May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we meditate in His Holy Word. Let's turn to the Gospel of Luke,
the first chapter, and we'll read verse 37. The Gospel of Luke, chapter 1, and reading
verse 37. For with God nothing shall be
impossible. These were the words of the angel
Gabriel to Mary. And it follows, of course, the
account of the occasion when Zacharias was blessed with the
angel appearing to him and then also appearing to Mary. And in both accounts, of course,
there was that promise of a child. In the case of Zachariah's wife,
of course, she'd been a baron and hadn't had a child. And of
course, in the case of Mary, she hadn't even been married,
and yet there was this wonderful prospect of her being the one
who God had chosen to have that glorious son that should be called
Jesus. the Son of God. And then as the
angel then comes to the end really of this situation, he makes this
wonderful statement, for with God nothing shall be impossible. We have therefore in this chapter
those two wonderful examples which we know were fulfilled,
they came to pass. As we know, John the Baptist
was born to Zechariah and his wife, and of course, the Lord
Jesus Christ was born to Mary. And it's wonderful to know, therefore,
that the fulfilment of those occasions came to pass. We can therefore be thankful
this morning that really he concluded, the angel concluded, the statements
with this wonderful statement, for with God nothing shall be
impossible. I suppose we ought to just qualify
that in this way. not that we want to qualify God's
Word, but those things which come to pass, which are in accordance
with this Word, they are in accordance, of course, with God's will. And they are for God's honour
and glory. So sometimes we can pray and
expect our prayers to be answered, and yet they may be faulty. The prayers may not be in accordance
with God's will. And also they may not be for
God's honour and glory. And therefore sometimes we may
be discouraged when we prayed and there's been no answer to
those prayers. And sometimes the answer's been
negative because God does sometimes answer in a negative way, not
always in a positive way, not always silently. but we need
to be very aware that those things that we do require and ask Almighty
God to do for us, and if they are to be answered, they will
be in accordance with God's will and they will be for His honour
and for His glory. And of course the result will
be that we as unworthy sinners will indeed be very thankful
that the great God has looked upon us and heard our prayers
and answered our prayers. So it's so important, is it not,
therefore to indeed come with a prayer of thanksgiving when
those answers come. We didn't continue the reading
this morning, it's a long chapter, but of course it continues with
the song of thanksgiving by Mary. And it's good, isn't it, to have
a song of thanksgiving. And sometimes the Lord may encourage
us and speak to us and tell us what will occur and what will
happen, and we need to then thank God for such a revelation. And also then, on other times
when God hears and answers our prayers, we should always give
thanks to God. We should always desire to honour
and glorify his great and holy name and how easy it is for us
just to accept an answer and not thank God for it. So let's
be reminded how good it is to come and thank God. Well, here
we have a short text. It's not a long word this morning.
It's easy to remember, isn't it? For with God nothing shall
be impossible. And really I want to divide this
into two sections. Firstly, with regard to those
natural things. And secondly, with regard to
those spiritual things. Both are important. We can perhaps
say that the spiritual blessings and answers are greater because
they refer to our eternal state but nonetheless we are blessed
with answers to natural things and we should realize that nothing
is impossible therefore with God and as we think of the natural
things we can remember perhaps in the word of God there are
many instances we cannot possibly go through them all but just
a few striking evidences where those things which appeared impossible
came to pass and we perhaps should remember that time when Israel
had come out of Egypt and no doubt they thought everything
was going to be plain sailing God had a wonderfully appeared
for them He changed Pharaoh's mind, so Pharaoh was willing
to let the Israelites go, and they left Egypt, and they came
to then a difficulty. And what was that? They had to
pass over the Red Sea. And how were they going to do
that? Naturally speaking, it was an impossibility. There wasn't
any other route. There were mountains on other
sides. And the Egyptians were chasing
after them, so they had a real problem. And what were they going
to do? Well, we're thankful, of course,
that Moses, that man of God, prayed to God. And God directed
him as what he would do. We know the result, I'm sure,
that God in His great mercy appeared and there was a path made through.
the Red Sea. Now naturally that was an impossibility. Hadn't been done before and now
there was a need and God did that which naturally was impossible. And really there was a wonderful
result. Not only did Israel go over on dry land but the Lord
used that same occasion to destroy all the Egyptians that were chasing
after Israel. It was an amazing deliverance.
