Please almighty God to bless
us together as we meditate in his holy word this morning. Let
us turn to the gospel of Matthew chapter 19 and we'll read verse
26. The gospel of Matthew chapter
19 and reading verse 26. But Jesus beheld them and said
unto them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. This statement was in response
to that which Jesus had spoken to the disciples and the question
that they asked. And from verse 23 it tells us
what they were asking. Then said Jesus unto his disciples,
verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the
kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, 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. When his disciples
heard it, They were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can
be saved? We come then to the text. But
Jesus beheld them and said unto them, With men this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible. Well, this is really a very great
statement. It's a very wonderful statement.
It's a very true statement. But we should recognize that
although it has such wonderful implications, we should realize
that all the things perhaps that we want to happen in our lives
won't necessarily happen. And the very simple reason is
that they may not be in accordance with the will of Almighty God. And so, as Jesus said, with men
this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. And we should be encouraged by
it. And you also realise that we
need to have a right understanding and a right attitude. And you
may ask, well, I don't quite understand. Sure, that's very
clear. Well, it is very clear. But if
we just refer to the life of the Lord Jesus Christ himself,
you may remember the details of his life. And you remember
when he came down to right near the very end of it, he introduced
the Lord's Supper, which was a wonderful occasion on that
Passover night. And then he went into the garden
of Gethsemane. And in the garden of Gethsemane,
we see a little of his manhood, his weakness, and we see the
weakness of his flesh. And we see how he prayed to his
father. And it's good for us to realize
this. And in the Mark's Gospel, the
account of Mark, it is recorded in the other Gospels, but in
Mark's Gospel, and the 14th chapter and verse 36 we read this he
said, Abba Father all things are possible unto Thee you see
he recognised and realised and spoke these words all things
are possible with Thee and he asked then take away this cup
from me that means take away that which he was going to have
to pass through he was obviously aware of the sufferings which
were ahead of him. And he asked his Father in heaven
to take this cut from him. But then we come on to a very
gracious and glorious statement. And he says, nevertheless, nevertheless,
what I will, but what thou wilt. Now that very clearly sets before
us the submission to the will of God. Here was Jesus himself
speaking these words to his father and first of all confirming that
it was perfectly possible for his father to alleviate him from
this suffering which he was to go through. But of course we
should realise that it was not possible for him to be alleviated
from that terrible suffering and from that crucifixion on
the cross. It was not possible. And it was
not possible because the Lord Jesus Christ had come into this
world with that sole purpose, really, to save his people from
their sins. And so, as the disciples had
asked, who then can be saved? Well, no one could be saved,
was it not for the life and the death and the resurrection of
the glorious Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. So, this was the
divine way that had been agreed back in eternity. with Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, that the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, should
come into this world and give himself, his life, as that sufficient
sacrifice to take away, to pay the price required for the sins
of the whole Church of God. So we can see, can we not, very
clearly, it was not possible for the Blessed Saviour to not
suffer. And yet we see him here, praying
to his Father and seeing and speaking and stating this great
truth, all things are possible unto thee. Well, that's the wonderful
example we have and a wonderful reason why the Lord Jesus Christ
had to suffer and to die and to rise again and of course now
having ascended into glory to intercede for us great and glorious
and wonderful truants but nevertheless perhaps just to bring it back
to ourselves because we're living on this earth today and we have
a life to live and we may have very difficult pictures and difficult
scenes before us and we may be really concerned that God will
appear and deliver us from the condition, from the situation
which we're in. It may be with regard to natural
things in our lives, there may be mountains which we pray to
God that they'd be removed, maybe spiritual things, which again
may be mountains, and we may pray to God that they may be
removed. When it's good to be able to
come to our God, realizing that he is able to do great things,
because as the Lord said himself, but with God all things are possible. So it is possible, but you and
I don't know what God has planned for us. in our lives. See we look at the I suppose
the immediate future perhaps longer but generally speaking
the immediate future that's our concern it may be tomorrow it
may be next week it may be the next year but yet there may be
those things which we really need God to appear for us in
and it's good to realize that with God all things are possible
indeed without God Such things are not possible. Things may
just occur haphazardly, but we should realize in the case of
God's ordaining, everything is worked out to perfection. There's no errors in God's judgment. No, the Lord goes on in his great
and glorious plan smoothly. It doesn't always appear smoothly
to us, but it is. with God and his plans are being
worked out, sometimes little by little, here a little and
there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept, and yet
to realise, and this is the great blessing, that God is with us. He hasn't cast us aside. We may
think, perhaps in our little life, God's ignoring my prayers. He's ignoring my prayers. He's
not hearing my prayers. Well, first of all, he is hearing
your prayers. And secondly, he's not ignoring
