Trust in God

TRUST IN GOD
DR. JIM DIXON
ROMANS 8:28
MARCH 5, 1995

The words “In God We Trust” first appeared on U.S. coins in 1864, but it wasn’t until July 1, 1908, that President Theodore Roosevelt and the United States Congress made those words “In God We Trust” mandatory on all U.S. coins. It wasn’t until July 30, 1956, that those words “In God We Trust” became the official motto of the United States of America. Those words became mandatory on all U.S. currency, both coins and paper money, from the 10-cent coin to the ten-thousand-dollar bill. “In God We Trust.” But we all know that there are millions of people in this country who do not trust in God. It is also true that there are many Christians, many who have believed in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ, who have a difficult time trusting God day-by-day.

Our subject this morning is trusting God. This morning we will examine what trusting God means from a biblical perspective. First of all, trusting God means to trust in His presence that no matter what your circumstance in life, He is with us.

I know that most of you have heard of Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabopolassar. He was King of Babylon. He ascended the throne in 605 BC and for 43 years Nebuchadnezzar ruled the Babylonian Empire. He conquered nations. He built his kingdom. He married Amytis, daughter of the King of the Medes, and he included that kingdom within his realm. He built the great city, the royal city of Babylon. He built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The Bible tells us in Daniel, chapter 3, that this great Babylonian king also erected, built, a massive statue, 90 feet high and 9 feet wide, a statue covered with gold and he placed this statue on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. He declared, he decreed, that all people throughout his kingdom had to come and bow down before that statue and worship that statue. Some scholars believe that perhaps the statue was the image of the Babylonian king himself, but that is unlikely because king worship was virtually unknown in ancient Babylon. It is more likely that it was the image of Nabu, the highest god in the Babylonian religion.

But three men refused to come to the plain of Dura and bow down before that image. You know their story. They were Jewish. Their names were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They would worship only the one true God and so Nebuchadnezzar in all of his rage took these three men and he threw them into the fiery furnace. Nobody ever survived the fiery furnace. It literally burnt the skin from the bone. But as this great king looked into the furnace, he was stunned to see these three men walking in the midst of the flames, their hair unsinged, their clothes not burned, their skin unscathed. His awe was all the greater when he looked into that furnace and he saw that with these three men there was a fourth being, a king of celestial being. Nebuchadnezzar described him as a being who looked like a son of the gods. You see, God had sent His angel to be with His servants in the midst of the fire and the flame, to be with them and to preserve them and protect them.

I think most of us would like that in the midst of the trials of life, in the midst of the tests of life. In the midst of our losses and the midst of our suffering we would like God to send an angel visibly to minister to us. Indeed, there are angels. The Bible makes that clear. I know living in this technological age, this scientific age with our alleged intellectual enlightenment, it is difficult for some of you to believe in angels. But the Bible tells us that there are millions of angels in the angelic host and they operate normally in the world of the unseen. God asks us to believe and to trust that He does indeed give His angels charge over us and they minister to us. But the presence of God with His people is greater than the mere presence of angels. If you belong to Jesus Christ and you have received Him as your Savior from sin and you have embraced Him as Lord of life, then God’s presence with you is very, very special.

In the 48th chapter of Ezekiel, the Bible describes the millennial Jerusalem. In the 48th chapter of Ezekiel, the Bible describes the city of Jerusalem in all of its glory in the age to come. The Bible tells us that that great city is going to be given a new name. It’s going to be called Jehovah Shammah, which means “the Lord is there,” “the Lord is present.” For the Hebrew people this was their great hope that someday the Lord would be present. Oh, they believed in the omnipresence of the Lord in the same way that they believed in His omnipotence and His omniscience. But they did not regard God as personally present with them. He was present in the tabernacle. They believed His personal presence was in the tabernacle in the Holy of Holies, hovering over the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant. Later, they believed that His presence was in the temple in the Holy of Holies there, but they could not go into the Holy of Holies. God was not personally present with them. They called the presence of God in the tabernacle the “Shekinah.” In later Judaism, they called it the “memra,” an Aramaic term meaning “the word” and they looked forward to the day when the Shekinah, the memra, the word, would be present with them personally.

