Can You Trust God? - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, March 8th. When bad things happen, believers can still choose to trust that the Lord is in control. Here's the final lesson in the series, Growing Strong in Faith. Do you believe God is able to perform every single thing He's promised?

Do you believe that He not only is able, do you believe that He will perform, that He will complete, that He will fulfill every single promise that He's made? Now, I cannot tell you how important it is for you to get this message in your heart because in all these messages on faith that we have been preaching, here is the one that I want you to be able to grasp simply, plainly, and apply to your heart on a daily basis. So I want to plead with you, please write down these three statements I'm going to give you.

Write them on a piece of paper, write them on your hand, write them on your cuff, write them on your collar, write them on your wife's dress, whatever is necessary, get it down. It is that important because the whole issue of the basis of our faith is what I'm going to be talking about here. There are three essential truths about God, three essential truths about God that are absolutely essential, absolutely necessary for you and myself to be able to trust God in those difficult trying times when I don't understand, I don't like my circumstance, I want to change it, I can't fix it, I can't fathom how God would allow such a thing to happen, and yet there is a basis upon which I am to trust Almighty God. Now, no matter what you believe and what you think and how strong you think your faith is, here is the bottom line, here are the three basic essential truths necessary for you and me to be able to believe God, not only when things are going well, but when things are going at their very worst.

I want to give them to you in three short phrases and then I want to give you a sentence that sort of explains it and then I want us to discuss each one of these and the first one is this, and that is God is perfect in His love, write it down, God is perfect in His love. That God in His love always does what is best for us, not sometimes, not most of the time, but always. God in His love always does what is best for us. If you and I doubt the love of God, we will not trust Him. If we doubt that He loves us, we will not trust Him. We will reason, we will figure out some way to rationalize our doubt in God. Well, Lord, if you'd have done so and so, if you'd have done this, but if you and I love Him, genuinely love Him, and you and I recognize His love for us, if we really believe that His love is perfect, we will indeed trust Him in the most difficult times. Now, the second thing I want you to notice is this. We said, first of all, God is perfect in His love.

Second, I want you to jot it down. God is infinite in His wisdom. That is, in His wisdom, He always knows what is best for us. You see, if God loves me and He's only going to do the right thing, then He must know what the right thing is every time. He is infinite in His wisdom. That is, God makes judgments that are absolutely perfect.

They're never imperfect, but always perfect. And if you'll think about it, God doesn't have to ask anybody. There's no committee, there's no counsel, there's no question. He determines every single thing by His absolute, total, perfect, infinite wisdom. God always knows, listen, He always knows what is best for us in every circumstance. Now, God is willing to give us direction. And you see, when God gives you direction, you must abide by what the Lord says.

Now, here's what happens. When we ask the Lord to show us something and the Lord gives us some sense of direction, and then because we don't understand it and because we can't quite figure it out, we oftentimes want to choose to do something that appears to be the better. It's always wrong.

It is always wrong. You can't improve on the infinite wisdom of God. He says, I will guide you with mine eye. I will teach you in the way which thou shall go. And He says, the entrance of thy word giveth light. That is, the Word of God is what gives us light. That is, gives us a sense of God's direction for our life. And if I really want the truth, I'm to listen to Him, get in His Word. And then when He makes a promise, I am to be willing to abide by what He says, not by what I feel. And while it's not understandable to us oftentimes, it's understandable to God.

Now, here's the thing that we have to remember. Nowhere in the Bible do we get into explanations where God says, now, here's what I'm going to do, and these are the reasons I'm going to do it. God is not in the business of explaining why. Now, the way I know that's because I don't find any of them in the Bible. The second reason is because I never have gotten Him to tell me any whys.

Now, sometimes I can understand what He's up to, but I don't always understand why. And you see, God's under no obligation to explain anything to you and me. And if you think about in the Bible, the Bible says, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Well, give me an explanation about that. No, He just states what He did. And you can go all the way through the Scriptures, for example. He didn't explain to Joseph why He let him live 13 years in a prison unjustly before He made him the absolute supreme, except for Pharaoh, the prime minister of all of Egypt. He could have gone to Pilate's house. Potiphar could have seen what a great job he did. Potiphar could have mentioned him to Pharaoh.

But no, 13 years in prison, forgotten by the butler whose dream he interpreted. And when the time was right, God in His infinite wisdom raised him out of that prison, made him the prime minister of Egypt. And so we say, well, you know, why? Well, but you can't always answer the question why. Why would He allow those Hebrews to live 400 years down in Egyptian bondage and then rescue them and then make them a nation?

Why would He bring them across the Red Sea in the miraculous feet? God offers us no explanations for these things. I mean, there's nothing that says I have to understand what God is up to. And usually what gets us frustrated, anxious, fearful and doubting God is we can't explain what He's doing.

