Several Native American cultures in the Southwestern United
States once had a rite of passage into adulthood in which a young person had to
go out into the desert with no food or water for four days and four nights and
survive. We have something similar today. Our rite of passage is that in order
to graduate from high school you have to come to a graduation ceremony and
survive sitting through a long, dry, boring speech. And I want to let you know
that I'm very thankful that you have given me the privilege and honor of being
the one to put you through this rite of passage. So, I’m going to try not to
let you down.
It is a genuine privilege to be addressing you here at the end
of your high school career. I’ve been a teacher in some capacity for 16 years
now, and I’ve seen countless students come up through the ranks and graduate
high school. But this is a little different, because I’ve known most of you
your entire lives. I’ve seen you grow up and mature into faithful Christian men
and women. I’ve gotten to teach most of you multiple times, at Friday School
and at Bibloids. And here you all are closing one door behind you and looking
ahead to all that God’s Providence might hold in store for you in the future.
As I was thinking about what to say, numerous possibilities
presented themselves. I could talk about the importance of understanding God’s
word, of being a lifelong, about the importance of having gumption, seizing
opportunities and being practical, or about the importance of hard work and
dedication to the tasks set before you. I could have read to you from Rudyard
Kipling's poem If, or from that other great poet Dr. Seuss’s Oh the
Places You'll Go. Those are always big hits at graduations. But I asked
myself, “What is the one thing that I would like to communicate to all of our
graduates that will be most important for their lives? It doesn't have to be
new, it doesn’t have to be complicated, it doesn't have to be deep and
esoteric, it doesn't have to be clever; it only has to be true.” And I thought
of the words of Winston Churchill who said, “If you have an important point to
make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use the pile driver. Hit the point
once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time, a tremendous
whack.”
So that's what I intend to do with this little bit of time I
have with you. And that one simple point, the one thing with I believe is most
important for each one of you wherever you go and whatever you do throughout
your life, is seen in the book of Isaiah chapter 7 verse 9, "If ye will
not believe, surely ye shall not be established.” Let me say it again, “If ye
will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.” So, there’s the first
hit of the pile driver.
This portion of Isaiah’s prophecy was delivered to king Ahaz
at a time when the nation of Judah was in a precarious state. The empire of
Assyria was becoming more and more powerful. It ruled all of Mesopotamia, all
the kingdoms and cities there, and it was pressing farther and farther westward
toward the Mediterranean Sea. So the king of Syria and the king of the northern
Kingdom Israel formed an alliance against the Assyrians, and they wanted to
bully Judah, the southern nation over which Ahaz was king, to join them in
their alliance.
So, think about the situation we have here. We have Judah
which, in name at least, remains God’s faithful people. and we have a nation of
pagans and a nation of idolaters to the north who are trying to plausibly
convince Judah that the wise and smart thing to do would be to join up with
them for mutual protection. And what does the prophet Isaiah tell king Ahaz? He
tells him: Don't worry about these godless nations. Don't find your hope and
security in them. Trust the Lord Yahweh, the covenant God who made promises to
your ancestors and to you. Because if you do not believe then surely you will
not be established. Ahaz, if you don't put your faith in God and in his
promises to you, your reign as king will not be established. Nation of Judah,
if you don't put your trust in the promises of the Lord you will not be
established as a nation.
What does that have to do with you as graduates? Absolutely
everything. You may be going off to college to further your formal education,
you may be taking time off to get a job to work hard and to save money, you may
be serving your family and preparing yourself for whatever God has for your
future. In order to do these things, understanding, gumption, and hard work are
all necessary. But they are not sufficient. Because if you do not hold fast
your profession of faith without wavering, knowing that God who promised is
faithful, if you don't remain close to Jesus, reading your Bible, praying,
going to church, loving your fellow believers, then all of those other things,
necessary as they may be, are more than useless. And that's the one point above
all other things that I want to drive home to you tonight.
Now I don't see any of you walking away from the faith
tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day. In fact, knowing you all, I have
better hopes for you, that you will remain faithful to Christ all your days. You
are all members of a solid Bible-teaching church. You all come from godly
Christian families. And I know the ones of you who are leaving here to go
somewhere else to college are going to be part of a faithful, godly Christian
community and church there as well. But the exhortation here still stands,
because people can apostatize at Providence Church, and people can apostatize
at new St. Andrews College.
No one is going to come to you, and say, “Hey, you know what,
let's abandon the Lord.” But the desire for security, certainty in life, and
the acceptance of others can cause you to put your trust in things other than
the Lord. That was the temptation before Ahaz, a newly crowned king with no
experience. Is he to trust the Lord, or is he to trust Israel and Syria, their
powerful armies, and their experienced leadership?
As you grow in your education, you're going to be tempted to
rely more on your own intellectual abilities and achievements than on God. You’re
going to especially want to have others recognize those abilities. The same
thing is true in the workforce. You’ll be tempted by the desire for job security.