your prayers. The Lord's purposes are to be
worked out. We have a statement which is
this. Your time is always. But my time
is not yet. God has a perfect time. for our deliverance, whether
it be in natural things, whether it be in spiritual things. And
what we sometimes forget to realise is that we are just one little
small cog in the great plan of God. And you see, all things
are working together. And our little cog doesn't move
until other things are in place, things that we may never really
know of. but you see the great blessing is to know that God
is in control God is in control and therefore to be able to realize
this great truth but with God all things are possible that
should encourage us encourage us to pry on and to wait for
God wait for God and sometimes of course It's not God's purpose
to bring certain things to pass. Because if he did, they might
be harmful to us. They might not do us any good. They may not be the right way. Perhaps bringing it down to a
very practical level. Obviously, you know when we're
young we're concerned about having a husband and a wife and that's
good and right and proper and I hope all of you who are still
single pray that the Lord will appear for you if it's his holy
will in these things but sometimes you know we set our minds on
certain people and we might pray very ardently and assiduously
that that person might become our wife or our husband, well
it may not be for our good. It may be that in God's providence
someone else is to be brought forward. Someone else the Lord
has defined and decreed should be for you. And it's good, therefore,
to come to God. It's not wrong to pray in such
a way that he would provide, and perhaps a certain person,
but nonetheless to come in the same way the blessed Savior prayed,
seeking the will of his Father. It's good for us, then, to seek
the will of our God, realising that what the Lord provides will
be good and will be right. And so we need to realise these
things in our natural life, and of course as well in our spiritual
life. And to not be downcast and downhearted,
because we should always remember, and this is important for us
all, to remember that the most important thing in our lives
is the health of our soul and the most important thing is to
know that by its grace we shall get safely to heaven at last
and this is the most important thing in our lives this is the
vital thing in our life because in one sense everything else
is very minor And I say that because our life is tied to time,
which has a very small limit on it. Whereas our soul is tied
to eternity, which as the word spells out, is forever. So what a blessing it is to have
a right view and a right mind in pondering and consider such
a great and glorious truth as this. But with God, all things
are possible. Well, we've jumped into the text
this morning. Perhaps we could just go back
a couple of paces, as it were, and go back to what the Word
of God tells us about the greatness of this God. Doing all things,
all things are possible. And we can think of that, can
we not, with regard to the creation of the world, something today
which is mocked and ridiculed, but it's good to know that the
Word of God instructs us in these things. And perhaps sometimes
it occurs in places that you and I don't always recognize. And in the prophecy of Jeremiah,
there's a very wonderful and strong statement which is an
encouragement to us. I hope it is, and it's in the
32nd chapter and the 17th verse, and this is what we read. Jeremiah
says, oh, Lord God. It's good, isn't it, to come
in that kind of way? Realizing, yes, we come to the
great God. Oh, Lord God. Behold, thou hast
made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched
out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee. Well, revelation
to Jeremiah. He was blessed to accept this
great and glorious truth and influenced by the Holy Spirit
to write it down for our encouragement today to realize this is true. We worship this great God where
nothing is impossible. And again, that brings it into
a good context, doesn't it? If we think of the creation of
the universe and the world and everything within it. I think
that God just spoke these things into being. Just spoke them into
being. Power of God. It's wonderful,
isn't it? That's why it's good to read
such a simple, short text like this in Jeremiah 32 verse 17. Behold, thou hast made the heaven
and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm. Let us
never underestimate the power of God. The power of God in the
small things in our life. in the great things of the universe.
It's all under God's control. What a great God we have, what
a wonderful God we have, and what a blessing that we have
such a God. And then, just moving on through
time, the history of the world, to that great day when the angel
came and appeared to Mary, forecasting and telling her of that which
would occur, that she would conceive and bear a son and he should
be called Jesus. Well, this is what we're thankful
to know as the angel spoke to Mary and said this, for with
God, nothing shall be impossible. OK, naturally for Mary as a virgin
to conceive was impossible. And that's why God in his great
sovereignty, and it's good to trace out these things, you see,
God didn't just let Mary get on with it. He came and told
her by the angel exactly what the situation was, she would
conceive, and also to make known to her this great truth that
with God nothing shall be impossible. While that was true then, and
it's as true today in our lives, nothing is impossible. So we're thankful indeed that
in God's great mercy and love toward us, such words are recorded
for our encouragement and for the strengthening of our faith. I'm sure you remember the account
of Job. Job was a man of God. We're told so, and he was just
and upright. And yet God allowed Job to suffer
greatly. And it's put there for our instruction. The case of Job, there's a lot
written about him from his friends and also his responses. It's good to realize that. When
we come right down to the very end of the book of Job, it's
where Job has been convinced of the greatness of God. And having made excuses and having
complained, he comes down right to the end, the last chapter,
chapter 42, in the first two verses. This is Job speaking. Just listen to what he says.
