Message by Pastor John Culp :  October 19, 2008

 “Saving Faith”

October 19, 2008 – Tower Presbyterian Church

     You have performed any number of acts of faith already today, even though we’re still relatively early in the day.  And I’m not even including the formal act of faith involved in the worship in which you’re now taking part.

     I’m thinking rather of the acts of faith that are woven into the ordinary business of life.  There is, for example, your trip to 248 South Broad Street this morning.  Given the terrain of western Pennsylvania, if your trip in to church this morning involved any significant distance, you’re almost sure to have crossed one or more bridges on your way here.  In driving less than a mile and a half from our home, for instance, I crossed the Pine Street bridge over Wolf Creek.

     If you really think about it, crossing any bridge is a real act of faith.  We don’t normally view it as such, of course.  But in traversing most any bridge, you’re trusting your life to that bridge’s ability to get you safely to the other side.

     All of that becomes most painfully obvious in that rare instance when a bridge fails.  Take, for example, the bridge that carried Interstate-35 West over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.  For almost forty years it served faithfully.  No doubt very few people thought about the great act of faith they were performing as they rode in any of the 140,000 odd vehicles that crossed the bridge every day.

     All of that changed in a matter of seconds during the evening rush hour on Wednesday August 1 last year.  None of the people involved could possibly have known it (there but for the grace of God went you and went I, after all), but their faith that summer evening was tragically misplaced.  At 6:05 p.m. on that otherwise entirely ordinary day, while the bridge span was jammed with slow-moving vehicles caught in the rush-hour traffic, it collapsed into the Mississippi River some 100 feet below.  145 people were injured in the disaster.  By God’s grace ‘only’ thirteen lost their lives.

(Source: www.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-35W_Mississippi_River_bridge)

     All that is a chilling reminder of the truth that faith is really a matter of life and death.

     Fast-forward a little over a year.  Generally speaking, media folks, in reporting the events of recent weeks, haven’t thought any more about faith than you or I likely do when we’re crossing a bridge.  But we’re in ‘church’!  If we don’t view things through the lens of faith here, when will we?!

     The context I’m thinking of in particular is the great turmoil of recent weeks.  I don’t have to tell you some of the most conspicuous sources of that turmoil.  Around these parts, many are worried what will happen if the large new landfill on the edge of town is approved.  Others are worried what will happen if it’s not approved.  The nature of presidential politics is such that the more passionately you support your guy in the  upcoming election, the more worried you will be about what will become of the country if the other guy gets in!

     But looming over all those local and national concerns is the truly worldwide worry millions feel about what most agree is a genuine financial crisis in which we currently find ourselves.

     In the face of all that, we who trust in Jesus Christ do very well to turn to the thirtieth chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah’s warning to Israel of old reminds us of the dangerous folly

of placing our ultimate trust in anyone or anything other than the Lord.

     Think with me for a few moments about saving faith in the midst of perilous times.

     The times in which Isaiah wrote his inspired words were, if anything, more perilous than our own.  Placing those words in their geo-political and historical context will help us see why.

     Since geopolitics is so bound up with real estate, it should come as no surprise to us that the three most important things in international diplomacy might well be location, location and location.  The location of Israel in the Ancient Near East pretty well guaranteed that God’s Promised Land would often be the scene of international conflict.  It lay right between Egypt and all Africa to the west, and across time, the empires of Babylon, Assyria and Persia to the east and north.  Except perhaps for the glory years of the united kingdom (under King David and his son Solomon), Israel was never the major player in the region.  Time and again God’s people found themselves in the middle – or on the short end of the rope – in one international tug of war or another.    

     So in Isaiah’s day, the rulers of Judah found the very survival of their nation hanging in the balance.  It was just about seven centuries before the birth of Christ.  The prophet had been faithfully telling forth the word of the Lord for many years.  Hezekiah was then on the throne of Judah.  His small kingdom was facing a very serious threat from the advancing Assyrian Empire, which had conquered the northern kingdom of Israel almost a generation earlier (in 722 B.C.).

