Lessons from the Earthquake

Selected Scriptures

I believe it was Tuesday or Wednesday I was trying to get over to the college because I've been doing a lot of radio programs across the nation, just responding to people on Christian Broadcast networks who wanna know about what's happening.  I got up on the 14 Freeway, thinking I took a route that would be clear, and I ran into this unbelievable traffic thing. 

And I thought, Oh, I'm never gonna make it to this interview on the radio, and I've got to get there.  And I was sitting in this traffic, and I thought, well, I think I'll just have to go back and get off this thing and find another way. 

So I pulled into the shoulder, and I put it in reverse, and I started backing up the shoulder.  And I came around this bend, and there was a highway patrol.  Or was it a highway patrol?  Yeah.  Highway patrol car.  And I thought, oh no. 

     And I pulled up beside the highway patrol car, and I looked over, and standing by the car was Dave Bloomfield, who is a member of our church.  And he was the highway patrol officer, and I said, "Hey Dave.  What are you doing out here?"

     And he said, "Well, we had an accident, I'm just trying to help.  What are you doing out here?"

     I said, "Well, I have to get over to the college for a radio interview."

     He says, "No problem.  Follow me."  So he turned on all the lights on that car and he said, "Just stay right on my bumper."

     Talk about fun.  I'm telling you, we had a great experience.  We got there in nothing flat, I want you to know.  So Dave, thanks, my friend, wherever you are.  Wow.  That was great. 

     The Lord has the right people in the right place at the right time.  In fact, I was speaking in chapel the other day, on Friday, and four tremors went through the place while I was speaking.  And the Lord was saying Amen to my points in my sermon, and one student leaned to the other one, he told me later, and said, "If there's one more quake, I'm getting on McArthur's back because I know the Lord's not through with him yet."

     Anyway, God has been very gracious to us through all of this.  The other day I was listening on the radio - I think it was yesterday - and one of the city councilmen was being interviewed, and he was saying we've got to learn some lessons from this.  And this was his big hue and cry; we've got to learn some lessons from this.  We've gotta learn how to better design buildings, how to better design roads and emergency supplies and response agencies, and how to process people in the event of disaster.  There's so many things we need to learn. 

     We've gotta take this as an opportunity to go through the building codes and all the codes and all of the operations that we have in emergencies and learn from these things.  And I would agree with that to some degree.  I think there are definitely some things we need to learn on the temporaral side, on the earthly side, about buildings and roads and emergencies and processes and all of that. 

     But those kinds of things aren't really, what I think this earthquake is intended to teach us.  I think there are some lessons that are far more profound than anything that is temporal.  And that's what I wanna speak to you about this morning, as I have contemplating the reality of what's gone on from a Biblical perspective, from the perspective of the Lord, and how it is to be viewed in line with his purposes and his will. 

     I've come up with two categories that I want to speak to this morning, and that is lessons who are Christians and then lessons for those who are non-Christians.  Or, lessons for those who are prepared to die, and lessons for those who are not prepared to die. 

     And I think those two categories can lead us through a process of understanding that can bring some tremendous reality to what we're experiencing.  Now, there are some lessons to be learned.  An earthquake is a great teacher.  It doesn't make any suggestions; it's making commands.  It doesn't ask for our attention, it demands it.  It doesn't just hope we'll contemplate and act, it brings about almost instant obedience. 

     This is a profound teacher, an earthquake like this.  And the lessons it teaches are equally profound.  First of all, let's talk about the lessons for those who are Christians, for those who are prepared to die, for those for whom death is a settled issue, meaning only entrance into the presence of God. 

     Those of us who know the Lord, those of us who belong to him, those of us who can see this from a Biblical perspective, who can have the divine angle on it, there are seven lessons that I wanna mention.  There might be more, but here are some that will hopefully embrace at what is important. 

     First of all, God is sovereign.  And not necessarily are we learning these for the first time, but they are being reiterated to us in rather memorable fashion. 

