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March, 2020
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Preached by Dr. Gene Scott on December 8, 1985 The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms . . . Deuteronomy 33:27 For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen . . . 2nd Corinthians 1:20 I LOST MY FAITH WHEN I WAS IN COLLEGE, but I came back to faith from a hardheaded study of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Jesus didn’t come out of the tomb and ascend into heaven, I don’t need Christianity. Frankly, I prefer Confucius’ Golden Rule to Jesus’ Golden Rule. Jesus said, “Do to others what you want done to yourself,” but Confucius said, “Don’t do to others what you don’t want done to yourself.” I am safer with Confucius’ rule; I really don’t want some fool doing to me what he wants done to himself. Jesus’ Golden Rule only works when the Ruler is in you. Only transformed beings can live by that rule, those who have God’s Spirit expressing Himself through them. People like that are not supposed to judge others. Paul said in Romans 8, “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect?” It is God who justifies, and Christ who died for us. Traditions make void the word of God, and there are too many critics and self-appointed judges today. This cynical world has concluded that intelligent people cannot possibly believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. That attitude is what caused me to lose my faith. My university professors deserved respect when they spoke on subject matters related to their academic disciplines; but I made the mistake of transferring that well-deserved respect to their opinions about religion. I encountered a frame of reference in which I could not be considered to be a “real” intellectual as long as I continued to believe in miracles and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. This attitude is especially prevalent in the echelons of government, academia, and the press. They have concluded that if you are intelligent, you cannot really believe that a life can be transformed through faith in Christ’s act of redemption. Therefore, if you say you believe in such things, you must be a faker, and they think that if they look long enough, they will eventually uncover the fake. The world wants only fools to be Christians because fools don’t make them feel uncomfortable. Those who despise Christianity have a deep and abiding passion to silence the voice of any intelligent person who teaches the truth. If the world cannot eliminate Christianity, then they come up with all kinds of theories to explain it away. There are some popular contemporary books promoting a conspiracy theory that Jesus faked His own crucifixion, and that He really survived and became the father of a line of kings. The conspiracy theorists go so far as to say that these kings have a divine bloodline and the Catholic Church has been trying to cover it up. This is what is known as a logical no sequitur. If Jesus faked His own crucifixion, then there could be no “divine” bloodline; it would only be a faker’s bloodline! Jesus was either a nut or a fraud not deserving anyone’s attention, or He was what He claimed to be; and the Resurrection and Ascension put a stamp of authority on His claims. Jesus made claims about Himself that no mortal man could make, including prophesying His own death and Resurrection. A resurrection in itself would not cause me to worship someone; but if the very One who had made the claims Jesus made about Himself did in fact rise from the dead, I would have to take another look at Him. This is what keeps me focused on Jesus. The main reason I preach is to inspire faith. I come against those preachers who continually condemn us with their litany of “thou shalt!” and “thou shalt not!” God gave the law as His standard, but He never intended it to be kept. Paul understood the meaning of the law: God gave it to prove the devil a liar. Satan told Eve, “If you eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will be like God.” But knowledge alone is not enough to enable anyone to be like God. To know God’s standard is to know that all have sinned. The New Testament word for “sin” in the Greek is hamartia. It means “to miss the mark” or “to fall short.” Paul said, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” God’s standard puts us in the dire position of being earthbound without having the wings needed to fly. And one of the lost messages of the church is that God intends to make us airborne. God gives His salvation to faithers. No one can “qualify” for salvation. God gives us something we cannot obtain by our own efforts as His response to our courageous, tenacious faith. He wants trust that is freely given and not coerced, which is something He cannot create. I preach to show off God’s performance because “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” If you will take the time to study God’s performance in His book, then you will become convinced of His faithfulness and you will gain the ability to grab hold of His promises. I also teach to show forth the goodness of God and His promises, and the promises we will look at today are for everyone. Paul said in 2nd Corinthians 1:20, “All the promises of God in him,” that is, in Christ, “are yea, and in him Amen.” The Greek word translated “all” means that nothing is left out. Again, “All the promises of God in Christ are yea,” or yes, “and in him Amen,” or “so be it to you.” We are in Christ, so all of God’s promises are ours to claim. How do you get in Christ? Paul teaches in Romans 8 that you are in Christ when Christ is in you. That is a simple statement and