Our Only Hope

Transcript

Alright thank you very much, and hello again radio friends. How in the world are you? Oh I’m glad to be back with you, bless your heart. I look forward to these times like a missionary looks forward to furlough. I look forward to being able to sit down with you, across the Word of God and talk with you share and put a handle, hopefully, put a handle on it so that you can get hold of it for yourself.

This your good friend, Dr. Cook, and you and I are looking at the 10th chapter of Mark, our Lord Jesus had just said to His disciples in verse 23, “How hardly”, that is, was what great difficulty, that means with what great difficulty, “shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God”. It says, “The disciples were astonished at His words”. Now, why is that so surprising? It says in verse 26 again, “And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, ‘Who then can be saved?’”. Well, because the ultimate index for the world of value and of success and the ultimate indication of destiny turns out to be money. I don’t know how to illustrate this so for your life, but I think you just look at, you look at your own circumstances and you’ll find yourself agreeing and the, the idea of having, not only enough money, but more than enough, is pretty attractive to all of us, isn’t it? I know I talked to some people right this minute who have to scrounge to get the rent for the next month, and where you’re living isn’t all that pleasant, is it?

Well you say, “That’s how it is”. Yes, that’s how it is. Don’t you wish sometimes that you had some more of the long green as we say? Don’t you wish you had enough or maybe more than enough? Do you sometimes envy the people, the jetsetters that have enough money so they can fly around and, and be in London one day and Buenos Aires the next, and all that.

See the, the measure of success, the measure of comfort, the measure of, of, of having made it, having been well off and being successful, and while you’re dreaming about it being content, you never do get content. The people dream about it. The measure is money. And so, they were astonished because this goes counter to everything that people ordinarily were thinking then, and with we have to add now, as well. “They were astonished at His words”. Well, was He saying it was wrong to have money? No, because He, He now clarifies the statement in verse 24, “Jesus answered again and said unto them, ‘Children, little children, my little children, take me up’”.

How hard is it for them that trust, trust there’s a keyword, trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God? Easier for a camel to go through the of eye needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. The key word there is trust, have you seen that? Now you go over to first Timothy and you’ll find the same concept, first Timothy 6:17, “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust”, there’s your word see, “in uncertain riches”, but do you’re trusting in “the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. Do good that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life”.

Now, there you have the contrast, not high-minded, trusting the uncertain. The uncertainty of riches, but first of all, remember that God gives us richly all things to enjoy everything in the world is yours if you belong to God. The sunrise and sunset and the fragrance of the rose are, are free. The best things in life, the song says, are free, but if someone does have some money, it says, “Do good, rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, and laying up treasures in heaven”. So, the point is trust. The point is trust.

I went calling one day on friend of mine who was treasurer of the organization I then was in charge of, and we were so broke that organization that I didn’t have enough to meet payroll. My rule always has been in life, if you can’t meet the payroll you’re not in business, so I wasn’t about to, to have payday come and not have enough to pay our people. I went to see him, to see if I can raise little money. Well, he didn’t have too much hope for me, but at least we had a good prayer meeting. When we got though praying I said, “Well, I wonder how it is that the Lord allows us to get so broke every now and again”. He looked at me and smiled, he said, “Well it’s been my experience that you pray a lot better when you’re broke”. Oh, that’s true. It says, “He led thee and allowed thee to hunger that He might feed thee with manna, which thou knowest not, neither did thy fathers know that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God”. He let you get hungry so He can feed you. This is what I need to learn, you and I we need to relearn it because we tend to gravitate, inevitably, into trust on the amount of money and possessions that we have. “How hard it is for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God”. You see, if you’re going to deal with God, you don’t deal of the basis of what you have, you deal on the basis what you don’t have. “Just as I am without one plea”, Charlotte Elliot wrote, didn’t she, “without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst Thee come to thee. Oh, Lamb of God, I come”.

He says, it’s easy for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Some people have said that was a reference to one of the gates of the city, which was called the eye of the needle and it was the gate itself was small enough so that a heavily laden camel would have trouble going through. I don’t know if that’s so because I wasn’t there, but the figure of speech certainly it is eloquent, isn’t it? Camel through the eye of a needle, rich man enter into the kingdom of God. So, what’s involved? Back to that word trust.
You have to realize that it wouldn’t take God very long to wipe any of us out. I’ve sometimes done a, a survey in a meeting when I would be talking on this theme and I’d say, “How many of you saved up a little by way of bank accounts and securities for what we call, a rainy day or maybe for your retirement?”, and people would answer you know, with a lifted hand, then I’d say, “How long do you think it would take for your entire bank account, all of your securities to be wiped out if you had some catastrophic illness or whatever?” Now, of course we have insurance nowadays and we have Medicare, and there is some relief, not much, but some relief for those who have heavy medical and, and hospital and surgical bills to pay, but you know, most people agree that it wouldn’t take very long for you to be completely wiped out, financially, not to have anything left.

I visit people who are ill, now and again, you know, having been a Pastor for 18 years you never get over that and so I go calling on people who are sick, who are friends of mine or employees or coworkers, and I’ve heard people say to me through the years, “You know I thought I had enough saved up, but this past year has simply wiped us out”. Why? Because it doesn’t take very much, does it? No. Joe Mrozek was one of our delegates to the Youth for Christ Congress in Beatenberg years ago he had come from Poland, and he was a successful attorney there in the pre-war days. This was back in 1948 just after World War II, and now he was living in a, in a ruined city and he told the story of how one day after the bombings, he stood on a heap of rubble and realized that the 18 to 30 feet below him, buried in the rubble were the bodies of his family, his law library, all that he had in all this world, and all that he had was his clothes, the clothes on his back and the shoes of his feet. He said as he told us about that incident when he came to the conference, he was wearing shoes that had worn through, the soles worn through and you could see his stockings through the soles, we got him some new shoes and some new clothes and took up an offering for him, you may be sure, but he said as he talked with us there in the meetings, he said, “I guess God had to take things away from me so that I could learn to trust in Him”. It’s a hard way to learn, isn’t it? But the fact is there.

We tend to trust in our, in our, in our own assets; money, securities, real estate, things we have like cars and houses and furnishings and appliances and whatnot and the index of whether or not you’re trusting in them sometimes is how upset you get if something goes wrong. If the refrigerator breaks down or the furnace breaks down, or the car breaks down, or the roof starts to leak or whatever it may be. How upset we get when things that we’re trusting in, things we’re trusting in don’t work right. So, the key word there is trust.

Let me ask you beloved, and I’m not, I’m not scolding, I’m not probing, I’m just talking with you, you know that. For those of you who are driving to work it’s like I was sitting in the backseat, just chatting with you and for somebody’s having that second cup of coffee in the morning, I’m sitting across the kitchen table from you and we’re friends and I’m talking. So, with that kind of a, a setting beloved, who do you trust and what do you trust? Is your trust really fixed on Almighty God? Well, the definition of trust is, this is a Cook definition, and it may not stand the test of the academician, but I think it makes sense. Real trust is the quality of risking a situation on God. When you trust a person you’re willing to risk the whole bundle on him or her, right? You’re willing to risk the situation on him or her. Someone says to you, “Be at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 42nd St. at noon and I’ll take you that to the bank and we’ll cash that check”. Alright, now you have other possibilities, there are other things that you could be doing, but you trust this person. And so, you put everything else aside and you hurry as best you can to that location and you’re there. Why? Because you trust this person who said I’ll do this for you. Well, we’ll get at this the next time we get together.

Dear Father today, help us to trust Thee with all our hearts, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!