and then protectively spreads its wings over its young. An expert on birds once told me that this move is very common. A bird senses the approach of a predator, or the threat of something falling from above, and instinctively spreads out its wings like a canopy. Then the fledglings scuttle underneath for shelter. The move is so deeply instinctive that an adult bird will spread those wings even when no fledglings are around!

And the psalmist -- who has almost surely seen this lovely thing happen -- the psalmist thinks of God. HE WILL COVER YOU WITH HIS PINIONS, AND UNDER HIS WINGS YOU WILL FIND REFUGE. The point is that God is our shelter when the winds begin to howl; under God's providence we are defended, protected, perfectly safe -- someone else is in charge -- someone big, strong, and experienced, who never goes off duty.

In one of his books, John Timmer, my former pastor, tells of his experience as a boy in the Netherlands at the start of World War II. German troops had invaded Holland a few days before, but nobody knew just what to expect. Then, on the second Sunday of May 1940, as the Timmer family was sitting around the dinner table in their home in Haarlem, suddenly they heard the eerie whining of an air-raid siren and then the droning of German bombers.

Of course, all of them were scared out of their minds. "Let's go stand in the hallway," John's father said. "They say it's the safest place in the house." In the hall, John's father said, "Why don't we pray? There's nothing else we can do."

John says he has long ago forgotten the exact wording of his father's prayer -- all except for one phrase. Somewhere in that prayer to God to protect his family from Hitler's Luftwaffe, Mr. Timmer said, "O God, in the shadow of your wings we take refuge."

God spreads his wings over us. Here is a picture that all the Jewish and Christian generations have cherished, in part because it invites us to recover our childhood feeling of security in the nest. Or, to discover it for the first time if we have had a terrorized childhood. It's a picture that offers sublime comfort, and only a pretty numb Christian would fail to be touched by it.

Still, a disturbing question pricks us. How true is the picture of a sheltering God? How secure are we in the nest? I wonder whether in 1940, on the second Sunday of May, some other Dutch family begged God to spread his wings over their house. I wonder if the bombs of the German air force pierced those wings and blew that house and its people to rubble.

You read Psalm 91 and you begin to wonder. It offers such comprehensive coverage. HE WILL COVER YOU WITH HIS PINIONS, AND UNDER HIS WINGS YOU WILL FIND REFUGE..... YOU WILL NOT FEAR THE TERROR OF THE NIGHT, OR THE ARROW THAT FLIES BY DAY, OR THE PESTILENCE THAT STALKS IN DARKNESS, OR THE DESTRUCTION THAT WASTES AT NOONDAY.

Really? I need not fear any of these things? I can sleep in a dangerous neighborhood with my windows open? I shall not fear the terror of the night? My child's temperature soars and his white blood count plummets: I shall not fear the pestilence that stalks in darkness? I can plunge into my work at an AIDS clinic: I shall not fear the destruction that wastes at midday? Really? Is there a level of faith that can honestly say such things even after all allowance has been made for poetic exaggeration?

In his book FROM BEIRUT TO JERUSALEM, Thomas L. Friedman writes of his years in the Middle East. One of the terrors of life in Beirut during the civil war there was the prospect of dying a random death. Long-distance sniping and shelling made it hard to tell where bullets or shells might land, and the people who launched them often didn't care. You never knew whether the car you walked past might explode into a fireball, stripping trees of their leaves so that in the terrible silence that followed, scores of leaves would come fluttering down in a soft shower on top of the dead and the maimed.

No one kept score. Police would even lose track of the NAMES of the dead. "Death in Beirut had no echo," says Friedman.

I shall not fear the grenade that flies by day. Could a believer say this in Beirut?

Let us face the truth. Faith in the sheltering wings of God does not remove physical danger or the need for precaution against it. We cannot ignore Beirut tourist advisories, or feed wild animals on our camping trips, or jump a hot motorcycle over a row of parked cars and trust God to keep us safe. We cannot smoke cigarettes like the Marlboro man and then claim the promises of Psalm 91 as our protection against lung cancer. A person who did these things would be a foolish believer and a foolish reader of Psalm 91.

