Who Do You Trust Most?
When Covid turned the world upside down in 2020, we lost a lot of trust in what we’d been told—by the government, by the medical profession, and by all types of media and “experts.” Who can we trust anymore?
The dilemma is not all that complicated in regard to our spiritual life. There are only two choices: we can either trust God or trust man. Most people make the mistake of trusting in human beings. We all need encouragement and reassurance and teaching, so it’s understandable that we have confidence in people who help us. But we must keep that respect in perspective. It’s not a matter of being prideful or independent. It’s a matter of being honest with ourselves. No man is right all the time, but God is always right.
This episode challenges us to “test all things” (I Thess. 5:21) by the Word of God that never fails.
Read about this subject:
- Scriptures: Psalm 118:8; Daniel 4; Matthew 10:34-37
- Perilous Times
Listen to more on this subject:
Transcript
Kerry Duke: Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you’ve learned with others.
Where is your faith today? Do you put your faith in God or put your trust in men?
There are too many who put their confidence in a human being instead of God. They put their hopes in a frail, sinful man.
People have always had this weakness. The Bible shows that in First Samuel chapter 8. The people of Israel wanted a king. But they didn’t need a king. God was their king. And when trouble came, God sent the judges to help them. But the Israelites wanted someone they could admire and be proud of. They wanted a leader that wasn’t afraid to fight for them. The truth is, they had had many leaders like that—the judges! The judges of Israel fought many battles for the nation of Israel. Some of them died for their country. But the people wanted more. They wanted to be like all the other nations and have a king. They wanted a man who would stand up for their country and fight their battles. And even when God warned them that they were putting their trust in a man instead of in Him, they bluntly said that they were going to have a king. They didn’t care. They wanted a visible head of their nation. They wanted a leader who would give them confidence and pride in their nation. God warned them that this was a huge mistake, but they didn’t listen. And they prayed the price for it for hundreds of years.
Here we are three thousand years later and people look for a man they can build their hopes on instead of God. The Bible says in Psalm 118 verse 8 that “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” Oh how we need that verse today! And I’m not just talking about people in general. Christians need to read that verse and think about it. Far too many Christians are making this mistake right now. They’re putting their trust in man instead of trusting in God.
I’m not saying it’s wrong to have confidence in a person—if that person has earned it, and only up to a point. Anyone, no matter wise he may be, is ignorant about many things. Every man and woman has a selfish side. Every human being makes mistakes. Every person is guilty of sin. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 7 verse 20, “For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.” The greatest men on earth have feet of clay.
But God is pure and holy. He has no sin and cannot do wrong. He always keeps His promises. He never changes. He can’t be bribed or intimidated or tricked. You can always trust what He says and who He is. That doesn’t mean He’s going to give you anything you want. It doesn’t mean He’ll give you whatever you ask or do whatever you want when you want it done. That’s hard for us to accept, but that’s the very part of His character that makes Him trustworthy. God is not like man. People change their minds. Some of them, especially today, change their minds constantly. They change to please whoever they’re with at the time or whoever they’re trying to get something out of. But God is always the same—at any time, in any circumstance, and with anyone. That’s why you can always trust Him. Even if you’re not faithful to your word, He is faithful to His. Paul said in Second Timothy chapter 2 verse 13, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful. He cannot deny Himself.”
That’s why it’s foolish to put too much confidence in elected officials. They are human beings, not gods. But people often treat them like gods. Am I exaggerating? Listen to the way people talk. They think their life and their future depend solely on what comes out of Washington. Their hopes and dreams are tied to a certain man or men. He is the one who can give them prosperity. He is the one who can protect them from harm. He is the one who can give their grandchildren a good life. I know that one person can make a big difference. And I’m not saying that one leader is just as good or just as bad as another. But—and I’m speaking here to those of you who profess to be Christians—where is your faith in God?
