The Hand of God

Well, join me this morning in the book of Acts, chapter 11. I was touched by the lesson this morning, as Brother Mike was bringing that. I thought I knew something about trees. until I moved here. We had trees around our house. Dad had an orchard. He had apricots and prunes and apples and didn't have any oranges or grapefruit. It was a little too cold for that kind of, but I thought I knew something until I moved here and I was taken out into the cherry orchards and Brother Mike gave me a tour one time and he pointed out on that tree next year's fruit. There's a spot on that tree where next year's fruit will come out. And that tree, by nature, is going to bring fruit out at that tree right there.

And then it struck me, I used to think I was real poor because I had to grow up on a farm. I didn't get to grow up in town where there was a movie theater and a bowling alley and all of the other ruckus that goes with it, you know. I had to grow up on a farm and it was very isolated. But I think of the experiences that I had on that farm and sometimes I just say, thank you, Lord.

And one of them came to mind this morning in that lesson. I remember my mother, forgive me if this offends you, butchering a chicken. And I got to observe it. Now, I was not much into the bloodletting. I was curious though. I liked the chicken after it was in the fry pan.

But she was butchering that chicken and it happened to be a hen. She was doing some culling and it was a hen. And she opened that chicken up and here's an egg in it. And then there's one in a soft one of the soft shells that didn't quite have the shell on it. And then there was a yolk. And my mother pointed out a skein in there that every egg that chicken was ever going to lay or not lay was put in that chicken at birth.

It grew up that way. And it just struck me how God gives us a new birth. He is working in us both to do and to His good pleasure. It's a birth gift. And that's why Brother Mike read that passage over there in Galatians. It is the fruit of the Spirit.

And the moment that we begin to think that our works, and that's part of my message this morning because I don't know how many people I've got acquainted with and how many people you may have heard say in their preparing for their end, preparing for death, they will say, I hope my good works outweigh my bad works when I meet God. It's not going to work that way because there is no good work outside of Christ. All right.

Join me as we look here in the book of Acts chapter 11. And I'd like to read verses 19, 20 and 21 because we have in this passage of scripture that the results of the persecution that followed the death of or the martyrdom of Stephen. We kind of get to go back a little bit and be refreshed in what was going on after the events that we've noticed here in the previous chapters.

In this verse the scripture says, Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenicia, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only. Preaching the word, underlining that. And then in verse 20, and some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, or the Gentiles, preaching the Lord Jesus. And verse 21, the results of that preaching, the hand of the Lord was upon them, and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. So here we have the preaching going out here. In one verse of Scripture, it says it was preaching the Word. And in the next verse of Scripture, we have preaching the Lord Jesus. Now last week, we mentioned the most important word in all the Bible. The most important word is God. It's not us. It's not our works. It's not even grace. The most important word in all the Bible is God.

And we looked at a few verses in the Old Testament in particular that shares with us as God reveals Himself to us the different aspects, the different flavors about Himself that He has on our behalf. We read there in the Old Testament that He is mentioned as God Most High. He wanted the readers of the Old Testament to understand that when they're reading about the most important word in the Bible, God, that He is the God Most High.

There is no higher God. There's no greater God. He is the Great God. And we also found out that He's the Everlasting God. Explaining that is a difficult thing because we're caught in time, but He is the everlasting God. He is from everlasting to everlasting. There's never been, and I have to use a word that God isn't bothered with, there's never a time when God was not. We use that word because we're just caught in it. But God summed it up this way. A day with the Lord is a thousand years, and a thousand years is as a day. You know what? That's the same word that's found over there in the book of Revelation, about a thousand year reign. It's just not long enough. It's a term used to give an inexact number to something, and we are privileged to see in the gospel of the Old Testament, the gospel of the New Testament, a God that has ever reigned.

He never has to acquire reigning. He has always been the God that reigned. He is the Lord of all the earth. He is the controller and one who runs this world. It is like a mighty clock that has so many parts in it that He is the designer of, the creator of, and the one who put it into motion. And as we read, Herb read on Wednesday night, a verse of scripture in the book of Ecclesiastes. There's one generation comes and another one goes, but the earth will last forever. I thought, that's an interesting thought, isn't it? God has this world in His absolute control at all times. He is the Lord God of all the earth. He is called the Savior. He's called the Redeemer. He's called the Lord Our Righteousness, and He's called the Lord of Hosts. What an almighty God.

