May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this evening as we meditate in His Holy Word. Let's turn to the Gospel of Mark,
chapter 10, and we'll read verse 27. The Gospel of Mark, chapter
10, and reading verse 27. And Jesus looked upon them, saith,
With men it is impossible, But not with God, for with God all
things are possible. This was an answer given to the
Lord's disciples. And the Lord's disciples had
asked the questions. They were astonished. and the
words that Jesus had spoken to a rich man. And they asked the
question, how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the
kingdom of God? And the disciples were astonished
at his words. But Jesus answered again and
said unto them, children, how hard is it for them that trust
in riches to enter into the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter
into the kingdom of God. And they were astonished, out
of measure, saying among themselves, who then can be saved? In answer to that question, Jesus
says, Jesus looking upon them saith, with men it is impossible,
but not with God. For with God all things are possible. And we should be very encouraged
to realise that we have such a wonderful truth contained in
the Word of God. Because we may naturally think
things are impossible. But we should realise they are
not impossible with God. All things are possible with
God. God is the Almighty One. God
is the Ruler of the Universe. God is the Creator of all things. God holds your and my breath
in his hand. This is the great God that you
and I are favoured and blessed to be able to come to. And therefore
may we receive that wonderful gift of faith to come to our
God, believing that he can and will do that which is for his
honour and glory and for our good. We don't want to be left
to ask for things which will do us harm. We want to be able
to seek for those things which will do us good. And of course,
when I say that, I really mean eternal good. That's the great
necessity of each of our lives, to have the Lord God Almighty
deal with us in love to our soul. And it's interesting that we
picked up the end of this account in this 27th verse, but previously
we read about what Jesus spoke to him. This man had come and
told the Lord, Master, all these have I observed from my youth,
because he'd come to God and he'd come in this way. He was
gone forth into the way. There came one running and kneels
to him and asked him, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit
eternal life? Well, it's a good example to
be found running to the Lord and asking that he will grant
to us this blessed favor. What shall I do? As I often say,
real religion is personal. We can't go to heaven on our
parents' or friends' religion. It's between our soul and God.
What shall I do to inherit eternal life? You see, that's the great
necessity, to inherit eternal life. That which we inherit,
of course, we've never worked for. When people die and leave
us something in their will, we've never worked for it. God, the
person, has given it to us. And if we inherit something,
it's given to us. And what a mercy and blessing
that is. Well, here we have this great truth set before us. And Jesus goes through a list,
tells him what he should do. He told him, refer to the commandments,
and gives a list And the man says and said, Master, all these
have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus, beholding him, loved
him. Well, that's a great blessing,
my friends. If God loves us, we are eternally safe. We shall
spend eternity with the Savior, and therefore, how very relevant
it is that we do know that the Lord Jesus Christ has loved us. And yet, you see, he said to
this man, One thing thou lackest, go thy way, sell whatsoever thou
hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven.
And come, take up the cross, and follow me. Very often people
read a verse like this, and they read the first part and forget
the second part. The first part tells us, sell
whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor. And then it says,
and come, take up the cross and follow me. It's all part. of the same statement from our
blessed Saviour. And what a mercy therefore if
we receive grace to do that, to take up our cross and follow
the Saviour. How few there are today who follow
this pattern. How many desire not to follow
They do not desire to take up the cross. They don't want to
follow a despised and crucified man. And yet the reality is every
true believer does follow a despised and crucified man. And it is
that despised and crucified man who sits and reigns in glory. And it is that great and glorious
one who's gone to prepare a place for his people. He's told us
in the 14th of John, I go to repair a place for you. And if
I go to repair a place for you, I will come again and receive
you unto myself, that where I am there, ye may be also. Well, such a statement should
be a great encouragement to us. and to realise that we are passing
through time. Time is going past very fast
in all of our lives. Those of us who are older realise
how quickly it's gone. Those who are young may think
they have a long time before them. Of course, none of us know
when the Lord will take us from time into eternity. But the Lord does give us a very
clear warning And he says, be also ready. and how important
that is to be ready to know that we are saved and that the Lord
Jesus Christ has indeed died for us. And so this was the statement,
take up the cross and follow me. And this man was sad at that
saying and went away greed for he had great possessions. And
Jesus looked round about and said to his disciples, How hardly
shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! And
the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answered
him again and said unto them, Children, how hard is it for
them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God? And he gives an example. It is