     First of all, God is sovereign.  We are reminded in a time like this that nothing is out of control.  That something isn't happening beyond God's ability, beyond his design, beyond his purpose, or beyond his will.  God is sovereign, and his sovereign purposes are coming together as he directs all the events of the universe to accomplish his own plan. 

     So this all fits into the eternal plan of God.  God has not lost control; satan can't make the earthquake.  No usurper has taken his place.  God hasn't gone away on a deist vacation and letting everything kind of do whatever it will do on its own.  God is still sovereign; God is still on the throne.  He is still in complete and absolute control of everything and every one. 

     In Exodus 8:22, it says, "I am the LORD in the midst of the land."  That is to say, he is not a far off, somewhere in space, but he's right here and he is the LORD. 

     Deuteronomy 4:39: "Know, therefore, today and take it to your heart, that the LORD, he is God in heaven above and on the earth below.  Deuteronomy 10:14 says, "Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it."

     Joshua 2:11 says, "The LORD your God, he is God in heaven above and in the earth beneath."  Psalm 21 says, "The earth is the Lord's and all that it contains, the world and all who dwell in it."  Psalm 47:2, "For the LORD most high is to be feared, a great king over all the earth."  "The heavens are thine," says Psalm 89:11, "the earth also is thine, the world and all it contains thou hast founded them."

     The prophet Jeremiah said in chapter 10 verse 10: "The LORD is the true God, he is the living God, he is the everlasting king, at his wrath the earth quakes."

     James 4:12 reminds us, "There is only one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and to destroy."  Paul said in 1 Timothy 6: "He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the king of kings and lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, to him be honor and eternal dominion, amen."

     His dominion is forever, it is over the universe, it is over the heavens and the highest heaven; it is over the earth and all that is in it.  God is sovereign, and he has permitted this.  This fits within his sovereign purpose and plan and will and he has brought it to pass to fit his own eternal purpose. 

     Taking that a step further, his sovereign purposes, intended for his own children, are always for their good.  Are always for their good, for their ultimate benefit.  In Ezra, chapter 8 verse 22, the scripture says, "The hand of our God is upon all who seek him for good."  What a tremendous promise, but on the other hand, his power, the power of his anger, is against all those who forsake him. 

     Psalm 73:1 says, "Surely God is good to those who are pure in heart."  Lamentations 3:25, "The LORD Is good to those who wait for him, to the person who seeks him."  Matthew 7:11, "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father, who's in heaven, give what is good to those who ask him."

     Romans 8:28, "All things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose."  James 1:17 says, "God is the one who is the giver of every good and perfect gift." 

     God is sovereign, and God is sovereignty working for the good of his own redeemed people.  The reminder of Psalm 91 is that "A thousand may fall at thy side, and 10,000 at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee.  He will give his angels charge over thee to bear thee up lest thou dash thy foot against a stone."

     The LORD seeks to work his sovereign purpose through his beloved children by doing everything, ultimately, for their good.  For their good.  God is sovereign, nothing has changed.  He's still on the throne, even as Isaiah, after watching the terrible spiritual chaos of Israel, as indicated in Isaiah 5 and chapter 6 went to the temple looking to see where God was, and there he was seated on the throne, high and lifted up. 

     God is still on the throne, no matter what may shake below, heaven is an unshakable kingdom, and God is still sovereign.  And that sovereignty reveals itself in the good intention of God toward his children, and even when he shakes the earth, he may be shaking it in anger toward the ungodly, but he is shaking it in order to bring his own to greater righteousness and greater peace. 

     Second lesson: a second lesson for those of us who know God, for those of us who are Christians, for those of us who are prepared to die, that is this: what is eternal can never be destroyed.  What is eternal can never be destroyed.  Buildings have been destroyed; I heard this morning 1,500 buildings in Santa Clarita area alone.  I don't know how accurate that is. 

     All kinds of possessions have been destroyed.  You've experienced it, I've experienced it.  Some things with real value, some things in which we put lots of money, perhaps.  But more often, things which carried sentimental value.  Some very necessary things like all your dishes.  As one person told me, it doesn't matter to us; everything we own is plastic.  It just bounced. 

