There's one thing that I have
to constantly remind myself, affirm to myself day in and day
out. And if I didn't have this one
hope, I have to admit to you that I'd have no hope at all. And that single truth that keeps
me hoping, trusting, clinging and looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ in faith is the fact that God is able. God is able. Ephesians 3.20 says, now unto
Him. You see, I must commit unto Him
that is able to do. He's able. He's able to do. He's able to do exceedingly,
abundantly above. He's able to do exceeding and
abundantly above all that I can think or ask. I can ask or think. Now I have a pretty big imagination.
I can think some pretty big things. They don't even come close to
what God is able and capable of doing. And that same power,
it says, according to the power that worketh in us. That same
power that works in us to save us is the same power that makes
Him able. It's the same power that spoke
the worlds into existence. God said, let there be light,
and there was light. That's why He didn't have to
raise a hand. He just spoke, and it was so. And it's the same with the sinner.
If we're ever to see the gospel and the grace of God in Christ,
it'll be God saying, let there be light. Let there be light. And if God says it, there'll
be light. You know why? He's able. He's able. Now that sounds like an almighty,
sovereign, powerful, omnipotent God to me. I think And I have to ask, should this
really surprise us that God is so? Is He not the one who said,
let there be, and there was? Is He not the God that upholds
all things? I don't know about you, but on
some of these discovery channels and all, whenever they have a
program on the universe, it's always just amazing to me. You
see all the stars in the universe, and each one has its own series
of planets, and there, these planets, they are just suspended
in space. What holds them there? God does.
Christ does. For by Him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or power. All
things were created by Him and for Him. It's amazing. Amazing. And that's where we
as believers rest. The same God that holds those
planets perfectly, has them evolve at just the right time, that
gives us a 24-hour day and seven days a week and all this, that's
the same God that holds us in His hand. That's where my comfort lies.
And yet I confess to you that I still worry and I still fret
way too much to claim that I know those things. Our Lord said,
with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. If God determines and ordains
it to be so, it'll be. Nothing impossible with God.
And I'll tell you this, men's opinions of God are way too low. Why, even those of us who know
Him that God has revealed to us, our opinions of Him are still
way too low, aren't they? Let's just be honest. We still
cannot fathom the abundance of His power, His majesty. What I'm saying is man's wisdom
and words can never rightly expound the greatness of God. I don't
think I've ever stepped down from here one time that I didn't
feel like I insignificantly didn't expound God's word. that
my words always fall short of truly describing who he is and
what he's done for us. I don't have the words. No man
does. I suppose we would simply do
best to sum up God's ability in those three words and leave
it at that. God is able. God is able. Nothing, there's
nothing, absolutely nothing that he's not able to do. So let's
first go to the Word of God and hear the words of one of the
most powerful Babylonian kings of the Old Testament. And let's
see if he knows anything about God being able. And this king,
let me say before we turn there, he's not a prophet. These words
that he says were not the words of a prophet, but they were the
words of one who had experienced firsthand the power of God Almighty. If you'll turn with me to Daniel
chapter 4, and we'll begin reading in verse 30. Let me say as you're
turning there, you won't find this great king in his palace.
You're not going to find him sitting upon his throne. He's
out in the field. He's not out in the field feeding
cattle. He's out in the field grazing
his horn. He resembles, the scripture says,
a bird more than a man. For it says, his hair is like
eagle's feathers, and his nails like bird claws." How did he
get there? What put him in this condition
and in this state? Well, we have the story before
us, beginning in verse 30. The king spake, this same one
who now grazes in the field as an animal. He spake and he said,
is this not great Babylon? And I suppose if the next few
words, if he'd have said that God built, he'd have been all
right. But notice what he says, that
I have built. I, me. Is this not great Babylon
that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of
my power? and for the honor of my majesty." And while the word was in the
king's mouth, before he got the last syllable of that arrogant
statement out of his mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, I wonder
who that was, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is
spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee. God is departed from
you. And they shall drive thee from
men, and thy dwelling place, or thy dwelling shall be with
the beast of the field. They shall make thee to eat grass
as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee." And many believe
that to be seven years. For seven years you'll be in
this state. Until thou know that the Most
High ruleth in the kingdom of men. and giveth it to whomsoever
he will." And when God says something,
friends, He does it. Look at verse 33. The same hour
was this thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar. And he was driven
from men, and he did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet
with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagle's
feathers, and his nails like bird's claws. Can you picture that? Once a great king sitting upon
his throne and his words, I have, I have, my majesty, my power. And God made him the animal that
he was. For all to see. For all to see. Then verse 34 says, and at the
end of the days, what days? God's appointed time. when God
said, that's enough. I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up
mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned to me.
