Good morning. If you would open
your Bibles and turn with me to Genesis 25. Genesis 25, we'll begin reading
in verse 20. And Isaac was 40 years old when
he took Rebecca to wife. the daughter of Bethuel of the
Syrian, of Paddan Aram, the sister to Laban the Syrian. And Isaac
entreated the Lord for his wife because she's barren, and the
Lord was entreated of him. And Rebekah, his wife, conceived.
And the children struggled together within her. And she said, if
it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the
Lord. And the Lord said unto her, two nations are in thy womb,
and two men are of people shall be separated from thy bowels.
And the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the
elder shall serve the younger. This is a promise that the Lord
gives us and he speaks it so it will come to pass. And he
illustrates that for us just shortly after if you skip down
to verse 29. And Jacob saw a pottage, and
Esau came from the field, and he was faint. And Esau said to
Jacob, feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for
I'm faint. Therefore was his name called
Edom. And Jacob said, sell me this day thy birthright. And
Esau said, behold, I'm at the point to die, and what profit
shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, swear to me this
day. And he swear unto him. And he sold his birthright unto
Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils. And he
did eat and drink and rose up and went his way. Thus Esau despised
his birthright. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our merciful Holy Father, we
thank you that life is of you and that you are life. Lord,
we see our two natures as believers
and we despise our old nature. Lord, we ask that you would cause
that old nature to bow and be subservient to the new nature,
which is given by you, Lord. We ask that you would make yourself
known today We ask that you would forgive
our sins and our iniquities as you promised to do for your elect. Thank you for this time that
you've given us, and we ask that you'd be with your men preaching
your word, including Hugo and Lakeland. It's in Christ's name
we pray, amen. Let's all stand together again.
We'll sing the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin. As on the cross of Christ I thought,
it seemed I heard one cry. Is all this nothing in your eyes? Will who this day pass by? Is not such suffering greater
than that which you've seen before? And was there ever any man who
grieved or suffered more? I looked again, and what I saw
I cannot fully tell. It seemed within his very bones
there raged the fire of hell. What caused you grief, I asked
the man. What crimes could you have done? That God Jehovah struck you down
and left you all alone. His answer cut my heart like
steel and left me void of breath. It is for your sins this pain
I feel. For you I go to death. Your soul before my Father's
throne could find no place to hide. This is the way God can
be just and you be justified. Jehovah's mercies never fail,
each morning they are ? Great is His faithfulness and love
? ? There not more we're not consumed ? ? Jehovah God in Christ
the Son ? ? Shall all my poor shun be ? My soul shall therefore
wait for him and live eternally. Please be seated. Rebecca Vincent
is in town. She's going to bring special
music for us now. In my darkness Jesus found me Touched my eyes and He made me
see Broke sin's chains that long had bound me Gave me life and liberty O glorious love of Christ my
Lord divine That made Him stoop to save a soul like mine Through
all my days and in and out My song will silence never I'll
worship him forever And praise him for his glorious love ? Reconciled to God in Him ? ?
Lord of heaven, God's son, what wonder ? ? He became this sinner's friend
? ? Oh, glorious love of Christ, my Lord divine ? That made Him stoop to save a
soul like mine Through all my days and then in heaven above
My song will silence never, I'll worship Him His glorious love. O glorious love of Christ, my
Lord divine, that made Him stoop to save a soul like mine. My song will silence never. I'll worship him forever and
praise him for his glorious love. Thank you, Rebecca. That's a
blessing. I'm going to ask you if you'll
turn with me in your Bibles to Daniel, the book of Daniel, chapter
4. A song you sang, Rebecca, could
not have been more appropriate to what I want to try to preach
this morning. The title of this message is The Power of God.
