Matthew 28:42-43, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He be the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him, for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” This is the greatest event in the history of mankind. Man can think of it as a tragedy. All of heaven was waiting for this moment and for all of us on earth, it is something we depended on, something we had to have and to know.
“He saved others; Himself He cannot save.” Jesus didn’t come to save Himself, He came to give Himself. He did trust in God. Everything in the flesh would like to flee, but Jesus remained in the experience because He trusted in God. We can do it, too. It was God’s plan. I wonder how they felt, as they looked out on the world when the Romans were in power and taxes levied, really what mattered was that God’s plan was falling into place. Man sometimes feels everything is falling apart. God’s plan is being fulfilled and we want it to be fulfilled in us and do the little we can do where we can. It is not activity that counts, but God-directed activity.
Trust is made up of faith, hope, assurance, complete confidence in God. It is not without fear or suffering. Trust is the lot of a child. A child, standing on a table, will leap into your arms, trusting.
I made some cornbread and another lady came along and said, “I will help you.” She gathered the ingredients and as we were putting the batter into the pan, she said, “What are we making?” What she had done was just with a trust that what was going on was right: a faith that questions not. She just helped.
Hebrews 11:32-35, “And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.” They didn’t flee or accept any deliverance. We would like to not accept any deliverance except what God would give to us.
Daniel 3:14-17, “ … but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.’” He will deliver us, if it would be by life or death. Death can be going on to what we have lived for or leaving behind everything we have lived for. God delivered them. The greatest deliverance was when there was no smell on them, no bitterness in their hearts towards the king. They didn’t like it and it wasn’t fair. They could go on and be free, set free from the influence that really could destroy them.
Job 13:15, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him but I will maintain mine own ways before Him.” God knows those who trust Him. Can God trust me? He trusts me to wait and be patient and let Him work out His plan.
When Jesus entered into Peter’s boat, Jesus would say, “Can I just use your life to further My work, to be a help?” Peter’s boat was open to Jesus. Peter’s first response was, “We toiled all night…” then “Nevertheless, at Thy word, I will let down the net.” In the same verse, it was different. I am really glad God didn’t accept my first response. It took much longer than a short verse to come to Him and to trust Him. God didn’t accept the first response. He brought us to the place where we would trust Him.
Acts 10, Peter arose, doubting nothing. He learnt, even in that experience, to trust more. “Trust in the Lord.” When we are fretting, we are not trusting. We want to trust in the blood of Jesus. Why do we fret when God has made such a great provision? Why do we fret? We believe in His timing and yet we so often question. We believe in His strength and trust His judgment.
Jacob had disappointments in himself. He had a staff, he fell and he leaned on it and it never disappointed, nor let him down. When we pray and cast something on the Lord, there we can leave it, and we take a little back. Why is it? We can trust Him.
In 1968, my brother was in Vietnam. He had the wonderful privilege of going to Taiwan, it was close to our heart … he missed convention by a week. One of the visiting brothers, Fred Allen, visited with him. Fred said, “We don’t know the future, but we do know the God of the future.” What matters the future, we can trust Him with our life today and we can trust Him with our eternal life.