And that is who these guys were declaring when they went to the Jews only or to the Grecians. They were not talking about a God that is trying to get something done. I have in my pocket something that someone gave to me some years ago and he thought he was doing me a favor. Life through Christ, all you have to do is follow these five simple rules And what a lie. There's nothing about the greatness of God ever brought out in this. There's nothing about a God that saves his people. There's nothing about shed blood for sheep. There's nothing about all of those things.

It is a lie, and it is captured in many different forms. If you have some of this, do what I do, throw it in your laugh file, because that's all it's worth. It's laughable if it wasn't so bad. Alright, as we look here, we find out, as Brother Lauren was there in Romans chapter 3 this morning, just prior to that is a list of how God finds us in this world. It's a terrible list. You know, we may be dealing with Sweet Aunt Tilly. I was at my brother's funeral many years ago, almost 20 years ago, and the conversation about my grandmother came up.

And she was a sweet lady. You know what God saw her as? A sinner. A sinner that never bowed. a sinner that never confessed, a sinner that did not believe that God was in charge, that she was in charge. Now, I dealt with grandma, a sweet grandma. God deals as we find there in the book of Romans.

We find there that she was dead in trespasses and sin, that she was a sinner before God in every capacity, not one part of her being. was worthy of comment in the presence of God about being good. Her words were wrong, her activity was wrong, and she may have been the sweetest person in this world to me. But when it came to God, God looked at her as the chiefest of sinners, because in that realm, that's what she was. You know, as we read in the scriptures, and we alluded to this last week, turn with me, if you would, over to the book of John chapter 11. In John chapter 11, we find that we must have a God that is almighty and a God that has the rule over death.

We also mentioned last week that you'll never find a charlatan, a faith healer, at a mortuary. There's no hope of them doing anything for the person that is dead. They may think the highest amount of that person, but they can't do anything about it. We are in desperate need of someone who can deal with that problem, and that problem is death, and God is dealing with people that are dead. We are preaching to people by nature that are dead, but we can't do a thing about it. We cannot call on them to get out of their situation. We leave that to God.

That's why we read over there, the hand of the Lord was with them. And we'll get to that point in just a moment. But in the book of John chapter 11, verse 13, let me get there. John chapter 11, verse 39. Here's the problem, and you can't make it better. Those people who came to the Lord's tomb early the first day of the week came for a purpose to take care of this problem. This man stinketh. Now that's Lazarus. That's the truth about the matter. Now Jesus had been in that tomb for three days and they came with spices and flowers and all kinds of things to make his body smell better.

And when they got there, they were shocked, because the stone was already rolled away, and the angel announced, ìHe is not here, but He is risen.î They were not expecting that, but God blessed them with that great activity of His resurrection. Now, notice here in John 11, verse 39, Jesus said, ìTake away the stone, Martha the sister of Ib, that was dead.î We're looking here, and we're seeing a physical death, but this is such a picture of what God deals with in saving us from our spiritual death. We died in Adam, and it was a serious death that we cannot get out of.

We may be in our own minds a sweet sister Tilly. We may be in our own minds a sweet, dear person. But when it comes to God's view, that's the only view that makes a difference. How do we appear in the eyes of God? We're either appearing before God, the eyes of God, as we are by nature, without help, without hope, and without God in the world, dead in trespasses and sin, or we stand alive in Christ Jesus alone. That's the only two places that we can be. We are alive in Christ Jesus, we are alive because of God, we're alive because He has raised us from the spiritual dead, or we're dead in trespasses and sin.

That's where he finds us. All right, notice this. He says, take away the stone. Martha said he's dead. Saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days. Well, by this time, natural man has been dead at least 6,000 years. We're not getting any better. We pass it on.

Goes on to say, Jesus saith unto her, said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God. You know, there's a lot of thought about us believing. He tells her she's a believer and she believes that in the resurrection of the last day, she will see him in his glory. She believes that. What is our faith? What's that word? If thou believest, wouldest believe. What is our faith?

The Bible tells us that if we had faith as a grain of mustard seed, we could say to Mount Hood, be ye removed, and it would be gone. The grain of mustard seed. Have you ever seen a mustard seed? It's not much. What is He telling us in that verse of scripture?

He's telling us that by nature we don't have faith. We can't muster enough faith. We can't get a grain of mustard seed faith. I hear people say, Oh, they don't have much faith. You don't have any faith. I don't have any faith unless it's given to us by Him who said, There in the book of Hebrews, chapter 12, he is the author and finisher of our faith. Depend on his faith and his faith alone because our faith can't move a mouse mole, a mouse hill.