And the power of God is for the powerless and only for the powerless. The last thing the Lord Jesus
did before sending into glory was he told the disciples, all
power, all power has been given unto me. Therefore, go and teach
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I've commanded you. And lo, I am with you always. The power of God is for the powerless.
a story in 1st Samuel when David was first fleeing from Saul where
the scripture says that he was in the cave of a dulem and the
word of dulem means justice and it's a picture of Christ the
son of David on the cross satisfying the demands of God's justice
on behalf of his people and the Bible says all they that were
in distress all they that were in debt and all they that were
discontented came David and he became captain over them. Those
are the qualifications for salvation, being in distress, being in debt,
being discontented, being powerless when we were yet without strength,
without any strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly. The Lord told the prophet Isaiah,
comfort ye, comfort ye my people. The gospel is for those who need
comfort, those who are distressed and powerless without it. Speak
ye comfortably unto Jerusalem. I so hope that the Lord will
be pleased to speak comfort to our hearts this morning about
his power, This message is about the power of God. The power of
God. And in the language of the Bible,
the word able, which we're going to look at several verses this
morning where it talks about God is able. The word able is
the word power. It comes from the same word.
And the reason why God is able is because he has the power to
do it. Paul tells us, God tells us in
1 Corinthians that God has chosen the foolish things of the world
to confound the wise. He has chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things that are mighty. That
he has chosen the things that are not. They have nothing, they
can do nothing, they know nothing. They're completely dependent
upon him. That all glory might be on Christ. Oh, there we are. This is a faithful saying, and
this is worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. What am I trying to say? Here
are the qualifications for having the power of God on you. Paul
said, when I am weak, then I am strong for his strength is made
perfect in my weakness. We will not know anything of
the power of God until God strips us of all of our power. And so
to be in distress and to be in debt and to be discontented and
to be in need of comfort and to be without power and without
strength is the qualification for salvation. And it is the
one that the Lord meets for us. in making us dependent upon him. The gospel is for the downcast. It is for the weak. It is for
the despised. It is for the poor. It is for
the broken. It is for the naked. It is for
the sinful. And it's only for them. I know I said this recently. I
don't remember if it was Wednesday or last Sunday. I've heard people
say God helps those who help themselves. That's not true. God helps those who can't help
themselves. And so my question to you and
to myself is are we at the place where we have no ability to help
ourselves? God has emptied us. Blessed are those who are poor
in spirit. For theirs is a kingdom of heaven.
What is it to be poor in spirit? It's to have nothing. It's to
be in abject poverty. You see, the glory of Christ,
here's the truth, we cannot estimate ourselves low enough. We cannot
estimate Christ high enough. And we cannot estimate grace
free enough. And the freeness of grace has to do with our need
and his provision. Power of God. When the Lord spoke of a rich
man entering into the kingdom of heaven, he wasn't just talking
about material wealth, although that oftentimes keeps someone
from needing God. They have their problems solved
with money. But it's not always the case.
God can take a rich man, and often does, and makes him in
need of Christ. And that's what this passage
goes on to say, because the Lord said it's easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to
enter the kingdom of heaven. He's not just talking about material
wealth, he's talking about the riches of one's self-righteousness,
which we all fall into. And the disciples said, who Lord
then could be saved? Who can be saved? How are you
gonna get a camel through the eye of a needle? That's not possible.
And what the Lord said, with man, it is impossible, but with
God, all things are possible. I have the power to put a man
or put a camel through the eye of a needle. And I have the power
to take a man who is rich in himself and make him poor. dependent
upon me." The power of God, what God does, what God's able to
do, what God has the power to do that we don't have the power
to do and we completely depend upon his power for it. Now before
we look at these verses I want to say that there are some things
that God cannot do. God cannot lie, God cannot sin, God cannot change. I am the Lord
and I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. God made a covenant promise in
eternity past before time ever was. And the only hope of our
salvation, if God waited until he looked at us and saw us, he'd
change his mind, wouldn't he? But he can't change. He can't
change. I am the Lord and I change not. I'm the same yesterday, today,
and forever. There's our hope that we sons of Jacob, the supplanter,
the sinful one, and that's our old man, Adam, that you just
read about. Jacob and Esau, they live together in the same womb.
Why am I thus? Because there's two nations in
you. But the older, the firstborn, The man of the flesh, Esau, shall
serve the younger, Jacob, the newborn. And the new man born
in Christ always is subduing that old man. Every time that
old man's always there. He doesn't get any better, but
he is restrained. He is restrained, he is subdued
by the new nature, the new man. May God make it so that we're God cannot lie, cannot change.
