Undeserved Trust Invites Defeat

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Pastor James May

Undeserved Trust Invites Defeat!

Isaiah 39:1-8, "At that time Merodachbaladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah: for he had heard that he had been sick, and was recovered. And Hezekiah was glad of them, and shewed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not. Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, "They are come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon. “Then said he, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them. Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD of hosts: Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken. He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days."

Steve Green, who sang six years with Bill and Gloria Gaither, tells about getting to know some of the work crews in the large auditoriums where their concerts were held. The Gaithers prefer concerts-in-the-round, which means extra work for the "riggers," who walk the four-inch rafter beams, often a hundred feet above the concrete floor, to hang sound speakers and spotlights.

"The fellows I talked to weren’t bothered by the sight of looking down a hundred feet," says Green. "What they DIDN’T like, they said, were jobs in buildings that had false ceilings where the acoustical tile was hung just a couple of feet below the rafters on weak metal frames.

They were still high in the air, and if they slipped, their weight would smash right through the flimsy tile. But their minds seemed to play tricks on them, lulling them into carelessness."

Satan’s business is not so much in scaring us to death as persuading us that the danger of a spiritual fall is minimal. No wonder Peter advised us to "resist him, standing firm in the faith" (I Peter 5:9).

In effect, this is the message that these scriptures have for you and I. All too often, Christians are easily fooled because of the naivety in trusting people who we don’t know. This often leads to disaster.

When I was a teenager, our neighbor, who was a “baby Christian” was approached by a very convincing young preacher who persuaded him to invest a considerable amount of money in the establishment of a local Christian radio station. He was promised a return of his money with a large percentage of interest added in a short time.

It sounded like a good deal. The young preacher was known to come from a respectable and upright family but no one really knew his personal character because he had lived away from home for some time.

After giving the preacher the money amid grateful thanks and a promise to keep our neighbor informed of the progress of the station, our neighbor said goodbye to him and watched the preacher drive away. Our neighbor was excited about the new station and was very glad to be a part of the spread of the gospel over the airwaves.

Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months and finally into years with not one phone call or any action on a Christian radio station. My neighbor had been duped, and misled by a con artist and, needless to say, he never saw his money again.