TRUSTING IN GOD
We read Psalm 5 in our earlier meeting today, and verse 11 says, “And all that trust in thee shall rejoice”. It led me to contemplate this verse in Psalm 118. I want to begin by asking a very simple question. Do you trust in God? If we ask that question about anyone else, we may answer, ‘Well …’, and then make a qualifying comment. But the answer to the question that I have asked needs to be unequivocal5. Do you trust in God? If you do, life becomes wonderfully attractive and simple. But if you do not fully trust God, then you must take account of what that means. The psalmist here says, “It is better to trust in Jehovah than to put confidence in man”. Far be it for me to make comment on Scripture, but this would remain true if it was written in much stronger language, because it is far better, infinitely better, to trust in Jehovah than to trust in man.
We should begin, as we must do in the gospel, at the beginning. Is there any one here who does not believe what is set out in the beginning of Genesis as to the creation of this world? Surely there is no one here who believes in the ‘big bang’ theory, or other ideas that people may have. Surely there is no one in this room who does not believe that God spoke and it took place. And when it came to making man, God did that with His own hands and with His own breath, and man became a living soul (Gen.2:7). I will ask you the question again, Do you trust in God? Did He make any mistakes, as He created the universe? He set this world in it, He separated between waters, He created the great lights, the plant system, and the fish of the sea, the beasts of the field. Then He created man and set him in it. Did God make any mistakes? Did He make anything that does not work? No. It is perfect and I think everyone in their hearts knows that God’s creation is perfect. Why should we not trust Him? He created you and me in His own image; that makes it very personal. Not just Adam and Eve but every man, woman and child since, has been given life by God in His own image for Himself.
Maybe there was a time in your life when you did not trust in the God who gave you life. I do not want to lower things but let us just take account of what is taking place in the world today. You do not have to look very far before you could, quite rightly, say, Who can I trust? You may say, Well, my employer is a reasonable person whom I trust so far. You may look at those who seek to maintain authority; you trust them to a reasonable extent. You look at governments, countries and so forth, but who could you trust implicitly? No one. You may look at your family and quite rightly you have a lot of trust in those you live with, and those you know well, but we know that we have all failed. There is no one in this room who would not admit to failure, would not admit to making mistakes, but God has never ever made a mistake and never will, and that same God has been made known to us in Jesus. Do you trust Him? God desires nothing more from His creature than that they should trust Him and love Him, because if we trust Him, then so many other things fall into place and God achieves His objective in making you and me.
One of the first evidences that man could trust God is what it says about Noah early in the pages of Scripture. God spoke to him, and God would speak to us tonight. Where would Noah have been, where would the whole of man’s history have been, if Noah had not trusted in God? We would not be here. God spoke to Noah, He told him what to do, He told him what was going to happen and Noah trusted Him. We have that lovely touch when Noah went into the ark with the animals and with his
family, having trusted in God, and it says that “Jehovah shut him in”, Gen.7:16.
Can you stop for a moment and think what was about to take place in this world, this very earth in which we are. God said, “The end of all flesh is come before me”, Gen.6:13. That divine verdict included man pursuing his own way, not trusting in God, but there was one man, Noah, who did trust in God. Noah and those other seven souls in the ark and the animals – what God had created in the beginning – were preserved because Noah trusted Him. How wonderful that Noah knew that Jehovah Himself had closed the door to that ark. There was no need to worry; I do not think Noah was worried about that for one moment, because he knew that the God whom he trusted had shut him in. That ark would remain a place of safety: Noah had done what God asked him to do and he was saved, he was preserved in the face of the greatest disaster that this world has ever known. Men, through wars and strife or incompetence, bring suffering on themselves and one another, but God Himself moved in judgment upon this scene and the whole earth was flooded. It was surely the greatest disaster this world has ever known since man was set in it, but Noah trusted God and God preserved him. God will do that for you if you trust Him.