God cannot accept a sinner apart from faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God, for we cannot come to him. No man can come
before him without faith. God cannot punish the same sin
twice. He can't do it. If the sacrifice
that Christ made was sufficient, if he sacrificed himself for
the sins of all men on Calvary's cross, then God cannot take any
son of Adam and send him to hell, because that would be punishing
sin twice, and that's unjust. He can't do that. No, the Lord
Jesus died for all the sins of all of his people once and for
all and put them away and God can't punish those sins again.
He said I've separated them from you as far as the east is from
the west and I remember them no more. Remember them no more. How can God remember something
that's gone? It's gone. It's put away. It's been paid
for. Justified in the sight of God
means that we're without sin. It doesn't mean that God sees
us as if we didn't have any sin. He sees us in Christ without
sin, perfect in the person of our substitute. And God cannot
punish the same sin twice. He can't do it. God cannot deny himself. When
we believe not, the scripture says, and how often that happens. Oh, there's a part of us that's
always unbelieving. That's the root cause of all
of our sin, that's that old man, he's an unbeliever. But when
we believe not, he remaineth faithful for he
cannot deny himself. God can't deny himself. How can he say that about me? Deny himself? Well, the same
thing that the Lord Jesus said to Saul of Tarsus when he arrested
him on the road to Damascus. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus,
whom thou persecutest. You see, the persecution that
Saul was inflicting on the church, God considered it to be against
him. And so it is in our righteousness. Perfect in Christ. and he cannot deny himself. So
there's things God cannot do. And that's glorious, that's our
hope, that he can't do those things. You have your Bibles
open to Daniel chapter four. The one thing that you and I
cannot do, that only God has the power to do, is humble our pride before him. Now, the natural man might get
humbled by his circumstances but to be made a sinner, that's the real heart. I love
the definition of sin when we think about it, the word pride,
the middle letter of the word pride is the letter I, isn't
it? And the middle letter in the
word sin is the letter I. And that's really the essence
of our problem. We got an eye problem, it's all
about me. And left ourselves, we will believe
ourselves to be able to present something before God that would
be satisfactory. And God has to humble that pride
and only he can do it. Only God can make of a self-righteous
a sinner. And here's what he said. This
is what he did for Nebuchadnezzar. Look at verse 37, the last verse
of Daniel chapter 4. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise
and extol and honor the King of heaven. He gets all the glory. He has all the righteousness.
He has all the power. All whose works are truth and
his ways judgment. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Truth has met together. and wisdom
at Calvary's cross. His ways are judgment. Here's
the cave of a dulem where the Lord Jesus meets with all that
are distressed and all that are in debt and all that are discontented. All the sinners come to him and
he becomes their captain. All his ways and all of his works
are truth and all of his ways are judgment. And those that
walk in pride He is able to abase and only he can do it. You find a sinner, a person who
believes that they have no righteousness left to themselves, that all
of their righteousness are as filthy rags before God, a person
who is looking in faith to Christ alone for all their righteousness
before God and giving to him all the glory for all his accomplishments
and for all their salvation. You found a miracle. You found
a miracle of grace because only God can do that. Only God can turned stones into the children
of Abraham. Now what he said to the Pharisees,
the Pharisees said, we're children of Abraham. God said, if you
were children of Abraham, you'd believe on me. God is able to
take those, and he pointed to some stones. God is able to take
those stones and turn them into the children of Abraham. And
brethren, that is exactly what he does when he embraces our
pride, when he humbles us in his presence. He takes out the
heart of stone and puts in a heart of flesh. And he causes us to
confess what Nebuchadnezzar confessed. He gets all the praise and all
the glory and all the honor. And he has the power to take
those who, by nature, we all do it. Oh, we have so much pride. And the more we grow in grace
and the knowledge of Christ, the more of that pride we see.
