For our first hour, we're gonna
be in the book of Hebrews, if you'd like to turn there. Hebrews
chapter 11. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we are thankful that you've gathered us together
here We're thankful that you cause your people to desire to
gather together. Lord, we come before you now,
needing grace, needing mercy, needing you to send your spirit
and power. Lord, we don't have the strength to hear you. You're
gonna have to give us ears. We don't have the ability to
come to you. You're gonna have to make us
come to you. We don't have the power to save ourself. You're
gonna have to save us, Lord. Save us and we shall be saved.
Lord, we ask right now that you would do just that. Lord, we
ask that you would give us grace and mercy to hear. Calls your
word up to go forth in free course. In Christ's name, amen. Hebrews
chapter 11. Those that truly want salvation,
God's salvation, have been made to need, made to need Christ
as their salvation. Not made to, not made to desire
to do something for salvation, but made to desire that Christ
would give them salvation. Christ would be their salvation.
They know that salvation is of the Lord. And the only way that
we can come to that conclusion if God is our teacher, if God
is our instructor, if the Lord in his infinite wisdom causes
us to know him. We cannot produce what God requires,
but Christ Jesus did. That's what he makes us to know.
He did everything necessary for the salvation of the Lord's people.
Everything necessary. He successfully redeemed all
of the Lord's people. We heard last Sunday that everything
God requires, he provides. Because he only accepts what
he provides. If he doesn't provide everything
for my salvation, that I'm without hope, I'm without strength, I'm
without, we're unable, we're incapable, but he did, didn't
he? He provided everything for the salvation of his people.
Now, our topic this morning is the isness of God found in verse
six. Look with me in verse six here.
I've titled this message Seven Things That God Cannot Do, and
before I read, I would tell us that I have broken this up into part
one into part two because there's seven things and it would be
too difficult for me to. Well, I don't want to say difficult.
I just didn't want to miss anything and I didn't want to take too
long. I didn't want it to linger too
much information. All those things just came to
mind, so I decided to break it up into two parts. Seven things
God cannot do. Now look in Hebrews chapter 11
at verse six. But without faith. It is impossible
to please him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him. Anyone that comes to God must
believe that he is. Now somebody said, well, I believe
that God is. I believe that there's a God. Well, the Lord told the
Pharisees, they said, well, we believe in God. We believe in
God. And he said, well, Thou doest
well, but the demons believe. The demons believe and tremble,
don't they? The demons believe and tremble. So knowing that
there's a God doesn't bring about salvation. Salvation's of the
Lord. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ is different than believing in him. If I believe
in him, I mean, I can use this as an example. I can believe
in Santa Claus. That doesn't make Santa Claus real, does it?
It doesn't make him real. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
is completely done by faith. Completely done by faith. We
don't produce faith. God gives faith. It's the faith
of Christ given by the Lord. We can't just believe that he
exists But we believe his person, his character, his attributes,
his finished work. We believe his accomplishments
as God. We believe he is. What did he
tell Moses at the burning bush? They said, what is your name?
When I go to the children of Israel, they're gonna say, what
is his name? He said, you tell them I am, that I am, he is. He is omnipotent. He's all-powerful. He's all-knowing. He's all-wise. God is love. God is gracious and merciful. God is good to his people. God is good. This hour, I want
to look at the seven things God
cannot do in order to understand some more about his isness. We
must believe who he is and what he says, and who he says he is,
and what he said he's done, and what he chooses. And we are made
to admit that that's right, that it's not by works of righteousness
that we have done, but according to his mercy that he loved us. According to his mercy, he saved
us. Anybody that comes to Christ, are made to come to who he is. Made to believe who he is. Nebuchadnezzar,
he was made to learn who God is. It says in Daniel four, all
the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he
doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. None can stay his hand or say
unto him, what doest thou? See, God's isness is the essence
of his character. It's his person. It's his nature. Everything about him. And that's
what I want us to focus on today, by looking at things that he
cannot do. Because he's holy in nature,
the first thing he cannot do is he cannot sin. He cannot sin,
God cannot sin. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
seven, you're just back a few pages. Look at verse 26. For such an
high priest became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, made higher than the heavens. Who needeth not
daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice first for
his own sins and then for the people's, for this he did once
when he offered up himself. He had no need to offer sacrifice
for his own sin. Why? He didn't have any. He's holy, harmless, undefiled,
and separate from sinners. God cannot sin. He cannot sin. Even though that's,
you and I, that's all we can do. You breathing right now? You're sinning. That's true. Because of our nature. Because
of our nature. But even though we sin in that
exceedingly and abundantly all the time, he's the opposite.
He's holy. He never sins. He can't sin. He can't sin because his nature,
his nature is other than ours. So our nature, we are, um, We
sin because of our nature. We're subject to our nature.