     But not all of us are so disposed to eating all of our meals out of old butter tubs, and so we lost some of that stuff in which we invested.  Lots of things have been destroyed and shattered and things that are irreparable cannot be put together again.  But what is eternal can never be touched; it can never be destroyed. 

     Mark 8:36 and 37, Jesus said, "What should it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul?"  What will a man give in exchange for his soul?  Nothing material is gonna last.  It's all gonna burn, it's all gonna perish, and as I reminded several people, the perishable just perished a little early.  A little earlier than we might have hoped. 

     People work all their life to gain what they will lose.  Christians live all their life to gain what they can never lose.  TO lay up treasure in heaven.  I love what Peter writes in 1 Peter, chapter 1 verse 3: "Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy, has caused us to be born again to a living hope.  Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, we have a hope that will never die."

     And in that hope is an inheritance, verse 4, which is imperishable, undefiled, will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.  There is a glorious, eternal inheritance that is in the unshakable kingdom and it will never be destroyed, and in fact, we area protected by the power of God through faith until the time when we can inherit that marvelous inheritance. 

     Nothing eternal perished.  Nothing.  No matter how hard you were shaken; no matter what you lost, your salvation was not lost.  The process of sanctification was not lost.  The possession of the Holy Spirit was not lost.  The truth of God that you know that has shaped and c hanged your life was not lost.  Those in whom you have invested for the purpose of the kingdom and who have been brought to Christ were not lost.  The treasure placed in heaven is unshakable and you too will be protected until the day when you enter into heavenly glory to receive the inheritance that is waiting for you there. 

     Listen to Luke 16, wise, profound instruction by our Lord.  He tells a story about a rich man who hired a steward, that's somebody to manage all of his property.  The steward was reported to him as squandering his possessions.  In other words, he was an unfaithful steward; he was wasteful.  Probably he was stealing as well, pilfering.  "So the man called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you?  Give an account of your stewardship for you can no longer be steward here.'"

     You're about to be fired.  You can't be here any more; I can't have you responsible for this because of how you conduct yourself.  "And the steward said to himself, 'What shall I do since my master is taking the stewardship away from me?  I'm not strong enough to dig and I'm ashamed to beg.'"  He was a proud wimp, actually. 

     And he wasn't about to go to work and work hard, and he was afraid to beg because it would be embarrassing.  And he says I'm going to lose my job for what I've done, so what am I gonna do?  Well, one thing he wasn't was dumb; he was shrewd.  "I know what I'll do," verse 4.  I know what I'll do.  I wanna do something so when I'm removed from the stewardship here, I'm gonna have a home to live in.  I'm gonna do something to provide a place to live for myself when I get thrown out of here. 

     So he summoned each one of his master's debtors, people who owed this man money, and he began with the first.  "How much do you owe my master?  And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.'  He said, 'Well, take your bill, sit down quickly, and write 50.'  I'll forgive you half the debt."  He forgives this man half to his debt. 

     "He said to another, 'How much do you owe?' and he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.'  He said, 'Well, take your bill and write 80.'"  What's he doing?  Smart guy.  He's putting people in his debt.  He's obligating people to him.  And when he gets thrown out of the house, he's gonna go to them and say, "Hey, remember me?  I forgave you half your debt.  You owe me a favor.  I did you a favor, I forgave you 20% of your debt; you owe me a favor.  I need a place to stay."  He's purchasing friends for his future.  That's what he's doing. 

     He's getting people in his debt.  He's getting people obligated to him.  We're gonna have to help him.  His master praised him.  He said one thing about you, you're shrewd.  You are really shrewd.  And he said, in fact, Jesus said, "For the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light."

     Worldly people have enough sense to buy friends for their future.  He said that's smarter than most sons of light.  What does he mean?  That if you were as smart as the world, you'd be buying friends for your future too.  Where's your future?  Heaven. 

     Are you using your money to purchase friends for eternity?  That's the point.  What a tremendous thought.  So he says, "Make friends for yourselves by means of money," or mammon of unrighteousness, "that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings."  If the world is smart enough to cover their future by buying friends, why aren't you smart enough to fill up your eternal future with friends?