You remember that prodigal son that went out, took his part
of his inheritance, went out and just wasted it on scandalous
living. He found himself in the hog's
pen eating the husk of corn. And he said, it came to my senses. That's what Nebuchadnezzar did,
and God caused him to do so. Same as the prodigal son. And he said, my understanding
returned unto me. And what's the first thing he
did? I blessed the Most High. And I praised and honored him
that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion. And
his kingdom is from generation to generation. It's forever.
And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. Boy, his tune changed, didn't
it? And he doeth, God doeth according to his will in the army of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth. And none, there's
none that can stay his hand. There's none that can say unto
him, what doest thou? And at the same time, verse 36,
my reason returned unto me. And for the glory of my kingdom,
mine honor and brightness returned unto me, and my counselors and
my Lord sought unto me, and I was established in my kingdom, and
excellent majesty was added unto me. You know how, friends? In
Christ. That's what happens to us. We're
made joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. All that belongs
to Christ now belongs to those that are found in Christ. Oh, He returns unto us. But it's the glory of His kingdom
which is now my kingdom because He's gone and prepared a place
for me that I may live with Him forever. And in verse 37, even though this whole passage
is my text, verse thirty-seven says now. Now. I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and
extol and honor the King of Heaven. We're not talking about the Babylonian
King Nebuchadnezzar anymore, he said. I extol and honor the
King of Heaven, all whose works are truth, And His ways judgment
and those that walk in pride, notice those words, He is able
to abase. He's able to abase. Now that
word, abase, means to make low, to humble. You see, all men,
every one of us, think of ourselves way too highly. We have too low
an opinion of God and too high of an opinion of ourselves. We
seem to forget that it is God that has made man and he's made
man's days as a hand breath. Man's age is nothing before God,
David said. And man and woman is in his best
state. Altogether vanity. Altogether
in ourselves and altogether collectively. You take the best of the best
among men and put them together, God says vanity, all vanity. Psalm 39.5. You see, God's able to make a man
and a woman see their nothingness. And if you're one of His, let
me tell you, He will. You can write it down, He will. You can't enter into eternity
with any righteousness or glory of your own. Your righteousness,
my righteousness, Scripture says, filthy rags. God requires perfect,
perfect righteousness. And God will and He's able to
show His elect people that they're nothing but sin. And you know
what He'll do? He'll cause them to see their
desperate need. And that desperate need is in
a sovereign Savior. He did in Nebuchadnezzar, didn't
He? God causes us to see that our
days are like a vapor. They appeareth for just a little
time. We won't put much stock in this
life when God gets done with us. We're nothing and insignificant
in and of ourselves. You know, young men, and I was
young once, I know this from experience, we feel immortal.
We think to ourselves and we've convinced ourselves that we've
got all these years that lie ahead. When I was in my 20s,
I felt bulletproof. And yet, I had friends. I'm telling
you the truth. I had friends that never had
their 21st birthday. Went out into this world and
met God without Christ. Recently, there have been those
that have shown concern about some of the things that are going
on in this world. While there's wars and rumors
of wars and earthquakes and you've seen the floods and birds falling
out of the sky and people are going, it's the end times, it's
the end times. Let me tell you, it could be
the end time for you today. What do you think of Christ?
That's the question. God doesn't promise us tomorrow.
And yet, men look for signs, well, time's going short. It
could be short for you now, for me. And even if a man lives to be
a hundred years old, in the light of eternity, it's but a puff
of smoke. It's a vapor that appears only
for a short time and vanishes away. My dad was 78 years old
and he told me he lived across the street from a grade school
and one day you could hear the kids out there playing, having
a good time. He said, that's such a good sound
to hear kids laughing and playing. My dad said, seemed like just
yesterday that was me out there playing in the school yard. Goes
by so fast, so quick. But friends, understand this.