It's nothing. It can't accomplish anything. All right, it goes on to say here, verse 41, they took away the stone from the place. And then in verse 42, I know that thou hearest me always. And then verse 43, here we have someone who can take care of the problem. We need a Resurrector. We need someone who can take care of a huge problem that we inherited from Adam and we multiplied by our own sin. He said there in that verse of scripture, then he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth.

Now, what would have happened if Norm had have said that at that tomb? Nothing. What would have happened if you had have said something at that tomb? Nothing. What would have happened if some of the great preachers of all time had said something at that tomb? Nothing would have happened.

Why? Because we don't have the power to do that. And then we have people passing out stuff like this saying, you have the power to win people to Jesus. My friend, you don't have the power to do that because we don't have the power to move. We don't have mustard seed power. It's God.

All right, Lotus says, Lazarus came forth, and verse 44, and he that was dead came forth. And the people around there, many of them said, oh, my goodness, I better go report this to the Pharisees. And others said, oh, my goodness, here's God. in our midst, that raised this our brother, this our friend from the dead. We could go over to the Old Testament, to the book of Ezekiel chapter 37, but I'm just going to recount that because we want, for time's sake. God talked to a preacher and took him down to a valley of bones and said, can these bones live?

That preacher had been given wisdom by God, and in his wisdom by God, he said, God, you know. That's all he said. Thou knowest? That's a smart answer, isn't it? Did he have that answer on his own? No way in this world. He knew that the only way that this could happen is somebody had to have power to do this.

Now, this is a wreck down here. the Valley of Dry Bones. In many respects, it's worse than Lazarus. There's no flesh, there's no muscle, there's nothing. It's just a valley of dry bones. So let's see who's able to do something here. Well, we follow that out and we find out that he called on Ezekiel to preach to that valley of dry bones. Can they live? Only you know. He preached to that valley of dry bones. The spirit came and there was a resurrection that took place there of all the army of Israel. Who did that? Not Ezekiel. He was an instrument in God's hand to preach the gospel to that group of dead, dry bones, and God did the miracle there.

In preaching the word, we find out that God must be preached in His greatness and might, that He never attempted to do anything, but He's always going to do what He said He would do. He has never tried to do anything, and He's dealing with a problem that you and I cannot deal with, even in ourselves. We cannot do enough good works to get us out of the problem we're in, because we're dead in trespasses and sin. We need someone who can raise the dead. We can't do it, the preacher can't do it, and the deacon can't do it, and nobody can do it.

Even the greatest preachers that have ever preached. Saul of Tarsus, the Apostle Paul realized that's out of his realm. We have him speaking a great deal by the Holy Spirit in the books that he was used to be the secretary for. He's the one that came and gave all that greatness to our view of God. Well, going back to the book of Acts chapter 11, there in verse 21, we find after God has mentioned all of this and how great He is and the problem He's dealing with, we have to come to a conclusion that God had to have a plan ahead of time. He's not caught short. He's not looking for plan B. He didn't look at the fall and He didn't look at our sin and say, well, now I need to do something about it. Way too late.

We look into the scriptures and we find that God had his eye on this problem before the foundation of the world and before he created Adam and Eve. He had already had a lamb slain. He already had a son that was going to be a lamb, the lamb of God which taketh away our sin.

Already purposed in the covenant of grace. All beforehand, it was there. God was not going to go to plan B. He had plan A and he's gonna carry it out. He permitted. He may have purposed. I've been found fault with for saying he purposed the fall, but it's exactly what he did, that he might demonstrate his grace.

He sent His Son. Now, when Jesus, it tells us with this, dealing with this, the Lord Jesus came on purpose to this earth. The Lord Jesus came down here with a mission in mind. And prior to His going to the cross, He performed some things that demonstrate that He is that great God of the Old Testament. He is the Son of God. He is the great God. He's the Messiah. He's the only one that can deal with the sin problem that natural man has.

Here in the book of Acts chapter 11, if you turn there with me, Acts chapter 11 and verse 21, we notice here in this verse of scripture, Acts chapter 11 and verse 21, we notice that God did something. Just the declaring was not going to get the job done, but it's required. God has required that the gospel be preached. before He will save anybody. He's not just going to go randomly plucking people out of their existence and say, praying, I've saved you.

He has prescribed they must hear the gospel of God's grace. They must hear the gospel of His greatness. They must hear the gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ came to die for sinners. They must hear this. God has prescribed it to be that way. They must hear the gospel. And it must be the truth of the gospel.

