Almighty Safety

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty.

God in three persons, blessed Trinity. I am missionary Richard Yerby in Japan, coming to you to preach everlasting truth to you. Lord, may the Lord help us to hear and obey as for all eternity.

The title of this sermon is Almighty Safety, continuing in my series of sermons titled Safety, Rest, and Quiet. As I preach about the perfect and upright man named Job, what an example, what a believer to follow up on and aspire after. In the early 1980s, a Christian friend of mine in North Carolina, a young wife and mother of small children was killed in an automobile accident.

Such a tragedy is difficult on family members, of course, bringing sorrow. But at that time, her Christian mother said of God, he had done all things well, as we find recorded in Mark chapter 7, verse 37. What great glory God received from that testimony of hers.

May God help all of us believers to have such a testimony. Listen to Job's victorious declaration in Job chapter 19, verses 25 and 26. For I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.

And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Old Testament Saint Job believed in a bodily resurrection. I also believe in that.

We too should also live in that afterlife as much as we live in this present life, or possibly even more so, knowing that at any second we could be transferred in our flesh into the very presence of God when Christ raptures his body of believers out of this troubled world. Yes, there is going to be a bodily resurrection. And this earthly corrupted being of ours is going to be transformed into a heavenly incorruptible perfected being to dwell with God forever in his holy heaven.

That is where our affection should be. This morning, I awoke to my brother calling me on the phone from the States and telling me that our elder sister had just passed away a few hours before. She was getting close to her 86th birthday.

She had been fighting illnesses and pain for months. She was a Christian believer. Now she never again suffers any more pain.

Perfected forever. And soon I'm going to see her and many others there. And most of all, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

Colossians 3, 2. That is a command from God, not a suggestion. Therefore, it would behoove all of us to obey it. Let's pray.

Lord God, help me to obey this command and to set my affection on thee and on thy glorious eternal heaven, which awaits those who believe on Christ in this life. Please give me a new vision of thy great glory and give me a greater love for thee. I want thee to be first in my life and in my affections.

I want to love thee with all my heart. So please help me to do this and help Brother Richard and all other Christians to do this also. Amen.

As long as we are living in the will of God, just where, why and how God chooses to cause us to depart this life shouldn't be any cause of worry for us. If you desire to be most profitable to God, then you must take on Job's attitude, Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. And do not forget just whom it was that started the battle that got Job into all that trouble.

We are prone to think that the devil started it because of his hatred for that perfect and upright believer. But that is not the case. God started that battle by taking the devil and saying, Has thou considered my servant Job? God said to the devil that, and that was the very start of Job's great trouble.

The devil didn't like to think about Job, no doubt. Job's holy, righteous life is such a thorn in Satan's flesh that he doesn't want to consider it at all. He despises to even think about Job as he goes walking to and fro into earth.

The devil always shies away from Job because he even cringes just to see that giant of a saint. And on this day, when he comes to present himself before the Lord, he certainly isn't going to say anything about Job. Likely he wants to completely forget Job, and he so hopes that God will not bring up the subject of that perfect man.

Of course, God knows what misery Job's obedient existence brings to the devil. And since the devil would never bring up the subject, God just delights to rattle his chain and say, Has thou considered my servant Job? Then Satan retorts with, Doth Job fear God for naught? Put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. That's in Job 1.9 and also Job 1.11. And the battle is on with perfect and upright Job being the pawn that gets used and abused.

But it didn't start with the devil. It started with God, almighty God, being a man of war. Delighted to get that battle going.

And if while you are following close to God, monumental disaster comes your way, it just may be not because the devil was chasing hard after you. He may have been running away from you as hard as he could. And the Lord stopped him with, Has thou considered my servant Robert? Has thou considered my servant Alice? Then the fight is on.

And from there on, the story of your life may read like the book of Job. What about it? Are you willing to let God allow you to be treated like that in return for you being the best servant he has? If you would gladly submit yourself to receive even that kind of treatment, and if God wills it, what great delight and glory you will bring to God and what sorrow, defeat, and frustration you will bring to God's enemy, the devil. Will you settle it in your heart right now that you will be like Job and be willing to let God bring any disaster upon you that will glorify him.

I was not in safety. Oh Lord, do help us all to be like Job. Let's pray it.

Almighty God, by thy infinite power, please help me not to draw back from being willing to allow thee to do anything to me and to my family that thou desires to do. Give me godly courage. Make me as bold as a lion like Job.

Help me to glorify thee as Job did. Help me to fear thee and serve thee for not. If my life wholly dedicated to thee brings me only disaster and adversity, please help me to endure it as a good soldier for thy great namesake.

I pray this for brother Richard and for all other Christians also. Amen. I want to read 1 Corinthians 4, verse 2. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.

How is it that a pastor can continue to keep his pulpit afire, plainly naming and denouncing the sins prevailing around him while the devil's gang is cursing him, slashing his cars, tires, and those of the church buses, setting his house and the church house on fire, threatening his life and his family on the phone several times a week, arresting him and throwing him into jail and such? And on top of all that, his pastor friends come to him saying, Take it easy. Black off, son. You're going to get hurt if you keep on like this.