there is nothing mystical about it. How does Christ get in you? Christ is formed in your heart by faith. That is why the Resurrection is so important. If you can believe Christ penetrated the rock that sealed His tomb, that He was able to walk through locked doors, and that He ascended into the heavens, you might as well take the next step. Since God created everything and upholds all things, He would have no difficulty penetrating your being with a substance of His own life. It is an existential happening that begins the moment you start trusting God. That is what puts you in Christ. Since we are now in Christ, that means we have a “fishing license” to search God’s book and find all the promises that fit our needs. Today we are returning to Moses’ song of Asher in Deuteronomy 33. It is one of the messages I preach repeatedly because we so easily forget it. Verse 25 says, “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass…” Some preachers project the idea that if you come to God, your life will be a featherbed or a flying carpet to heaven. But my Bible says, “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass,” which tells me that Christianity is a tough trip! Soft shoes you might wear around the house or bare feet just won’t do. You don’t need iron and brass shoes to go into the kitchen to get a snack. Some preachers say, “Come to Jesus and all your problems will disappear.” I am a realistic preacher. I say, “Come to Jesus and all hell will break loose on you!” Do you really want to have a hard time? Get saved! If you have problems now, just wait until you come under attack by the devil. The devil doesn’t care about people who are already in his prison camp; he goes after the ones who break free. Most evangelists you see on TV seldom talk about the devil bothering them because they are doing more for him with the perfectionist preaching than all the infidels in the nation. Sometimes I foolishly think I should have graduated from pain and pressure by now. I just want to play golf on Monday and sit around the rest of the week. Why can’t I do that? The Bible shows that the more mature the saint, the tougher the job they are given. Sometimes we take a stand in faith and things go terribly wrong. We ask, “Why did this happen to us?” When you take a stand for God, the consequences are in His hands. Christianity is a tough trip. Paul compared the Christian journey to a race and to a war. It is a fight to the finish. When Paul spoke of his death, he chose a word out of the Greek language that was uniquely used to describe a ship just getting started on its journey. When death comes, you are only starting your journey. Everything in this life just gets you ready. This is our promise: it is a tough trip, but God provides shoes that are tough enough for the trip He is leading us on. You might have thought many times in your life that you wouldn’t make it, but you made it; you are still here. King David had so much faith that when he was surrounded by enemies, he prayed to God, “Thou hast delivered my soul from death,” putting his future deliverance in the past tense. That’s why we say, “We made it through the next year!” The shoes are tough enough for the trip. What is the next promise? “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” I preached on this promise earlier in the year, but I still need it, so I suspect that you might need it too. I still forget that the shoes are tough enough. I still forget that whom the Lord calls, He enables. There have been many times during my 56 years when I thought I wouldn’t make it. Yet here I am, still going strong. In the New Testament, it says that God will not tempt you beyond what you are able to bear. It goes on to say that for every temptation, God makes a way of escape. The original Greek is more precise; it says that for every specific temptation, God works out an equally specific way of escape for you. I have preached this message for many years, but most people still find it hard to believe. What is pressing in on you today? What is causing you to say, “I don’t know if I’ll make it through this?” If you don’t have any faith, you can’t grab hold of a promise; but if you can muster even the smallest grip of faith, God’s promise is that the key is already in the door. All you have to do is keep pressing on and not let go. Many people in my congregation have fought through personal battles while laboring alongside their pastor to further the work of the ministry. I have prayed for them and they have prayed for me. Sometimes the best we could do was just make it through the day, but God has taken us through. Most of us want God to show us the second step before we take the first step. We want Him to show us what will happen tomorrow while He is leading us through today. If you are going to go God’s way, then go God’s way. The only surety you have is in His promises, and He has promised that you will have enough strength for the day. If you wake up in the morning feeling so weak that it is a monumental task just to swing your legs out of bed, then shout for joy because you won’t have many problems that day. But if you get up in the morning and say, “I’ve never felt so good in my whole life!” then get ready to be run over by a tank! God measures out your strength, and He measures it out to each of us individually. Underline these words in your Bible: “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” You won’t receive my measure of strength, and I won’t receive yours. Now let’s look at the next promise, in verse 27: “The eternal God is thy refuge . . .” This is the hardest part of the message to communicate, because Hebrew is a pictorial language. The easiest way