I've been reading about some of the preachers that we have today that they were saved by a false gospel. They were saved by their free will. They were saved by their own ability And then down the road a ways, they saw the great doctrines of grace and accepted them. You know what? You're not gonna have salvation based upon a false gospel. It's going to be the gospel of God's grace. It's not our choice. It is his choice of us. All right, what does it say here in verse 21?

And the hand of the Lord was with them. What does that mean? One translation puts it this way, and the power of the Lord was with them. When we look at this, this word hand applied to God symbolizing His might, His activity, His power, His rule, His sovereignty. That's what this word means. It is the power of God. It's the might of God. It's the act of God. It is the rule of God. It is the sovereignty of God that He is able to do this.

It is the hand of God that blessed the preaching of God's Word, and there were going to be many, it tells us, that were saved. Turn with me, if you would, to the book of Matthew chapter 8, and we have this same word used over here in the book of Matthew chapter 8 and verse 3, this word hand, this power of God, this might of God demonstrated by His very hand. The hand of the Lord was with them. Notice here in the book of Matthew chapter 8, And verse 3, it says, and Jesus put forth his hand and touched him.

Now this man may have been touched by hundreds of people, but this man touched him, what does it say? And the leprosy, and immediately his leprosy was cleansed. I will be thou clean, and immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Now he may have been touched by a hundred different people, but they could not deal with the problem, and that was his leprosy. This man, when he touched him with his hand, was able to say be you clean and immediately the leprosy was gone. Leprosy in those days was the worst thing you could get. They would have called it like we call it, the big C, only it was a big L. It was something you didn't want, and if you had it, you were not going to get rid of it, except this man. Jesus put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. Now, that man was cleansed by Almighty God, the Lord Jesus Christ, by his will, his will. not the man's. Immediately the leprosy was cleansed.

Turn with me if you would over to the book of Isaiah chapter 53. In Isaiah chapter 53 we have this, this word about the hand of God. In Isaiah chapter 53, join me there. in Isaiah chapter 53, what a chapter this is, what a glorious statement about God, how it sums up so much of the Old Testament and sums up the New Testament, the activity of God. Here is a lamb personified, a lamb that has become a person to these folks. Here in the book of Isaiah chapter 53, and there I believe it's verse six, it says, verse one, Verse six, oh, no. Yeah, thank you.

Verse 10, I forgot to put the zero. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Who bruised him? He hath put him to grief. Who brought him to grief? When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. Whose soul was an offering for sin? He shall see his seed. Who's that? That's the church. He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. What power we have as the Lord demonstrates it here, the hand of the Lord was with them.

And in Isaiah chapter 59, would you turn there with me? Isaiah chapter 59 and verse 1. Isaiah 59 verse 1 behold the Lord's hand is not Shortened that it cannot save neither is ear heavy that he cannot hear It was the hand of God's providence that brought those folks together God's power to bring them together.

It was the hand of God's mercy that they were permitted to hear the Word of God and It was the hand of God's power that allowed them to hear God's word and that they could hear it. It was the hand of God's grace that attended the preaching of God's word. What was the result? That preaching came not in word only. It was the hand of God, it was the power of God, it was the demonstration of God, and it tells us there that the word of those folks that preached the gospel to whether they were Jews or Gentiles, it did not come in word only, but it came in power and in demonstration of the Spirit. Turn with me to the book of 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse 5. 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse 5, we read this as Paul was riding to the church at Thessalonica For our gospel, 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse 5, our gospel came not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as we know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.

What a blessing it was when they preached to those Jews, and they preached to those Gentiles, and the hand of the Lord was with them, and many of those folks God saved by His grace. How sad it is today when we read of people that say, I'm going to have to help God because he's not quite getting the job done.

Yeah. We're going to have to create a way to help God. And I grew up in a church where it was this, long altar calls. Yeah, many verses of Just As I Am or some verse like it. Now, the words of Just As I Am are good words, but it has been maligned. We got to help God.

He's not getting the job done. We're going to help God by having a a long altar call and try to get people to think about psychologically the problem that they're in. Another thing is simplifying the gospel so it's only four or five questions answered with yes or no answers, and then the people are declared saved. That's not the hand of the Lord.

The hand of the Lord does something for people. It is great and mighty. God's salvation is great and mighty. We find out that Jonah was caused to write there in the great fish's belly, salvation is of the Lord. You know, I heard someone yesterday preach and said, do you know what the end of the sentence on that sentence is? Salvation is of the Lord. What's at the end of that sentence? Period. Salvation is of the Lord. Period. He is the one that is absolutely in charge. And if you'll turn with me to the book of Acts chapter 11 again. Acts chapter 11. And there in verse 21. Acts chapter 11 and verse 21, the hand, the power, the might, the greatness of the Lord.