And they make themselves into miserable comforters, just as Job's friends did. Why are certain preachers so bold? Because they are like Job. They are not considering their own safety.

How can missionaries take the gospel to cannibals and kill them and eat them in return for their love? How can they allow their wives and children to be so grossly mistreated and suffer so severely in the heathen land? It's because they are more concerned about the eternal safety of those pagan souls than they are concerned about their own earthly physical safety. In 1975, I sat in the church in Japan listening to a giant man of God tell his missionary experiences in India in the 1950s and 1960s. One day he went into a customs office there in a town in India with a slip of paper in his hand to pick up a package of his that had been sent to him from the States, medicine that he desperately asked to be sent to him, medicine that he hoped and prayed would keep his precious little daughter from dying.

Presently, she was gravely ill. When he presented the slip of paper to the customs official to pick up his own possession, that man of India looked at the slip of paper, then looked at Brother Jim and said, I'm not going to let you have it. Now, if Brother Jim had chosen to stay in the States, it is most likely that his daughter would have never contracted that disease that was killing her.

She was dying because her father was in India, giving the lives of his family for the salvation of that custom official and other Indian souls. So he told the man, my little girl is deathly sick, and it looks like she may not make it if we don't get that medicine to her. He thought that would touch the man's heart if he had any heart at all and make the man give him the medicine, which rightly belonged to Jim anyway.

But upon hearing that, the customs official turned and spat out his betel nut juice, and with that red juice dripping down his chin and the inside of his mouth, bright red from chewing that betel nut, with a scornful smile of delight, he turned to that missionary and sneered, this world would be a better place to live if another white person were never born into it. And that customs official illegally refused to give that missionary his package of medicine. That man of God left that customs shack without his medicine, went back to the hospital and into the room where his girl lay.

When his wife saw him, she knew instantly that he was refused their medicine. So he and his wife stood there helplessly by the bed, watching that precious little girl die, the fruit of their own bodies, slowly die. Soon after, Jim took some wooden boards and nailed them together, making her a small coffin by himself.

He went out and dug her grave all along. He and his wife washed and dressed the precious little body. Then at the funeral, he bore that little coffin out in his own arms, large muscle man that he was.

He was the only pallbearer. He and his wife alone sang the songs for the funeral. He preached the funeral message for his little daughter.

He prayed the prayers that were prayed for the funeral. And when it was all over, he himself lowered that little coffin down into the grave. He had dug there in India to receive it.

Then he took the shovel and put every clod of dirt on the grave that was placed on it. And he and his wife walked away from that fresh grave, leaving their little daughter as a Christian martyr under the soil there in India. That little missionary girl was planted there in India as a seed, which bore plenty of spiritual fruit.

The local Hindu people stood at a distance, keenly observing. Some among them who had thus far shunned and opposed Jim's missionary family, later one by one came around commenting on how greatly impressed they were with the fortitude of Jim and his wife. Likely no weeping or scant, well-controlled tears, whereas Hindus howled to the moon at their Hindu services.

Her parents' reaction to her death opened hearts to Bible teaching. How could that missionary and his wife do that? One simple reason, they were like Job. When God told them to go preach the gospel in India, they didn't consider their own safety or the safety of their family.

They obeyed God by going where he commanded them to go. They glorified and pleased God, and by doing so, they received more eternal treasure than you can fathom. Let's pray, Heavenly Father.

I pray for myself and for all Christians. Help us all to be just as willing as this missionary couple to make such a sacrifice for thee. So few of us believers have such love for thee in our hearts, so please help us to love thee more than we love our own lives.

I pray for my Christian brothers and sisters throughout the world who are serving thee in places where their lives are in danger. Please be near and dear to them, and give them all the divine love, help, and courage that they need. Lord, I also pray for all the children of the devil throughout the world who are like that customs official in that they hate thee enough to desire the death of and delight in the death of thy messengers and their families.

Please have mercy on their wicked, sinful, murderous souls. Wake them up as to what awful eternal fate awaits them because of their terrible, sinful rebellion against thee. Please grant them a heart of repentance and cause them to forsake their awful sins and receive Christ.

Grant this, dear Lord, I only pray. Amen. Sowers of gospel seed who go to frozen, barren regions in search of lost souls suffer frostbite from the cold and malnutrition from lack of fresh foods.

Others in many poor nations lack proper food and nutrition for their families, yet they gladly endure such for their master and his cause. Why is it? Because they are being like Job and not being in safety. In 1975, fellowshipping with newly met missionaries here in Japan, I noticed that one of the men wore thick lens eyeglasses, and from his actions I could tell that he had very poor eyesight.

The next day, another missionary and I, walking together, met him on the sidewalk in town as he walked by us as if he didn't even see us. This man with me said to me, that's Joe so-and-so. He's an MK missionary kid.