The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. The Son of God came into the world. The Bible tells us that “The Word was in the beginning with God and is God. He was in the beginning with God and all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything was made that was made. The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” The Shekinah, the great presence of God and all of its fullness. There in Jesus Christ. “His name shall be called Emanuel, God with us.”

But Jesus Christ has left this world. How is He now present with us as Christians? Well, in a very special way. The moment you believed, the moment you embraced Christ as your Savior and Lord, in that moment the Bible tells us God made you a kind of tabernacle. God made you a kind of temple. The moment you embraced Christ as your Lord and Savior, “Christ sent His own spirit,’ the Bible tells us, “into you.” He sent His own spirit into you so that you became a tabernacle, a temple of the Living God. God is now present in you. This is what the Jews longed for. He is present in you.

Some of you, when you first believed, in that moment felt enraptured. Emotionally you felt His indwelling presence. You felt His coming within. You heard the sound of trumpets and you saw lights. Others of you, when you first believed, you really didn’t feel much of anything on the emotional level, but God asks all of us who believe to trust—to trust that He has indeed come in and made of us a tabernacle, a temple, that He is indeed with us and within us. Whatever you’re going through in life, He is so personally present with you as a Christian and He wants you to know that and trust that.

Now secondly, to trust in God means to trust in His power—to trust in His presence, but also to trust in His power. Christian LesStrang graduated from Westmont College in 1992. Christian LesStrang is now vice president of a small company, kind of a strange company, called Safe-T-Man. This little company produces a very unusual product. They produce life-size dummy companions called Safe-T-Man. You can take one of these Safe-T-Men and you can put them in your car in the front seat with you, a dummy companion, to try to ward off attackers. This looks like a full-size guy just sitting there in the front seat with you. You can take one and you can put that dummy companion in your house. You can put it right by the window with a light on it. Maybe an attacker isn’t going to want to come in. But I think Christian LesStrang and I think the Safe-T-Man company would have to admit that if there was an actual assault, I mean if somebody went ahead and assaulted your car or home, that dummy companion wouldn’t be a whole lot of good. I mean, it would be present but it would be impotent. It would be without power, no power at all.

You see, there are a lot of people in this world who are trusting in dummy companions, and I’m not referring to your husband or your wife. A lot of people are trusting in dummy companions. I mean, these are the things we put our trust in, but with respect to the greatest needs of life they are powerless. Jesus spoke of the rich man and his barns, how he had put all of his trust in his wealth. Jesus called him a fool. He was at death’s door and all of that wealth was powerless when confronted with this enemy called death. A dummy companion. That’s all that wealth is with respect to the greatest challenges in life.

You know how Jesus came to Bethany near Jerusalem. Lazarus was dead, and Martha ran out to meet Christ. She said, “Lord, if you had only been here my brother would not have died. Even now I know whatever you ask the Father, He’ll do for you.” Jesus said, “Martha, your brother will rise again.” She said, “I know he’ll rise in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live. And he who lives and believes in Me will never truly die. Do you believe this? Do you trust this? Do you trust My power even in the face of death?”

You read in Mark, chapter 4, how the disciples are going across the Sea of Galilee. There’s this horrible storm and the boat’s just filling with water. The disciples are afraid the boat’s going down. They started looking for Christ. They find Him asleep on the boat. They say, “Master, do you not care that we perish?” Jesus stood and He said, “Oh ye of little faith.” The Bible tells us that Jesus rebuked the wind and He rebuked the sea and there was a great calm. The Bible tells us the disciples were in awe. They said, “Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” I tell you, that’s power! Jesus said, “I have all power in heaven and on earth. All power in heaven and on earth have been given to Me.” He wants you to trust His presence and He wants you to trust His power.