You may recall that in Matthew's gospel Satan quotes this psalm to Jesus in the temptation at the pinnacle of the temple. "Throw yourself down," says Satan. After all, it says right in Psalm 91 that "God will give his angels charge over you." And Jesus replies that it is not right to put God to the test. God's protection is good only for certain events, and restrictions may apply. Jesus was teaching us that we cannot act like a fool and then count on God to bail us out. God may do it -- and some of us can recall times when we acted like fools and God bailed us out. But we may not COUNT on it.

But, of course, some believers get hurt, terribly hurt, by no folly of their own. Suppose a drunk driver smashes into your family car. Suppose an I-beam falls on you in a storm. What if you make the mistake of visiting a great city during tourist-hunting season?

Or suppose you are a devout middle-aged Christian woman who lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. One June you start to feel sick. So you visit your primary-care physician, who sends you for tests, and then a visit to a specialist, and then more tests. Finally you go back to your own physician, and she says, "Ma'am, I'm sorry to say that you had better get your affairs in order." She says more, far more, about treatments and research and making you as comfortable as possible -- on and on with all kinds of stuff that is well-meant. But you have grown deaf. All you can think is that you are 46 years old and you are going to die before your parents do and before your children get married.

Whatever happened to the wings of God? Can you get brain cancer under those wings? Get molested by a family member? Get knifed by some emotionless teenager in a subway in New York? Can you find, suddenly one summer, that your own 17-year-old has become a stranger and that everything in your family seems to be cascading out of control?

WHERE ARE THOSE WINGS?

What troubles us is not so much the sheer fact that believers suffer along with everybody else. C. S. Lewis once pondered this. If the children of God were always saved from floods like believing Noah and his family; if every time somebody pointed a gun at a Christian, the gun just turned to salami; if we really had a money-back guarantee against hatred, disease, and the acts of terrorists, then of course we wouldn't have to worry about church growth. Our churches would fill with people attracted to the faith for secondary reasons. These are people who want an insurance agent, not a church. For security they want Colin Powell, not God. We ALREADY have people becoming Christians because they want to get rich or get happy. What would happen to people's integrity if becoming a believer really did give you blanket protection against poverty, accident, and the wages of sin?

No, it's not the fact that we have to take our share of the world's suffering that surprises us. After all, our experience and the rest of Scripture have taught us to EXPECT hardship. What worries us is that Psalm 91 tells us not to worry. It says "a thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you." This is advertising that sounds too good to be true. In fact, the psalmist says, "Because you have made the Lord your refuge ... NO evil shall befall you." And the statement troubles us. What about Paul? What about Stephen? What about our Lord himself? He wanted to gather the citizens of Jerusalem as a hen gathers her chicks. What some of those citizens did was to take him outside of town one day and nail his wings to some two-by-fours.

So what is going on in Psalm 91? How are its extravagant promises God's Word to us?

What Psalm 91 does is express ONE -- one of the loveliest, one of the most treasured -- but just ONE of the moods of faith. It's a mood of exuberant confidence in the sheltering providence of God. Probably the psalmist has been protected by God in some dangerous incident, and he is celebrating.

On other days, and in other moods -- in other and darker seasons of his life -- this same psalmist might have called to God out of despair and a sense of abandonment. Remember that when our Lord was crucified, when our Lord shouted at our God, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" -- when Jesus shouted this in astonishment, and with maybe even a note of accusation, remember that he was quoting another psalm (22). Despair or astonishment at what can happen to us under God's providence -- that too is natural and biblical.

Psalm 91 gives us only part of the picture and only one of the moods of faith. With a kind of quiet amazement, the psalmist bears witness that under the wings of God good things happen to bad people. You need another psalm or two to fill in the picture, to cry out that under those same wings bad things sometimes happen to good people.

