God’s Eternal Safety

Lord, lay some soul up on my heart, and lift that soul through me, and may I ever do my part to win that soul to thee. My precious Lord Jesus Christ, please enable me to love each and every lost, hell-bound soul that is within my reach, just as much as thou didst love me, and help me to endeavor with every effort that is within my power, and by thy power, and in accordance with thy divine perfect guidance, to bring them also to a glorious, saving knowledge of thee, Lord Jesus. Amen.

I am missionary Richard Yerbe in Japan, continuing from last time my preaching on the perfect and upright man named Job. You can also listen to these sermons on my website under the link titled Radio Sermons Audio. This is sermon number four under the theme of Safety, Rest, and Quiet, and this sermon is titled Eternal Safety.

My website URL is Christisall.us. Separate the three words with two dashes, Christ-is-all.us. Years ago, I heard a story, a true story, about a preacher in the mountains of the Southeast U.S. Appalachians who preached hard against the bootleg that is illegal whiskey in that area at that time. One day, Amino Bootlegger, an illegal whiskey seller, full of the devil, stuck a pistol in that preacher's face and told him that he was going to kill him if he didn't stop preaching against bootlegging, that is, the selling of illegal whiskey. Bootlegging, bootlegger, licker.

That bold man of God, like Job was, just laughed in that murderer's face and proclaimed, you can't scare me with heaven, amen. And that's what life and death are all about for us Christians. Paul said, to live is Christ and to die is gain, Philippians chapter 1 verse 21.

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 8. That martyr's crown that Christ bestows upon those who lay down their physical life for him must be a glorious sight to behold. How small we are going to be in heaven when we meet up with people like Isaiah, who was probably put inside a hollow log and sawed asunder, Stephen, who beheld Christ's glory as he was stoned to death, John the Baptist and Paul were, who were beheaded, and Peter, who was likely crucified upside down. There are thousands of others who had trials of cruel mocking and scourging, of buns and imprisonment, who were stoned, sawn asunder, slain with a sword, who wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, in deserts, in mountains and dens and caves of the earth, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented.

That is written in Hebrews chapter 11 verses 36 through 38. How will we cowards face such giants of the faith when we meet them in heaven? How will we face our precious Savior with those nail prints in his hands, knowing the suffering that he endured for each of us personally? How can we possibly regard our own safety? Job did not, therefore God so delighted in bragging on him in front of Satan, Christ didn't consider his own safety when he came into this world to die for us, he gladly lay down his life for us, had he not done so we would all be lost without hope. We need a renewed vision, we need to consider again the eternal fate of lost souls never ending torment.

We need to learn again the heart of the Savior of the world who died for all mankind and is not willing that anyone should perish. We need to always bear in mind that forefathers of the faith disregarded their own safety down through many generations so that we could get the gospel to us and we could come to trust in Christ for eternal salvation. We need to repent of our selfishness and become totally committed to God's will for our lives no matter what the outcome be.

We need to be willing to take the gospel message anywhere the Good Shepherd leads us to go with it not troubled at all over the possibility of it being a one-way trip. Let's pray, Almighty God please give me the courage to be like Job, please help all my fellow believers to be like Job, not being concerned about their own safety but rather only concerned about working the work that thou hast ordained for each of us to do. Give us more courage, Lord make us bold, make us strong soldiers, help us to never run from the enemy, help us to never cower before him, please give us thy divine help in this matter, Lord, I pray, Amen.

Our Christian life is one of many paradoxes and this is one of them. There is only one true place of safety and that is in the dead center of God's will, going where he says go and doing what he says do without backing an eye even if it costs you your physical life. If God tells you to march through the Red Sea you had better start walking through it or he may send a flood and drown you out there on the dry ground where you were trying to play it safe.

If God tells you to get into the lion's den you had better just jump right in, if you do not some mad dog may come along and tear you to pieces. God is still the God who created those lions, he still has the power to give them lockjaw so you can get a good night's sleep using those lions for a pillow. If God wants you in the fiery furnish you better walk right in, if you refuse to do so then be afraid that your house may burn down on you.

Heat that furnish seven times hotter, yeah go ahead you old pagan king, give that command that won't tax God's air conditioning one bit, we can still just step into the cool refreshing presence of the fourth man in the fire, glory. Back in the 1980s I heard the true story of a man from the U.S. who was then in Central or South America as a missionary. It was a time of much trouble in that region with U.S. citizens being kidnapped and held for high ransoms and such.

