Confidence in Troublesome Times - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, February eighteenth. We can remain firm in our faith no matter what comes our way. Stay with us for help building the kind of confidence that can see you through troublesome times. How do you and I live in these days with a sense of confidence when we have responsibility and have relationships with others on your job, with your children, your finances, your future? And so many people today are all caught up in having enough money for their future. Listen, if you live for the future, you have the wrong perspective. We as believers, followers of Jesus Christ are to live for Him, in obedience to Him, to make our life count for Him.

Then He'll take care of all these other issues. So here's what I want to do. I want to give you four simple truths of the Word of God, very basic truths, which you and I, listen, which makes it possible for us to say reliably, you can, if you follow these four basic principles, you can live confidently no matter what's going on. So I want you to turn, if you will, to Romans chapter eight.

Here's what I want you to see. The truth that God controls our circumstances. That's a basic number one basis of our confidence that we can have confidence in these trying times. Now, the basic truth is this, and that is that God is in control of all the circumstances of your life. You say, well now wait just a minute, I could never believe that.

Well why not? Let me ask you a question. If you don't believe that, then who is in control? Is the devil in control? No. Well, are you in control?

No. If you're not in control, and the devil's not in control, and God is not in control, tell me who's in control. I don't believe anybody's in control. Then what you have said is, I just come to the point of relinquishing my total being that living in this world pot where everything is turning around and everything is churning and nobody knows how, in other words, it's just this and that. And so there can be no peace and no contentment, no joy, no assurance. God is in absolute control, and that is the bottom line basis of our confidence that we can overcome no matter what's going on.

All right, the second basis is this. Think about this for a moment. Here's what He says. And that is, in this beginning in verse thirty-two, the truth that God will meet our needs.

Basic foundational truth. Now watch what Paul says here. He says, for example, in, let's start with verse thirty-one, we're coming back to these other two verses there, What then shall we say to these things, if God is for us, who can be against us?

That is, who can be against us successfully? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, here's the question, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? If God the Father is willing and was willing to give His only begotten Son Jesus to come into this world, to walk among men to reveal the Father and who He is, and then ultimately for the primary purpose of going to the cross and dying on the cross, paying our sin debt in full, a horrible crucifixion of His only begotten Son, He says this, if He was willing to do that and to give Him for us, how could we ever question that He would give us? Now you say, well now, let's get down to that all things.

Right. What does He mean by that? All things that fit His will and purpose for our life. Now the unbelieving person who is listening, whoever you may be, you say, well, I just don't believe all that.

Then let me ask you this, whereas your peace, your joy, your contentment, your assurance and your confidence, as long as you have what you need, He says, I can handle it. But when everything, the bottom drops out and your health is gone and you're facing death, then what do you do? We're talking about reality. Reality is that God is in absolute control. And for those of us who believe us, we live on a higher level.

Watch this. I didn't say it made us better. We live on a higher level, a higher plane, because we're confident that He's in absolute control. And secondly, that He is going to meet every single need of our life. Now there's a third sense of assurance here and a third point I want you to notice, and that is the truth that God is with us.

The truth that He's in control, the truth that He'll meet our needs, and the truth that He's with us. Now look at verse thirty-five for a moment, and we're going to come back to a couple of these levels. He says, "'Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sower? Just as it is written, For Your sake we are being put to death all day long.

We would consider the sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing.'"

What could you add to that? Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, the issue is simply this. One of the basic beliefs for having a sense of confidence in trying times is God's with us. When you trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, what happened was He forgave you of your sin.

And you know what He did? He closed the gap. Here was this gap between you and Almighty God. And that gap was because of sin.

He says we were separated from Him. Then when we surrendered to the conviction of the Holy Spirit and said, yes, I want to trust the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior, it's like, listen, the cross covered the gap between the Father and us, and now here we are one. Not only did He do that, but He sent the Holy Spirit, He says in Ephesians chapter four, and He sealed you and me. That is, once you trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, He sealed you as a child of God.

