Over the last twelve months alone in my small town there have been five suicides. Why? Because of a lack of hope. There is hopelessness in hearing the news of these tragedies. There are people who are dying of all sorts of diseases, cancers and other ailments. And how are they fairing? Many of them are hopeless. In Arizona a 22-year-old fired in excess of 15-20 rounds from a 9mm pistol killing six innocent people including a 9-year-old girl, injuring 13 others and a United States Congresswoman. Why? According to news reports, this young man was hopeless and was planning on committing suicide after he went on his killing spree. Over and over again we are hearing of young people taking weapons to their schools and using them to kill other students because of bullying or for some other reasons. Why? Because of hopelessness.
But there is Good News this evening! It is the same news that has been told for centuries and even for a couple of millenia. The Good News is that God is not surprised at any of this. In fact, He is not surprised to hear of the tragic shootings or the car accidents or the diseases or even the suicides. He is fully aware of what is going on in our world today; He is not silent nor is He aloof or afar off. In the midst of all of this tragedy, God is still in control!
"But how can this be? These young men and women, these older men and women, these children that are dying...how can you say that God is in control of all of this? If God is in such control, why doesn't He act like it?"The Bible answers these questions in various verses. For example:
"Because you rage against Me and your insolence has reached My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came." (2 Kings 19:28)
"The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord; He directs it like a watercourse wherever He pleases." (Proverbs 21:1)These are but two verses that speak of God's sovereignty over the lives of men. In the arena of man's will raging against Almighty God He acts to bring man and his pride to a grinding halt. The politics of a man's heart will be directed as the rivers of the world in the direction that God sees fit. But there is more Good News. Not only is God sovereign over the lives of men, but He is sovereign in how He chooses to save men. And how does He choose this? Through the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ! This is exciting knowing that God even has this in control! Read how the Scriptures again describe this incredible Good News:
Jesus said, "I am the gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture." (John 10:9)
"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)
"No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are." (Acts 15:11)
"Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation." (Romans 5:9-11)
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will -- the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us int he One he loves. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment -- to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of HIm who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in christ, might be for the praise of His glory. And you also were included in christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession -- to the praise of His glory...For it is by grace you have been saved, thorugh faith -- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Ephesians 1:3-14; 2:8-10)
"For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thessalonians 5:9)
If you are hopeless today, rest assured that there is hope in Jesus Christ. I leave you with this thought:
"Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope int he Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." (Isaiah 40:30-31)