Now, you think about this. If you could explain God, then, friend, you'd have a reason to doubt Him. But it is in His infinite wisdom, in His perfect love, we cannot explain Him. We have no legitimate reason for doubting because He is an infinite, all-wise God who always knows the right thing and the best thing to do in your life and mine every single solitary time with absolutely no exception whatsoever. If He is a God of goodness and only operates in your life and my life according to His goodness and His love, and He's infinite in His wisdom, then I must believe that it is infinitely wise and good for me that I don't understand and can't explain all the things that God's up to. Listen, He is infinite in His wisdom and we are finite. So we can only see certain things that God allows us to see. We're not going to be equal with God. There's no way for us to be equal in our understanding. And here's Paul, the man who had the greatest revelation of who Jesus is and the whole Christian life of anybody who has ever existed on the face of this earth apart from the Lord Jesus Himself, and the man who best interprets for all of us said, when I examine the deep things of God, what I have to conclude is, oh, how unsearchable are His ways, how absolutely fabulous are the judgments of God.

There's some things I will not understand the reason why. I may understand the ways in which God is bringing about or the ways that happen or the ways He operates in situations and circumstances, and I may be able to understand some of the whys that it appears to me that God may allow certain things. But ultimately, He has reserved that final judgment for Himself. Now, so we said, first of all, the first awesome truth that you and I need to understand about the very nature of our Lord and the fact that these three basic essential truths, the first one is what? God is perfect in His love. Secondly, He is infinite in His wisdom. Now, the third one is this, listen, He is completely sovereign in His control. He is in absolute total control of every single solitary thing on the face of this earth.

Now, I want you to remember this carefully. If a single event can happen in God's universe outside of His power, you and I can no longer trust God. If a single solitary event can happen beyond His control, we can no longer trust Him because we don't know what's going to happen. If He is not in absolute control, we don't know what's going to happen.

The reason you and I can trust Him is He is sovereign. He is not only perfect in His love toward us, infinitely wise about us, but He is absolutely in perfect and complete control over every single solitary thing. If you read, for example, well, let's turn to the 10th chapter of Matthew for a moment. Now, this is how absolutely sovereignly in control God is and the fact that He knows every single solitary thing. You say, well, now, God doesn't have time for that, my friend. God is not limited or affected by time.

Look at this verse, 10th chapter of Matthew, 29th verse. Are not two sparrows sold for a cent, and yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father? Let me tell you what He didn't say. He did not say two robins, two bluebirds, two blue jays. He said the most insignificant of all birds, sparrow. Now, here's what He said. He says God knows all about every single sparrow that falls.

He says it falls under His control. Now, friend, think about this. If your God in mind is so absolutely sovereignly in control of everything that He also allows every single sparrow to fall. And that's what Jesus said. That's not something, that's what Jesus said. Then what is it in your life, as important as we are as human beings, that He is not absolutely, totally concerned about and in control of?

Well, let's move to something far more important than that one. Go over to John chapter 19. Look at verse 8. When Pilate therefore heard this statement, he was the more afraid. And he entered into the Praetorium again and said to Jesus, Where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. Pilate therefore said to him, You do not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and I have authority to crucify you? Listen to Jesus answer. Jesus answered, You would have no authority over me unless it had been given you from above. Now, I want you to think about that. Watch this.

Look at this. We've gone from a little old sparrow to the crucifixion of Jesus. And the Bible says that our sovereign God allows the sparrow to fall and his son to be crucified. Now, friend, don't you ever doubt that God is in absolute control. You say, What about these plane crashes?

And what about these slides that cover villages? What about these atrocities? What about all these things?

Where is God and all that right in absolute total control? I don't understand that. Neither do I. So what do you do when you don't understand him? You trust him.

Because he didn't say you and I would understand. We live in a wicked, sinful, vile, evil world and sin with all of its consequences. And you see, what you and I don't know is this.

We don't know the long term consequences of these things that look tragic and absolutely totally unexplainable and harsh we don't understand. So what do we do? Do we throw God away? Do we doubt him because something happens we don't understand?

No. We accept the fact that he's in absolute sovereign control. He's still good. He's still doing his thing and his infinite wisdom.

He allows these things. And what are we to do? We to surrender our life to him, yield to him and acknowledge the fact that he's in absolute control whether I understand it or not. And there are lots and lots of verses.

But let me just give you three. Turn to Proverbs chapter 16 verse 9. Look at this. He says, the mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his step. We make all the plans we want to.

But you know what? Our plans are subject to Almighty God. Well, let's move on over to the 19th chapter, if you will. And look, if you will, in the 21st verse. 21st verse of this 19th chapter. He says, many are the plans in a man's heart, but the counsel of the Lord it will stand. That is, only God is the one who determines whether it will work out or whether it will not work out. And there are lots and lots of verses in the Bible we could come to.