     Now Hezekiah is generally regarded as one of the best – that is, the most godly – kings of Judah (see 2 Kings 18:1-8).  With the notoriously bloodthirsty Assyrian army breathing down his neck from the north and east, Hezekiah naturally looked west to Egypt.  But apparently in this instance, he hadn’t consulted God before seeking and making an alliance with Egypt.  Likely the king and his advisors had listened to one or more of the false prophets who opposed Isaiah’s faithful proclamation of the word of God throughout his long prophetic career.

     In the midst of such wrenching political turmoil, Isaiah would insist stubbornly that theology always trumps diplomacy.  In fact, politics and international relations are best understood as deeply theological matters.  Certainly most of the time, Hezekiah ‘got’ that!  But it seems – on this occasion when the chips were very much down – he forgot.  Instead of trusting – first, last and always – in the God of his fathers, he listened to those who thought first in terms of political and military expediency.

     Isaiah is quick to condemn such dangerous folly.  As you heard in today’s Old Testament lesson, he warns that it will only lead to disaster.  Through His faithful messenger, God says to the king and the whole nation: “Without consulting Me, you have gone down to Egypt for help.  You have put your trust in Pharaoh’s protection.  You have tried to hide in his shade.  But by trusting Pharaoh, you will be humiliated, and by depending on him, you will be disgraced.  For though his power extends to Zoan and his officials have arrived in Hanes, all who trust in him will be ashamed.  He will not help you.
Instead, he will disgrace you” (Isaiah 30:2-5 NLT).

     Old Testament scholar G.G.D. Kilpatrick offers this assessment of Judah’s policy: “Isaiah declares it is stupid politics and worse religion, for it puts trust in a shadow.  Egypt will promise anything and do nothing.  The best thing Egypt does, Isaiah says, is to talk” (The Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 5, pp. 329-330).

     And because Isaiah in fact speaks faithfully for the living God, his prophetic word of warning proves all too true.  God will graciously deliver Hezekiah from the threat of the Assyrians.  But Judah’s error in faith on this occasion is only one in a long series of moral failures – including even flat-out idolatry.  A succession Isaiah’s brother prophets will call the nation to repentance and warn of impending judgment if they fail to return to the Lord.  Only about decade after the reign of Hezekiah, the Babylonians (by this time the dominant power in the region) will succeed where the Assyrians had failed.  They will conquer Judah and force many of the survivors into cruel exile in far-off Babylon.

     Even now, however, in the time of Hezekiah, Isaiah holds out to a weary nation the sure prospect of deliverance.  But he is crystal clear at one point: real deliverance can come from one Source alone!

     “This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: ‘Only in returning to Me and resting in Me will you be saved. In quietness and confidence is your strength’ … Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore He exalts Himself to show mercy to you.  For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him.  O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more.  He will be gracious if you ask for help.  He will surely respond to the sound of your cries” (30:15-19; vs. 18 ESV).

     So how are we to apply all this to our own rocky times?  Certainly none of it should be interpreted as a call to passive resignation or inaction!

     The primary problem wasn’t that Judah had sought an alliance with Egypt.  It was that they had done so without first diligently seeking the will of the Lord.  The Bible makes it clear that God can and does work through a wide variety of agents; that He is in fact fully sovereign and active in all the affairs of men and of nations.  The question for Judah in the days of Isaiah was this: Where was their ultimate faith?  Was it in military power?  Was it in Egypt? Or was it in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?

     It’s no different for us today.  As you face perplexing questions on the local level, is your ultimate faith in community or political action?  Or in the God who is sovereign over all?  As we look ahead to November 4, is our ultimate faith in the government of these United States and its president?  Or in the King of kings and Lord of lords?  As you anxiously watch the latest news from Wall Street and markets around the world, is your ultimate faith in whatever financial resources God has graciously entrusted to you?  Or in the One who declares “[E]very beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.  I know all the birds of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are Mine.  If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world is Mine, and all its fullness” (Psalm 50:10-12 NKJV)?

     Remember two things in tough times.  First, the best antidote to worry is prayer!