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for
a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Well, we don't
know precisely what this refers to, but it may refer to what
was a small gate at the entering into a town, which was called
a needle gate. And a camel naturally could not
pass through it unless it got down on its knees and was pushed
through. So we can see how difficult it
was. And they were astonished, out
of measure, saying among themselves, who then can be saved? And you and I may look at ourselves
and wonder and think, well, how can I be saved? How can I be
saved? Well, this is where we have the
glorious truth of the gospel. An encouraging word for us tonight. And Jesus looked upon them and
said, with men it is impossible. but not with God, for with God
all things are possible." That's a very comprehensive statement,
isn't it? It's something you and I should
rest upon. Nothing is impossible with God
in our lives. However hard it may seem, however
impossible it may seem, to realise that God is so kind and gracious
and merciful. As I was thinking upon these
words, I thought of the case of Manasseh. You may remember
the case of Manasseh. Manasseh was the son of Hezekiah. He had a very godly father. And yet, you see, grace, remember
this, is not hereditary. You and I can't go to heaven
on the experience or the grace of our parents. We need it ourselves. Well Manasseh was but a boy when
he came to the throne. Twelve years old. But he didn't
do that which was right. He did everything that was wrong. And we're told that Manasseh
made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err and to do
worse than the heathen. whom the LORD had destroyed before
the children of Israel. And the LORD spake to Manasseh
and to his people, but they would not hearken. Now you read the
account in the Kings of Manasseh which gives a description and
you would draw a conclusion that there was absolutely no hope
for Manasseh. He died as a heathen and he was
a lost man. But we're thankful the Word of
God is very comprehensive. And the Word of God is encouraging.
And in this 33rd chapter of the second book of the Chronicles,
we're told about the Lord's dealings with Manasseh. And what it brings
us to is to realise the things which are impossible with man
are possible with God. This is what we read. wherefore
the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king
of Assyria which took Manasseh among the thorns and bound him
in fetters and carried him to Babylon and when he was in affliction
in that situation in Babylon what did he do? He besought the
Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before
the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him. And he was entreated
of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem,
into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord
he was God. We observe here a very clear
picture of the sovereign grace of God. Manasseh never deserved
it. Manasseh, previous to this, had
no desire to serve God. But God, in his love to Manasseh,
caused him to change, caused him to repent, caused him to
seek after God. And God was with him, and we're
told what he did. And after this, he built a wall
without the city of David on the west side of Gihon in the
valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate, and encompassed
about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height, and put
captains of war in all the fenced cities of Judah. He took away
the strange gods and the idol out of the house of the Lord.
and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house
of the Lord, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city. And he repaired the altar of
the Lord, and sacrificed thereon peace, offerings, and thank offerings,
and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. Well, it's wonderful, isn't it,
to read such an account as that. And what is the conclusion? The
conclusion really is that with men, such a conversion was impossible,
but not with God, for with God all things are possible. and such an account should really
be encouraging to us I don't know how you feel I don't know
what your position is before God but you may feel out of the
way you may feel there's no hope
for you well, just remember Here we have a glorious statement,
for with God all things are possible. God can come and change our outlook
and change our desires and from following our own way, from following
that which is of the flesh, he can give us that desire to truly
follow the Lord to be able to come, as we read in this chapter,
to take up our cross and follow Him. What a blessing then, if
that is so. You see, God looks at our heart. No one else can see our heart. People can only see the outside,
what we look like. And our outside may be very different
to our inside, that God looks at the inside, that God sees
all about us. And what a blessing for you and
me if we find the wonderful and glorious blessing of what we
refer to sovereign grace or sin abounding. Because it was so
in Manasseh's case, And it is so in all the lives of God's
children. He calls them by His grace. They turn from the way of evil,
from the way of sin. When Lord grants repentance,
there's a change in our lives. We change round. In fact, we walk in opposite
direction. And the opposite direction is
clearly this from following the devil to following the Lord that
is the blessed work of the Spirit of God and it's that which occurs
between your soul and my soul and our God and we realise the
glory and the blessing of it as it leads us into all truth
as it is in Jesus And what does it bring us to? It brings us
to that position that we confess our sins. And we know what it
is in that chapter in John, first chapter. If we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. That's a wonderful statement.