Psalm 91 says no evil shall befall us. When we have cashed out some of the poetry and then added in the witness of the rest of Scripture, what we get, I believe, is the conclusion that no final evil shall befall us. We know that we can believe God with all our heart and yet have our heart broken by the loss of a child or the treachery of a spouse or the menace of a fatal disease. We know this is true -- everyone in the church knows it. And yet, generation after generation of bruised saints have known something else and spoken of it. In the mystery of faith, we find a hand on us in the darkness, a voice that calls our name, and the sheer certainty that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God -- not for this life and not for the life to come. We may be scarred and shaken, but, as Lewis Smedes says in one of his luminous sermons, we come to know that it's all right, even when everything is all wrong.

We are like fledglings who scuttle under the wings of their parent. The forces of evil beat on those wings with everything they have. The pitchforks of the Evil One, falling tree limbs in the storm, merciless rain and hail -- everything beats on those wings. When it is finished, when evil has done its worst, those wings are all bloodied and busted and hanging at wrong angles. And, to tell you the truth, in all the commotion we too get roughed up quite a lot.

But we are all right, because those wings have never folded. They are spread out to be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. And when the feathers quit flying, we peep out and discover that we have been in the only place that was not leveled. Yes, we have been bumped and bruised and hurt. Sometimes badly hurt. But the other choice was to be dead -- the other choice was to break out of the embrace of God. If we had not stayed under those wings we could never have felt the body shudders and heard the groans of the one who loved us so much that those wings stayed out there no matter what came whistling in. This is the one who protects us from final evil, now and in the life to come -- the life in which, at last, it is safe for God to fold his wings.

HE WILL COVER YOU WITH HIS PINIONS, AND UNDER HIS WINGS YOU WILL FIND REFUGE. It's not a simple truth, but it is the truth. And we ought to believe it with everything that is in us.

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CORNELIUS PLANTINGA, JR., IS DEAN OF THE CHAPEL AT CALVIN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AND AUTHOR OF Not the Way It's Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin (EERDMANS).

Copyright(c) 1998 by the author or Christianity Today, Inc./Christianity Today magazine. June 15, 1998 vol. 42, no. 7, page 45

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"Can God Be Trusted?" Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.

I. God is our shelter.

A. One of great themes of Bible and a word of comfort.

B. Image of bird sheltering with wings.

1) Feelings of security in a nest.

C. God is in charge and we are safe.

II. Disturbing question: how true is the picture?

A. In life, some are protected and others are not.

B. Psalm 91 suggests comprehensive coverage.

1) We are not to fear anything.

2) Is this realistic?

C. Faith in the sheltering of God does not remove physical danger.

1) It does not protect smokers from lung cancer.

III. Jesus and Psalm 91.

A. Satan quotes verse about rescuing angels.

B. Jesus: don't put God to the test.

1) God's protection is good for only certain events.

2) Restrictions may apply.

3) God does not have to bail out fools.

a) He may, but he doesn't have to.

IV. Much suffering is not deserved or due to foolishness.

A. Cancer, death of loved ones.

1) Where are the sheltering wings of God then?

B. Universal protection for Christians would swell church.

1) But people would be joining for wrong reason.

2) They want insurance instead of relationship with God.

C. Does Psalm 91 offer universal protection?

1) It sounds like it.

a) No trouble shall befall you.

2) Too good to be true?

a) Centuries of Christian martyrs.

b) Bible teaches us to EXPECT hardship.

V. Psalm 91 expresses ONE of the moods of faith.

A. It has exuberant confidence in sheltering providence of God.

1) The psalmist has been protected and is celebrating.

2) On other days he might feel abandoned by God.

a) Despair is natural and biblical. (Jesus on cross)

b) Bad things do happen to good people.

B. No FINAL evil shall befall us.

1) We can believe with all our heart and still suffer losses.

2) But nothing can separate us from the love of God.

a) Smedes - we know it is all right, even when everything

is all wrong.

3) God's protecting wings may get bloody, but they never fold.

a) They were spread out on a cross, for us.

1. Children of the heav’nly Father

Safely in His bosom gather;

Nestling bird nor star in heaven

Such a refuge e’er was given.

2. God His own doth tend and nourish,

In His holy courts they flourish;

From all evil things He spares them,

In His mighty arms He bears them.

