The dictionary defines means
to an end as any action, which is the means, carried out for
the sole purpose of achieving something else. And as he said
this morning, I do like the word decreed way better. It's the
way to get to an end. In science, they talk about causal
determinism. In physics, you have cause and
effect. It's all around us. Every day,
we come up against the fact that, for the most part, we live in
an orderly world. God has set this up in an orderly
fashion. The famous example is, if you
jump off a building, and Mr. Newton discovered the law of
gravity, he didn't invent it, God invented it, or made it,
you're going to reap the effect of that cause of gravity. There's
no doubt about it. So there are causes and there
are effects in our world and we witness that. Science tries
to define those causes and effects in the orderly universe into
laws. Sometimes they get it right and
sometimes they don't. So the laws of nature people
talk about, like gravity. The thing that is different for
those who believe in the sovereignty of God is that God is totally
in charge of what you might call the means, as well as he is totally
in charge of the end. He can either act directly on
something, I'm just gonna give you some examples of that, or
he can use a means to an end, but it's him, no matter which
way he chooses to do it. You know, the common thinking
among religionists these days is, I've got my part to do, and
then God does his part. That's common in salvation itself,
you know, I do my part, I believe, God does his part, he saves.
Well, that's totally wrong. The part that we do is also under
his total control. We know that he actually gives
the faith, which is the means for justification. So he gives
the means and he gives the effect of it. That's the difference
between us and the atheistic community or the atheistic scientific
community, is that we believe that God is in total charge of
means and ends. God normally uses orderly laws
in this universe. The other thing that we've got
to be careful about is that we are not deists. I think Thomas
Jefferson was a deist, perhaps. And deists believe that God sets
rules and laws in order and just spins the universe out on its
way or the world out on its way to do its own thing. So these people believe in a
God, they believe he made the rules and the laws, but he just
set them in motion and he said, bye-bye world, you do your thing.
I've set the law of gravity out there, I've set this and that,
and we'll just see what happens. That's exactly not what we are
because we believe that God is intimately involved in everything
that happens to us and around us every second of the day. So
he is in charge of the whole thing. God does work in normally
in these orderly ways, and we could give all kinds of examples
in science and medicine and sociology or relationships with people,
but he can, at any time he wishes, work directly on something and
not use those laws of nature or whatever, as we know from
the miracles in the Bible. Now, a miracle is a tall order
to explain, and we're not talking about that today except just
to mention it. The best way I know to describe
a miracle is that God is suspending the normal rules of the world
and working directly on something. Let's turn to Matthew 9. Let's start looking at some scripture.
Matthew 9, and as we said before, God can either use means, or
he can choose not to use means. For instance, I strongly believe
that there are no means used by God in regeneration. He acts on a person to regenerate
them, and so that's without means. Other things, he may use means.
So look in Matthew 9, let's read verses one through eight. Getting
into a boat, Jesus crossed over the sea and came to his own city.
And they brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their
faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, take courage, son, your sins
are forgiven. And some of the scribes said
to themselves, this fellow blasphemes. And Jesus, knowing their thoughts,
said, why are you thinking evil in your hearts? Which is easier
to say, your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up and walk? He
really presented them with a question there, didn't he? But so that
you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to
forgive sins, Then he said to the paralytic, get up, pick up
your bed and go home. And he got up and went home.
But when the crowd saw this, they were awestruck and glorified
God who had given such authority to men. Signs and wonders are
what accompanied the Lord Jesus the first time he came to earth.