But to trust God there’s a third meaning biblically. If we trust God we must also trust His purpose. Trust his presence, trust His power, and trust His purpose.

Zev Trom is a Jewish man who was born in New York City. In 1979, when Zev was a teenager, he left New York City and he moved to Israel. He wanted to live with his people. He wanted to build a nation. There in Israel Zev Trom met Brenda. He fell in love with her and he married her and she became his wife. As the years passed, they had two children. One morning in 1993, just two years ago, Zev got up and he had breakfast. He thought it was going to just be another day like any other day but he was wrong. Before he left for work, he went in to look at his sleeping children and then he kissed his wife goodbye. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and he went to the Gaza Strip where he served on patrol. He’d been there for two hours when suddenly a bullet shot out of the shadows and Zev Trom fell to the ground. They rushed him to Jerusalem to a hospital there. His wife came. Shortly after she arrived, they pronounced him brain dead. In a final moment of tenderness, Brenda kissed her husband goodbye. She went into a little room there at the hospital. She signed the papers that gave the hospital permission to turn off the respirator. Then she went and signed some other papers which gave the hospital permission to remove Zev’s strong beating heart and put it in the chest of a man who would have died without a heart transplant, a 54-year-old Palestinian Arab.

That Palestinian Arab is still alive today and Brenda Trom tells us that she believes Zev’s death was not in vain. She can see that his death had a purpose, that it saved the life of another human being. She said it made a statement, a small statement regarding the need for reconciliation between Arab and Jew.

I think all of us need to see that life is not in vain. I think in the midst of our tests, in the midst of our trials, we need to see purpose. I think most of us are willing to suffer a little and I think most of us are willing to suffer a lot if we can just see that it’s not in vain, if we can just see that there’s purpose. And this is the promise of Christ. There is purpose for us who believe. We know that in everything God works for good. He wants you to trust that, that He works for good. His purpose is benevolent. Though you may not know what that good is, He asks you to trust that every circumstance of your life, by His power, can serve His purposes of good. Sometimes that good has to do with your transformation or mine…that suffering, that loss, that test, that trial would, by the power of God, be used for the purposes of God in transforming us. We who love Him and who are called according to His purpose. “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.” You see that’s the great good, the purpose He is seeking in your life and mine.

If you’ve ever been to Bangkok, Thailand (some of you have), there are thousands of temples but one temple stands out. It’s called the Temple of the Golden Buddha. It’s a very small temple, so small that when you go inside there’s just one statue there and it’s a golden Buddha, solid gold, 5,000 pounds of solid gold. It fills the temple. It is said that the gold alone is today worth more than $100 million and the statue itself is priceless. That statue was discovered in 1957 as they were building a highway. It was a clay Buddha they found. They didn’t think it had any tremendous value. They could see that it was old. They began to move it and as they moved it, they dropped it and the clay broke and they could see this solid gold statue underneath. They now believe that in the 17th century as the Burmese were invading the Kingdom of Siam, the people covered the gold statue with clay to hide it.

The Bible tells us that the men and women of this world were created in the image of God. The Bible also tells us that the image of God in humanity is shattered. That image of God has fallen into ruin. But for us as Christians, that image of God within us has been rekindled because when we embrace Christ as Lord and Savior, when we became a tabernacle, a kind of temple for His indwelling presence. The Bible says that God gave us His own nature, a new nature. The nature of Christ Himself has come within us. That is the image of God. But the Bible also tells us that we have this old nature, the flesh, sin, and it just kind of covers the new nature, the image of God within us. God is now at work in our lives as Christians, as brothers and sisters in Christ who remove the clay of sin to make that image of Christ shine within us. That’s what God’s at work doing in every circumstance of your life and mine and in the trials and tests and suffering. God is at work trying to transform us into the great glorious image of His Son. This is His purpose and it is benevolent. He wants us to trust His purpose.