It's a true statement. It's a necessary statement. And
you may say, why is it necessary? Because we need to be cleansed
from everything. Everything. What we might think
of in our little lives as something which is irrelevant, something
which is not important, that we can just indulge ourselves
in this little sin as we might categorise it in our life. But
you see, before God, sin is sin. In one sense, there's no such
thing as a small sin. Everything, every sin, bars us
from entering into glory. And therefore we need forgiveness
for every sin. Well, what a blessing, therefore,
to have such a statement like this. But with God, all things
possible and God is the only one that knows what's in our
heart God is the only one that can deal with us because it's
the only one that knows what is in our heart and it may not
be a very pleasant position or occupation as God may reveal
to us things that we've perhaps hidden away We think no one else
knows about it. God knows about it. And God sometimes
reminds us of these situations and causes us. to cry unto him,
that he will look upon us and have mercy and not deal with
us as our sins deserve, but in love to our soul, redeem us. What a wonderful and gracious
God we have. And so for with God, all things
are possible. Never forget that. It's so true
with regard to our spiritual life, it's also true with regard
to our natural life in our natural life sometimes we have mountains
before us sometimes we have deep valleys before us and we just
wonder how ever we're going to climb up the mountain or pass
through the valley well just be encouraged With God. With God. For with God all things
are possible. God knows the path he has ordained
for us. That should be the encouragement.
We don't walk an unknown way. It's an unknown way to you and
me, but it's not an unknown way to God. God has gloriously and
wonderfully planned our life. and that life is to bring us
into conformity with himself. And that again is a very humbling
truth, and to realise the Apostle Paul knew what it was, he knew
the blessing of it, that's why he prayed for it, that he might
be made conformable unto his image. It's a good prayer. And yet you and I perhaps sometimes
turn away from it. You know, perhaps we're fearful
of what that might entail. Well, you and I are to commit
our way unto the Lord. Trust also in him. And he will
bring it to pass. the Lord can bring about deliverance. Yes, in a way that perhaps you
and I never thought was possible. And it's because with God, all
things are possible. Naturally, we limit God. Naturally, we don't think such
and such can possibly come to pass. Well, God is in control. And your life and my life, as
I often say, and I'm never weary of saying it, your life and my
life, if we are the children of God, is not to please ourselves. It's for the honor and glory
of God. And if you and I have that before
our eyes, to realize that although it may seem impossible, just
remember that which is impossible with man is possible with God
because God is a great God God is the almighty God and it's
wonderful sometimes to just ponder and think of how great God is
and just go through the very many wonderful examples we have
and the glorious grace of God set forth in so many lives. You know, you can think of God's
servant Jonah, can't you? Jonah was disobedient to God. God told him to go and preach
at Nineveh and he didn't fancy it. He thought it was a bit tough.
So he'd do something else. So he went down and he found
a boat. He got on the boat Off it went
and he was so content with his sinful condition that he went
to sleep. But God knew Jonah was in that
boat. And God knew what he would do with Jonah. And therefore,
what did God do? He sent a great storm. A great storm such that it was
likely that the boat would sink. And therefore God came and dealt
with Jonah in this way because the mariners woke him up from
his sleep and asked him, didn't he realise what was happening? And of course he did realise
what was happening and he said it was because of his fault,
his sin, that God had brought his storm upon them and he told
them to cast him overboard, cast him overboard. Well, just think
of that. There wasn't much possibility,
was there, of Jonah being kept, found alive. There was a storm,
great tempest, and he said, throw me overboard. Well, the mariners
tried not to do that, but eventually they had to, and they threw him
overboard. What's going to happen to Jonah? God had prepared for that situation. God knew precisely the moment
when Jonah would be thrown overboard. And you and I should realise
that in our lives, God knows precisely what will happen in
our lives, the timing he knows to the very last second. And
therefore Jonah was thrown overboard and God had prepared that whale
to swallow up Jonah, specially prepared fish. Yes, you see,
it had been planned. What a wonderful truth that is. And there was Jonah then, in
the whale's belly, three days and three nights. Again, it's
difficult to imagine, isn't it? situation like that. Complete
darkness. We told him the weeds were wrapped
about his head. Must have been a very uncomfortable
experience. And you and I would think that
the first thing Jonah would do in that condition would to cry
unto God. But it would seem from the account
that he was there for three days and three nights before He humbled
himself to cry to God and then you see the Lord delivered him
in an amazing way. our hearts can indeed be very
hard and very rebellious. But eventually Jonah then did
the Lord's will. Yes, he was made willing in the
day of his power. What a blessing that is for you
and me. Of things which appear to be
impossible. With men it is impossible But
not with God, for with God all things are possible. It's a glorious
account. We read it, don't we? And pretty
familiar with it, no doubt. And yet we see there God's mercy
and God's love to Jonah. And not only that, but God's
love to the people in Nineveh. You see, God had a purpose towards
those people in Nineveh. He had determined that Jonah
was the man who should go and preach the gospel to those people. God was very patient, wasn't
he, with Jonah. But God dealt with him in love. And then, you
see, Jonah was willing in the day of his power. And what deliverance
there was! They repented of their sins. What a glorious account it is. The love and the mercy of God
is set forth very clearly there. And what do we therefore read
here? With God, all things are possible. Well, you think of many accounts,
but let me just name perhaps a couple more. You think of Daniel. Daniel, he was a godly man. He didn't disobey God. He obeyed
God. And you would think, well, now,
surely the Lord is going to be gracious to him and deliver him
and help him and strengthen him. But no. He would not obey that which
was commanded. And the result was, as the order
was given, to throw him into the den of lions. Yes, there
wasn't a way out. He had to suffer in that way.
