I want to begin reading with
verse 17 of Jeremiah chapter 32. where Jeremiah is heard praying,
Ah, 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. Thou showest loving kindness
unto thousands and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into
the bosom of their children after them. The great, the mighty God,
the Lord of hosts, is his name. great in counsel and mighty in
work. For thine eyes are open upon
all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to
his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. which hath
set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even unto this
day, and in Israel, and among other men, and hath made thee
a name as at this day, and hath brought forth thy people Israel
out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and
with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with
great terror, and hast given them this land which thou didst
swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk
and honey. And they came in and possessed
it, but they obeyed not thy voice, neither walked in thy law. They
have done nothing of all that thou commandest them to do. Therefore
thou hast caused all this evil to come upon them. Behold the
mounts, they are coming to the city to take it, and the city
is given into the hand of the Chaldeans that fight against
it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence,
and what thou hast spoken is come to pass, and behold, thou
seest it. And thou hast said unto me, O
Lord God, buy thee the field for money, and take witnesses,
for the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. Then came
the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying, Behold, I am the Lord,
the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for
me? We read to you a portion of scripture
out of Jeremiah, chapter 32. And this prophet is a very interesting
prophet, and one who was blessed of God, but he heard the voice
of God when he was a young man. And in the first chapter, you
might remember that the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah
saying, before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. And
before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee
and ordained thee to be a prophet unto the nations. And his response
was, then said I, ah, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I'm
a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say
not, I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee,
and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid
of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the
Lord. And so this prophet was one who
was commissioned by God. God said, before I ever formed
you in the belly, I knew you. And before you came forth out
of the womb, I'd already set you apart to be a prophet unto
the nations. Now when we come to the 32nd
chapter here of Jeremiah, we find that Jeremiah is in prison.
He is in prison. He's been shut up by Zedekiah
in the tenth year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, because
he prophesied against the city of Judah and said that the Chaldeans
was coming and that they were going to take over the city and
that the Chaldeans were going to be victorious and that Zedekiah,
king of Judah, would not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans
But he would be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon,
and would speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall
behold his eyes. And he shall lead Zedekiah to
Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, saith the
Lord. And so Jeremiah, being a faithful
prophet of God, he was put into the court of the prison and was
kept there because of what he had to say, because of the word
of the Lord that had come to him. I appreciate I like to see
faithfulness in the Lord's people. Now, we might not be successful
according to the world's standards, but if a man is faithful to what
God shows him and what God reveals to him, that's what God requires
us to be. God requires us to be faithful.
And he said, Zedekiah's going to be there until I visit him,
saith the Lord. And though you fight with the
Chaldeans, you're not going to prosper. They're going to take
over this land. They're coming in. They're coming
in mounted. They're coming in with weapons
of war. They're coming in. They're going
to burn the city. They're going to destroy the
city. They're going to take you captive and take you away. And
the Lord spoke to Jeremiah and he told him in verse 7, your
cousin's going to come and visit you here in prison. Your cousin's
going to come and visit you, and he's going to ask you to
buy a field that is in Annathroth, for the right of redemption is
thine to buy it. So Hannah Meal, mine uncle's
son, came to me in the court of the prison in verse 8, according
to the word of the Lord, and said unto me, I want you to buy
this field, and I pray thee, buy this field which is in the
country of Benjamin, for the right of inheritance is thine,
the redemption is thine, buy it for thyself. Then I knew that
this was the word of the Lord. The Lord had spoken to him and
told him this was what was going to happen. The cousin was going
to come and offer the field for sale. Now you understand that
the city is under siege and you understand that it looks like
there's no way in this world that it would be a time to buy.
It would certainly not be a time to buy property in this country
because the Chaldeans were burning all the houses and destroying
the land. But Jeremiah says, the word of
the Lord, I'm sure that this is the word of the Lord to me,
so he bought the field. Now this was to illustrate that
not only was Jeremiah right, prophesying that God was going
to destroy this city and take the king Zedekiah away, and that
he was going to bring this city to its knees, bringing judgment
upon them because of their evil ways. Not only that, but that
God also was going to deliver them back there. There was going
to come a time when the Lord was going to bring them back.
And in the latter part of this chapter, in verse 41, he says,
Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good. I'll plant them
in this land assuredly. After 70 years, after 70 years,
I'll bring them back, and I'm going to plant them in this land
with my whole heart and with my whole soul. For thus said
the Lord, like as I brought all this great evil upon this people,
so will I bring upon them also the good that I have promised
unto them, and the fields shall be bought, in this land, wherever
you say it is desolate without a man or beast, it is given into
the hand of the Chaldeans. Men shall buy fields for money
and subscribe evidences and seal them and take witnesses in the
land of Benjamin." And so you see that the Lord wanted to give
the people hope. in the midst of judgment, in
the midst of a time of great loss and desolation. God wanted
to give them hope, and Jeremiah must illustrate this hope. And
so here he is sitting in prison, and here he buys this field.