That desire for security and acceptance among the people who hold the reins of
power in in various fields of study, sectors of industry, offices, and job
sites, can lead to the erosion of your all-encompassing trust in God and in His
Word. This is how schools and colleges go liberal; this is how denominations of
churches go liberal. This is why, in many industries and workplaces and in
local politics, Bible-believing Christians choose to be quiet and keep their
heads down.
There's a joke I like that goes like this. What did the
fundamentalist say to the liberal? Answer: I'll call you a Christian if you
call me a scholar. The reason this joke works is because it's true. If you're
going to be all-in on God's word, if you're going to believe and keep the
faith, then it doesn't matter how hard you work and it doesn't matter how smart
you are, you’re going to be ridiculed and rejected by unbelievers. And this will
tempt you to compromise here and not say what you actually believe or say the
opposite of what you actually believe for a little bit of safety. Think about
the sermon at church last week about Peter in the courtyard of the high priest.
Why would Peter, who just a few hours before said “I'll die for you, Jesus,”
now, in this courtyard, when he's in no danger and no one is trying to kill
him, deny that he knows Jesus? He's doing it because of pressure: social
pressure, embarrassment, and a desire to be thought well of. Do not
underestimate how powerful those forces are. Don't think you are immune to
them.
Now I know what you some of you are thinking. “I’m going to be
a wife and a mom. I have no desire to reach the pinnacle of an academic field
or to make it in the business world. So, I’m safe from this danger.” No, you
are not. Because the world targets you in all sorts of subtle and dangerous
ways. Because life isn't easy. Life involves suffering. And God tells us that
this is from Him to discipline us, to cause us to trust in Him more deeply. But
when you enter those hard times, the world is waiting to embrace you and to
give you security in a plan, in a system, in some surefire guaranteed way to
overcome all your problems, to understand all your emotions, to guarantee the
health and safety of all your children through systems of thought that have no
reference to God's Word. And there are many stay-at-home, homeschool moms who
have been led astray by godless psychology. Not that there aren't any insights
to be found in psychology per se. The natural sciences are always going to
provide us some insight into the way God's world works. But the world today wants
you to see psychology’s materialistic explanations of all things going on in
your head and in your children's heads as ultimate, when we know as Christians
that souls and sins are all involved. So, I say that many homeschool moms have
been led astray by a psychologized mindset or worldview, as well as by the
poison of feminism and egalitarianism which arise because women don't find
security in the way God has ordered marriage and families in creation. Instead
they want to find their security and some sort of godless utopian scheme that
denies the world the way God created it.
So you graduates, men and women, people who intend to pursue
academics, or business, or a trade, or to be wives and mothers, you all stand
in this danger of finding security somewhere other than in the promises of God,
and of attempting to understand and navigate the world from a perspective other
than the one provided by God's Word. In reality, God has told us that things
work the opposite way. Saint Augustine wrote, “Understanding is the reward of
faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that
you may understand.”
There’s the second hit with the piledriver. How are we doing?
What was King Ahaz’s response to the prophecy of Isaiah? Did
he believe the Lord so that he would be established? Isaiah told him that
trusting in Syria and Israel would not save him from the mighty power of the Assyrian
king, but rather that he should trust in the Lord. But rather than trusting in
the Lord, the message that Ahaz took from the prophecy was that he needed the
support of the biggest bully on the block. So, he sent a letter to and paid
tribute to the king of Assyria and asked the Assyrian king to protect him
against Syria and Israel. How did it end for him? The Assyrian king did come
and conquer Syria and Israel, and when Ahaz went up to Damascus to pay tribute
to the Assyrian king, he saw an altar to a false God there, and he sent back
instructions to the High Priest in Jerusalem to build an altar just like it in
the Temple. There had been four God-approved kings in Judah prior to this: Joash,
Amaziah, Uzziah, and Jotham. Because king Ahaz tried to find his safety and
security in in the power of an unbelieving king rather than in the Lord God, he
brought an end to that tradition of godly rule. He made images of Baal, he
initiated infant sacrifice, and he worshipped Canaanite gods. He weakened his nation
and left behind him a legacy of unfaithfulness and defeat.
For each of you tonight and in the future as you look forward
to the adult life ahead of you, think about Ahaz. Think about the godly
heritage that each one of you has received from your parents. Think of the many
blessings you've had in your education, in your church community, and in your
family. Will you be led to forsake your trust in the Lord for intellectual
respectability, for advancements in your career, for an illusion of security
and safety for your family? Or will you stand fast knowing that without faith
it is impossible to please God for those that come to God must believe that He
is and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him? Do you know that
understanding God's world depends first on believing His promises and His
words? And do you know that unless you believe it doesn't matter what other
good qualities of intelligence, hard work, or initiative that you have, unless
you believe you will not be established.
That's the third whack, and I think Winston Churchill would be
pleased, so I’ll wrap up. Congratulations
to all of you for making it through this rite of passage. And congratulations
on making it this far in your education and in the process of maturity. As
you're ready to pass out the world of childhood and into the world of
adulthood, remember the God promises that all things work together for good to
those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Rest in that
promise all your days. Stay close to
Jesus wherever you are, love the Lord you God with all your heart, mind, soul
and strength, and He will direct your paths and establish you in faithfulness.
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