Then think of the time when the children of Israel were in Egypt. God spoke through Moses, and told them to take a lamb for each house and kill it, put its blood upon the lintel and doorposts, then roast and eat it in haste ready to go out of Egypt. God said, “when I see the blood, I will pass over you”, Exod.12:13. The Egyptians did not have that protection, and we know the result. The firstborn in every Egyptian house was slain, but all of the Israelites were preserved in complete safety; not one lost their life. They trusted in the word of Jehovah through Moses. How powerfully it speaks of the Lord Jesus Himself and what He has accomplished for each one who believes on Him by dying for us. Then as we know they left Egypt in haste. The Egyptians pursued them and the waters of the Red Sea were rolled back, a wall on the one side and a wall on the other. This world is no different to that now. David could write, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil”, Ps.23:4. David trusted in God. Again, I ask you – do you? It has to be an absolute thing, dear friend; trust cannot be partial. If you think you trust Him, I would urge you to trust Him completely, because then so many things become easier in your life. Yet I do not ask you to trust the Lord Jesus so as to make things easier for you, I plead with you to do it for your salvation. I encourage you to trust Him for your salvation. The waters on the one side and the waters on the other side of the children of Israel were “a wall to them on their right hand and on their left” (Exod.14:29), and they went through on dry land. What a victory was won! How often in Israel’s history did God go back and speak to them about what He did in delivering them out of Egypt.
We could go on through the Scriptures. You get Joshua taking the people across the Jordan and “the waters which flowed down from above stood and rose up in a heap, very far, by Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan”, Josh.3:16. It gives the impression that God addressed everything that was needed for their safety. It was all complete, their trust was in Him and they went over the Jordan into the land of Canaan. Following that there was an example for us of what happens if we do not trust God completely. In His purpose for them, the land of Canaan was theirs in its entirety, and their instructions were to go forward under the hand of God and trust in Him and His word and take that whole land. We know the people failed in that, and some of the occupants were left and Israel compromised. We know the sad result of that. In principle, we may say that the result is still evident today when people do not completely trust in God.
We come to the New Testament, where it says that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only- begotten Son”, John 3:16. Do you trust God? Will you trust in the Saviour whom God has provided? How can you not trust in the Saviour whom God has provided for your eternal salvation? Consider what was accomplished by the Lord Jesus when He went to the cross in my place and, if you trust Him, in yours. He was made sin, the very thing which He was not, in order that you and I should go free. He suffered the judgment of God in our place; He bore it completely. Bear in mind who He was – God in His person, come down here as a Man. We took account of it in Philippians this morning: Jesus was “obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross”, Phil.2:8. Man rejected Him, man would not trust Him, man preferred to trust in a man who was a murderer. That is the character of humanity that is in you and me after the flesh.
It comes back to the passage we read; “It is better to trust in Jehovah than to put confidence in man”. Think how that verse was violated at that point when the Lord Jesus stood before Pilate, and the nation of Israel made their decision. The crowd chose Barabbas rather than the Saviour whom God had provided. What is your choice? Is your choice Barabbas or is your choice the Lord Jesus? You may say, Well, I am not sure it is as stark as that. I assure you, it is just as stark as that. It is such a contrast. If we trust in man, in ourselves, the result is that what Barabbas represents, a man who was in prison for committing terrible crimes, was preferred over against Jesus. Why? Because the people felt more comfortable with choosing Barabbas rather than a Man who had “done nothing amiss”, Luke 23:41. It had to be One who had done nothing amiss, who laid down His perfect life in your place and mine as a sacrifice before God. I ask again, do you trust Him? You cannot partially trust the Lord Jesus, but if your trust is in Him entirely, if your faith is in Him and His work, then your hope and your future is secured and God is then looking for an answer from you to His heart of love.
One thing that Satan tries to do is to convince persons whose sins are forgiven that there is no need to trust the Lord Jesus beyond that. Satan would of course seek to prevent you believing at all, but if you have trusted Christ as your Saviour, Satan would like you to stop there. But the gospel does not stop there. God has secured you for Himself, and He wants you now, He wants your life. Hymn 272 says:
‘Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all!’.