Now, seal how long? Under the day of redemption. That is, until the day He calls you home. You and I are His children.

And He said, no one will be able to pluck you out of My Father's hand. And there are many verses to absolutely prove eternal security of the believer. So one of the basic truths of the Word of God that you and I have to rest upon or rely upon is that no matter what's going on and where we are and what's happening in our life, He is with us. The only person who can say God is with me is that person who has accepted Jesus Christ as personal Savior and in whom Jesus Christ is living His life.

Here's what He said. He says, I am abiding in you, living in you. You're abiding in Me. And He will never leave us nor forsake us. He says, for example, that He ever lives to make intercession for us. He is omniscient, He knows all things.

Think about this. Where could you go to hide from God? And the hundred and thirty-ninth Psalm is very clear about that, you can't go anywhere. Where can a believer hide from God? And I think about people want God to know all about them when they get sick. But when they're sinning, they hope He doesn't know anything about what's going on.

Which you can see the contradiction of that. He says, I will be with you. Now notice in this passage, if you will, beginning in verse thirty, And these whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified. What He means is simply this in those words. Not only did He declare us righteous in one of His children, He said He declared us glorified.

Here's what that means. That means, watch this carefully, God sees you and Me as His children. He sees us, listen, positionally as already in heaven. I don't mean that you're living there and this that and the other, but our position is not only has He declared us no longer guilty, but He sees us as glorified. That is in His mind, listen, we're lifted up and we have the awesome assurance of living in the presence of God forever and ever and ever. He's a loving Father.

So think about this. On the basis of the truth that He's in absolute control of all things. On the basis of the truth that He supplies our needs.

On the basis of the truth of each one of these areas. And here He is, listen, loving us, supplying our needs, all of these bases that we're talking about, this is what we live by. And He's with us is one of those.

Now there's a fourth one. Listen to what Paul says, and if you'll join, the truth that God loves us with eternal love. And in this eighth chapter, I want you to notice two things here primarily.

One of them is this. In verse thirty-five, he asked a question, Who will separate us from the love of Christ? And he asked these questions. Then he says in verse thirty-seven, But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. And the last verse, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Now, so those three times he talks about the Father loving us. If I should ask the average person today, Do you believe God loves you? Very few people are going to say, Yes. They're going to say, Well, I hope so.

I think He does. Or some people would say hesitatingly, Yes. They wouldn't necessarily believe it. And if you ask them, Well, why don't you believe He loves you?

They can give you a lot of reasons. All based on their conduct and their behavior. Does God love us on the basis of our behavior? No, He doesn't. Does He love us on the basis of our conduct? No.

Watch this carefully. He loves us on the basis of the fact that He's God. And He, and it's His nature to love and He loves all of His creation. Does He love our conduct when it's ungodly?

No. He hates evil conduct because evil conduct is destructive to the people He loves. So while He hates that kind of conduct, He still loves the person who's committing it. Now, think about this for a moment. God loves us with eternal love. Well, how long does that last? Till you commit the next sin?

No. It's eternal love. And when you and I have trusted Jesus Christ as our Savior, listen, we become the recipients of the eternal unending, listen, indefinable, indispensable, fabulous love of Almighty God that never changes one iota no matter what's happening. You say, you mean to tell me that God loves me just as much when I'm sinning as when I'm not? Yes, He does. You say, well, then I can just do anything I want to and get by with it.

You missed the point. Listen, He loves you so much. He will put you through all kinds of pain and difficulty and hardship. You say, well, that's not love.

Yes, it is. It is love because what is He doing? Getting our attention.

To remind us if you keep going the other way, you're going to destroy yourself. And so, God is a God of absolutely awesome love. So we just saw in those three situations, He mentions love.

Now I want you to go back and show you how awesome this is. Verse twenty-eight, because every single one of these verses is an expression of God's love. Verse twenty-eight, God causes all things to work together for our good to those who love Him. That's an act of love on His part. Verse twenty-nine, He foreknew and predestined us to become like His Son.