Whether young or old, wise or unlearned, we are in ourselves
nothing but vanity. We're vain and we're puffed up
by nature. God always now brings His children
down. You see, He brings them down
so He can raise them up. God is able to make low. God's
able to humble the proudest. He's able to humble those that
are vain. God's going to empty His people
before He fills them up. Is that not what He did with
you, those of you that know Him? Did He not empty you before He
filled you up? Did He not bring you down before
He lifted you up? No severely sick sinner ever
came to the Lord Jesus Christ and received help from Him which
came in pride and vainglory. Can you think of any man that
came to the Lord Jesus Christ that didn't fall at His feet,
worship Him, God had given them an understanding of their inability
and their need, and He gave them a low opinion of themselves. And they all came needing, wanting,
desiring, and knowing that if God didn't give it, they wouldn't
get it. Can you find anywhere in the
Scriptures where a sick, needy sinner came to Christ and said,
you love everybody, You've got to love me. You're obligated. You're obligated to show me mercy
out of love and to heal me and to make me whole. Have you ever
seen a sinner come to Christ that way? They don't come that
way. Let me ask you that are parents.
We love our children, but we don't love them because they
tell us that they deserve it. That would be the wrong way to
approach it with me. I deserve your love. I love you because I love you.
God chose to love us, not because we deserved it, because we didn't. No, all sinners come with the
attitude of that old leper. One of my favorite stories in
all Scripture, he said, He didn't say, if you can. He
didn't say, I deserve it. He said, if you will. You can. I know you don't have to. Oh,
have I learned that? You don't have to. Lord knows
I don't deserve it. But if you will, you can make
me whole. You can make me clean. You can
make me well. You see, we do the sin and God
does the saving. He's not obligated to show me
mercy. All I've ever done, let me put
it that way, is sin, and my sin has always been against Him,
as we looked at last week. Against Thee and Thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight, that Thou mayest be
justified when You stand and when You judge. God doesn't falsely judge us. We deserve His judgment. We deserve
His condemnation. He's not obligated to show me
mercy. Peter wrote, Humble yourselves
therefore unto the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you
in due time. Brother Mayhem once wrote, and
I was so glad I got this this morning. It went right along
with what I was saying. It was in Brother Paul's bulletin, and
it came this morning. I added it to my notes. He once
wrote, true humility, and that's what we need, true humility,
is to have a right estimate of oneself. The gifted singer knows he can
sing. An intelligent person is aware
of his knowledge. A successful businessman knows
his business and an artist knows his skills. But true humility
is born when one discovers the source of all his gifts and all
his talents, all his knowledge. Who maketh
thee to differ from another? God does. If any of us has a
gift, whether it be singing, drawing, knowledge, business,
whatever, it came from God. And true humility is acknowledging
all that I have was a gift of God to me. What do we have that
we've not received, Paul said? And if we received it, why do
we glory as if we had not received it? Why do we act like that it's
something special in us when God's the one that gave it to
us? It's the Lord that killeth. It's
the Lord that maketh alive. It's the Lord that bringeth down
to the grave and bringeth up. That's what your Bible says.
It's the Lord that makes poor, and not just financially. Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for they shall inherit the kingdom of
God. And the Lord maketh rich, and
He bringeth low, and He lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out
of the dust. And He lifteth up the beggar
from the dunghill to set them among princes. And that's exactly
what He did to you and I. Beggars! Mercy beggars! and he lifted us out of that
old, stinky, dung hill, and he set us on the throne with Christ,
in Christ. Men talk about their crowns.
Well, I know people that they're going to have such a big crown,
they're going to need a neck brace to hold it up. Christ is
my crown. Christ is my glory. It's God It raises up the poor
out of the dust, lifts up the beggar from the dunghill, and
He makes them inherit. Notice that phrasing. It's almost
as though we wouldn't take it if He didn't make us. I believe
that. He makes them to inherit the
throne of glory. How? He's able. God's able. For the pillars of
the earth are the Lord's, and He has set the world upon them.