But you see, in that position, he proved the mercy and the power
of God. And the king was moved, the king
was concerned. He'd passed this law and how
he regretted it. He couldn't sleep because of
it. He got up early in the morning and rushed to the den of lions
and cried out, is thy God able to deliver thee? And Daniel was
able to declare, my God, has shut the lion's mouth. He's God. A testimony for the
glory of God. And therefore we should not think
that because the Lord has called us, because we are God's children,
that our path is going to be very smooth and very simple. The words of the Lord Jesus are
very applicable. It is through much tribulation
that we shall enter the kingdom. But, be of good joy, I have overcome
the world. And that really is the encouragement
to us to realise that we have a great God. For with God all
things are possible. Well, I know not of course what's
in your life, what's before you. None of us know, but one thing
we do know, and that's that we have a God. With God, all things
are possible. A wonderful truth, isn't it?
And it should encourage us as we pass along through our little
life on this earth. There may be those times when
perhaps we think, well, the Lord's arm is going out against us.
Well, it may not be so. It may be to bring honour and
glory to our God, just like it was in Daniel's case. Daniel was honourable. Daniel
honoured his God. God stood by him. God delivered
him. It would appear, prior to his
being thrown into the lion's den, there would be no hope for
him. It didn't realise, of course, that the Almighty God was the
refuge of Daniel. And of course, the Almighty God
is still the refuge of his people today. That should be a wonderful
comfort and privilege for us, for with God, all things are
possible and we may of course be fearful as we travel on through
life that the Lord will leave us, the Lord will forsake us. Well we can again look to the
Word of God and the great truths it contains especially as the
Lord says I will never leave thee nor forsake thee and therefore
we may boldly say the Lord is my helper will not fear what
man can do unto us we do fear men sometimes we have no need
to because if God is on our side we are certain of the victory
may not always come in the way that we expect may not always
come in the way that we want, but it will come in the way that
brings honour and glory to our God. And in that situation, and
in that deliverance, we will be able to come and say and prove,
yes, with God I approve, all things are possible. The impossible
has come to pass. And again, let me just revert
to our spiritual situation. Just like Manasseh, if you think
it's impossible, realise that God is merciful. And God brings
us into positions that we set forth, by experience, His grace. We're able to testify of His
amazing love that we never deserved, of His unmerited favour that
we never deserved. And we can come and say, as for
God, His way is perfect. At the time we think, perhaps
the Lord's hand is against us. But the Lord, he brought them
forth by the right way, the way that brings honour and glory
to God. They might go to a city of habitation. That's so gloriously
true of the whole Church of God. We come the right way. Yes, God never has. a wrong way. You and I have wrong ways. God
has only a right way. And God is very patient with
us. Yes, he's very gracious to us.
He doesn't deal with us as our sins deserve. He brings us along,
here a little and there a little. line upon line, line upon line,
precept upon precept. Yes, it's in that way the Lord
instructs us and teaches us so that he gets the honour and glory
and we can rejoice then in the Lord's mercy and love toward
us. Well, this evening, it's a very
simple word, isn't it? It's a good word to remember.
And Jesus, looking upon them, saith, with men, It is impossible,
but not with God. Do remember that. For with God,
all things are possible. And that means what it says.
It's comprehensive. All things are possible. So may we be amongst those who
trust in the Lord at all times and have our confidence in our
gracious God. Amen.