I know. I know. It's good for us when
God convinces us and we're able to say, I know that thou canst
do everything. Everything. Again, it's good
to understand that. Thou canst do everything. And
that no thought can be withholden from thee. You know, I expect
we read these things, we may have read them very often. I
know Job's not read very often, it should be, but it's a very
instructive book. But to think of this, here, here,
he says to God, God having revealed it to him, that, he says, he
knew that God can do everything, everything that you and I can
observe with our eyes, and then he goes a lot deeper. And he
says, and no thought, can be withholden from thee." What an
important statement that is. To realise, as we're here today,
you know, we've all been sitting in chapel, haven't we? For, I
don't know, almost an hour. And what's happened? Have we
been just thinking about what we've been speaking about? Or
has our mind wandered off here and wandered off there? Well,
God knows. God knows what you've been thinking
about. And God knows whether it's been
good or whether it's been evil, whether it's been righteous or
whether it's been unrighteous. You know, if we understood this
a bit more and appreciated it a bit more, our times of worship
would surely be far more beneficial and far more profitable because
we would be on the stretch to hear what God the Lord is speaking
to us it's not just the words of a man not just the words of
a man it's the words from Almighty God speaking to our heart and
what a great blessing it is there for to know these things well
we have you know many amazing statements and many amazing truths
which are recorded in the Word of God to instruct us I read
this morning the little book of Daniel and that's a very wonderful
book to read and if you read it and think of it how those
things which were impossible with men were possible with God
two outstanding instances to strengthen us remember those
three men Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who were cast into the
burning fiery furnace because They would not obey the law of
the land because it was contrary to the Word of God. And of course,
God granted a wonderful, a wonderful deliverance. If you read that
account, you will find out that they were thrown into that burning
fire furnace and the king was so irate that he instructed the
men to heat the furnace seven times hotter. It was pretty hot
to start with. And seven times hotter is an
amazing increase in temperature. And we're told it was so hot
it slew the men that threw those three men into the furnace. It
was so hot. And yet, and yet, the fire didn't
have any effect on those men. And when they came out of the
furnace, you couldn't even smell. that they've been in the furnace
there was no fire smell on them and if you've been around a bonfire
you'll know how smelly that is and how that smell goes into
you very very quickly and yet there was no smell and the fire
had no effect on them it's just a digressing a moment it's just
interesting sometimes to think that we're told when the end
of the world comes which it will everything will be burnt up there
will be an amazing heat generated from probably what's there already
and coming down from above an amazing heat and you would think
therefore well sure it's got what's going to happen to the
people on the earth what's going to happen to them are they going
to be all burnt up well just remember that in this case of
those three men the fire had no effect upon them So it could
be that you and I, if we are on the earth, when that happens,
or resurrected, all the heat of the earth, all the heat of
that fire may not have any effect upon us. So the Lord gives us
sometimes these little pictures in the Word of God to instruct
us and direct us. Well, there was a wonderful position
there. With men it was impossible, but
With God, all things are possible. And these men were wonderfully
delivered. In that same book, of course, I'm sure you're familiar
with, especially youngsters are familiar with Daniel in the lion's
den. Again, a very similar situation.
There was Daniel, standing firm for the truth of God, not being
fettered, and still able to pray to his God, not worried what
the outcome was, and therefore, He continued to pray against
the law of Darius the king, who foolishly made a wrong law. And
as a result, he was thrown into the lion's den. And we know that
there was no effect. They didn't touch him. They didn't
touch him all night. The king was pretty distraught.
And he didn't sleep all night and got up early in the morning
and rushed to the lion's den and said, is thy God able to
deliver thee? And Daniel was able to call back
and say, yes, the Lord has delivered me, and shut the lion's mouth. Well, that was a wonderful deliverance.