That's the word I was looking for. We're subject to our nature.
He's subject to his nature, which is holiness, which is perfection,
which is righteous. That's his nature. Therefore,
he cannot sin. If he sinned, he would not be
holy. But what are the cherubims? What
are the angels? What do they declare above the
throne of the Lord? We're gonna sing this hymn in
closing on the second hour. But they say, holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty, which was, which is, and which is to
come. He's holy, he cannot sin. Hebrews says, for we have not
a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities, but was at all points tempted as we are, yet without
sin. Why didn't the Lord Jesus Christ
sin when Satan tempted him in the wilderness? Because he couldn't. If he could have, he would not
have been God. So to even call it a temptation
truly is not exactly accurate, is it? It was more like a test.
You could call it a test, but I guess if that's the definition
of temptation there, that would be right. But he can't fail. That's something I haven't even
wrote down here as one of the things God cannot do. That's
number eight. He cannot fail. He can't fail. He didn't try
when he came to the earth to save somebody. He didn't, he
can't fail. He successfully redeemed his
people. It was predicted by the angel. It was foretold by the angel
of the Lord to Joseph, call his name Jesus for he shall save
his people from their sins. And that's what he did. He did
it perfectly because of who he is. He cannot sin. He did everything
perfectly. It's impossible for him to sin
because he is holy. His nature won't allow it. Our
sovereign, omnipotent, holy, immutable God must always act
and do according to his nature. Sinners Anybody here a sinner? Sinners
who has the nature that's completely the opposite of God take great
hope in a God that cannot sin. He cannot sin. Second Corinthians
521 says, for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no
sin. Why did he do that? that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. That's what he accomplished. If we look at what God cannot
do, we know something about who he is. He's holy, he's harmless,
he's undefiled, he's separate from sinners, and he cannot,
cannot sin. It's an impossibility. Second
thing is he cannot deny himself. The Lord cannot deny himself. Turn with me to 2 Timothy 12.
2 Timothy 12, I'm sorry, 2 Timothy 2 verse 12.
2 Timothy 2 verse 12 and 13. says this, if we suffer, we shall
also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will
deny us. If we believe not, yet he abideth
faithful. He cannot deny himself. Second thing. God cannot deny
himself. He will never reject the offering
of himself. Everything he requires, he provides,
and he is pleased with what he provides. He cannot deny himself. He will never refuse the blood
of Christ, because Christ is God. Christ is God. The good news, that is good news,
isn't it? If you are hoping to be saved
by grace alone, that's good news. But if you're looking to your
works as part of your salvation, that's not good news. Anybody
that's looking to themselves and their own works as part of
their salvation, what they're doing in order to please God
or to establish a righteousness with God, that's not good news.
To hear that God doesn't accept anything, I do. He only accepts
the person and the finished work of Christ. Because his people are in him,
he's pleased with them also. Because his people, he's only
pleased with Christ. And because his people are in
him, he's pleased with them also. It's all on behalf of the Son,
isn't it, the Lord Jesus Christ? He said, this is my beloved Son,
whom I am well pleased. And the disciples looked at him
and said, Lord, show us the Father. Show us the Father. And he said,
have I been so long with you, Philip? Been such a long time
with you, Philip. And yet hast thou not known me. Boy, isn't that amazing? The
men and women seeing the Lord Jesus Christ and could not see
that he was Christ. They just saw another man. See,
he has to give faith to believe. That's what he said in Isaiah
53. No beauty in him to our flesh can be found. No, our flesh would
reject him. We would have said, away with this man. Let his blood
be upon us and on our children, just as the mob did. That's what
we would do by nature. But if he gives us faith, we're
able to see and believe. He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father. How sayest thou then, show us
the Father? tells us in John chapter 10 verse
31, I and my father are one. I and my father are one. He cannot
deny himself. He cannot deny himself. This
is why God is pleased with Christ on his people's behalf because
he's God. He's the incarnate God-man. He's 100% man and 100% God. Somebody
says, well, that math don't add up. No, this is believed by faith.
You can't make sense of it. We don't understand anything
we believe. We just believe it because God said it. He made
us believe it. Somebody told me one time, well, God said it,
I believe it, and that settles it. I said, no, God said it,
that settles it. Whether you believe it or not is subject
to God allowing you to believe it. If he allows you to believe
it, you'll believe it. God chose to elect his people before time,
writing Their names in the book of life and the lamb agreed to
take that book and to loose the seals thereof. Revelation tells
us that. He said, I'll drink the cup.
I'll drink from the cup of damnation. I'll drink it dry. I'll endure
the full wrath in order to loose those seals to redeem those people.