But I just want to give you these three to show you how in control he is. 37th verse of this third chapter of Lamentation says, who is there who speaks and it comes to pass unless the Lord has commanded it? You see, when I think about men and great authority and making all these decrees and making these decisions and they take the credit for it and they think it's something they've done, they've done only what a sovereign, omnipotent, all powerful God has allowed and not one thing more.

I mean, how in the world can anybody have any pride about being a big shot? When every single one of us, he said, look, he took us, he said, we would like dry bones. We were under the dominion of Satan. We were under his control. We were living in sin. We were separated from God. And out of his grace, he saved us.

And it was a choice that God made. He's the one who made it possible for you to hear the gospel. He's the one who gave you the faith to believe. He's the one who strengthened you. He's the one who's taught you. He's the one who's given you the faith to believe that he is and it is all that he says he is. It is all of God and none of us. He's to be glorified, magnified.

And we ought to be shouting hallelujah and praise the Lord God for what he is and who he is, not just for what he does. When I understand who he is, I don't have to worry about what he does. When I understand who he is, I don't have to worry about what I'm going to have because I know that this God who is all perfectly loved, who is infinite in his wisdom and absolute in his power, he loves me enough to give me what he knows is good for me. He loves me enough to give me what he knows is wise for me and he has the power to do it all in his own perfect timing. And if I'm going to trust him, these three great truths have got to be an essential part of my life.

Now, he has prepared a plan for all of our lives. There's nobody here by accident. Somebody says, well, I was an accident to my parents. No, you weren't.

My goodness, listen, where in the world did we get that idea? You were on an accident. God in his providence allowed you to be born. Now, so you're not an accident. You're a part of God's sovereign will, his permissive will, his plan. And you see, oftentimes what we think are some of these things that just sort of happen. Where is the love of God, the infinite wisdom of God and the sovereignty of God with luck, faith and chance?

It's not there. And so those three words shouldn't even be in your category. And somebody says, well, but let me tell you about my job. On my job, my boss, and he can fire me. He could ruin my life. He could do this. No, he can't. You say, yes, he can. No, he cannot. If your boss, as wicked as he may be, can perform one single act outside of the sovereignty of God, then we're all sunk.

He cannot. You may be in the army and you say, oh, but my commanding general, your commanding general is under the authority of Almighty God. He says all the kings, all people in authority, under his divine authority.

Not only under his authority, but under his sovereign rule and power. I said a long time ago, your life and my life belongs to God. Only what a sovereign, good, omnipotent, all-knowing God allows in our life, then that's what we'll go with.

It may not be what I like. And I may go through some difficulty, hardships, trials, suffering, all kinds of stuff. It is only what Almighty God allows. If you think your life, your job, your home, all these things are subject to what somebody else is going to do. They may do something that is absolutely, horribly, and sinful.

It may be some kind of abuse of some sort. Under the sovereign will of God in his infinite wisdom and knowledge. You say, how in the world could that be good? Humanly speaking, I cannot say how that could be good. How can God make it good? I think many people who've been through difficulty and hardship and trial in their life look back and say, you know, I hated it when it happened. I thought God had left me. I thought God deserted me. But now, you know, somehow on this side of it, I can see what God is up to. Sometimes we do. Sometimes we don't. There'll be some things that you and I will only understand when we get to glory.

And in the presence of our God, whether he's going to explain them then or not, I sort of doubt he's going to take a lot of time to do a lot of explaining in those days because the truth is it won't make any difference anymore because we are in that awesome eternity future and we're going to live with God and see him as he is unhindered by finite minds. And so I want to say to you, my friend, if you're not a Christian and you're wondering who is this God, I want to tell you what he's like. He's a good God who loves you unconditionally, who knows you perfectly, who's provided the best for you and what he wants you to do is to surrender your life to him and trust him as your absolute personal savior. And my friend, you and I have no reason to doubt God. And there are three basic essential truths that you and I need to rivet into our mind, apply them in our daily life.

First of all, what's the first one? God is perfect in his love. Secondly, he's what? God is infinite in his wisdom.

And thirdly, he is what? He is sovereignly in control, completely sovereign in his control of all this universe. Now, you think about this. Do you know how you and I live every day? Now, you don't think about it probably, but this is how we live every day. We live under the threefold umbrella of God's perfect love, his infinite wisdom and his absolute control.

Why in the world do we want to be frightened about anything? Think about that. We live under the threefold umbrella of his perfect love, his infinite wisdom and his sovereign control. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to live any other way, would you?

Under no condition. My friend, if you've never trusted the Lord Jesus as your Savior and gotten in on life at its very best, I'm here to tell you this is life at its best. You say, well, but you don't know about my troubles.

You don't know about ours either. But I'll tell you something. Even in the deepest, darkest valleys of life, what we've just talked about is absolutely true. And there's a way to have a sense of deep abiding, unexplainable joy, confidence and assurance in the darkest nights of your life. Your all loving, all wise, infinite, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, sovereign God has you in the cradle of his loving hand. Thank you for listening to part two of Can You Trust God? 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.