The more of that old self-righteousness and pride and selfishness and
all those things that are of the flesh, all those dark recesses
of our hearts, the brighter the light gets, the more of those
things come to light and the more we see our need for the
Lord to abase those who walk in pride, in pride. He has a power to do it. He's
the only one that can take a Saul of Tarsus and knock him off his
high horse and cause him to say, Lord, what would you have me
to do? An outwardly moral, self-righteous
man like Saul of Tarsus. He's the only one that can take
a Moses, a proud Moses who tried to deliver, that's what Moses
killing the Egyptian soldier was all about. Moses knew that
he was a descendant of Abraham and Moses thought, I'm gonna
deliver these people. And he tried to do it in his own strength,
in his own pride. And God had to send him on the
backside of the desert for 40 years to tend sheep. What was
the Lord doing? Humbling the pride, abasing those
who walk in pride, You know, God humbled him. Lord, who am I? When the Lord
did reveal him to him at the burning bush, would Moses say,
Lord, I can't speak? Who am I? How can I stand before
Pharaoh? Well, Moses, that's why you've
been back here for 40 years. And Moses never got a degree
from the school of humility. And he still had to learn that
lesson for another 40 years, leading the children of Israel
through the wilderness. But God is able to abase those who walk
in pride. You and I are proud people, sinfully
proud, and only God can humble that pride. We don't have the,
you know, we think that we're humbling ourselves, that we're
humbling our, Self-righteous humility is worse than self-righteous
pride, isn't it? Pride, it's just, it's so fake.
When God does it, and he knows how to do it, and he does it
in different ways and different times and different ones of his
children, he knows exactly what we need, and no chastisement
is joyous for the season, the scripture says. The hand of God
can be heavy and difficult as he abases us as we walk in our
pride, But in the end of the day, it leads to the peaceable
fruit of righteousness because it causes us to look to Christ
for all of our righteousness. God's the only one that has the
ability to do that. You and I can't do it. But oh, how merciful and
how gracious and how kind and how good he is. And he measures
it not too heavily. You know, that passage I just
quoted in Romans chapter 12, he's talking about, parents disciplining
their children and we all disciplined our children and oftentimes our
hand was too heavy and oftentimes it was too light. God's hand is never that way.
It's measured perfectly. Child of God, your heavenly father's
hand is exactly what it needs to be in each situation, each
circumstance. What is he doing? He is humbling
the pride of his children. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
seven. Hebrews chapter seven. This is
the power of God. This is what you and I don't
have the power to do. You can't make yourself a sinner.
You can't make yourself not look. You see, all of the righteous,
in Christ believe themselves to be unrighteous. They believe yourself to be everything
about you to be unrighteous. And all the unrighteous, all
those who have never known the grace of God in salvation, being
made a sinner, believe themselves to be righteous. And if at the moment they can't
find something righteous about themselves, they believe themselves
to have the potential for righteousness. Surely, Lord, I can do something.
I've got, you know, I've got a good heart. I can produce something
that'll be pleasing in your sight. If God has done for you what
you cannot do for yourself, if he's abased you in your pride,
as only he knows how to do, You know that you have no righteousness
outside of Christ and that you have no potential for righteousness
outside of Christ. That the Lord Jesus is all of
your righteousness before God. That's a miracle of grace. You
can't do that. Only God can do that. Look at
the second time, second verse I want us to consider, and there's
several here, but we're just gonna look at a few. Hebrews
chapter seven. Look with me at verse 25. Wherefore, he is able, remember
that word's power, he is able also to save them to the uttermost. Now that word uttermost means
all the way to the end. That's what the word uttermost
means, all the way to the end. Fully, completely. He's not going
to lose one. That come unto God by him seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them. So we have an advocate. We have an intercessor seated
at the right hand of God. And he's going to save to the
uttermost all the way to glory. He's going to finish what he
started. And he's the only one that can do it. because left
ourselves, we would quit along the way. If you don't believe
that about yourself, if you, what was Peter doing? Peter was
walking in pride when he said, Lord, they may fall away, but
not me. Oh, Peter, Satan has asked to sift you and
I've agreed to let him do it because you need humbling. But be of good cheer, I've prayed
for you. There's the difference. I've prayed for you. It's going
to produce the peaceable fruit of righteousness for you, Peter. He is able to save all the way