No leader could even breath if it weren’t for God. The most powerful man on earth couldn’t tie his shoes unless God gave him life and strength. That’s what the Bible shows us over and over. Solomon the great and wise king himself wrote, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes” (Proverbs 21 verse 1). Pharaoh thought he was in complete control of Egypt, but God reminded him that he wouldn’t even be in power if it weren’t for His hand. God said, “But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth” (Exodus 9 verse 16). The king of Babylon said, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.” He said, “I will be like the most high” (Isaiah 14 verse 13 and 14). But God said, “Yet you shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit” (Isaiah 14 verse 15). The same book of Isaiah tells us to remember that “the nations are as a drop of a bucket” to God and that “all nations before Him are as nothing” (Isaiah 40 verses 15 and 17).
Who are you putting your confidence in today? Politicians? The government? Don’t put your faith in men. Especially men who are not even Christians. They’ll disappoint you every time. “It is better to trust in the Lord than to have confidence in man.” And yet, this seems to be a challenge for us. A challenge, that is, to trust in God instead of trusting in men. We know that people let us down. And if we’re honest, we know that we let others down. And yet we put our hope in officials who tell us they’ll fix our problems. But then a few years later, we’re disappointed. We either feel like there’s a new set of problems that needs to be resolved, or we feel like nothing has really changed. Why do we have to keep learning this lesson? Why do we have to get burned over and over before we realize that we should put our trust in God first? I suppose it’s human weakness. We want to see visible results. We want to hear someone tell us what we want to hear. We are human, and as weak and frail human beings we go by what we see and hear. Maybe that’s why we put more trust and hope in men and what they do than we trust in the invisible hand of God that works in our lives. That’s walking by sight and not by faith.
Let’s go back to the Bible again. The book of Daniel shows us that the power leaders have is fragile and unstable. Nebuchadnezzar is a good example. In Daniel chapter 4 we find a letter he wrote to all the nations. He talks about “living the dream” as we would put it today. He was the most powerful man on earth—the king of the great Babylonian Empire. He had wealth. He had pleasure. He had fame. He had built up the nation and he was proud of his accomplishments. And that was his downfall—pride. But this great king who was living the dream had a dream that bothered him. Daniel came in and told him what the dream meant: Nebuchadnezzar, if you don’t repent, you will lose your throne and lose your mind. But Nebuchadnezzar didn’t listen. A year later, he tells us that he was walking in the Royal Palace of Babylon. As he looked at that great city he had built, he said, “is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power, and for the honor of my Majesty?” (Daniel 4 verse 28). That’s when a voice came from heaven. That voice told the king that he would wander in the field like an animal until he had learned his lesson. Then that voice uttered the words that are repeated three times in the book of Daniel: “The Most High rules in the kingdom of men” (Daniel 4 verse 32). Nebuchadnezzar hadn’t just lived like a king all those years. He was a king. But now he’s living like an animal, roaming the fields and eating grass. Nobody wants anything to do with him. He’s an outcast now. Talk about a humbling experience! After he’d lived like this long enough, God gave him his right mind again and he was restored to the throne. This time he didn’t try to live the dream. He remembered the dream God sent. He admitted that he was nothing without God. And here are his final words in that letter: “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the king of heaven, all of whose works are truth and his ways justice. And those who walk in pride, he is able to put down” (Daniel chapter 4 verse 37). That man had all kinds of confidence in himself before God showed him who was really in charge. If this king, who was the most powerful man on earth at the time, could come back and talk to us today, he would tell us the same thing, and he warn us not to put too much confidence in any leader.
Any amount of power over other people can go to a man’s head. That’s especially true of government officials in any country. History shows that some rulers thought so highly of themselves that they expected people to worship them. It appears that Nebuchadnezzar did that before his fall. The golden statue he made in Daniel chapter three was probably an image of himself. That’s why he was furious when Shadrack, Meschach and Abednego wouldn’t bow down to it and worship it. But there was another king Daniel foretold in this book who lived long after Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel prophesied of him over three hundred fifty years before he was born. That King was a Syrian ruler named Antiochus the Fourth. But here’s the interesting part that tells you how arrogant he was. He named himself “Antiochus Epiphanes” which means the “illustrious one.” He even had a coin made that had his image with the inscription “King Antiochus, God, Illustrious, Victorious”! Daniel said that he would exalt himself “as high as the Prince of the host” (Daniel 8 verse 11). The Prince of the host is the Lord Himself! But he met his end as all rulers do. Then they are all forgotten for the most part. So why do people keep putting their trust in powerful leaders who fade away every time instead of trusting in God who never grows old or dies and is always the same?