Because of the dangerous situation there the decision was made that the missionary would return home to the U.S. where it is safe, uh-huh, so he returned to the new to the U.S. back to his home area and I think it was within two weeks when the car he was driving and alone in the car the car skidded on ice hit a tree and he was killed. I do not know who all were involved in considering the danger of his situation on the mission field and in making the decision for him to return home to safety, likely it was a lot of people, himself, his family back home, people in his home church, the powers to be in the missionary organization that sent him out and other such people. And you know when the decision was made that he should return to safety, likely all those people involved were happy and heaved a great sigh of relief when he returned home having no idea that within two weeks they would be grieving at his funeral in the land of safety.

I do not know if God was displeased with him leaving the mission field and thereby God took his life, I do not know if that is the case, but I do know for certain that true safety can only be achieved by obeying and following God no matter how dangerous that path may be. I was not in safety, proclaimed Job. Lord help us all to be like Job.

Amen. The Lord is a man of war, Exodus 15 3 tells us. So one good way to get close to your precious Lord, by the way, how precious is he to you, a good way to get close to him is to jump right into the thick of battle where the man of war would be.

The closer you get to the front lines, the closer you will be to your Lord. You can feel that nail scarred hand in yours and no precious fellowship that cannot be found anywhere else, even in our steeple houses. God takes great delight in the Christian who will not try to be the author of his own safety, but will leave that entirely up to his Lord of Lords.

What bountiful blessings God has in store for such a believer. Oh, to be like Job. Let's pray again.

My Lord Jesus, I do want to know those bountiful blessings which come from doing spiritual warfare for thee. So please draw me close to thee, a man of war. Help me to always be brave and stay by thy side in battle, no matter how fierce the enemy may fight.

I want to be a victorious soldier for thee, my Lord Jesus. So please help me to be that. I pray this for Brother Richard and all other Christians too.

Amen. The safest thing you can do is to go where the Lord says go and do what the Lord says do, no matter how dangerous that obedience may appear to the natural eye. And one of the most dangerous things you can do is to balk on the Lord because that appears to be the safe thing to do.

My heart still breaks every time I think about that young Christian man in the U.S. many years ago, decades ago. He walked up to a casket at a funeral, lifted out the body of his little son, held that lifeless body up toward heaven, and before everyone present, and with tears streaming down his face, he sobbed to God, I can preach now. I can preach now.

Over a period of time, God called him to preach, and as God dealt with him to preach, time and again he told God, no, I can't be a preacher. No, I want to preach. Now that is a dangerous thing to do.

Finally, God would tolerate his refusal no longer and took the man's precious little son out of this life. Then the man could say, I can preach now. So sad that there are Christians who wait till God brings about some tragedy like that before they will forget about their own safety, and in this case, own selfish desires, and go ahead and do what God is commanding them to do.

You Christian parents, even Christian parents, commonly thwart God's will for their children when their son announces that God is calling him to preach. They don't want him to have all the problems a preacher must cope with, or they want to steer him toward a high-paying career so that he and his family can enjoy much more of the things of this world. Read 1 John chapter 2, 15, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

If any man love the world, the love of the Father's not in him, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life. Anyway, such parents sometimes talk their son out of being a preacher. Our God calls a daughter or son to go to a foreign mission field, and of course, the parents cringe to think of the hardships and dangers to be met there.

Neither can they bear the thoughts of not seeing their child, and especially those dear grandchildren, for years at a time. So the parents talk their child out of following the lamb where he is leading. I've seen a godly, strong preacher in the States do the same thing to his daughter.

That too is a dangerous thing to do, folks. Those children belong to their Heavenly Father much more so than to their earthly parents. God is their creator.

Better let him have his will and his way in their lives. Thought God's will in your child's life. God may say, I wanted him to serve me over there in that foreign land, but since you are not going to allow that, then I'll just bring him on to heaven now to be with me.

And those parents never again see, in this life, see that child. Oh, what tragedy and sorrow that occurs too often in such cases. Of course, apparently God, in his great love and mercy toward us, doesn't take such harsh actions against us in most cases.

However, I'll tell you something that is more common. The child whom the parents kept from doing God's will goes to the devil and lives a life that brings much shame upon the parents, and more so not going that far, even if it's not that bad. Often that child's life somehow doesn't bring the parents much pleasure.

When they are together, they bicker and fight or such. Everyone concerned would have been much happier in this life, and for all eternity, if they would have only said, yes, Lord, thy will be done in our lives. We are thine, oh Lord.

Dangerous to look out for your own safety or choose your own selfishness over God's will instead of following the Lord. Let's be like Job, truly proclaiming, I was not in safety. Let's pray it again.