Why the signs and wonders? The signs and wonders were to
make people understand that this was the Son of God. This was
God. And so he got people's attention
with these signs and wonders. What is a sign or a wonder except
the suspension of the normal rules in the universe to God
acting directly on something or someone? So Jesus came and
said to this paralytic, your sins are forgiven, which is the
most important miracle he can do for any of us. And the people
around thought he was blaspheming, and they could see no evidence
of sins being forgiven. So he says, okay, I'll give you
a question. Which is easier for me to say, your sins are forgiven
or get up and walk? And of course, He made the guy
get up and walk. And they saw the sign and the
wonder, and they were awestruck, the Bible says after that, that
this was the Son of God. So God works in ways without
any means to make people take notice that He is at work, more
so than otherwise. Look at an Old Testament example,
Exodus 4, 1 through 5. Obviously, the Bible is full
of miracles. We're not going to look at too many of them.
But Exodus 4 is Moses and his rod. Exodus 4, 1 through 5. This is his conversation with
God at the burning bush. Moses said, what if they will
not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, the
Lord has not appeared to you. The Lord said to him, what is
that in your hand? And he said, a staff. Then he
said, throw it on the ground. So he threw it on the ground,
and it became a serpent. And Moses fled from it. But the
Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand and grasp it by its
tail. Now anybody who knows snakes
knows you don't try to catch them by their tail, because their
head will come around and get you. So he stretched out his
hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand, that they
may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has appeared
to you. Moses, when they don't believe that I sent you, I got
something for you to do. Throw your rod down on the ground,
it becomes a snake, grab it by its tail, it becomes a rod again.
If they don't believe that God sent you after that, forget it.
So this was a sign and a wonder. This was God's direct working
on something in our universe. It's not the normal laws. It's
not the normal way things work. So God, can use means or he cannot
use means. Usually we go to doctors, we
use medicine, those are means, but we still pray that God will
use them. It's still him, the healer, he's
the great physician. Moses and the Red Sea, let's
turn to Exodus 14, 21. The parting of the Red Sea. Then Moses stretched out his
hand over the sea and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong
east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land so the
waters were divided. God chose to use a means then
of a strong east wind to part the Red Sea. Still a miracle,
that's quite a doing, but he used means to do it. The flood
to kill mankind or the ark to save Noah. Faith as a means for
justification in Romans 4. But faith is the gift of God. It's clearly the gift of God
in Ephesians 2, 8-9. So there's no problem there.
The series of events with Joseph, these were means to an end. Let
me remind you, the brothers sold him, right? Potiphar's wife went
after him in Genesis 39. And he resisted her, but she
took his cloak that she pulled off of him as he was fleeing,
and she got him sent to prison. So he's there in prison, and
he wins over all the prison officials on his charm and the way he can
lead. And then there's the cupbearer
and the baker's dreams that he interpreted for Pharaoh. Then
there's Pharaoh's dreams that nobody could interpret, but he
interpreted them because he asked God to give him the answer. And
then there's the famine and the sons of Israel coming to Egypt,
all his brothers, and he revealed himself to them. It's a marvelous
story, but it's a chain of events that God set to get to that end. Moses holding his hands up to
defeat Amalek. You remember that one? Whenever
they were in that valley and they were fighting Amalek, and
whenever Moses would hold his hands up, they would win. The Israelites would win over
the Amalekites. Whenever he let them down, they
would prevail. So he got Aaron and somebody
else to hold his hands up, he was tired, and they defeated
the Amalekites. That was a means. The series
of events to get Isaac's wife, Rebekah. You remember that in
Genesis 24? Abraham's servant was sent out,
a trip back to the home country. Go find a wife. I don't want
him marrying someone from this pagan country we're in. The test
at the spring or the well. Remember the test? His servant
said, the maid servant who comes up to the well here and says
to me, drink, when I asked her for a drink, and says to me,
drink, and I'll water your camels also, is the one for Isaac. And she came, she said those
words, and she was the one. Joshua marched around Jericho. He was told to march around Jericho
seven days. seven times. Well, six days for
seven times each, and on the seventh day, just once, and everybody
blow the trumpets and make a sound. After that one time, the walls
would fall down. Why all of this rigmarole from
God to Joshua on how to do this thing? If you can imagine, for
six days, marching around this place seven times, and then,
well, it's to glorify God. It's another one of those signs
and wonders to show his work and his handiwork. Naaman, I
love this story. Let's go to 2 Kings 5. Naaman was a pretty important
person. 2 Kings 5, 1 through 14. Let's just read this.