So what does it mean to trust God? Trust in His presence, trust in His power? His power is great but we cannot control His power so we must trust His purposes. Trust in His purposes. And finally, trust His promises. Trust in His presence, His power, His purpose, and His promises.

You know, the Blackfoot Indians still live today. There are three Blackfoot reservations in Canada and one right here in the United States. Although for some reason the American Indians of this tribal confederacy refer to themselves as the Blackfeet instead of the Blackfoot. The greatest leader the Blackfoot Confederation of Tribes has ever had was an Indian Chief named Crowfoot. He came to the highest position in the Blackfoot Confederacy in 1866. A few years later the Canadian Pacific Railroad asked him for permission to build a railroad through Blackfoot land. Crowfoot thought about this. They wanted to build a railroad from Medicine Hat to Calgary. Of course, the Canadian Blackfoot were in the region of southern Alberta. Crowfoot decided, “It would be okay if they built the railroad through our land if you promise that I’ll be able to ride that railroad the rest of my life for free, if you promise that I have a lifetime pass to ride that railroad for free anytime, anywhere.” The Canadian Pacific Railroad Authority said “Okay, we promise.” They gave him a lifetime pass.

He took that pass and he was really proud of it. He put it in a leather pouch. He wore it around his neck all the days of his life, but strangely enough he never road the train. He never got on the train once. In 1890, just before his death, people asked him why he wore that pass around his neck and why didn’t you ever ride the train. He said, “Well, I’ve never been sure the promise was good and I’m not sure this pass would really work.” Incredible.

But it reminds us of how many Christians view the promises of God. We place scripture verses in our wallets and our purses. Sometimes we put scripture verses in plaques and we hang them on the walls of our home. We put scripture verses on the refrigerator. And yet oftentimes we don’t fully trust those promises God has made. One promise God has made to us as Christians, it seems to me, is greater than all others. It’s the blessed hope. Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in Me. Trust in God. Trust also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions, many dwelling places. If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there you may be also.” What a great promise. Do you really trust that promise? I mean, if you trust that promise of heaven itself it’s going to affect the way you live. It’s going to affect the way you die if you really believe.

Some of you have heard of the S.S. Dorchester (and with this we’ll close). The S.S. Dorchester was an American ship during World War II and early in 1943 the S.S. Dorchester, with 903 men onboard, was moving through the icy waters of the North Atlantic. Those waters were literally infested by German U-boats. The 903 men on the Dorchester were very much afraid. There were four chaplains onboard the Dorchester and they were busy trying to comfort these men who could just feel a torpedo hitting the ship. Then, on February 3, 1943 at 1:00 AM it happened. The Dorchester took a torpedo in the worst of all places and that great ship went down. There were not enough life preservers. All four chaplains had life preservers. One man came up to one of the chaplains and said, “You know I don’t have a life preserver. What do I do?” He said “Take mine. I won’t be needing it.” The same thing happened to the other three chaplains. Those who survived said that when they looked back and saw that ship going down they saw the four chaplains on the deck holding hands, kneeling in prayer as the ship went under.

After the war, President Harry Truman, referring to those four chaplains, said, “It was the greatest sermon ever preached.” There’s a lot of different ways to die, a lot of different ways to live. I think most of us want to live with courage and we want to die with courage, but it isn’t possible for us as Christians unless we trust the promises of God. I mean, what a great promise. “In My Father’s house are many mansions, many dwelling places. If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, there you may be also.” So, trust in Him. Trust His presence, not just through the angelic hosts but the indwelling presence of His Holy Spirit. He is with you always. He’ll never fail you or forsake you. Trust His presence. Trust His power. He has all power in heaven and on earth. There’s no situation you face that is too great for Him. Trust His purpose, for in everything He works for good. And finally, trust His promise that one day we will see Him face to face.

We have eternal life itself. What can separate us from the love of God in Christ? Paul said, “I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor heights nor depths nor anything else in all of creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Let’s look to the Lord for a word of prayer.