Ultimate Security: Finding a Refuge in Difficult Times (2 page)

As we begin to explore the nature of God’s wisdom, let us consider a passage from Proverbs 1 in which wisdom is personified. As you read this passage, notice carefully the alternatives that are presented: the instability of human achievement versus the total security God offers. Please notice, also, that it is not human wisdom talking here; rather, the wisdom of God is speaking through the Scriptures.

Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech: “How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you. But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you—when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and troubles overwhelm you. Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me. Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord, since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.” (Proverbs 1:20–33)

Please ponder that last sentence with me:
“But whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.”
That is total security—the offer of God’s wisdom speaking to us through the pages of Scripture.

We should note that even though Wisdom makes this offer to everyone, there are few who accept it. This passage specifically indicates that there are many who are unwilling to receive Wisdom’s instruction and heed her rebuke. Consequently, they are headed for a calamity they could have avoided.

The question each of us must answer is this: Am I prepared to listen and give heed to the voice of Wisdom? Will I give myself to God’s wisdom, the only source that promises me total and permanent security?

2

THE CHOICE WE FACE

According to the passage from Proverbs we examined in chapter 1, Wisdom’s offer of security is so complete that the person who receives it will not only
“live in safety”
but also
“be at ease.”
That person will have no fear. He or she will be outside the scope of all harm! (See Proverbs 1:33.)

However, it is clear that Wisdom’s offer is for both advice
and
rebuke. (See Proverbs 1:23.) Alas, the majority of people will not avail themselves of the advice and will not heed the rebuke. Therefore, Wisdom says,

Since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you…. (Proverbs 1:25–26)

This is the grim alternative to accepting Wisdom’s advice and heeding Wisdom’s rebuke: ultimate disaster and calamity. Therefore, we are left with a choice—either to live safely without fear or to face calamity. The result we experience will depend on whether we heed the voice of Wisdom.

In offering both advice and rebuke, Wisdom not only shows us what is right, but also warns us about what is wrong. Of special interest to us is an aspect of the wisdom of God that cannot be understood apart from God’s revelation in the Scriptures. This is the distinction between two categories in the universe:
what is temporal
and
what is eternal.
Unless we come to see this distinction and act upon it, we can never achieve true, enduring security.

The Temporal Versus the Eternal

In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul wrote about these two categories, or realms:

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)

In this verse, Paul makes a very clear distinction between these two categories. First, there is the “seen” material world that we can experience through our physical senses. Such material realities are temporary; they do not endure. Second, there is the unseen eternal world—the world of God, the world of His being and His truth. This eternal, invisible world is completely distinct from the temporal world that we can see; it endures forever.

Paul said,
“We fix our eyes…on what is unseen.”
This is an amazing paradox. How can you look at what you cannot see? Here is the answer to that life-shaping question: The only way you can enter into the realm of the unseen is through faith. By faith, we apprehend what we cannot see with our physical eyes and what we cannot perceive with any of our other physical senses. Through our perception of this eternal, invisible realm, we begin to find true security.

In similar fashion to Paul’s teaching, the prophet Isaiah declared very vividly the distinction between the temporal and the eternal. He showed us that, through the temporal, God draws us toward the eternal.

All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. (Isaiah 40:6–8)

Like Paul, Isaiah makes a clear distinction between the temporal and the eternal. All human life is temporal. All of us are just like grass: we grow up, we wither, we die, and we pass away. There is nothing permanent in all of human existence. Yet, like the flowers, the temporal realm can be very beautiful. Through that beauty, God is attracting us to the eternal. He is speaking to us about another realm where beauty never fades and where the flowers do not wither; a realm that is not subject to corruption, change, instability, and insecurity. This is the eternal realm revealed by the Word of God, and Isaiah summarizes the contrast:
“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”

Through the beauty of the temporal realm,
God is attracting us to the eternal.

A True Foundation

As I have pointed out, in order to attain true security, we must recognize the limitations of any other kind of security. We must come to grips with the fact that any security human beings may achieve by their own efforts or wisdom can never be permanent. This is true because humanity’s own nature is impermanent. Human life grows up like the grass of the fields—it is vivid, green, and beautiful with its flowers; but just when it reaches its climax of beauty, it begins to wither.

God has permitted this demonstration of reality in nature to turn our hearts away from the impermanent and toward the permanent. He desires to move us from what is temporary to what endures. Hopefully, this recognition on our part will turn us to God, to His Word, and to His wisdom. He speaks to us from His Word and offers us a different kind of security—one that is total and permanent.

Confronted by this contrast between the temporary and the permanent, you and I must make a choice about our lives. We must decide whether we are going to build on what is temporary or on what is permanent.