     I think of the one about the older guy who’s driving down to Pittsburgh.  His cell phone rings, and when he answers, his wife is on the other end.  She’s clearly very upset.  “Herman,” she says, “I just heard on the news that there’s a car going the wrong way down I-79.  Please be careful!”

     “Liza,” he says, “It’s not just one car…It’s hundreds of them!”

     In the face of some real challenges and setbacks, if you find yourself worrying more and praying less, from God’s perspective (and of course His is the only one that finally matters), you’re speeding the wrong way down the Interstate of life!

     The Bible puts it with a powerful simplicity: “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.”

(Philippians 4:6 NLT

     And second, in tough times: Know that God hears and answers those prayers!  Have faith in the power of God, and even more, in the God of power.

     The people of Isaiah’s day didn’t face just the possibility of a president they didn’t like, or even the loss of a job or of a lot of money in a financial crisis.  They were looking at the business end of lot of very efficient Assyrian spears and swords.  The knew full well the wide swath of blood those Assyrians had left all the way from far-off Nineveh to nearby Samaria.  And yet God promised to deliver them.

     In Jesus Christ He promises no less today!  You heard the glorious words of the Apostle in today’s New Testament lesson: “My friends, I want you to know what a hard time we had in Asia.  Our sufferings were so horrible and so unbearable that death seemed certain.     In fact, we felt sure that we were going to die.  But this made us stop trusting in ourselves and start trusting God, who raises the dead to life.  God saved us from the threat of death, and we are sure that He will do it again and again. Please help us by praying for us” (2 Corinthians 1:8-11 CEV).

     As D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wisely: “Faith is a refusal to panic.”

(quoted in Christian Reader, Vol. 31.)

     Once in worship the song leader stopped the congregation in the middle of the hymn they were singing: “Standing on the Promises.”  (We sang it this morning at our 8:30 service.)  He wanted to make the song real for his friends, so he asked people to volunteer some biblical promises on which they were standing.  After a moment’s thought, one quoted, “Lo, I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20).

     Another said, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). 

     Still another offered, “Where two or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst” (Matthew 18:20). 

     Soon a dozen promises had been quoted.  And when the singing resumed, that small part of the Body of Christ took up the chorus with renewed power and hope and courage.

                   (Robert C. Shannon, 1000 Windows, [Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1997])

     In the face of hard times, be sure that your ultimate trust is not in your own wits; not in even the best of financial advisors; and not in the military might of either Egypt or the United States of America.  Know that if you rest in the almighty arms of the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 30:15), He will deliver you.

     Jeanette Strong has a wonderful way of illustrating all this.  She recalls that when her son was a toddler, washing his hair was always a problem.  The little guy would sit in the bathtub while Mom put shampoo on his hair.  Then, when she poured on the water to make a lather, he would tip his head down so that the shampoo ran into his eyes, followed by the inevitable pain and tears.

     That wise mother explained that if he just tilted his head back and looked straight up at her, he could avoid getting the shampoo in his face.  He would agree.  But then as soon as she started to rinse his hair, his fear would overcome his trust, and he would look down again.  Naturally the shampoo would run into his face again, and there would be more tears.  (James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited [Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988], p. 479.)

     The metaphor jumped out at Jeanette, and it should at us as well.  Time and again, in stressful situations, our almighty and loving heavenly Father bids us keep our faces turned upward toward Him.  But time and again, we find that our fears overcome our faith.  We look toward our own Egypts.  We trust first in ourselves or others.  We turn our heads downward – away from the only One who can finally deliver us! – and the soap runs into our eyes.

     What more concrete proof of His staggering love can God give you than the cross?  What greater evidence of His boundless power than the empty tomb?  Learn the lesson from the once-mighty kingdom of Judah – or learn it from a little boy in a bathtub!  But learn it well.  The tougher the times, the more we need to remember: When we trust in God most of all, He will never disappoint us.  And that’s real saving faith.

     Let us pray.  Gracious God, please forgive us when strong fears and weak faith lead us to place our ultimate trust in anyone or anything but You.  Especially in hard times, give us the grace to heed Your servant Isaiah and look to You – first, last and always – knowing that You alone have real saving power.  We ask it in the strong name of Jesus.   Amen.