to translate this passage is to say, “The God of the forefront shall be the place where you seek rest.” It is challenging to fully wrap our minds around its meaning because it requires us to change the way we think about time itself. The way we normally view time, we think of history as being in the past, and the future is up front. The future is yet to come, and our past is behind us. Now try to view time the way God views it. There is no time with God; He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Time is only a relative term, and God views time like He is viewing a parade. If you are watching a parade, what is up front has already passed by, and what is behind is yet to come! It is tough to break your bondage to the normal way we think of things, but if you view time like it is a parade, the future is behind and the past is up front! This verse is saying that from God’s view, our insecurities and restlessness can be calmed when we understand that the God of the forefront is already on the corner before we get there. He knows what is coming around the bend. This is an Old Testament way of saying what we just quoted from the New Testament: with every temptation, God has provided a way of escape. I don’t preach to entertain. If the truth of what God has promised us doesn’t settle in, then we are wasting our time. It isn’t any easier for me as the pastor than it is for you. No matter how many times I have preached this sermon, I still have trouble applying it to myself. I recently had to stop in my tracks and say to myself, “Fool, why didn’t you think of these promises last year when you were sure that God had gone berserk?” Many times I have wanted to run ahead of God and shout, “Clear the road because this guy doesn’t know where He’s going!” The God of the forefront is where we rest our case. I believe I am at least making progress, for I am a little more secure in my current test than I was with my previous test. I don’t have as much anxiety this time because I have been down this trail before. God enters in to our circumstances, every time. We read in Romans 8:28, in the King James Version, “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” That is not a good translation. We know that “all things” don’t work together for good. Literally, Romans 8:28 says, “God enters in to all things to work His good to them that love God . . .” I preach a reconstructionist God who loves freedom so much He turned loose the opportunity for sin. He is always having to rebuild our paths. God is our rest, our security and our peace of mind whenever we look at our circumstances and the way seems to be impassable. Moffatt’s translation of Proverbs 3:6 says that God will “clear the road for you.” He is the God of the forefront who got there before you got there. What are you facing today that would seem to wipe out your future? Whatever it is, from God’s perspective, it is already behind. To God, He got there first and it is in the past tense. Let’s look at the next promise in Deuteronomy 33:27: “underneath are the everlasting arms.” You might say, “All these promises are all well and good for you, Pastor. It sounds wonderful to say that God will be on the corner before you get there. But what about me? I failed! I lost heart and lost faith.” Who hasn’t? God’s promise to you is “underneath are the everlasting arms.” The word “underneath” suggests something that is underneath bottomless. What does “bottomless” mean to you? Whatever bottomless means to you, this word “underneath” means His arms are underneath even that. It is a paradoxical truth that can only be grabbed by insight. Underneath bottomless are God’s everlasting arms. If God sees you falling and it is a long drop, He is certainly fast enough to get His arms into position to catch you. But the beauty of this verse is that God has promised no matter how far you fall, His arms are already waiting there to catch you. That is why I have no tolerance for those judgmental preachers who hide their own inadequacies behind their pompous, self-righteous condemnation of the rest of us. They are forever putting an if on God’s grace: they make you think that if you can live up to their puny, self-righteous expression of godliness, and if you can somehow satisfy them and earn their approval, then God just might take you. Well, damn their traditions! They are wrong, and God’s grace is infinite. Every time we stumble, God’s promise is “underneath are the everlasting arms.” Therefore, we can say once again, putting the future in the past tense, “We made it through this coming year!” Praise God! Reprinted with permission from Pastor Melissa Scott | December, 2020 Wingspread | November, 2020 Wingspread | October, 2020 Wingspread | September, 2020 Wingspread | August, 2020 Wingspread | July, 2020 Wingspread | June, 2020 Wingspread | May, 2020 Wingspread | April, 2020 Wingspread | March, 2020 Wingspread | February, 2020 Wingspread | January, 2020 Wingspread | | Year 2019 Wingspreads | August, 2016 Wingspread | 2016 Wingspreads | 2014 Wingspreads | 2013 Wingspreads | 2012 Wingspreads | 2011 Wingspreads | 2010 Wingspreads | 2009 Wingspreads | 2008 Wingspreads | 2007 Wingspreads | 2006 Wingspreads | 2005 Wingspreads | 2004 Wingspreads | 2003 Wingspreads | 2002 Wingspreads | 2001 Wingspreads | August, 2001 Wingspread | November, 2001 Wingspread | December, 2001 Wingspread | 2000 Wingspreads | 1999 Wingspreads | 2015 Wingspreads | Year 2017 Wingspreads | 2018 Wingspreads | Year 2020 Wingspreads | Year 2021 Wingspreads | Year 2022 Wingspreads | Year 2023 Wingspreads | | Return Home | Current Wingspread | Wingspread Archives | Contact Us | |
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