He will keep the feet of His saints. Did you hear that? He
will. And the wicked shall be silent
in darkness, for by strength, man's strength, shall no man
prevail. Now give me just a few minutes. I want you to try to
picture in your mind that you're in the midst of a multitude of
people walking with Christ to old J.R. Harris' house. J.R. Harris had come to the Lord and
he said, my daughter's dying. And the Lord said, we're going
to your house. And you're walking along with
them. And out of the corner of your eye, you see a poor, desperate
woman making her way through the crowd. Can you see her? She desires one thing, one thing
only, that she might but touch the helm of his garment. Can you see her? She's thin. She's pale. Extremely poor because
she'd spent all she had on doctor after doctor and was nothing
bettered, but grew worse. Now let me ask you, did she come
thinking herself to be something? Do you think she did? No, the
Lord had brought her down to the dust. He might set her up
among princes. Now many religionists may argue
with my next statement because they'd say that God's too good
to afflict. He loves too much to cause suffering. Let me tell you something, dear
friends. God loves His people too much not to bring them down
in the dust of despair. Well, that sounds like a strange
God to me. You better get ready to deal
with a strange God then, because that's the God of the Bible.
And I say without reservation that this woman's issue of blood
that nearly took her life, was according to the purpose of Him
who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will."
Did it say all things? Then this too was of the Lord. God afflicted this woman to bring
her to Christ. Don't you forget that. Now let
me ask you seriously. If she had never been given this
desperate disease, do you think she'd ever come to him? Do you
think she'd ever made her way through that crowd with the thought
on her mind being only, he doesn't have to speak a word to me. He
doesn't have to lay his hands upon me and say, daughter be
thou healed. All I got to do is touch him.
All I got to do is just touch the hem of his garment. I thought
about that often. I wonder why I said the hem of
his garment. She was coming low, wasn't she?
She didn't say if I could but touch the hair of his head. She
said the hem of his garment. That's how we come. At his feet. At his feet. She'd hit rock bottom. She'd been to every doctor she
could find. She spent every dime that she had. And there was only
one hope left. And the scriptures say she'd
suffered many things of many physicians and spent all that
she had and was nothing bettered but grew worse when she had heard
of Jesus. Have you heard of Him? Have you
heard of Him? It's the suffering that God brought
on this poor woman for 12 years that caused her to seek the only
means of a cure. And God did it because God is
able to make low. You asked Nebuchadnezzar. That's
right. And I don't suppose there's anything
that will convince you more of your mortality than to be sick
with a disease that no doctor, no medicine, and no treatment
can cure. When every medical specialist
says we've done all we can do, then hope is lost by most. That's what they told her. Nothing else we can do. That's the condition, though,
of every single one of us by nature. You see, friends, we
have a disease that no earthly physician or specialist can cure. We have a leprosy, a cancer called
sin that will eat us right into the grave. But God reveals to his people
that there is a great cure by a great physician. The great physician himself is
the cure. Oh, and he died that we might
live. Mark 2, don't turn there, let
me read you two verses. And when the scribes and the
Pharisees saw Christ eat with publicans and sinners, they said
to his disciples, How is it that He eateth and
drinketh with publicans and sinners? I thought He claimed to be the
Christ. I thought He claimed to be God
in the flesh. How is it? And Jesus heard them. And He
said unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician. This is the physician, not a
physician, the physician. He's the only one that can cure
this incurable disease. They that are whole have no need
of the physician, but they that are sick. Has God shown you you're
sick? Has God shown you that you're
going to die? if you don't receive this one
treatment, this one cure, this one remedy?" He said, I came
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Has God
shown you your horrific disease? Well, if you continue to refuse,
The only remedy, the only cure for your condition, you will
surely die. Will you stand like the prideful
Nebuchadnezzar? Or will you fall in the dust
like the broken Nebuchadnezzar? Will you praise and extol and
honor the King of Heaven? Or will you build your own king
and sit on your own throne and talk about how much you've Will you confess that all the
inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, yourself
included, and that God doeth according to His will in the
army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth? Will
you fall at the feet of Christ and say, Lord, if you will, you
can make me whole? You will only if God grants you to. See, we use words like refuse
and accept because there's really no other way to present it. But
it's really if God chooses you, if God accepts you, if God refuses
you. Well, then you say, well, then
what must I do? Cry, beg. plead, worship at His feet. You see, He delights to show
mercy. Just maybe He'll show mercy on me. He has others in
my condition. Just maybe He'll have mercy on
me. We come to Christ as beggars
of mercy. And our hope is that He delights
to show it. He delights to give it. Oh, may
God add His blessings to the preaching.