And he did. On the cross of Calvary as our
sinner substitute, as our surety, he poured out his own blood as
a sacrifice unto his father. Not an offering to man, not an
offering to man, an offering to God. Was God satisfied when
Christ hung his head and said, it is finished. He hung his head,
he gave up the ghost, and the veil in the temple was rent in
twain from top to bottom, implying God was satisfied. You can now
come boldly to the throne of grace. You can come boldly. We know he was satisfied because
Christ was raised because of our justification, the scripture
says. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He outpoured the full fury of his wrath until every single
sin he was bearing in his own body was put away. They're gone. They're gone. Isaiah says, come reason together,
saith the Lord, though your sin be as scarlet, it shall be as
snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. The Lord is the only one that
can take our Red sin, put red blood on it and make it white.
Only one can do that. Because he cannot deny himself,
God accepted his sacrifice. And every child of God now has
been redeemed. Right now. Right now. He just lets us know about it
in time by giving us faith to believe him through the gospel.
They've been justified, they've been sanctified, they've been
made the very righteousness of God, all because he cannot, cannot
deny himself. Third thing God cannot do, or
let's go back to our text and read that. Hebrews chapter 11, verse six. But without faith, it is impossible
to please him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him. If we are to believe God, we
must believe all the things that he says he has done, and we must
believe all the things that he cannot do. It's great hope to
know that he cannot deny himself because if I'm in Christ, he
cannot deny us if we are in Christ. Number one, God cannot sin. Number
two, God cannot deny himself. The third thing is God cannot
lie. He cannot lie. If he has spoken
it, it shall come to pass. He cannot lie. If he has said
it, it's a law. It's the truth. I love the thought
that what the Lord says is truth because of who said it. The truth said it, that makes
it true. But it's true because he said it. Am I making sense
there? I'm not trying to sound confusing. If the truth says
it, it's the truth. That's who's saying it. It's
the truth because he said it. And he said it because it's the
truth. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter six. I was thankful that several of
these points on what God cannot do actually are found in Hebrew,
so we don't have to go around in a bunch of places. That was,
that was nice. Let's read verse 17 through the
end of the chapter, Hebrews chapter six. Wherein God, willing more
abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of
his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable
things in which it was impossible for God to lie, It's impossible
for God to lie. We might have a strong consolation
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set
before us. Which hope we have as an anchor
of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that
within the veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered,
even Jesus made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
He cannot lie. Matter of fact, he said it's
impossible. It's impossible. That's a, maybe I should have
titled this, Things Impossible for God to Do. That's an even
stronger word than cannot, isn't it? Why is this comforting to
the believer? Well, it's comforting because
I know that in our heart, the scripture says our heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. We are liars by nature. We are sinners by choice, sinners
by practice. Why does it comfort knowing that
God cannot lie? Well, you can think of several
people that you wanna put your trust in, but you're, in this
day and time, it's very difficult to do so. Politicians are some
of those people, aren't they? They say they're gonna do one
thing, you have confidence in it, and they get an office, and
then they don't do it. Or they do something other than that.
But when God says it, When God says it, he's going to do it,
or he already has done it. When God said it, it's the truth.
That's why it's comforting. Call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sin. This is a faithful saying, worthy
of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. He said, I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. They that are holy, not a physician,
but they that are sick. If he said all those things,
and he cannot lie, then he has some sinners that he saved, hasn't
he? He has some sinners he saved, he cannot lie. Well, on the flip side of that,
to say there's something left for me to do, or for you to do,
as any part of our salvation, is to call God a liar. What do
I mean? Well, Christ didn't say, I've
done all I could. Now you have to do your part. No, he said
it is finished. What was finished? The work given
to him of the father for redemption, the work given to him for the
salvation of his people. The full salvation of the Lord's
people has been accomplished one time. He hath by himself
purged our sins. He sat down, they're gone. They're
absolutely gone. He cannot lie. He said it is
finished. We have the full pardoning salvation purchased by his blood,
the complete salvation, a complete salvation, the eternal life freely
given to us when he died. He died and gave us eternal life. The full and complete redemption
is finished. He cannot lie. He cannot lie. It is impossible. Now we see because of things
that he cannot do, because he is subject to his nature, we
were unable to please God. We were unable to do the things
to please God. So what did God have to do? God
had to give us a new nature. And that's what he does in the
new birth. Nicodemus came to the Lord by night and said unto
him, what must I do to inherit eternal life? The Lord said,
you must be born again. Well, actually, Nicodemus wasn't
the one that said that. He came to the Lord by night. He was
the one that said, well, we know that you're a teacher. You're a rabbi.