You may say, well, the lions are probably very sleepy, and
well, they weren't too worried about him. Well, we're told Daniel
was taken out of the lion's den, and all the men had thrown Daniel
into the lion's den, were then thrown in themselves and the
lions killed them before they even came to the bottom of that
place so we see the power of the lions and we see here again
the wonderful deliverance of Almighty God but with men this
is impossible but with God all things are possible so we should
be very very encouraged to know that today we have the same Almighty
God. Well, there's many evidences
and many miracles in the Word of God that you and I can look
at and trace out and confirm to us the greatness of this truth
with God all things are possible. But let me just pass on now to
that which we began with which really is the spiritual aspect
and to realize the relevance of it and the importance about
it. And surely this is an answer
with regards to a soul being saved. Who then can be saved? Perhaps you and I have asked
that question. Perhaps there may be some here
this morning, or one here this morning, who may be concerned
whether they can be saved. Whether it's possible that they
can be saved. when they can be delivered from
their sins. You see, perhaps sometimes when
we're younger, perhaps when we're older also, we do those things
and we say those things which we regret greatly in our life
which follows. But the Lord sometimes allows
these things. Allow these things so that we
are delivered from them and we give praise and honour to Almighty
God. Now the Apostle Paul was wonderfully
delivered, wasn't he, in his life. Remember how he thought
he was doing God's service. In actual fact, he was doing
the devil's service. He was committing men and women
to prison because they believed in the law of Jesus Christ. Well,
God had mercy on him in a most remarkable way. You see, in his
case, It wasn't, man wasn't used in his conversion, but God gloriously
spoke to him on the Damascus road and cut him down, cut him
down. And it had a wonderful effect
upon him, a wonderful effect. Now, we might say in a lesser
extent, I'm a bit careful using that word because really every
work of grace is a great work, and we shouldn't underestimate
God's work in our lives. Well, when the Apostle wrote
to the Ephesians, because the Apostle was a great evangelist,
and he really desired that people would hear the Word of God, that
was his work and that was his concern. And in the Ephesians,
in the third chapter, we read this. The Apostle says, that is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the
power that worketh in us." It's good just to pause and realise
what great truth this is. And what does it do? It shows
us the greatness of God. As I often say, let us never
underestimate the greatness of God. Now unto Him, Him alone,
that is able, God is able. Again, never doubt the ability
of God. He is able. That's why these words are true.
But with God, all things are possible. He is able. And so in this case here, able
to do what? Exceeding abundantly above all
that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in
us now you may say well what is that actually? well the power
of God worketh in us is to shine into our hearts the great and
glorious light of the gospel and to show to us Our need of
a Saviour. The need to be forgiven of our
sins. The light shines and shows us
how we stand before a holy God as a guilty sinner. A sinner deserving eternal punishment. And it's the power of God that
does that. It's the power of God. You and
I can read about these things. And it's good to read about these
things, but my friends, it's when the application comes from
the Holy Spirit of God, the power of God, it's above all that we
ask or think according to the power that worketh in us, within
our heart, the power of God. Well, this morning, my friends,
can you look into your heart and see there the work of God,
the power of God, bringing you to an understanding
of your need, bringing you to cry to God for mercy. Pray to God that he will save
your soul, that he will redeem you. and being given faith to
believe that He is able and that He is willing doubt no more,
says the hymn writer and in this quotation in Ephesians the Apostle
goes on in verse 21 through the third chapter to say this unto
Him unto Him no one else man has to disappear
Unto Him, great God, be glory in the Church of Jesus
Christ throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Well, this was written some 2,000
odd years ago, but it's still true today, and it will remain
true. And it's a wonderful truth for us to understand the greatness
of it. Unto Him, be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout
all ages, world without end. And my friends, our salvation,
our conversion brings glory to God. And it brings glory to God
because the work of the Holy Spirit has shone into our black
and dark and lifeless heart and given to us to understand and
to see the glorious plan of salvation, and the hope we have of the great
and wonderful gift of eternal life. What a mercy that is, if
today we can come and rejoice in that. And so we have this
statement, but with God, all things are possible. All things
are possible. And then just going on to when
Paul wrote to the Hebrew church, the Jewish nation, and to the
church of God, it's a wonderful book to read and retire of reading
the Hebrews. And in the seventh chapter and
the 25th verse, the apostle says this, Speaking about the greatness
of God. Greatness of God. Wherefore. That refers to obviously what's
spoken before. Wherefore he is able. God is able. Praise God for that. To save them to the uttermost. There's no sinner too bad. No sinner too evil. So no sinner
too hard-hearted no sinner too rebellious He is able to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him You see in a
few words it spells out the glorious pattern of scripture to direct
us to the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ that come unto God by
Him The only way, the truth and the life, the Lord Jesus Christ,
seeing he ever liveth, what for? To make intercession for them. What a mercy, isn't it? As you
and I, as black undone sinners, can come to God through the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. who takes our prayers and presents
them to our Father in Heaven. And as the hymn writer says,
it's Him instead of us he's seen as we approach to God. What a
great and glorious Saviour we have. And so this word is wonderfully
true, but with God. with God, all things are possible. Never underestimate the power
of Almighty God. It's a very wonderful and strengthening
truth to realize. And as I thought upon these words,
I looked to the 25th Psalm, which is a very lovely little psalm.