I want you to see the means in it. Now Naaman, captain of the
army of the king of Aram. By the way, that's Syria. That's
right in the middle of all this mess going on these days. That's
what we're talking about. Was a great man with his master
and highly respected. So he was an important guy. Because
by him, the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man was also a valiant
warrior, but he was a leper. Now the Arameans had gone out
in bands and had taken captive a little girl from the land of
Israel. And she waited on Naaman's wife.
She said to her mistress, I wish that my master were with the
prophet who is in Samaria. Then he would cure him of his
leprosy. Naaman went in and told his master, saying, thus and
thus spoke the girl who is from the land of Israel. Coincidence?
No, of course not. Then the king of Aram said, go
now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. He departed
and took with him 10 talents of silver and 6,000 shekels of
gold and 10 changes of clothes. He was going to buy his healing.
He brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, And now
as the letter comes to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant
to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy. When the king
of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, Am
I God? to kill and to make alive, and this man is sending word
to me to cure a man of his leprosy? But consider now and see how
he is seeking a quarrel against me. It happened when Elisha,
the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes,
that he sent word to the king, saying, Why have you torn your
clothes? Now let him come to me, and he
shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with
his horses and his chariots and stood at the doorway of the house
of Elisha. Elisha sent a messenger to him saying, go and wash in
the Jordan seven times and your flesh will be restored to you
and you will be clean. Evidently the Jordan wasn't terribly
clean river. I don't know why, but it was
just a little kind of dinky river. But Naaman was furious and went
away and said, behold, I thought he will surely come out to me
and stand and call on the name of the Lord, his God, and wave
his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and
Farpar the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of
Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and
went away in a rage. He applied logic to this, didn't
he? Then his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, My
father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would
you not have done it? How much more, then, when he
says to go wash and be clean? So he went down and dipped himself
seven times in the Jordan. According to the word of the
man of God, his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child,
and he was clean. He did what God told him to do
through the prophet. and he was cured, he was healed.
And that was the means, obeying God, and he got the healing. Jesus' healing. There's a lot
of healing from Jesus in the New Testament. Sometimes he would
put clay on the eyes of a person who was blind, as in John 9,
6, and 7. And sometimes he would not use
clay. No means. in Matthew 8. So, both ways, but God's work
in both cases. Light versus luminaries in Genesis
1. God made the light first, and
then he made the luminaries. This has been mentioned, I think,
by the pastor. And so the light was on one of the first days,
That's the light in between the luminaries and earth, and we
know what light years are and all that. So he made those rays
and the light waves first, then he made the luminaries later.
So the luminaries were a means to light, but he doesn't need
that. So he just made the light first. I've always thought that
was so cool. God's word to us, sometimes direct,
and the pastor mentioned this in the last couple of weeks.
The Ten Commandments were written with the finger of God on the
stone. Then Moses crashed those and had to go back and get them
again, and God wrote them again with the finger of God. Then
a hand appeared in the book of Daniel and wrote on the wall. Remember? Eeny, meeny, tickle
something. Those were God's word direct.
But for the most part, he inspired regular men to write what we've
got here as a means to what we have. And we know he directed
the means and that it's without error in the original. And so
we have God's word through means. I'd like to take you through
Acts real quick, and then just bring a few practical things
to mind, and then we're done. Look at Acts. And I want to show
you some means in Acts. Acts 1.26. And they drew lots for them,
and the lot fell to Matthias, and he was added to the 11 apostles. So to pick the 12th disciple,
apostle, they threw lots. Does that ever seem strange to
you? They did that in the Old Testament too, but God was totally
in charge of how the lots landed. And so the right person was picked
through this means. Then in chapter three, verse
16. And on the basis of faith in
his name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man
whom you see and know, and the faith which comes through him
has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all."