In New Testament times the Roman government deified emperors. They honored them as gods with special ceremonies and festivities. But it wasn’t just the Caesars that were worshipped by the Romans. In Acts 12, Herod the king, decked out in his royal apparel and sitting on his throne, gave a speech to the people who shouted “It is the voice of a god and not of a man” (Acts 12 verse 22). But the next two verses say, “Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died. But the word of God grew and multiplied.”
So how should we as Christians look at rulers? We should respect them. Paul said that we should give honor to whom honor is due (Romans 13 verse 7). Peter said to honor the king (First Peter chapter 2 verse 17). But be careful about putting too much confidence in them. They’re men not God.
Do you put your trust in men or in God? Let’s look at this question from a different angle. When it comes to religion, do you put your trust in what men say or in what God says? The majority of people put their trust in the word of men more than the word of God. This is and always has been the problem. That’s why Jesus warned that most people go down the broad and the wide way to destruction (Matthew chapter 7 verse 13). People usually follow the crowd. And there are some big crowds in religion. In the Old Testament Moses warned the people, “You shall not follow a crowd to do evil” (Exodus 23 verse 2). That’s what most of the Jews did. Time and time again they did what other people were doing instead of doing what God told them. That’s why they worshiped other gods. They were going with the flow and following the crowd. When God sent prophets to the people to warn them, those men of God found themselves in the minority—men like Elijah, Jeremiah and many others. Those prophets were right. They had the truth and false prophets were giving the people lies. But the people followed the false teachers. Why? How could that happen?
A big reason was that false teachers told people what they wanted to hear. The prophet Isaiah wrote, “This is a rebellious people, Lying children, children who will not hear the law of the Lord; Who say to the seers, ‘Do not see,’ And to the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy to us right things; Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits. Get out of the way, Turn aside from the path, Cause the Holy One of Israel To cease from before us’” (Isaiah chapter 30, verses nine through eleven). They didn’t want the truth. They didn’t want to hear what was right. They didn’t want the prophet to pierce their hearts with words of rebuke. They wanted to hear “smooth things.” In other words, they were just like many people today. They go to some kind of church. But all they want to hear is a sermon that agrees with them. They don’t want preachers to step on their toes. They don’t want to be rebuked. They don’t want to be told that they’re wrong and need to change their lives. They don’t want a preacher to tell them that they can’t cuss and drink and commit adultery. They don’t want a preacher to tell them that there is the right way to worship God and a wrong way to worship God. They just want to feel better about the way they’re already living. They want the preacher to help them live their dreams. In fact, they demand it. If a preacher doesn’t make them feel better, they leave and go somewhere else. The only thing they’re concerned about is the here and now. They talk about God and Jesus. They praise God and amen the preacher. The preacher tells them exactly what they want to hear. The thing they’re interested in is being healthy and wealthy and being successful in this life. That’s why they listen to the preacher more than they listen to God.
But Jesus has a question for people like this: “But why do you call me, Lord, Lord and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6 verse 46). And, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives a warning about giving him lip service. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ or iniquity (Matthew chapter 7 verses 21 through 23). Did you notice what Jesus said about the number of these people? He didn’t say there will only be a few people like this at the day of judgment. He said “many.” And He wasn’t talking about atheists or ungodly sinners who never spoke a kind word about Him. He’s talking about people who claimed to follow Him. These are people who call Him Lord. Notice what He says: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ There are a lot of people like that today. They talk about the Lord all the time, but they won’t do what He says. They talk about the good Lord this and the good Lord that, but they do as they please. And when you question them about not following the Bible, they brush you aside and say, “I don’t care what you say because I feel it in my heart.” But the people Jesus is talking about evidently felt like they were right. They will talk at the judgment about all the things they did in the name of Jesus.