We're not quite so little, but anyway, it's a Psalm of David
and he starts, off with these words unto thee oh lord do i
lift up my soul why was david saying that oh my god i trust
in thee let me not be ashamed and let
not my enemies triumph over me Well, if you and I come to our
God believing, believing that with this God all things are
possible, which they are, let's never underestimate, let's never
not believe that great truth. Yet, you see, to come, as David
says, he trusted, I trust in thee. Again, if we come to God
believing like this, do we come trusting that he will deliver
us that he will redeem us, that he will take away all our sins,
that he will bring us safely home to glory at last. This is the great God who can
do all things. With him, all things are possible. And sometimes you and I may look
into our hearts and see so much evil there. We think, can ever
I be saved? That's the question. Yes. By
the grace of God, we can because God has loved us. Not that we
loved God, but that he loved us. An unworthy sinner. Not worthy of any notice. Deserving
to be cast out. Thrown onto the dunghill as it
were. And yet you see the mercy of God which is from everlasting
to everlasting. And I think the great blessing
is the Lord has loved us and because he's loved us, this word
is so gloriously true in our case, but with God all things
are possible. And then he says, yea, let none
that wait on thee be ashamed. Let them be ashamed which transgress
without cause. Show me thy ways, O Lord. Teach
me thy paths. Well, that comes back to what
I said at the beginning. We shouldn't always assume that
what we want is the right way. Show me thy paths. Show me thy
paths, O Lord. Show me the way that I should
go. And then he says, and teach me thy paths. Sometimes we're
very slow at learning, you know. Very slow at learning. The Lord
graciously teaches us and shows us. We might think, oh well that's
good, I won't make that mistake again. Very soon we make the
same mistake. We're very foolish. That's why
we should be thankful that we have that glorious statement
in the first chapter, the first epistle of Peter. kept by the
power of God, through grace, under salvation, ready to be
revealed in the last time. This is the great and glorious
God that we have. Oh friends, this morning, may
we rejoice then in the Word of God. These are the words of Jesus
which are on record for you and me today to be encouraged and
strengthened, but just realize the breadth and depth of such
words. With men this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible so my friends however far off
you may feel to be perhaps at the ends of the earth
at the ends of the earth he is able he's able to save he's able
to save because with God all things are possible. He can deliver you. He does deliver
and he will deliver the Church of God. Again, just going back
to the historical accounts and the Word of God, think of that
wonderful time when David stood before the king before he went
and fought Goliath. And he was able to come and tell
the king because the king doubted of his ability and he's able
to refer to the fact that he killed a lion and a bear and
he went on and said and God he is able to deliver me from this
uncircumcised Philistine he had his confidence in Almighty God
and it may be and it's good if there are things in your life
of which the Lord has appeared for you the Lord has answered
prayer And don't despise the day of small things. And the
Lord has answered prayer. May that, therefore, encourage
you to believe that he will answer prayer and remember this great
truth, but with God all things are possible. Yes, they are.
And therefore, remember the wonder and greatness of our God. And
in this 25th Psalm, there's a very wonderful verse. And verse 14,
it says, The secret of the Lord. God knows everything. The secret
of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them
his covenant. He will show you the glorious
covenant, order all things in sure, the security and the safety
of a true believer. This is a grand and glorious
truth. Well, my friends, the whole Word
of God is wonderful, but what a mercy it is that the Lord,
in His grace and favour, has granted such great truths to
be recorded as this. So, we may have come this morning,
cast down, we may have thought, well, God never hears my prayers. God never answers my prayers.
God just ignores me. Well, just remember the words
of Jesus in answer to this question, who then can be saved? Jesus
said, with men, natural man, it's impossible, but with God. That's the secret, but with God,
all things are possible. To God be the glory. Amen.