So faith as a means for healing, but we know the faith is from
God. In chapter eight, verses 17 and 18, then they began laying their
hands on them and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon
saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the
apostles' hands, he offered them money. So at least at this time,
the Holy Spirit came to them in this one instance through
the laying on of hands. Then in chapter nine, you've
got God using Ananias in the conversion of Paul as a means.
Then in chapter 10, you've got God using Peter in the conversion
of Cornelius to get the message to him. In chapter 12, you remember
he used prayer to release Peter from prison and the angel came.
In chapter 16, there was a vision to Paul to go to Macedonia because
other ways had been cut off from him. So he sent his direction
to Paul through a vision. In chapter 16, verse 31, believe
in order to be saved, he said to the Philippian jailer. And
in 23 verse 16, Paul escapes a plot to kill him via the son
of Paul's sister hearing about it. That's an interesting one. Then in chapters 24 and 25, you
have a really involved, complicated series of events for Paul to
get to Rome in prison there. Felix, Festus, Agrippa, shipwreck,
all these things God had ordained in steps to get Paul to Rome. Okay, so what am I trying to
say? I am just pointing out the fact that God uses sometimes
means to accomplish His sovereignty, and all those means are in His
direct control, or sometimes He will act without means, both
ways. Some practical observations in
our daily lives. If you, in general, Eat healthy,
exercise, and have a good attitude, you'll probably be healthy. Not
guaranteed, just a general observation of the rules around us. Opposite. If you abuse the sun, you're
going to get skin cancer. Right? I mean, not guaranteed,
just a kind of observation. Doctors and medicine and healing,
they're good. God'll use them, but we pray
to him to do it, not to the doctors. Now, four important things in
closing for us as Christians. Prayer, Bible study, work, and
faith. Real quick. Prayer, Matthew 7,
7. I think we know that verse. Ask,
seek, and knock. What happens if you don't ask,
seek, and knock? You might not get it. What does
he say in James? He says, you have not because
you ask not. Have you ever thought of that?
All the things that maybe we don't have just because we haven't
asked. I mean, good things, not Cadillacs,
et cetera, but the right things. He says, you have not because
you ask not. Then he went on to say, you have
not because maybe you ask with the wrong motives. So couple
that with it, asking with the right motives. That's a means.
He wants us to ask for things, then he supplies them, why? Because
it glorifies him. It pounds into our brains the
fact that God really did that. It wasn't me asking for it, he
did it. But I did ask for it, which proves
it was him that did it. Bible study, are we supposed
to just, you know, sleep on our Bibles under the pillow and we'll
understand all this stuff? Of course not. He has ordained
that he wants us to study his word, there's a lot of verses
on it, study to show that self-approved, et cetera, to know God, to know
his ways, to know his characteristics, to know him. You can't know him
without the word of God. It hasn't ever happened. Nobody
has known him who has not studied the word. So that's a meanness.
Work and eating. It says in Thessalonians to employ
a rule in the church. If people don't want to work,
they don't get to eat. Pretty tough. That's what he said. If
you're lazy, a goof off, and you don't want to work, sorry,
you're not going to eat. And that's a rule of God. Then,
we've already mentioned it several times, faith towards justification. We're not working our ways to
a justification, but faith is, as the gift of God, is the means
toward justification, just because that's the way God made it in
Romans 4. Disciples said, increase our
faith. So, there's a lot of practical stuff in the Bible about the
use of means. I think the main thing I wanted
to get across was it's not we do our part, that's the means,
and then God does his part. We earn this because we've done
this, therefore he'll do that. That is not right. The means
are the sovereign work of God as well as the end is. So yeah, it's him at work in
you to eat healthy or do whatever you do for your health. Attribute
it to him, but keep doing it because it's the means toward
that other thing in most cases.