Preachers who are in it for money and attention are looking for crowds like this just like these crowds look for a preacher who will tickle their ears. They will answer to God just like those preachers will answer to God. Paul warned about this in some of the last inspired words he wrote. He told Timothy in Second Timothy chapter 4 verses one through four: “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” He says people will not “endure sound doctrine.” They don’t want the Bible preached to them. Oh, they are fine if you preach some of it. They’re okay with you preaching on baby Jesus around Christmas time. They don’t get upset if you have a sermon on Jesus feeding the multitudes. But if you preach on their sins, they won’t tolerate it. As Paul says, they won’t endure it—they just plain won’t have it! And what do these people do? They get themselves preachers who tell them what they want to hear. He says they have “itching ears.” They want preachers who scratch their itch with a man-pleasing, watered-down sermon. And they don’t care if the sermon is a lie. Paul says they turn aside from the Word of God to listen to fables.
So there are two reasons many religious people listen to man more than God: they don’t want the truth to begin with and there are preachers who tell them just what they want to hear.
Many times the reason people sit on the edge of their seats to hear a preacher is not because of what he says but how he says it. The apostle Paul said there were false teachers in his day that would use “smooth words and flattering speech” to “deceive the hearts of the simple” (Romans 16 verse 18). The same thing happens today. Millions of people flock to hear a preacher who is dynamic, eloquent, and charismatic. They go away saying, “Wow! That guy is amazing! I felt so uplifted, it was almost like an angel of God speaking to us!” But, if you ask them what they learned from the Bible, you don’t get much response. They quote some catchy saying the preacher used, but they can’t tell you anything worthwhile about what God said in His Word, the Bible. They just accept what the preacher said because he just seems to be so loving and kind.
It’s time that we go back to the Sermon on the Mount again. You know, it’s funny how people quote their favorite parts of that Sermon and ignore others. They quote and they misapply Jesus’ words, “Judge not, that you be not judged” in Matthew 7 verse 1. They quote the words “Hallowed be Your name” in Matthew 6 verse 9. But they steer away from verses like Matthew 7, 15:“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” That’s how false teachers work. That’s how they’ve always operated. They don’t tell people their real intentions. They don’t admit that they put their opinions above the Word of God. They don’t tell you they’re lying when they talk about God speaking to them and telling them this or that. They don’t talk about what they’re doing in their private lives. They put on a front. They put on a show. As Jesus says, they wear “sheep’s clothing.” They act nice and kind and talk about how much they love you. But inwardly, Jesus says, they’re just setting you up. They’re out to use you for money, power and their selfish, and sometimes sensual, desires.
And yet the tragedy is that many people follow them. They regard the words of wolves in sheep’s clothing more than the words of Christ Himself.
I’ve mentioned preachers, but preachers are not the only ones people trust more than God. Think about the Catholic Church. Catholics listen to the priest. They honor the bishops and cardinals. And they definitely show great honor to the pope. They trust the clergy to tell them how to be saved. That’s what they’re taught to do. The Catholic Church claims that the Holy Spirit guides the pope and the College of bishops into truth. Let me repeat that. Catholic teaching says that the Holy Spirit continues to guide the magisterium which is the pope and a certain group of bishops called the college of bishops. Ordinary Catholics don’t have that guidance of the Holy Spirit. Not only that, Catholic teaching says that their sacred traditions which have been given to the Catholic Church and passed down through the years by the church are just as binding and authoritative as the Bible itself. That is not a misrepresentation. That is not an exaggeration. That is pure Catholic teaching. So, in regard to Catholics, they do trust what men say instead of what God says in the Bible. But this false religion goes even farther. The Catholic Church says that it alone has the authority to interpret the Bible. This is one of the most arrogant claims in religion today. But Catholics teach this without batting an eye. And it’s just incredible that so many people across the globe submit to this kind of religious tyranny. And, they’re so used to yielding their will to the will of the Catholic Church that it doesn’t bother them. I’m not saying they are innocent in this. They are not. They are fully responsible for being in a false religion. But I am emphasizing the evil of a church that tells its members they don’t have sense enough to interpret the plain words of the Bible.