That's an act of love on His part. Verse thirty, He predestined us and called us and justified and glorified us acts of His love. What shall we say then, if God is for us, who's against us?

Who can be against us successfully? That's God's love. He who did not spare His own Son, gave Him above all things.

That's love. Verse thirty-three, who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. That's love. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, rather He who is raised.

Who is at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us? That's love. Who will separate us from the love of Christ?

He says nothing can. That's love. Goes through this long list. But in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer. That's love.

You know what that means? That means that no matter what we face in life, we, listen to this, we will come out with more than we went into it with. No matter what we are facing, if we will simply surrender ourselves to Almighty God, no matter what's going on in our life, God will turn it to our good. You see, God has a purpose for every single one of your lives. All of us, He has a purpose for our life. He doesn't have the same purpose. One thing for certain, His purpose is good. It's very good.

It's always good. And some people who have suffered the most on this earth and who are probably the least known, you can't judge people by what you see oftentimes. There are some godless saints that most of the world will never know who've been great prayer warriors, who've lived through hell on earth, and who have been sustained. For example, we were greeting guests and these two little Chinese ladies, real young, came up to me and told me how the Lord had blessed them and how they'd been saved and so forth.

And in the process of the conversation, they tell me about their father who was in China. And they were there at the time. And they arrested him because he was a Christian, because he went to church and so forth. And they said to him, now, if you will deny Jesus Christ, you can go free. But if you say you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you'd go into prison. He said, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And for twenty long years, he existed in a Chinese prison.

Twenty years for saying what? I believe in Jesus Christ. You say, well now, what about that being in control? Was God in control?

Yes. Can you imagine the testimony that man's had out of prison, how God sustained him through all those times? The many people that he witnessed to and led to Christ. You see, we look at the surface of things. God knows what's going on beneath your life. And you may think, well, I never get a chance to preach and I never get a chance to witness and I don't get a chance to do that.

God knows what's going on in your life, and I'm telling you, public demonstrations are public nothing. It's who you are. It's what God is doing in your life. And so, when you think about a man spending twenty years in prison, was God in control? Yes. God's supplies needs? Yes. Was God with him? Yes. Did God love him?

Yes. We would say, well, how could God love me and put me in prison for twenty years? Because God had an awesome divine purpose for it all. And this man believed the Word of God. And he knew that he was going to go to prison if he said that. And he said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Lord Master of my life. Something sort of that. Did God keep His Word? Yes. The basis by which you and I live our life with confidence is on the basis of those four things.

Now, tell them back to me. He's in absolute control. He supplies our needs.

What? He is with us in every circumstance. And He loves us eternally.

What are you worried about? That's why Paul could say, we overwhelmingly conquer through these things no matter what. Amen? Well, you may have been listening and you're saying, well, I've heard all that, but I'm not sure I believe that. Well, will you tell me what you do believe?

What do you believe that can match the awesome offer of forgiveness and eternal life? And I want to challenge you to ask the Lord to speak to your heart about where you are in life. And to be honest about confidence. Listen, if you have confidence in things, you lose them.

If you have confidence, then what you can do in life can change. What confidence will you have when you face death and you have denied Jesus Christ in your life? I want to ask you to consider confessing your sins to the Lord Jesus Christ, asking Him to forgive you of your sins based on what He did at the cross, not on your good works, surrendering your life to Him, and then watch God do His awesome work in your life.

May that be true. And Father, how grateful we are that we can trust You, that Your Word is eternal and unchanging. And I pray the Spirit of God will take this message and drive it deep into the hearts of people who are going into difficult, trying times, troublesome times in their life. That these four basic truths are unchangeable and unalterable and are backed by Your omniscience that You're all-knowing, Your omnipotence that You have all power, and Your omnipresence that You're with us in it all. And we thank You for it in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for listening to part two of Confidence in Troublesome Times. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.