"SECURITY"
By Harold Stoddard

Are you looking for SECURITY in your life? Where are you looking -- Job Security? Retirement Security? Social Security? Security from Terrorists? Would you like to have REAL SECURITY -- Security that is sure and that will not fade away? The only place we can find that kind of Security is in the Promises found in God's Word.
"Matthew 24:35 tells us that "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."
And in Proverbs 29:25 we are told that "The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe."
Let's look at some Bible characters who put their trust in the Lord...

Noah:

Genesis 6:7: "And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them."
If ever there was a time when men on earth needed security, this was it. Men on earth had become so immoral and wicked that God would no longer withhold His judgment. "Gen. 6:5 -- "And God saw that the wickedness of mand was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
Only one righteous man was to be found among men on earth, and so the Bible says in Genesis 6:8, "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." According to the Word of God, Noah believed and as his family grew and he preached righteousness, he went about to build a boat on dry land because of God's Word. The earth grew more corrupt and violent until the Word declares the earth was corrupt and filled with violence -- Genesis 6:11.
In due time the ark, or the boat, was finished. God ordered Noah and his family, eight people, into the ark, and God shut them in (Genesis 7:16 -- "And they went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in". The floods came up until every high mountain was covered as God's terrible wrath came against the corruption on earth. Noah and his family were in TOTAL SECURITY within the Ark -- all needs were supplied and no harm could come to them for they were guarded by the God of all Grace and Mercy.... No weapon formed against them could prevail. Nothing in heaven or on earth could sink their boat for the Creator of the Universe was their hope and stay. He, the Almighty, -- Father, Son and Holy Ghost, was their SECURITY. They were Truly Secure.

The Passover:

Luke 22:1 -- "Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover."
After 350 years as free people in Egypt, the children of Israel became slaves because of a change in the leadership of the land and so for another 80 years they suffered increasingly as the 'new' Pharoah tried to lower their number.
God sent Moses to lead His people out of the land of Egypt, and God did many miracles to persuade Pharoah to let them go, but still Pharoah's heart was hardened...so God brought about the final miracle to loose His people from the land -- Exodus 12:12 --"For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD."
Moses related God's orders to the people in Exodus 12:22 --"And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning." So it was to be that as the Lord passed through the land at midnight, He smote all the firstborn of Egypt from the firstborn of Pharaoh even to the firstborn of the captive in the dungeon; also, the firstborn of the cattle -- "And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle."
But when God saw the blood on the lintel and on the two side posts of the door, the destroyer did not come into that house to smite the firstborn -- so as the family ate the passover feast and worshipped God, they remained secure. Although all the world around them did weep and cry and suffer under the mighty judgment of God, those behind the blood remained safe and SECURE. No weapon whether in heaven or on earth could ever prevail to penetrate that bloody house, for all the power of the great Jehovah God -- Father, Son and Holy Ghost -- protected that place for the blood had been applied as the Word of God had directed. The folks in that house were totally SECURE while the Egyptians suffered loss in every house at least one died.

The Cloud and the Sea:

"Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." I Corinthians 10:2 KJV.


Finally Pharaoh cast the children of Israel out of Egypt with great urgency, with their flocks and herds and all that they had. The people of Egypt sent them out in haste for they said, "we be all dead men"-- Exodus 12:33 -- "And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men."
But then Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his armies to pursue and slaughter the Israelites, so they were trapped between the armies of Egypt and the Sea -- but God sent a cloud to protect His people -- "And it came between the camp of Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night." Exodus 14:20 KJV.
Again when it seemed all was lost the Word of God came to Moses and Exodus 14:21 - 31 tells the story of how God sent a wind that made a dry path through the sea and the children of Isael passed over. The armies in pursuit were all drowned in the sea as God sent the waters back.
And again the Jews had a SECURITY that the world will never know as they watched their enemies flounder in the great waters and saw their dead bodies along the shore.
And the people again were safe and SECURE by the Mighty hand of God, for all the weapons formed against them had failed.

The Law and the Tabernacle:

God gave Israel ten commandments (see Exodus 20:1-17), which commandments no man, save Jesus only, has ever kept. With the commandments He gave orders for a tabernacle to be built there in the wilderness and when, according to His Word, those who believed God would come to the tabernacle with a blood sacrifice, to be offered at the brazen altar and they would be protected from the condemnationn of the law for a year. No weapon that came against them could bring them to defeat. Again, they had SECURITY under the mighty power of the Father, son and Holy Spirit.

We surely begin to see that real SECURITY is provided by God alone. Man cannot offer reliable security, for he has not the power nor the wisdom necessary to provide SECURITY ... but God does.

The Cross:

John 19:18, 19 --"Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst. And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS."

How lightly we consider the Cross today, yet the Cross of Christ was the most horrendous crime ever committed by man. There on the Cross hung the only perfect Man the world will ever see -- the greatest demonstration of genuine love the world (or heaven) will ever know -- judged innocent by the Roman law, "Then said Pilate to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man." Yet He was condemned by the leadership of the Jewish religion and the mobs were led to shout, "Crucify him, crucify him." Also we read in John 19:6, "When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him."
The Cross was never a thing of decoration but an horrible instrument of death. As Jesus hung on the Cross the scene was so gruesome, so hideous, that the Father could not bear to watch, so for the only time in all eternity, the Father forsook the Son. No other one would be permitted to watch as He (Jesus Christ, God's Son) was made to be sin for us. II Corintians 5:21 says, "For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." So God turned out the lights and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour --Mark 15:33, "And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour."
No other could have suffered as He suffered as He, the sinless Son of God, was "made sin for us". As the Father in His great Grace and Mercy, allowed His Son to become sin for us, so in His sovereignty and power, He raised Jesus Christ from the dead, so we have a Living Saviour.
Do you, my friend, want SECURITY? Then come to Jesus Christ as a poor lost sinner, for He came to this earth to seek and to save that which was lost. Luke 19:10 says, "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." His blood can make the vilest sinner clean; His power will provide your every need; and nothing can separate you from His divine love. Romans 8:38,39 says, "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." ONLY in Christ is there real SECURITY. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). What more can you desire than to come to the Father by Him.
Perhaps you are lonely -- He is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother. You think no one cares, but He cares for you ... I Peter 5:7, "Casting all your care upon him: for he careth for you." The SECURITY He offers is sure, for no one can pluck you from the Father's hand..."And I give unto them eternal life; and they they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." -- John 10:28,29KJV. Some of the last words in the Bible invite the sinner to come to Christ...Revelation 22:17 -- "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst, come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."
Jesus gives the water that springs up into life everlasting -- John 4:14 -- "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." God's SECURITY in Christ Jesus is safe, sure and eternal.-- He says in Matthew 11:28, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."