to the end. The Lord Jesus was faithful all
the way to the end. He bowed his mighty head on Calvary's
cross and he declared, it is finished. Father, into thy hands
I commend my spirit. He did everything. Father, he
said, I have loved them to the end, to the uttermost. He is able. Revelation chapter
five, John is caught up into a vision in heaven and he sees
the book sealed with seven seals. And no man and no angel was found
that could open the book. And John wept. This is the book
of life. If this book is not open, no
one will be saved. And the angel said, John, weep
not. Stop your crying. The lion of the tribe of Judah,
he hath prevailed and he is able. to unlock the seals and open
the book. Oh brethren, we have a Savior
that has gone all the way to the uttermost, and just as he
was faithful to go all the way to the uttermost, all the way
to the end, so he is faithful to keep his people all the way
to the end. From the demon-possessed man
of the Gadarenes, to the outwardly moral, self-righteous Pharisee,
he's able to save to the uttermost. From the woman at the well who
had ruined her life in five marriages and was living with a man that
wasn't her husband, to Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus,
he is able to save to the uttermost. male, female, rich, poor, bond-free,
Greek, Jew, doesn't matter. He's faithful. He has the power
to save his people to the uttermost. Turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter
1. If you're familiar with this
passage, we quote it quite often. 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 12. For the witch cause,
I also suffer these things. Paul's talking about his imprisonment
and he's encouraging the believers not to be offended by the imprisonment
that he's suffering as a result of preaching the gospel. He says,
for which cause I also suffer these things because of the gospel.
Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed. I want you to be ashamed and
I'm not ashamed. I'm in prison, I'm chained, I'm
bound, but the word of God is not bound. Don't be ashamed. For I know whom I have believed
and I am fully persuaded that he is able, he has the power,
he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. Now we use that word commitment
as a word to describe, you know, being fully invested in something
and that's really what the word here means, it means to to have
all your eggs in one basket. He's not talking about his, you
know, Paul had lapses in his commitment just as you and I
have lapses in our commitments. But he had committed the salvation
of his soul. He had entrusted, he had invested
all his assets in one bank. You know, it'd be, If a man had
a lot of wealth in this world, it'd be foolish for him to invest
it all in one place. We diversify our assets, don't
we, so that if one falls short, another one may make up for it.
At the end of the day, we get a positive benefit to our investments. And most people in religion do
that. Well, I'll put a little bit here,
a little bit there. You know, I look back to a prayer that
I prayed. I look back to my baptism. I look back to, you know, some
good thing that I've done or some feeling that I experienced
or that's a big one. I talk to people all the time.
Well, you know, and they talk about going to some false church
and Pentecostal experience and they got warm all over and they
just tingled and they knew that God had saved them because of
that experience. And they were holding onto that.
And I tell you about when they got saved. Now I'm going to invest a little
bit there, a little bit over here. At the end of the day,
maybe one of these investments will pay off and I'll be able
to go to heaven. That's exactly what Paul's saying
he didn't do. I put all my hope in one. And if he doesn't save
me, I won't be saved. It's all or nothing. I'm going
to either gain everything or I'm going to lose everything.
and it's all gonna be based on him. And that's what this word
commitment means. I know whom I have believed and
I'm persuaded that he has the power to keep that which I've
invested in him. Now unto him who is able. to keep you from falling and
to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with
much joy. He's able. And if he doesn't
keep us, we won't be kept. Child of God, you know that about
yourself. The unbeliever might think, well, I'll be able to
persevere. The perseverance of the saint
is only because of the preservation of the spirit. And if the Spirit
of God doesn't preserve us and keep us and bring us back again
and again and again and renew our faith daily and give us the
bread of life in Christ daily, we'll go somewhere else, we'll
fall away, we'll forget about it, we'll leave, we'll depart.
You've seen enough of your own flesh to know that that's what
you would do but for the grace of God. He has the power. Oh, Peter went back to fishing.
He thought, I've blown it. No way I can be saved. And when
the Lord met Mary at the tomb on that resurrection morning,
what did he say? Go tell Peter and the disciples
that have risen. Peter needs to hear it first.
I'm gonna keep that man. And when the Lord met him on
the shore, mending his nets, he'd already gone back to fishing.