Lord God, please give me a new vision of what a great and terrible God thou art. What a jealous God thou art over thy own creation. May I ever be aware of thy wrath upon all disobedience to thee.

Thy power helped me to fully grasp the importance of serving thee with fear and trembling. Helped me to never balk when thou dost beckon. Have mercy on me and save me from ever selfishly holding back a loved one from doing thy will.

Help me to totally and unreservedly commit my life and the lives of all my family to thee, to follow thee wholly. I do not have the power within myself to do these things. Oh, high noble they be.

That help must come from thee, almighty God on high. Oh, I beg it of thee. I also pray this prayer for all other Christian believers throughout the world.

Amen. Now, after talking about the only safety being in following God anywhere and everywhere, let us look at the reverse side of this spiritual truth. There are inherent dangers in following the Lord as Job did.

Job being close to God and in God's will was an important factor in this disaster coming his way. Those three miserable comforters, friends who thought they knew every cause of his trouble, probably did not have to worry about disaster like this coming upon them or the reason that it came upon Job. That's because God was not as proud of them like he was of Job.

Listen to Job reminiscing over the good old days of the past in Job chapter 29, verses 2 through 5. Oh, that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me, when his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness, as I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle, when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me. Ending that reading, what about that, parents? Isn't it a lot nicer to have your children round about you than to have all ten of them taken out of this life at one time? And the only thing Job did to bring this disaster upon himself was to be perfect and upright before God. Now to our natural eye that seems to be a most unjust way for God to repay Job's goodness.

Think upon the most righteous godly man and wife that you presently know. Suppose all their children were suddenly killed in one stroke. Would not your natural thought be to ask, why? Why would God allow this to happen to people who are such godly saints? They're behaving so well.

Well, that just may be the very reason why God did allow that to happen to them, because he wanted to show everyone what fine gold he possessed in them. He was so proud of them. The back-slidden, lukewarm layout of some Christians whom you know will not have to worry about that, such disaster coming their way for such reason.

Carefully look at everything Job said there in that passage I just read. Job said that in the past God preserved him. God's candle shined upon his head.

By God's light, Job walked through darkness. The secret of God was upon his tabernacle and the Almighty was yet with him. Apparently now he feels that none of those things is any longer true.

He indicates here that he feels like he has been totally forsaken by God. Brothers and sisters, how destitute he must feel in the midst of this harsh trial. Back in Job chapter 9, verse 17, he says, for he breaketh me with a tempest and multiplieth my wounds without cause.

Here Job laments that God has afflicted him without any known reason to him, and God confirms this to speaking to Satan back in Job chapter 2, verse 3. We read before God says to Satan, thou movest me against him to destroy him without cause. And God allowed upright Job to be destroyed without cause. And if you follow hard after that which is righteous, you will also face the danger of God bringing similar disaster upon you for the purpose of God glorying before mankind and the devil over your love for him.

God will use you as cannon fodder for this reason. Rest assured that he will. If you are the best Christian, God may bring the worst of physical destruction upon you simply for that reason.

Is any lukewarm, increased with goods, laodicean church goer listening to me? Are you interested in having all you have tragically taken away from you overnight for the purpose of you coming forth as gold and thereby greatly glorifying your creator God? Is it settled in your mind that you can love a God who will put you through fire and water because he will certainly do it? And though he may do it without cause, still it is not without purpose. Usually it is to show forth his glory, and please do rest assured that his grace is always sufficient for you. Second Corinthians chapter 12 verse 9, he will not tempt you above that which you are able to stand.

First Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13, precious in his sight is your death. Psalms 116 verse 15 tells us without any reservation, you can commit yourself into his hand for him as a faithful creator. First Peter 4 19 to do unto you as he pleases.

Therefore, if you love God, you must totally disregard your own physical safety and proclaim with Job, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. Job 13 verse 15, how God delights to see a believer with such spiritual maturity. What great glory Job's trial gave to God, may God help us all to be like him.

Heavenly Father, I praise thy name for convicting me of how far my heart is from thee in this matter. By thy power, draw me near to thee. By thy power, make me like Job, not concerned about my own safety, but rather only concerned about following thee and glorifying thee, no matter what adversity thou dost allow to come my way.

I pray this, all this for brother Richard and for all other Christians also. Amen. I am thine, O Lord, I have heard thy voice and it told thy love to me, but I long to rise in the arms of faith and be closer drawn to thee.

Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to thy precious bleeding side. Remember, Jesus loves you.

He died for you and he's coming again.