3. Neither life nor death shall ever

From the Lord His children sever;

Unto them His grace He showeth,

And their sorrows all He knoweth.

4. Though He giveth or He taketh,

God His children ne’er forsaketh;

His the loving purpose solely

To preserve them pure and holy.

[Tune “Tryggare Kan Ingen Vara”]

*

Regardless of your position on the war in Iraq, there is no question it will have a worldwide impact and will leave many in your community fearful of the future. They will be hungry to hear God's truth, and I encourage you to offer a special service of worship and prayer related to the war during this weekend.

I suspect that many people -- even Christians -- are fearful at this time, so I've outlined below God's antidote to fears of the future, based on Psalm 23:6.

What is God's anecdote for not fearing the future? In Psalm 23:6, where David wrote, “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever,” God reminds of three things:

1) HE IS WATCHING OVER US. “Surely goodness will follow....” David is not saying, “Surely only good things are going to happen to me! Bad things happen to good people.” Rather David is saying only goodness will follow. Good things will always come out of whatever happens -- even the bad, the evil and the difficult.

It's a great promise that God has given to believers: We know that all that happens to us is working for our good -- if we love God and are fitting into his plans (Romans 8:28). If you're a believer, the Bible says all things are working together for good -- not that all things are good -- but working together for good. There is no difficulty, dilemma, defeat, disaster in the life of a Christian that God can't ultimately get some good out of.

2) GRACE IS WORKING IN US. When you understand God's grace and mercy, then you have no need to fear the future. God isn't trying to get even with you. Jesus has taken the penalty for everything you've ever done wrong or will do wrong. He paid for it on the cross. That's grace and mercy.

Mercy, like goodness, follows us in life. Picture a parent following a little child around picking up after them. God is constantly picking up our messes. Christians go to the future -- not with a question mark -- but with an exclamation point. God will be with you no matter what happens. He will help you out.

God's goodness will provide and protect. God's mercy will pardon and forgive.

God's goodness will supply. God's mercy will sooth.

God's goodness will help. God's mercy will heal.

Goodness is the fact that God gives us good things in life that we don't deserve. Mercy means God holds back the condemnation we deserve.

3) HEAVEN IS WAITING FOR US. “... and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” That's one of the most important connections we see in the Bible. It connects yesterday and today with tomorrow. God says, “I've got this great life planned for you and surely goodness and mercy will follow you through it, BUT that's not the end! I've got something else at the end!” He builds it to a crescendo.

David ends this verse by saying, “We're going to heaven!” Jesus saves the best until last. With God it just keeps getting better and better. The best is yet to come.

“We know that our body will be destroyed. But when that happens, God will have a house for us. It will not be a house made by human hands; instead, it will be a home in heaven that will last forever” (2 Corinthians 5:1).

How long is forever going to last? Forever! Someday your body is going to die, but you aren't! You're going to live forever in one of two places -- heaven or hell. They're both real places. You will spend eternity in heaven or hell. Your body is going to end but that's not going to be the end of you. We were made to last forever.

Why are Christians the most confident people about the future?

“We look forward with confidence to our heavenly bodies. And we are not afraid, but are quite content to die, for then we will be at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6,8).

Death, for Christians, is a transfer, a promotion. It's on to better things. No more problems. You're not ready to live until you're ready to die. You don't know how to live until you're ready to die. Only a fool would go all through life, totally unprepared for something that everybody knows is inevitable. You're going to die -- someday. If you have accepted Christ, then you're going to go to heaven.

You'll be released from pain, from sorrow, from suffering, from depression, from fear. “He will wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain. All of that has gone forever” (Revelation 21:4).

Doesn't that make you a little homesick for heaven? If you were to die tonight, are you sure you'd go to heaven? I don't have an ounce of doubt in my mind that I would. Not that I deserve it but because I've done what the Bible says to do to get ready.

How do I know I'm going to heaven? Jesus says, “My sheep listen to me and they follow me” (John 10).

Are you doing that? Are you listening to what God says to do with your life? Are you following Jesus Christ? Is he your shepherd and your Savior?