It was a wonderful occasion. And therefore, surely we can
conclude, well, that was very clear. Nothing shall be impossible. And that came to pass. God appeared
and delivered Israel. And of course, there were many
times really in that journey Across the wilderness there was
the need that they had. They hadn't got food. They needed
food. How was that going to be supplied? But again God supplied it in
a very wonderful and miraculous way. By providing what is termed
in the Word of God as angel's food. It was called manna. And there it was for the Israelites
to collect every morning apart from the Sabbath. Every morning
there was the manna to go and be collected and put into pots
and then used throughout the day. They didn't have to take
any more than was needful for the day. And if they did, they
were told it would breed worms, which of course those who didn't
believe did, and sure enough, it bred worms. So, yes, God appeared. And there
was that manner. And it's interesting, isn't it,
to know that that was provided every day until they came into
Canaan. What a wonderful occasion that
was. Day by day, a proof of God's
mercy. A proof of God's love. And so
we can conclude, nothing shall be impossible. God provided that
which they would never have envisaged. And it's sometimes in our lives
God provides in a way that perhaps we would never have envisaged. The truth is God's ways are higher
than our ways and the reason they're higher is that God then
receives the honour and glory because we realise God appears
and does things for us which we could not do for ourselves. Israelites couldn't produce manna? No way. And yet God wonderfully
did it. And it wasn't only that need,
as we know, there was a need to have water to drink. How was
that going to come to pass? Well again, the Lord directed
Moses what to do and it was brought forth out of a rock, virtually
an impossible situation. Who could have envisaged water
coming out of a rock? But you see, God appeared. And
of course, we know that they needed it on two occasions. And
on both occasions, God appeared. But it's important to realize
that what God says, we are to follow the instructions. Because
the second time when they wanted water and they complained and
they moaned to Moses about it and God told Moses what to do. And Moses was told to speak to
the rock. Well Moses went to the rock,
he took his staff and he got to the rock and he was not in
a very good mood and he complained and he said you rebels were guards
of the Israelites and he smoked the rock well God was very gracious
and water came out but the fact was that Moses that man of God
had disobeyed God he'd been told to speak to the rock and instead
he'd hit the rock with his rod well the result was water came
out but because of that Do you remember what happened to Moses?
He wasn't allowed to go in to the land of Canaan, because he
had disobeyed God. And that's a very solemn and
important thing for you and me to realise, that we shouldn't
just do what we think, even if perhaps we were annoyed like
Moses was. We should do what God tells us
to do. and not to deviate from it, but
to follow closely. Well, those occasions then for
Israel were very, very wonderful, weren't they? For with God nothing
shall be impossible. And then perhaps we could just
Remember the case on Mount Carmel with Elijah? I expect you young
people remember. What happened then? There was
that occasion when there'd been no rain for some three years. Elijah had prayed to God that
he would stop the rain and he stopped it. And there'd been
this drought for three years. And they desperately needed water
now. So Elijah went up to Mount Carmel and he told them to bring
together all the priests of Baal. Those who weren't serving the
true God, they were serving the false god Baal. And he told them
what to do, and that was to build an altar, and slay an animal,
and place the animal on the altar, and then pray to their god, and
Elijah prayed to his god, that fire might come down from heaven. and Moses asked the people if
that was a good idea and they all concurred and they all said
yes let it be done that's a good idea and so Moses allowed the
prophets of Baal to first of all endeavor to produce fire
from heaven to consume the sacrifice and they failed They could not
do it. They struggled. They did everything
they could. They jumped up and down. They
danced. They cut themselves in order
to try and produce an answer. And of course, Elijah mocked
them. He said, they better shout a
bit louder. Perhaps their God was asleep
and needed to be wakened. Perhaps he'd gone on a journey
and needed to be brought back. But they couldn't do anything.
their God was a false God and therefore there was nothing and
then Elijah took his turn and of course he told the people
to gather round and he built the altar and he slayed the animal
put it on the altar and then to really ensure them that it
was going to be God's work he told them to then drench the
sacrifice and everything around it in water. It was probably
seawater. They were quite near to the sea.
And of course, there was a drought, so it wouldn't have been rainwater. But they went and they took bucketfuls
and they drenched the sacrifice. And then Elijah prayed to God,
the true God. And what was the result? Well,
God answered in a very, very powerful way. Fire came down
from heaven. It consumed the sacrifice. It
consumed all the water that had been poured on the sacrifice.