We know this. We know that because of the things
you said. And the Lord didn't even notice that. He didn't even acknowledge that
statement. He just said, Nicodemus, you must be born again. I thought
that was very interesting of our Lord. Just get right to the
point. That's what he does, doesn't he? Did the same thing with the
Samaritan woman at the well, didn't he? Yep. He, when she said, oh, I perceive
you're a prophet, he got right to the point with her too, called
out her righteousness right there and said, you don't go call your
husband. Let's get right to it. Call your husband. Well, sir,
sir, I don't have a husband. He said, you just spoke rightly.
So you've had five and the one you have now is not yours. She
said, oh, well, I perceive that you're a prophet. Well, let me
tell you about my righteousness then. We worship in this mountain.
And that's what men do. That's what we do by nature.
Here's my righteousness. And it's not in Christ. When
it's not in Christ, it points to us. I do this. So what's the
remedy? Well, the remedy is what the
Lord told this Samaritan woman. Then we'll go back to Nicodemus.
The Samaritan woman, he said unto her, that the time coming
and now is that you won't worship in that mountain or in Jerusalem.
And she said, well, when Messiah comes, he'll straighten everything
out. He'll put you in your place. You'll see. That was her attitude.
You know it was. You know it was. Until he said,
he that speaketh to you, I am. I am. And that's, what he's saying
in Hebrews chapter 11. If you come to God, you must
know that he is the I am and what that means. The Lord said
to Nicodemus, you must be born again. Nicodemus said, how can
a man, when he is old, enter into his mother's womb a second
time and be born? There's that logic again of the
flesh that makes no sense of the spiritual things. Why? Because
they're contrary to one another. They're opposite. We can't do
anything in the flesh. Can't do anything in the flesh
to merit something in the Spirit. They're contrary to each other.
They're contrary to each other. He said, you must be born again. Well, how is a man born again?
Well, the Lord tells us in another place in John. He tells us right
there, actually, in chapter 3. He says, the wind bloweth where
it listeth, and thou canst tell from whether it comes or whether
it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the spirit. What do you mean by that? The
spirit blows whithersoever it will, on whom it will, when it
will. It's God that blows according to his will. He's sovereign over
salvation. He's sovereign. In another place,
I believe it's in John, he said that, yeah, it is in John. I
don't know if it's five or six, but he said that they were born,
the Lord's people are born not by the will of man, nor by the
will of blood, nor by the will of flesh, but whose will? God's. God's will. Only way that we
can come to the knowledge of knowing who God is in his sovereign
isness. I know that's a funny sounding
word, but that's the best word I could come up to describe it.
How do you describe God? How do you describe the sovereign
creator of the universe, the alpha and omega, the supreme
being over, all the inhabitants of the earth. He created every
spoke everything into existence. He spoke the light out of darkness
and it appeared. He hung this ball that we're on on nothing
and it just sits there. You ever thought of that? He's
got it spinning at a rate of speed that's, I can't remember
what it was, 10,000 miles an hour or something like that,
and then the solar system spinning. We looked at that a couple weeks
ago, how fast everything's spinning. He knew exactly what he was doing.
You and I couldn't have come up with any of that. He did it.
Why did he do that? To save his people from their
sins. Because if he loves me now, he's
always loved me, and he's always gonna love me. Always. Always
gonna love me. And if one person is in hell
that he loves, what does his love have to do with salvation
then? No, he successfully redeemed his people. He successfully redeemed
his people. He said it is finished and he
cannot lie. He cannot lie. Now because we see the things
that he cannot do, because he is subject to his nature, in
order for us to please him, he gave us a new nature. One that
lives by the faith of Christ, one that looks to Christ, is
all of our wisdom, all of our righteousness, all of our sanctification,
and all our redemption. The glorious part about this
new nature, it cannot sin, just like him, because it's his nature.
It cannot lie on God. Peter denied affiliation with
the Lord, He never denied who the Lord was. His faith felt
not. He never said, no, that's not
the Christ, the son of the living God anymore. He didn't do that.
See, faith can't do that. The new man cannot deny God.
Even though our outward man perisheth, even though our outward man will
deny him, our new man cannot deny him. Cannot lie on God,
cannot deny him. We cannot lie about who God is
and what he has done in redemption for his people. If God says, call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins, and he cannot
lie, I can do that math. I can do that math. I'm not the
brightest man, but that's pretty simple, isn't it? He saved his
people from their sin. How do you know? He said, it
is finished. And he cannot lie. We'll take
part to second hour. Let's pray. Father. Lord, your. Words are so comforting
to the center, comforting to the believer. You know how we
see our sin ever before us, but when we look to Christ, we see
that they're gone. Thank you. That you are God and
we are not. Bless us to understanding for
your glory in Christ's name, amen. Let's take a break.