But let’s bring this down to a more personal level. In your religious beliefs, do you trust your family more than God? That’s what the woman at the well brought up in John chapter four. She was a Samaritan. The Samaritan people worshipped differently that the Jews. One difference was that the Jews believed God chose Jerusalem as a special place of worship. The Samaritans said that place was Mt. Gerezim. She told Jesus, “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship” (John chapter 4 verse 20. But Jesus told her that she (and they) were wrong about this. God had chosen Jerusalem long ago. But the interesting point is not just the disagreement about worship and how Jesus dealt with it. It is what this woman appealed to in the issue: tradition, a tradition that had been passed down from her forefathers.
Many people follow the religion they were raised with. They talk like the Samaritan woman did. “My Dad and Mom believed this way.” “My Grandpa said…” or “My Grandma said…” Of course there’s nothing wrong with saying that if what they taught was right. It’s good to appreciate them and give them credit for teaching the truth in the family. But even then, their saying something is true doesn’t make it true. And the problem is that many are not that fortunate. Their parents didn’t teach them right. But they hang onto their beliefs out of respect for their parents.
Jesus said we must follow Him first above all others, including family. He said, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10 verses 34 through 37). He also said, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14 verse 26). This is one of the hardest decisions a person will ever make. But we must love God above everyone else.
There were people in the New Testament that had to choose between trusting in what their relatives taught them and trusting what God said. And many of them chose to trust God. Peter said that his readers had turned away from the way they had “received by tradition from your fathers” (I Peter 1 verse 18). Paul said that some of his relatives were lost (Romans 9 verses 1 through 3). He said that, before he was converted, he had “advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers” (Galatians 1 verse 13). He saw through those traditions, and people can do the same today.
And, you don’t have to be in a false religion. You can be a member of the Lord’s church and still hold on to ideas more because you were taught that way and not so much because you learned them from the Bible. Time always puts us to the test. Sooner or later our beliefs are tested. Someone may ask us a question. A controversy erupts in the congregation. A family division pushes us to make sure we know what the Scriptures, not our loved ones, say about that issue. This is always uncomfortable. But in the end, we can check the Bible to see for ourselves. If our parents taught us something that was not correct, then we can try with love and respect to help them understand better. And if what they taught us was right and we confirm it by extra study, we’ll be even stronger in our convictions.
But let’s make this even more personal. Do you trust your feelings more than you trust God? This is one of the hardest things to admit because it’s hard for us to see it. We can see when other people put too much trust in what they grew up hearing. When can see when others rely too much on what their parents said or what their spouse believes. But seeing the same thing in ourselves is not as simple. And it may be a situation where our feelings are really pulling at us.
This is where your faith is tested to the core. You can know what the Bible says, but in the midst of a crisis, in times of temptation, in situations where your faith is severely tested, you have to choose between following what you think and doing what God says. Naaman made the mistake of saying “I thought” when he should have said “I believe.” Thankfully, he put his personal feelings aside and did what the prophet told him to do (Second Kings chapter 5). Solomon said, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts” (Proverbs 21 verse 2). He said it even more plainly in Proverbs 28 verse 26: “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool.”
With all the information on the internet today, we must be more judicious than ever about what we read and hear. We must learn, trust, and remember what God said above all else. We must compare anything we hear from anyone or any source to the Bible to see if it is true or false. We must have the noble mind of the Bereans in Acts 17 verse 11. After they heard Paul and Silas preach, they searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether those things were so.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6).
Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. Stay connected with our podcast on our website and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 in Cookeville, Tennessee, offers undergraduate and graduate programs. Study at your level. Aim higher and get in touch with us today.