It even consumed the rocks that had been there for the sacrifice. And it was a wonderful appearance
by God. Nothing was impossible. And the result was the people
came and acknowledged, the Lord, He is the God. It's a wonderful
occasion, wasn't it? Well, we can thankfully know
that that God is the same today. He is alive forevermore, and
that God can still hear and answer our prayers. And therefore, in
our little lives, we should never think something is too small. We should never think something
is too big to bring to God. And we can understand these words
to be true. For with God, nothing shall be
impossible. But as we may pray to God, we
are to pray and come to God praying in faith. That means believing
that God will answer. To pray in faith. Now as I said,
the two factors are, has to be in accordance with God's will
and also for his honour and for his glory. So we can think of
that and then of course we can move to the New Testament and
we have so many wonderful examples, don't we, of the miracles that
the Lord Jesus Christ performed when he was on the earth. Those
things which might appear impossible to men. He healed the sick. He brought hearing to deaf, sight
to blind. Well, there were so many things
you and I can read of as we go through the Gospels and read
of what the Lord Jesus Christ did when he was on the earth
to prove without any doubt that He was the Almighty God. And yet you see, by comparison,
how few people believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, it's
a great blessing for us today. If we come to God in prayer,
praying that He will appear for us in the things that we need
in our natural life. You know, he does, he does help. He does help. And you young people,
when you're at school and in your examinations, you should
never think that God is too busy or something is too small to
pray to him. Because he does hear and he does
answer prayer. And remember, nothing shall be
impossible You may think it may be impossible. Nothing is impossible. God can grant in examinations
that the questions that are said, you can answer. The questions
that you revised appear. You see, God is a great God. And therefore, never fail to
come and commit all your way to your God. in everything in
your lives. You know, with regards to examinations,
with regard to going and buying things, with regard to perhaps
you get older, getting a car, getting older still, and finding
a husband or a wife. God controls all these things. And nothing is too hard. And you may think, well, I can't
see anybody suitable for me. Just remember that God can bring
people into your life. And so never be despondent, but
may God give you faith to truly believe. that He will appear
and answer. Remember this great word, for
with God nothing shall be impossible. What a mercy it is, therefore,
that we have such a wonderful record in the Word of God of
how God and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself did so many wonderful
miracles when He was on the earth. Now, we shouldn't forget that
the Lord Jesus Christ is alive forevermore and although he doesn't
do things in a physical way because he's no longer on this earth
he still though does things and still hears and answers prayer
and still is a great god for with god nothing shall be impossible
well there we are there's a list then of things in our our natural
life which are Very relevant to us. We do need God to appear
for us and to answer our prayers. And may we be given faith then
to believe and come to our God, realising that nothing shall
be impossible with Him. Well then, I want to move on
to our spiritual life. our spiritual life. And again,
nothing shall be impossible with our God in this respect. And again, sometimes this may
appear to us as a great mountain, and you may have prayed to God
that he would bless your soul, that he would show you that you
are one of his children, and perhaps there's been no answer. Perhaps you're despondent. Perhaps
you've seen other people blessed and you seem to be left behind
and left out. Well, remember, God has a perfect
time. Word of God tells us, your time
is always, but my time is not yet. And you may say, well, why
is that? It's really because God's time
brings honour and glory to himself. If you were able to dictate to
God with regard to your spiritual life, dictate perhaps a way and
dictate timing, you see, you would claim the glory for that. Well, God is jealous for his
glory and God does hear and answer prayers but sometimes He waits
to be gracious. And when he waits to be gracious,
what is occurring is that you and I are being tested. Tested with regard to our religion. Tested as to whether we do believe
in a prayer hearing and a prayer answering God. So, don't be disheartened,
disappointed, but pray on and earnestly seek that God will
hear and answer your prayers with regard to your spiritual
life. How blessed it is to therefore
realise that such a statement as this is very true with regard
to our spiritual life. Nothing shall be impossible. You may think, well, God's never
going to answer my prayers. Well, you should never think
like that. You should always come with that
patience to wait for God. But commit thy way unto the Lord,
trust also in him, and he will bring it to pass. God does hear
and answer prayer. But you see, you and I are just
a little small cog in the great plan of God. And other things
have to come to pass before the Lord brings into play our little
life. You see, God is a gracious God,
but God is a great God. And therefore don't be disheartened
and don't be discouraged if you don't seem to be receiving what
you want. You see, God doesn't always,
again, give us what we want. God gives us what is good for
us. And God gives us that which is
good for us not only for our own spiritual life, but also
for His honour and for His glory. You see, if God perhaps, we might
say, worked in accordance with our timetable, then the tendency
would be that you and I would claim some of the glory. We would
come and say, well, of course, I prayed for this on a certain
time and this, that and the other. Well, God will have the honour
and glory and He won't allow you and me to claim it at all. So don't expect therefore to
receive answers that coincide with your timetable. It will
coincide with God's timetable. God has a perfect timing because
God works and all things work together for good to those who
love God and to those who are called according to his purpose.