And that's a situation that we never find the apostles or disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ ever looking at that word L-O-R-D in a lesser sense than it means. They always recognize the fact that He is the Lord. That's what the word means. The hand of the Lord was with them.

And now what happened? A great number believed and turned unto the Lord. I read an article or part of an article yesterday about a guy who was a super soul winner here in America many, many years ago. And in his last years, he said probably 90% of those who made a profession of faith had fallen away. You know what?

God's people don't fall away. God's salvation is so great that even in the end of our days, it gets better and better. That's what it's for, eternal life. It is for eternal view of God. So this thought that falling away, that's for those who have never believed.

In the book of Acts chapter 13, we find again the very number of folks Acts chapter 13 verse 48, the very number of folks that believe there as a result. Now the number is not mentioned in the book of Acts chapter 11 there in verse 21. It says a great number believed. In Acts chapter 13 and verse 48 it tells us the exact number of those who believed. in Acts chapter 11 and verse 21. It says in Acts chapter 13 verse 48, when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. Now we have the number mentioned. How many?

As many as were ordained to eternal life believed. That's how many were saved on that day when that preaching went on to Jews and Gentiles alike. Those that were ordained to eternal life, they're the ones that believed. Don't look at that and say, well, they believed and then they were ordained to life. That's backwards. They that were ordained to eternal life. What does that mean? It means God had a plan ahead of time. It means that all of the things that were going to be taking place in natural man's life, he's already prepared for it.

He was going to send a preacher. He already had a gospel. He's going to send a preacher. You know, Noah is declared in the New Testament as a preacher of righteousness. He was a preacher there and he was building an ark. We have that Abel was a preacher.

You know, he demonstrated he had a great need. His brother didn't have any need, but he had a great need. And his great need was he needed a substitute. He's not going to be able to be God-friendly without a substitute. He needed a lamb. And he demonstrated that by taking the best out of the flock and offering that lamb as a sacrifice. And his brother was really put out at that.

Abel believed that you must have a Lamb. And that Lamb was the Lamb of God. That Lamb of God was prepared from the foundation of the world. We go down to Noah, we go down to Abraham, we go down through all of the Old Testament patriarchs, and we find out that those folks believed that the declaration of the gospel was necessary and that God would save His people from their sins.

And He did. Great illustration. All the preaching that went on in Noah's day for how many years? Many years. What was the result of his preaching? You know, to most preachers and most congregations, they would never have a preacher that after that long, they only had eight converts and one of them was the preacher. They'd fire him on the spot. They say, we're not going to put up with that. You need to do a better job. We're going to get you another card. But you know what?

Noah pleased God. And he was a preacher of righteousness. And there were eight people, including him, on that ark. And how many were outside of that ark? How many were given the opportunity to come in that ark and didn't heed that? I don't know. Thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions were outside of that ark. They did not want the ark. They were good enough as it was. They didn't want Christ. Story we have today. Who is able to change that?

Almighty God, the hand of the Lord was with them and they that believed followed Jesus all the way. They found out it wasn't their faith, it wasn't their works, it wasn't their ability, it wasn't anything that belonged to them. It was God and His great mercy that He loved him. As we go through, we find this thing going throughout the Bible, the same truths were preached, the same reaction was made, and those that were ordained to eternal life believed. Who made all the difference?

God. All those in the graveyard of sin and death the Lord intended to save believed. When he was here, he's dealing with a graveyard. When he left, he promised that there would be a number that no man could number out of every kindred people and tribe and tongue that would bow before him. their knees would bow, their voices would agree in one, hail to God. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. So, as we look there, going back to the book of Acts chapter 11 for just a moment, Acts chapter 11, it says there, Verse 21, the hand of the Lord was with them.

A great number believed and turned unto the Lord. It was the preaching of the gospel of a God that can save. Then tidings of these things came to the ears of the church, which was in Jerusalem. And they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch. And when he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad and exhorted them all. that with purpose of heart they would conclave unto the Lord. For he was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and much people was added unto the Lord. Who added them? The Lord."

Well, what a revival took place in our day and time if one is saved by the grace of God. What a revival. I read an article by a fellow that said revival is not a miracle, it's just saying all the right things at all the right times, and that man didn't know anything about the gospel. A revival is a miracle. The salvation of God's people is a miracle. Brother Mike, if you'll come.

The Hand of God

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The Hand of God

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