Daring to Trust God

In my research on C.T. Studd, I came across an important letter of his, which he wrote in 1913 as he journeyed to the heart of Africa with the gospel of the Son of God. Charlie Studd was at the time a 53-year-old man with grave health problems, and he went to Africa as a missionary against the advice of both friends and family. He made a vow to God earlier in his life that God would always have all of him, and C.T. Studd lived his life on that principle of gambling his life away for Christ and the sake of the gospel.

Studd had said, if Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him. Studd did what the rich young ruler would not, and gave his inherited fortune to God and the spread of the gospel. Early in his life, he accepted a call to China as a missionary, traveling with his fellow classmates known as the Cambridge Seven.

Studd lived a life of complete surrender to God and the gospel. His sacrificial life is typified in the following verses from his well-known poem. Only one life will soon be passed.

Only what's done for Christ will last. And I want to take some time today, friends, to reflect on the life of C.T. Studd. And it is my prayer that each of us will catch some of his holy fire.

Studd went to Africa on faith alone, daring to trust his God. His call to Africa went against all human reason and common sense. He was leaving his invalid wife behind in England, never to see her again for the next sixteen years.

He went to Africa against the counsel of friends, who said he was too sickly and too old to go again to the mission field, especially as a pioneer missionary into the heart of Africa. But it was God who called Studd to Africa, and the obedient servant went on faith alone, daring to trust God, for he could say with Joseph, because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass. I wonder, friends, how many of us have truly sacrificed all for God.

A better question to ask ourselves is this. Are we willing to gamble our lives away for God and to lose all for the sake of the gospel? Are we, or are we willing only to give God what we can afford to lose? Are we willing to sacrifice all we are and all we have to reach the lost who are perishing into a burning hell? But I fear that the church in our day is more interested in the preservation of self rather than the crucifixion of self. Listen, friends, the hour is late, the time is short before our Lord returns, and we need the fire of a CT Studd to burn in our bones to inspire us to go against the odds and live our lives daring to trust God and Him alone.

And that's the title of my message today, friends, Daring to Trust God. And my text can be found in the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 16. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in verses 24 and 25. Let me read you the words of our Lord Jesus Christ as He still speaks to us today with the same command, the same rights and claims that the gospel has on a believer's life. Then Jesus said unto His disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. I will stop there. I remember the time in my own life when I crossed my own personal Rubicon, so to speak, and lost my life, lost my reputation.

I lost my world as I knew it for Christ and the sake of the gospel. Listen, I don't believe a preacher should ever preach a thing he himself is not willing to experience or to do. And I don't believe, friends, any blood-bought believer of Jesus Christ should live a life of self-preservation, not ever daring to step out on a limb for God and to sacrifice all for Him if necessary.

But I'm afraid to say, at least in this once great country of ours, that the average Christian is completely satisfied to live below their potential in Christ where little is truly ventured for God because we'd rather protect our skin and our reputation. But these words from the holy lips of our Lord Jesus Christ speak not of a comfortable Christianity, but rather they issue a command to deny self and to live a crucified life as we follow a crucified Savior where self is dethroned and another is enthroned there. The Lord Jesus Christ.

Listen, friends, Jesus Christ did not hold anything back. When He hung naked on that bloody cross for our dirty rotten sins, how can we hold anything back from Him and still call ourselves His followers? Listen to me, dear friends, and listen to me closely. God does not want us to live below our potential in Him for He has some wonderful things in store for us.

If we'd only dare to trust Him. But the secret to a fruitful life lies in the measure of our willingness to lose all for Him. Now you can chew on that for a while and pick a fight with me if you want to, but I believe I'm right on that.

You see, we can spend the rest of our days on earth living for self and giving God only what we choose to give Him. Or we can be willing to throw our lives away for Christ and surrender to His will for our life and live for His glory. What will your model be? Will it be only one life which will soon be passed? I'm going to grab all I can and enjoy what I have.

Or is your model going to be like C.T. Studds? Only one life which will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. We either choose to live for this world and its honors and its pleasures, or we'll choose to live for eternity and its rewards.

Well, I want to take our remaining time now to read us this striking letter of C.T. Studd as it reflects his all-out sacrifice for God and his unshakeable faith in God, as he dared to trust Him with his all. Here now are his words. Then, in God's holy name, let us arise and believe the God of heaven.

He will fight for us as we for Him. We will not build on the sand, but on the bedrock of the saints of Christ, and the gates and minions of hell shall not prevail against us, should such men as we fear, before the whole world and before the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world. We will dare to trust our God.

We will venture our all for Him. We will live and we will die for Him. And we will do it with His joy unspeakable, singing aloud in our hearts.

We will one thousand times sooner die trusting only in our God than live trusting in man. We will not fear. And when we come to this position, the battle is already won, and the end of the glorious cause nearer in sight.

Well, that is his letter, friends, and I must confess, it shames me for all the little I have done for God. It reminds me of all the years when I myself was a namby-pamby, lukewarm Christian. Listen to me, friend.

Life is short, shorter than you realize. If you desire to give your best to God, if you desire to go all out for God, if you desire to be willing to give your all, to lose your all for Him, then He will honor that willingness to live or die so long as He gets the glory. Let us take this time now and go to a time of prayer.