All things You may not realize it in your life now. Perhaps
things are working together, which you haven't really noticed.
And yet you see God is so great and so wonderful. What a blessing
it is to have such a kind and gracious God who deals with us. And remember, if we are his children,
he deals with us in love. in love to us and also that his
great name may be lifted up and really, for with God nothing
shall be impossible. What is the greatest blessing
that you and I can have really in our souls? Surely it is what
we refer to as the new birth. The new birth. You and I are
all here today. We've all been born naturally,
haven't we? We all have our bodies. We all
have our intellect. We can be thankful for it. But
what we all need, of course, is a spiritual life, to be born
again. That's why The Lord Jesus spoke
so very clearly to Nicodemus. Nicodemus came to God. He came to him by night. It would appear he was timid,
perhaps didn't want anybody to see what he was doing, so we're
told that he came to came to Jesus by night. He was a ruler
of the Jews. He came by night and he came
and he spoke to Jesus and said, Rabbi, we know that thou art
a teacher come from God, but no man can do these miracles
that thou doest except God be with him. Well, that was a good
statement. And Jesus didn't answer him directly to what he had asked
really. But he went straight to the very
vital, important thing. And he told him, except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Well, Nicodemus
couldn't understand that. Because he only knew about somebody
being born naturally. And therefore he asked the question,
how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb? And Jesus said, verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the blood,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of
the flesh, that means our natural body is flesh, and that which
is born Of the spirit, God's work is spirit. And he tells
him, marvel not that I said unto thee, he must be born again. Well, in all of our lives, we've
been born naturally. All of us must be born again
spiritually. Every one of us must be born
again. Those of us who are blessed with
the evidence of it can praise and thank God for it. Perhaps
there are those here who don't yet know whether they are born
again and perhaps you may think, well I don't think God's going
to answer me. Pray on, don't give up and remember
nothing should be impossible with God. You may think Your
case is impossible. Nothing is impossible with God. But we have to come to God with
an open mind. We shouldn't come to God with
preconceived ideas of how we want God to appear for us in
our spiritual life. We should come indeed praying
that we may have the evidence that we are born again that we
do possess that new life that life which spells out to us so
clearly as the Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians and told them
and you hath he quickened or you hath he made spiritually
alive who were dead we're alive naturally We may still be dead
spiritually. We need to be made alive spiritually. And this is the wonderful work
of God. It's the wonderful work of God
to give you and me that great gift of spiritual life. How wonderful it is. And remember,
for with God nothing shall be impossible. Nothing at all. Doesn't
matter how bad you are. Doesn't matter how evil you've
been in your life. Perhaps how you've turned against
God in your life. Perhaps you've said, I'm not
going to be a Christian. I'm never going to follow the
things of God. God knows all about you. And my friends, be
very clear, you and I might think that we can fight against God.