I am sure that we are all tested when we sing that. ‘Love so amazing, so divine’; that is the love that God has shown to us in the Lord Jesus Himself, proved to us by the Holy Spirit in His grace and in His goodness, the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. God is looking for an answer, dear friend, from you and from me. He is looking for our submission to the Lord Jesus. We do not like submitting, we like to keep control but we have to let go and trust in God. We have heard, and how true it is, that we may find it easier to trust God for eternity than we do for tomorrow. Eternity may begin tomorrow, it may begin today, but if God leaves us here, are we prepared to trust God and are we prepared to answer to Him? God’s desire is to bring you in to blessings, untold blessings, now. He wants you to enjoy companionship with the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus is no longer here, having laid down His life, having gone into death, having been buried in a tomb, and then, the stone having been rolled away, raised out of that tomb by the might of the Father. It says that at one point “he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once”, 1 Cor.15:6. Think of the witness that there is to the work that the Lord Jesus has done, and to the fact that He is raised out of that tomb. People would sow doubt in your mind; that is what Satan would love to do. Dear friend, the witness is true that Christ has been raised out of that tomb. He has been raised out of it for you and for me; He went into it for you and me and He was raised out of it for you, if you trust Him, and for me. He is now at God’s right hand as a glorious Man, crowned with glory and honour. He “set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high”, Heb.1:3. The One who came from heaven and has returned to heaven is coming again for those who trust Him. How vital it is that we trust Him now. We do not know when He is coming, but He will come and claim for Himself all those who trust Him. One of the robbers who was crucified by the side of the Lord Jesus acknowledged that everything that he had done in his life had failed, but he found, you might say, at the last moment of his life, One in whom he could trust. “We indeed justly, for we receive the just recompense”, he said to the other robber, “but this man has done nothing amiss”, Luke 23:41. The Lord spoke to that robber, one who was about to die, about “to-day”; “To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise”, verse 43.
My understanding is that that man believed those words, he accepted them completely and believed them. Now it may be that you and I will not die today, but the Lord would say to you that if you put your trust in Him, you will be with Him in paradise. Departed souls, as we see in the New Testament, go to be “with Christ”, Phil.1:23. That is where that man is. That man who trusted in Christ remains among “the dead in Christ”. What a wonderful portion he has, and myriads of souls have that portion too. If you trust in Him, and if the Lord takes you, you will take that place too as asleep in Him. We know that “the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them” (1 Thess.4:16,17) to be for ever with Him. That, dear friends, is my hope, and I trust that it is your hope.
Are you waiting for that assembling shout? It is worth waiting for! Could it be anything else? The Lord is waiting the Father’s time for that assembling shout, and then what blessing God will pour upon those who have believed in His Son, when we are in that privileged place that will be ours eternally. Paul describes it as “Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard”, 1 Cor.2:9. They are so wonderful, but what about now? Will you enter into the blessings, and the joy of companionship with Christ, the One who suffered here in this scene? I was struck in reading this week that we shall not find it possible to be companions of Christ unless we know something of the fellowship of His sufferings (Phil.3:10), and that means to stand for the Lord Jesus, here today in the present scene in which we are. Without knowing something of that, we cannot share in the sufferings of the Christian testimony. I often quote Hymn 367,
‘So foolish, weak, and helpless,
I never could begin.
But blessed truth – I know it –
Though ruined by the fall,
Christ for my soul hath suffered,
Yes, Christ has done it all!’.
He has done everything for God and for our blessing, and everything is under His hand now. The Lord Jesus could say “All power has been given me in heaven and upon earth” (Matt 28:18) and He is now ascended at God’s right hand. The authority that He has remains. Will you trust Him? Or do you want to keep part of your life to work out yourself? It will end in failure, it will end in disappointment, and God will not have the portion that is due to Him now. Those children of Israel that we spoke of, in crossing the Jordan, were to enter into a land described as flowing with milk and honey, a land from which Eshcol’s grapes were carried after they went to spy it out, and they found there resources which could be found nowhere else. I wonder, dear friend, if your joy and satisfaction is still in the things of this world. Are you seeking it there? Or do you accept that God has had to express His judgment of this world and all that is in it, as we see from Noah’s history. God’s judgment remains the same. One day the earth shall be burnt up, and “new heavens and a new earth” will be there, 2 Pet.3:10-13. But today, God would have us to trust in the Lord Jesus and enjoy, through faith in His work, companionship with Him, while bearing the reproach that would be ours as those who do not trust in the world and do not trust in what is of nature. We can enjoy in principle what the people of Israel who went into the land of Canaan were meant to enjoy, as entering into the privileges that were there for them. I wonder whether we all truly enter into the privileges that are available to us today as believers.