The contrast in this choice is clearly illustrated by Jesus’ familiar parable about two men who each built a house. One man built on sand, which was temporary; the other built on rock, which was permanent. Jesus said,

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. (Matthew 7:24–27)

Jesus presents such a clear choice—with no halfway in between and no way for compromise. You and I must decide how we are going to build—what the foundation of our lives will be. Are we going to be satisfied with the temporary? Will we restrict ourselves to the inadequate security we might assemble by our own efforts? If you and I depend upon the security of the temporal realm, we are like the man who built his house on sand, without an adequate foundation. That house will stand for a time. But, when the tests, calamities, and pressures of life come, it will collapse.

Please note that Jesus was very realistic. He did not say, “
If
the tests come….” He said, in effect, “
When
the tests come….” Here is the plain truth as Jesus spoke it: Tests
will
come. Every life will be tested at some point by all kinds of pressure. We cannot hope to escape these pressures. The only solution is to build on a foundation that will endure the pressures that will inevitably come, without yielding to them.

As Jesus clearly stated in His parable, that foundation is the Word of God and the wisdom revealed therein. God’s wisdom reveals His eternal nature, contains His eternal counsel, and shows us the way through the shifting sands of time to the Rock that is eternal—the Rock upon which we can all build with absolute confidence. We know that foundation can withstand all the pressures that life may bring against it. Is that the Rock you have chosen to build upon in your quest for security?

We must decide on what foundation
we will build our lives.

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THE ETERNAL ROCK

In this chapter, we will expand upon our consideration of the nature of the eternal Rock. It is the Rock alone upon which we can build with total security, both for time and for eternity. There is no secret about the identity of this Rock—it is clearly unfolded to us in the Bible. In 1 Corinthians 3:11, Paul wrote,
“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

Paul’s statement is very clear and very practical: The only foundation that will stand for eternity is the foundation of Jesus Christ. Our Lord and Savior is the foundation God has already laid. We cannot change this simple truth, nor we can we find another foundation God will accept. We can rely solely upon the foundation that God has provided for us in Jesus Christ.

Concerning our Foundation, the apostle Peter wrote,

As you come to [Jesus], the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” (1 Peter 2:4–6)

Similar to Paul’s statement, Peter presented Jesus as
“the living Stone,”
the
“chosen and precious cornerstone.”
Furthermore, Peter explained that if we will come to Jesus and put our trust in Him, we will become
“living stones,…built into a spiritual house”
upon the foundation that is Christ. That
“spiritual house”
will provide us with total security. Notice that Peter said the one who trusts in Jesus
“will never be put to shame.”
The word
“never”
covers both time and eternity. The one who trusts that Foundation will never be disappointed, never be let down, and never be confronted with some situation for which Jesus cannot make provision.

Steps to Building on the Eternal Rock

There are two very simple but very important steps to building on this foundation of Jesus Christ:

1. You must renounce confidence in the temporal, in anything temporary, in all human effort, in all human wisdom, and in yourself. In the last resort, they are all “sand.” (See Matthew 7:26–27.) You must renounce them.
   

2. You must make a total, unreserved commitment of yourself and your life—all that you are and all that you have, for time and eternity—to Jesus Christ.
   

You may already be a religious, moral person who “lives a good life.” In the last resort, however, the best you can offer is just “sand”—mere human effort. To build on the Rock, you must renounce your own self-righteousness, goodness, and morality as a basis for permanent security and come to Jesus for that security.

Jesus Himself has given us the following promise:
“Whoever comes to me I will never drive away
[
“reject”
tlb]
”
(John 6:37). If you come to Him, He will receive you. If you realize that you have been building on your own foundation, you can come to Jesus right now by simply praying the following:

Jesus, I come to You. I trust You to be my Savior. By faith, I receive from You the gift of eternal life. Right now, I put my life wholly and unreservedly in Your hands. Amen.

These two simple but life-changing steps are the way you begin to build on the eternal Rock, Jesus Christ.

A Personal Relationship with Christ

Commitment to Jesus Christ produces a direct and personal relationship with Him for which there is no substitute. This relationship is described in many passages of Scripture. One of the most meaningful and familiar of these is Psalm 23, “The Shepherd’s Psalm,” written by King David. The first four verses beautifully unfold the nature of this relationship:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1–4)

The first verse expresses everything that needs to be said about security, and it is based upon a personal relationship with the Lord:
“The
Lord
is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing.”
Everything I will ever need in time or eternity will be supplied out of that relationship. David continued,
“The
Lord
…makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”