Let me tell you this, if you and I are one of God's children,
you and I will never win that battle. God will always win that
battle. The hymn writer has a line which
says, the appointed time for God to bless. The appointed time
rolls on apace. Not to propose, but call by grace. God doesn't come and dangle something
in front of us. No, he calls. And that call is
what we term an effectual call. That means it has an effect. And what a blessing it is. if
we know that and if we've experienced it in our life that God has called
us and it's as though we've had a wake-up call suddenly realized we'll be going
on blindly really content with all the poor things of this world
and wanting more of this world but what a blessing if God gives
to us a concern about our soul a concern to know that it is
well with our soul in answer to that great question is it
well with our soul? we want to be able to have a
positive answer and be able to say by God's mercy and love It
is well with my soul. You and I will only be able to
say that if we have the evidence from God that He, the Almighty
God, has made us spiritually alive. And therefore, we will
then know that nothing was impossible with God. Nothing. Because He
looked upon me and He's had mercy upon me. And we have examples,
don't we, in the Word of God to encourage us. And we can think
of God's servant David. Well, he was a man after God's
own heart. And yet, you see, David was left
to himself, left to himself in those occasions when, first of
all, he committed adultery with that woman Bathsheba, And then
he realised if he could get rid of her husband then perhaps no
one would realise that it was his child. So therefore he arranged
that her husband should be killed. What did that make David? Well it made him an adulterer
and it made him a murderer. And yet you see God was merciful
to him, and God came and showed him that he had sinned against
God. And he had to come and plead
for mercy, and plead for forgiveness, and plead that God would give
him a clean heart, a new heart. Well, God was very merciful to
David. and so nothing was impossible
and we have those records in the Word of God to realize that
no one can wander too far away who comes repenting of their
sin and comes to God who is a kind and gracious and forgiving God. What a wonderful blessing it
is to know, therefore, that we have such a God. And then, you
know, we have examples which are there
for us to be thankful, and we can read in the Epistle of Paul
to the Romans, and in the fourth chapter we read there of God's
wonderful mercy and wonderful favour and wonderful blessing. And he tells us indeed about
the faith that God gave to Abraham to believe. Abraham was given
that faith to believe. And you and I need faith also
to believe. And we're told in the fourth
chapter of the Romans, where the apostle writes and tells
us from verse 13, we read, because the law worketh wroth, for where
no law is, there is no transgression. And then it goes on. Therefore it is of faith that
it might be by grace to the end the promise might be sure to
all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that
also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of
us all. As it is written, I've made thee
a father of many nations before whom he believed even God, who
quickeneth the dead, and calleth those which be not as though
they were, who, against hope, believed in hope, that he might
become the father of many generations, many nations rather, according
to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being
not weak in faith, He considered not his own body, now dead, when
he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he
was able also to perform. So we see there the Apostle speaking
about Abraham but also of course aligns
with that faith that was needed for David in his life and we're
told and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. What a blessing therefore in
our lives If that is given to us, and what is it? Nothing shall
be impossible. Nothing shall be impossible. And what a wonderful blessing,
and what a wonderful favour that is. And then perhaps we might
think of another character in the Word of God, who is well
known, and that I believe is a man called Manasseh. Now Manasseh
was none less than a king. He was a king, but he was the
most evil king and the most wicked king. And we can read about,
in actual fact, how bad he was in the second book of the Kings. And we can read, and therefore
Manasseh shed innocent blood worse than anybody else. he was
a most wicked king and we would think there was no hope at all,
no hope for Manasseh. If you read Kings and you stopped
there and didn't read anything else you would conclude that
he was a lost man and a most evil man and a most wicked man. But if you turn on to the book
of the Chronicles and as you know the Chronicles repeats much
of that which is in the Kings and Samuel. And it's wonderful
to be able to read in this second book of the Kings and the 33rd
chapter. Again, it gives us a picture,
first of all, about Manasseh, how bad he was, how wicked he
was. And yet, when we come down to
the 12th verse in this 33rd chapter, the second of Chronicles, we
read this. And when he was in affliction,
you see, God brought affliction upon Manasseh. And it was for
a purpose. And sometimes it may be in our
lives. We may wonder why God has brought
this and that into our life. Why has it happened to me? Well,
we're told, and when he was in affliction, what did he do? He
besought the Lord, his God. That means he prayed unto his
God and he humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers
and prayed unto him and he was entreated of him. God heard his
prayer and heard his supplication and
brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. then Manasseh
knew that the Lord, he was God. Wonderful conversion in that
man. My friends, God hasn't changed,
he's still the same today, and we should be very thankful for
it. And therefore, in his case, for with God, nothing shall be
impossible. Well, may you and I be encouraged
today. to realise that in our life, our natural life, and also
our spiritual life, nothing shall be impossible with God. May we therefore rejoice in the
great truth of God and be thankful in our heart that his mercy endures
forever. Amen.