His father was a missionary years ago in Korea, and the souls there were in sure poverty. So Joe grew up in Korea where good food was a scarce commodity. Not getting proper nourishment as a child resulted in his eyesight deteriorating badly.

He didn't even recognize us as he walked by us. Why did Joe suffer from such poor physical vision? Because his daddy was like Job. His daddy had a clear spiritual vision of souls in Korea perishing without the saving gospel message.

If family's health has to suffer badly to see Korean people rescued from hell fire, then that would just have to be. And the missionary man to Korea, his son Joe, is also like Job. When Joe would be in the States taking it easier because of his handicapped vision, here he is in Japan going all out to win pagan Japanese people to Christ.

He may not have very clear physical eyesight, but he sure does have clear spiritual vision. I was not in safety. And what joy unspeakable it will be to Joe when the trumpet sounds and he instantly receives perfect eyesight.

Oh, hallelujah. And the first sight he will behold with that perfect vision will be his savior smiling face saying, well done and commending him for suffering so even as a child for the cause of Christ. And I suppose the next sight those perfected eyes will behold will be the many souls his father's family and then his own family led to Christ in the lifetime.

What a wonderful sight that will be to faithful Joe. Likely he will next see a gigantic mansion with his name engraved in gold and studded diamonds over the door. And that huge mansion filled with eternal treasures that his sufferings earned him is to enjoy forever and ever.

Oh, hallelujah. How blessed and rich heaven is going to be for you if you are like Joe. Oh, to be like Joe.

Some missionaries take the good news to the steaming tropics and track in a fungus growth on their skin for which doctors know not any cure. And they have to endure the itching, irritation and unsightliness of it for the rest of their lives. From the dirty food and water some of them get amoeba and bacteria in their stomach and intestines that cannot be gotten out or killed completely.

And it makes them weaker for the rest of their lives occasioned by stomach cramps, pains, diarrhea, et cetera. Why is it? For one simple reason, they were not in safety. And God has it on their record that they are like Joe.

And God will certainly reward them in proportion of being like him. He'll also reward you in like manner if you will be like Joe. For many years, I had rich fellowship with Brother Ray another former Marine.

We fellowshiped on Guam. He am pastoring a church there as a missionary. In 1984, he, his wife and daughter went from Guam to the island of Truk, T-R-U-K to do missionary work there.

Soon after going to that primitive island he became deathly sick. Later in December, 1984, his wife sent me a letter that said in part, Ray did have food poisoning. He also has either cholera or amemic dysentery.

He almost died November 24th. He had diarrhea and vomiting for 23 days, lost over 20 pounds the first 11 days. He's still not well.

The doctors won't let me bring him to the hospital because if he has cholera, they don't want it to be spread around. Brother Dennis had cholera and amoeba medicine. He got in the Marshall Islands.

I believe that's what saved Ray's life. Plus a lot of prayer. The hospital won't even let me bring in a stool specimen to be analyzed because it may be cholera.

No wonder so many died here and are still dying from cholera. Picture Brother Ray lying in that most simple shelter of a house in the jungle, wasting away and near death, refused any and all help by the hospital because he may have a highly contagious disease. Brother Ray is from Kansas.

In many ways, his family is like your family or any of your neighbors. Had he stayed home in Kansas, it is unthinkable that he would have ever suffered any of those sicknesses described above. Also, while on truck, his wife was once terribly abused by local lewd men when Brother Ray was not around.

Why did such suffering come their way? The answer is simple. They were like Job. They were not in safety.

Therefore, they reached souls for Christ that would probably have perished had this family considered their own safety and therefore stayed home in Kansas. Oh, to be like these giants of the faith. Now it sets me on fire to read Richard Wurmbrand's book titled Tortured for Christ.

Let me read from chapter one of that book. The communists convened a congress of all Christian bodies in our parliament building. There were 4,000 priests, pastors, and ministers of all denominations.

Those 4,000 priests and pastors chose Joseph Stalin as honorary president of this congress. At the same time, he was president of the World Movement of the Godless and a mass murderer of Christians. One after another, bishop and pastors arose in our parliament building and declared that communism and Christianity are fundamentally the same and could co-exist.

One minister after another said words of praise toward communism and assured the new government of the loyalty of the church. My wife and I were present at this congress. My wife sat near me and told me, Richard, stand up and wash this shame.

Wash away this shame from the face of Christ. They are spitting in his face. I said to my wife, if I do so, you lose your husband.

She said, I don't wish to have a coward as a husband. Then I arose and spoke to this congress, praising not the murderers of Christians, but Christ and God, and said that our loyalty is due first to Him. The speeches at this congress were broadcast in the whole country, but here proclaimed from the rostrum of the communist parliament, the message of Christ.

Afterward, I had to pay for this, but it had been worthwhile. Glory for Richard Wurmbrand's testimony. And I'm out of time, and I have to close.

And I want to continue right here the next time with more of what was said between Richard Wurmbrand and his wife. God bless you richly and do you ever so much good. I earnestly pray for you.

I earnestly pray for you.