He'd figured there was no chance for him. The Lord restored him. Why? Because of the preservation
of the spirit of God, the perseverance of the saint. God's gonna pursue
his people and he's gonna save them all the way to the end,
to the uttermost. He's going to do it, humbling
us, sending Nathans to us. Oh, David, Nathan said the prophet,
thou art the man. And what David say, oh, I've
sinned. And Nathan said, yes, you have.
And God has forgiven you. He forgave you before you confessed
it. You see, here's the covenant
of works that most men think about is true. If I confess my
sins, he will forgive me. My forgiveness is dependent upon
my confession. When the truth is the opposite,
I have forgiven you. And you will confess. You will
confess. You will be brought to confession
of your sins because of the forgiveness that I've accomplished. I've
already put that sin away. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall
not be in want of anything. His rod, a correcting rod, and his staff. The difference
between the rod and the staff. Well, the rod was used for correction. The staff was a symbol of authority. And David said this in Psalm
23, his rod and his staff, they comfort me. I'm comforted to
know that he has the power and the authority to keep me and
that he will do all that's required in order to present me faultless
before his throne. He's able, I don't have that
power. I don't have the power to humble myself. I don't have
the power to come to Christ. I don't have the power to keep
coming. I don't have the power to stay. He has that power. His strength will be made perfect
in my temptations, in my weakness. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
two. Hebrews chapter two. He has the power and the ability to help us in
our temptations. Look at verse 17. Wherefore,
in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For
in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able. The Lord revealed this to me
recently. I mentioned it once in a message
a week or a few weeks ago. I've always thought of, you know,
well, the Lord knows the full weight of sin and the full power
of sin in ways that we can't know it. but he knows each individual
sin. And so, child of God, when you're
wallowing in the shame and guilt of a particular sin and you're
afraid to come before the throne of grace, the Lord knows that
sin and he knows that sin to its fullest degree. He knows
the shame and the guilt and the fear of that sin in a way that
you can't know it. Turn over chapter four of Hebrews. Chapter four of Hebrews, look
at verse 15. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
but was in all points, in all points, in each individual particular
sin, tempted like as we are, yet without
sin. He wasn't guilty of the commission,
though he bore the shame and the guilt and the penalty and
the punishment for that sin in a way that we can't imagine. Let us therefore, let us not
hide from God. Let us not do what Adam did in
the garden when he was feeling the shame of his sin and he tried
to cover his nakedness with fig leaves and tried to hide among
the trees. Let us not do that. Let us come boldly before the
throne of grace to find help in our time of need. He knows. He knows every point of every
sin. And he has the power He put it
away and he has the power to help us in our time of need. Your adversary the devil as a
roaring lion seeketh whom he may devour. Who are the two men in the Old
Testament that slew a lion with their bare hands? David He snatched the sheep right out
of the jaws of that lion and killed that lion with his hands.
And that's the Lord Jesus. We get in the jaws of evil. We've got a savior who is able
to save to the uttermost and will snatch us from the very
jaws of the lion who's seeking whom he may devour. He won't
devour. He'll seek to devour, but he won't be able to devour. And then who's the other one? The strong man. His name? Samson. Samson killed a lion
with his bare hands and went back to that lion and what was
in the lion? Honey. And what's that honey a picture
of? It's a picture of the word of God. It's the gospel. It's Christ. Thy word was sweet
to my taste like honey. And honey gives light to the
eyes and energy and hope. And so out of the lion came honey. And our strong man, the Lord
Jesus, who took the gates of hell and carried them off and
came in and led captivity captive, has taken the very temptations
of sin that's Esau, and caused them to turn Jacob, the new man,
to Christ. For in that same passage in 1st
Peter, chapter 5, where he says that Satan is a roaring lion
seeking whom he may devour, he says, he goes on to say, resist
him in the faith. How do we resist him? We look
to Christ. who alone has the power and the ability to take
us out of the jaws of the lion, otherwise that lion will devour
us if he doesn't come do it. And he alone can bring sweetness
out of sin. Because the rest of that verse
says that, well, let's turn to it. Let's turn to it, 1 Peter
chapter five. Verse nine, whom resist steadfast
in the faith, don't miss that. We don't grit our teeth and pull