     Use your money for that which will last forever.  It's been interesting to listen to people talk.  Everybody's out on the street, all over, everywhere now.  People are talking who never talk, right?  My son-in-law, Mark Wynn, said, "I'll tell you one thing.  We were all - the whole neighborhood- was out of the house within 15 minutes of that earthquake," and he said, "I now know what everybody in my neighborhood wears to bed." 

     And all of a sudden, everybody's on the street, and people are talking to people that never talked to, and it's all kind of out into the open.  What a tremendous opportunity.  People are right out there, vulnerable.  We need to be taking the advantage and using this as an opportunity as they begin to talk about what perished.  I've heard people say people who aren't even Christians say, "Well, that stuff didn't matter anyway.  What really mattered is the people we love."  And so forth and so on. 

     That's good thinking.  That's right.  You stop to realize that all that stuff got trashed, you hauled it all out of your house, and nothing spiritual changed, except maybe for the better because maybe you were drawn a little closer to the Lord.  Maybe you started valuing your life in another way.  What is eternal can never be destroyed. 

     Third lesson: disaster produces dependence on God.  Disaster produces dependence on God.  I mean, when you have no where to turn, and you have no one to go to, and the thing is beyond your control, the only place to go is the Lord, and that's a good place to go, isn't it?

     Too bad, it takes this to get us there.  I told you originally when my son Mark, they discovered he had a brain tumor at the base of his brain, that was very dangerous and could be fatal, how that drove me to the Lord.  And it wasn't long after that that you remember Patricia's car accident in which her neck was broken, and again, I had an experience in my life which drove me to the Lord because it was absolutely beyond my control. 

     And here we are again, in the same kind of situation, where it's really out of our control.  We like to think we can control our world, don't we?  We like to think we can insulate ourselves from most everything.  But we can't.  And here, we are literally thrown on dependence on the Lord.  We don't know what's coming.  That's the interesting thing about earthquakes.  Hurricanes, they always warn you, you know?  You go in the basement.  Tornadoes, I've been in some of those.  They tell you go here and do this. 

     But this, nobody knows when and it always seems to me to be a beautiful, clear, wonderful sunny day.  It's all beyond us, isn't it?  There's really nothing we can do about any of this.  And we find out whether our theology works, don't we?

     We find out whether the God we affirm, when everything is still, we're still affirming when everything is shaking.  Disaster produces dependence. 

     Paul said this: "I have a thorn in the flesh; a messenger of satan to buffet me.  I ask the Lord three times, and the Lord said to me," 2 Corinthians 12:9, "'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.'"  What does he say?  I want you in pain.  I want you in difficulty.  I want you in distress.  I want you feeling calamity because it's at that point that you run out of your human resource, and when you've got no human resource left, where are you going to turn?

     You're gonna turn to me, and in that, my power is gonna be perfected.  So Paul got the lesson.  He says, "Most gladly, therefore, I will boast about my weaknesses that the power of Christ may dwell in me.  I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for when I am weak, then I'm strong."

     People, this is a time for spiritual strength.  This is a time when your strength and your power isn't gonna be enough.  I love what Paul said, it's so sad, really in 2 Timothy 4.  He says that "My first offence, no one stood with me."  Verse 16.  Isn't that sad?  Here he was, his life was on the line.  They were gonna try him and execute him, and in his first offense, nobody's there.  They've all abandoned me, he says.  And then he adds that compassionate note, "may it not be counted against them."  Like Stephen, you know, or like the Lord, he said, "Father, forgive them."

     But then he says in the next verse, "But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.  And the Lord will continue to deliver me until the day he brings me to his eternal kingdom." 

     Now, this is a time when we have to stand on that confidence, isn't it?  That the Lord is my refuge, and the Lord is my strength, and the Lord will deliver me.  I can honestly say to you, I've gotten to the point where every time the earth sakes, I just feel that that is the hand of God, and when it shakes, instead of feeling fear, I