If you say, “Yes, I'm listening to God, and I'm trying to let him lead my life -- letting Jesus Christ be my Savior. Yes, I know I'll never get to heaven on my own, and I'm trusting Jesus,” then you can say with absolute confidence, “Surely, I know I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

You can say, “I will dwell -- not 'I might' or 'I wonder.’ Rather, 'I know I'm going to heaven because I believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.'“

When you face the future, what do you see? Do you look at it with eyes of doubt? With eyes of cynicism? With eyes of expecting the worst?

You have two choices in life: You can either face the future as a cynic, a doubter, with negative thoughts, expecting the worse.

Or you can face the future expecting God to be with you and his goodness and his mercy to follow you all the days of your life.

It is amazing how much better life gets when you start to actively look for God's goodness and God's mercy in every experience. It'll change your life.

The good shepherd provides protection, provision, peace, providence, companionship (his presence) and paradise. Jesus is all you need.

*

[Original illustration at this number was added to HolwickID #2599]

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? [Shall] tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Romans 8:35-37 NKJV)

The Believer More Than A Conqueror

• separate — John 10:27-28, 15:10-13, 13:1 — as Christians cannot be condemned, so neither can they be separated from Christ

• tribulation — Matt 24:21-22, John 16:33, Rom 5:3-5, Rev 7:14-17 –- sorrow, trial, persecution — “all the calamities of all mankind since the world began are, in my judgment, inferior when compared with those of the Jews.” (Josephus re siege of Jerusalem, AD 70)

• distress — straitness of space, difficulties

• persecution — Matt 5:11-12 — from enemies of truth, or those who have no regard for conscience of others

• famine — lack of necessaries of life

• nakedness — lack of clothing

• peril — ordinary dangers from accidents, etc.

• sword — judicial, or war

• written — Ps 44:22 — of the Jews as types of believers

• for…sake — because of fidelity to Thee

• killed…long — 1 Cor 15:30-31, 2 Cor 4:11 — undergoing suffering equal to death

• counted…slaughter — Isa 53:7, Phil 3:10 — looked upon as destined for death as sheep are

• all…things — each of them, and all together

• more…conquerors — 2 Cor 4:17, Rev 21:7, 1 Cor 15:54, 57, 1 Jn v:4-5, Rev 7:9-10, 14-17 — we do more than overcome, the victory being so glorious

• Him — our pattern, leader, saviour

• loved us — Rev 12:11, Eph 5:23, 25-27 — His love secures His aid and our fidelity: and is the secret of the whole

The victor of victors — Stems & Twigs

More than earthly conquerors.

I. Here: for the saints –

1. Overcome stronger, and

2. more numerous, foes;

3. Possess more resources;

4. Have a more protracted war;

5. Serve a more illustrious Sovereign.

II. Hereafter: more of

1. Applause;

2. Fame;

3. Possessions;

4. Reward;

5. Lasting peace.

Confidence in God — “Who is it,” says the heavenly-minded Henry Martyn, “in a moment of great faintness, that maketh my comforts to be a source of enjoyment? Cannot the same hand make cold, and hunger, and nakedness, and peril, to be a train of ministering angels conducting me to glory?”

Interpositions of Providence — Dr J. Campbell

1. Abraham’s knife lifted up — the angel appears.

2. Lot near destruction — angels interpose.

3. Hagar and her son dying — the angel discovers water.

4. Jacob in trouble wrestles with the angel — Esau meets and kisses him.

5. Moses on the brink of the sea — the waters divide.

6. Saul’s sword at David’s heart– the Philistines invade the land.

7. Rabshakeh insults God — his army destroyed in twelve hours.

8. Haman forms a plot– the king cannot sleep, lots are cast for a lucky day, the day thrown twelve months off.

9. Paul on the brink of death by murder — God turns the governor’s heart to travel forty miles.

10. Peter on the margin of ruin– an angel bursts his prison.

“We shall not need to bring forth against them all our forces; a small part of them will be sufficient to gain the day, and not only overcome them, but turn them to our benefit and behoof.” — J. Hales