ourselves up by our bootstraps and say, I'm gonna fight the
devil. You try that, you're gonna lose every time. His strength is made perfect
in my weakness. Lord, I don't have the ability
to resist these things. Lord, you're gonna have to deliver
me. That's what it means to resist
in the faith. Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. Every child of God
has their Samson slaying the lion and bringing out of the
carcass of the lion, honey. That's the accomplishment. Only
God can do that. Only God can take the evil of
our sin and the temptations of the devil and bring faith and
hope and love, truth in Christ, make his word come alive. That's
the honey that he brings. 2 Corinthians 9. 2 Corinthians
9. Look with me at verse 8. And God is able to make all grace
abound toward you. Where sin abounds, grace does
much more abound. If it wasn't for the power of
God and the ability of our God, our savior, who's called the
almighty, he's the omnipotent one, he's the one who has all
power, we have no power. If it wasn't for his power, we
wouldn't be kept. But he is able to make all grace
abound toward you that you always having all sufficiency and all
things may abound unto every good work. Only he can take selfish, self-righteous,
worldly people and cause them to value his kingdom and his
work, to pray for the furtherance of the gospel, to give their
lives and their means to the furtherance of the gospel. Only
he can do that and he's able. That's why Romans chapter 12
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, in light of the first 11 chapters
of Roman, the clearest declaration of what God has done in Christ
to save his people, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by
the mercies of God, that you present yourself a living sacrifice,
wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. It's
only reasonable. Only he can do that. I'm sorry, I have to deal with
these two more verses. Look at me at Philippians chapter
3. Philippians chapter 3. Only God can translate and change These
vile bodies in which we live into a glorified body, a sinless
body, make us perfect. Take that which is mortal and
make it immortal. Take that which is corruptible
and make it incorruptible. Only God can do that. Look at
Philippians chapter three at verse 21. who shall change our
vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto a glorious body according
to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto
himself. Oh, what a powerful God. Child
of God, we have this hope that when we close our eyes in death
and we draw our last breath, that God's gonna send his angels
And somewhere between that moment and the moment in which we open
our eyes, we're gonna be given a new body, a resurrected body,
a sinless body. Why? Because he is able to subdue
all things unto himself. One more verse, Ephesians chapter
three. Ephesians chapter three, I wanna close with this. Look
with me at verse 20. Now unto him that is able, that
has the power to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we
ask or think according to the power that worketh in us, unto
him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages,
world without end. God doesn't use excessive speech. He doesn't use superfluous words. He doesn't exaggerate. So when he says, he's making
emphasis here. When God says that he is able
to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ever should
even imagine to ask for. What is the Lord saying to me
and you? You know just a little bit of
my power, but oh, how much greater it is than you've even begun
to imagine. How underestimated we have been
of his glory. How overestimated we have been
of our strength. Child of God, let us Let us lower the estimation of ourselves.
And might I say let us lower the expectations of others. Sometimes
we expect more from others than we do from ourselves, don't we? How self-righteous is that? But let us raise by God's grace
our expectation and our estimation of His exceedingly abundantly
power to do more than we can even imagine. That's our God. We can't. He can. Amen? All right, let's stand
together. Tom, you come. Number 19, the
Sproul Hymnal, number 19. Lord of all, prostrate at your
feet I fall. You are holy, wise, and just. I'm a creature of the dust. All things move at your command,
governed by your mighty hand. Heaven, earth, and hell I seek,
Fulfill all your wise decree. Dares a man resist his Lord,
Stand against the sovereign God? I will bow before your throne,
Seeking grace in Christ your Son. ? Through His blood and
righteousness ? Lord, I plead with you for grace ? If you will,
you can, I know ? Grace and mercy to me show ? Will you, Lord,
my soul forgive ? Grant the sinner grace to live I've no other hope
but this, Jesus' blood and righteousness. Now I'm conquered by your grace. In the dust I hide my face. Give me Christ or else I die. I upon your grace rely. Oh, for mercy now I plead. Grant me, Lord, the grace I need. Turn, oh, turn to me and say,
all your sins are washed away. In my Son, your debt is paid. He, for you, the ransom made.