Believers have privileges available to them which, dear brethren, are very special. We have had the experience of being taken up by God, and led by the Lord Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit, into the presence of God as worshippers. That is a wonderful privilege. It is a present foretaste of what our experience will be eternally. We knew again this morning what it was for our spirits to be lifted up together as united in worship. You may say, as we look at our backgrounds, that we are very disparate. Some of us do not like looking at our backgrounds, and for good reason, but God has set us together, He has brought us together under the influence of the Lord Jesus. Do you trust Him completely? He Himself is able to unite believers together, through His influence as our Head and by power of the Holy Spirit among all those who together form that glorious vessel, the assembly, which is known by Christ as His wife, which is bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh. You may say to me, Does this enter into the gospel? Yes, it does! We have not been saved simply to enjoy the peace of our sins forgiven, but God would have us continue and enter into the greatest of the blessings that He has in mind for us now. The Lord Jesus is able in His grace and in His power and goodness to take us up, to enter in to the Father’s house and we are set as sons in the presence of the Father.
The children of Israel went across the Red Sea into the wilderness and God instructed them to build the tabernacle with its altars. There was a part of it, the holy of holies, into which they could not go, except for the high priest, and even he could do so only once a year. But the veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom at the death of Jesus (Matt.27:51). That speaks of the fact that you and I, as believers through God’s grace, have access to the very place where He dwells in the presence of the Father. Not as hired servants, as the prodigal son of Luke 15 thought, but God gives us access into His presence as sons made like Christ. We are clothed with His worth and set at liberty before God. We can trust Him there. What help is there in trusting in man, in what we find in us and what we find around us, dear friend? It is hopeless to trust in other people, but as you trust in God and as you trust in the Lord Jesus, trust in the influence and the control – I use that word carefully – that the Holy Spirit would gently exercise upon us, we can enter into privileges that are very wonderful. When the time comes for the Lord’s assembling shout, and we will be taken out of this poor scene and set there above in God’s house, we know that, as Mr Darby said in his hymn:
‘There no stranger-God shall meet thee’
(Hymn 76).
It will not feel strange because we have tasted it already. Will it be more wonderful? Surely. It will be very much more wonderful. The hymn writers have written much about that, such as ‘What will it be …?’ (Hymn 421). It will be very much more wonderful, but dear friend, it can be entered into now and that can only be if we trust God implicitly.
You may say, But I still have to work this out or work that out. Yes, but can you not trust God to help you? Can you not trust God to go before? Can you not trust God to provide for you here and now, in view of all that He has done through the work of Christ who has prepared for you and me a place at God’s right hand? Surely we can trust Him! God loves to help when we ask Him. He loves to care for those who are His own, He is abundantly able to do it, but we need to trust Him. The evidence of that trust is commitment to Him, commitment to a pathway that may seem unattractive naturally. But God’s blessings and the joys that come from them can be proved day after day, week after week, year after year.
My message is very simple, and I just ask that question again. May it stay with us this week, may it stay with us forever. I would just like us all, quietly before God, to answer that question, Do you trust God? The answer has to be unequivocal. I leave the question with you and may your answer to it result in glory for God, for His name’s sake.
Preaching of the gospel, Colchester
16 October 2022
Alan A Croot
Edited and Published by John Brown and Paul Martin
36 Laverock Park Linlithgow EH49 6AT
email notesofministry@virginmedia.com or paul@nofm.co.uk
Printed by Crystal Print, 22 Western Road, Billericay, Essex CM12 9DZ Tel: 01277 650 661