He has the money weighed out, 17 shekels. He weighs the money
out, and before the Jews sitting present around him there in that
prison, he buys this field. and thus declares to all that
the God who has brought judgment upon them is a God who is able
to do anything and whatever he sets his purpose and heart upon
he will do and that God will bring these people back to the
land in his own time in his own good time according to his faithful
promise and mercy. Well isn't that wonderful to
see how the Lord give this hope unto his people and those who
believed could get hope out of this and they would remember
this down through the years when they were sitting and when they
were taken away and when they were in captivity they would
remember God illustrated through his prophet that he's going to
deliver us and bring us out of our captivity and bring us back
into the land and he's going to do us good. Here's coming
a time when God's heart will be toward us and he will do us
good. Now I like what Jeremiah says,
In verse 17, when he begins his prayer, he begins to pray after
he's purchased the land, and after all has been sealed, and
after the witnesses have been given, and he says, Ah, 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. He goes on and prays, and then
when he gets down to the end of his prayer, he says, and thou
hast said unto me, O Lord God, thou hast said unto me, buy the
field for money, and take witnesses, for the city is given into the
hand of the Chaldeans. And then came the word of the
Lord unto Jeremiah saying, you see, God could, the Lord, well
he knows what is in man. The Bible says that he has no
need that we testify of what's in man because God knows what
is in man. And I believe that God knew that
Jeremiah was beginning to wonder and he was beginning to be filled
with unbelief and doubt about why that he should have done
this thing. Why should he have done it? How
could it ever be meaningful? And he began to doubt. And the
word of the Lord came unto him saying, I am the Lord, the God
of all flesh. Is there anything, is there anything
too hard for me? Is there anything too hard for
the Lord? Now that is our subject this
morning, and I think that a truth may be sincerely believed by
us, and yet may do us good to have it put to us in the form
of a question. Jeremiah said, Lord, there's
nothing too hard for you. But then the Lord comes back
to him saying, is there anything too hard for me, Jeremiah? Well,
in this 17th verse, we have Jeremiah's confident declaration to God
that there's nothing too hard for him. And then in this 27th
verse, the same prophet is asked this question, is anything too
hard for me? Well, why? Why would the Lord
do this? Well, I think the explanation
is that we do not always thoroughly believe even all that we say
we believe. Oftentimes, we believe something
in our head, but we do not truly believe it in our hearts. I believe
that Jeremiah truly believed that God was the God of creation
and that there was nothing too hard for him. But then at the
same time, when it came down, to making a practical application
and practicing the truth that he believed, it became a very
difficult thing for him to do. Ah, beloved, we little know what
unbelievers we really are. We little know how much unbelief
that we have left in our hearts. We're not aware of what an awful
amount of skepticism and unbelief that lies within our hearts,
only waiting for the opportunity to show itself. We must remember
that it is one thing to believe a doctrine in general, But it's
another thing to make a particular and personal application of that
doctrine. Jeremiah, do you believe that
God can drive away the Chaldeans? Jeremiah, do you believe that
the Lord will leave this land free for the use of its owners?
70 years down the road. Well, that little patch of ground
now that you bought, will it ever be worth what you paid for
it, Jeremiah? The devil would say, can you
trust God about that purchase of land? But what it boils down
to is this. Is there anything too hard for
the Lord? Now I know that most of us believe
this in our heads. I believe that this morning that
I'm speaking to a congregation here of people that believe that
there really isn't anything too hard for the Lord. I think I'm
in a camp of friends here this morning. I somehow or other just
feel that you're my friends and that I can speak to you about
these things and that you will agree with me and that you believe
what I'm preaching to you today. You know that power belongeth
unto God and that none can stay his hand or say unto him, what
doest thou? You believe that no one unto
him are all of his works from the beginning of the world, Acts
15 and 18. You believe that he worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will, Ephesians 1 and verse 11. You believe that
our God is in the heavens and that he hath done whatsoever
he pleased, Psalm 115 and verse 3. And then in Isaiah chapter
40 in verse 25, to whom then it says, will you liken me or
shall I be equal, saith the Holy One. In verse 26, lift up your
eyes on high and behold, who hath created these things that
bringeth out their hosts by number? He calleth them all by names,
by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power,
Not one of them faileth. Hast thou not known, hast thou
not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of
the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There's
no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint
and to them that have no might. He increases strength. Now we
all believe this in a general way, do we not? Now everybody
here would say amen to that. Most people will not object to
your reading the word of God. Most people would say I believe
that in a general sort of way. At least I remember hearing one
brother tell about reading, standing up and reading the ninth chapter
of the Book of Romans, which of course is a chapter that is
full of the sovereignty of God. And when you finish reading,
one individual jumped up and said, now I don't believe a word
of that. I don't believe a word of that.
Now you see, we're not among those kind of people here this
morning. You people believe the Word of God, and you believe
this doctrine in a general way, but when it comes right down
where we live, When it comes right down to where, as the expression
is, where the rubber meets the road, we have difficulty applying
the doctrine of God's ableness, God being able to do whatever
He will. We can believe that God can convert
a nation. We can believe that God is able
to save the heathen, but our lost and rebellious children,
no, no, it will never be. Pity, pity that we do not believe
really down in our hearts what we claim to believe in our heads. We believe that God can open
his hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing, but my
needs will never be met. My needs will never be met. When will my needs be met? God
is able. He feeds the animals. God is
able. He can open His hands, satisfy
the need of every living thing, but my needs. We believe as a
general principle that God runs the world, but what's happening
in my life, God just seems, He just seems not to understand.
He just seems not to be doing anything in my life. Are you
a child of God? Are you a believer? Do you know
Christ? Does Christ dwell in your heart
by faith? Does the Holy Spirit dwell in you? If so, I'm here
to tell you this morning that your life is in His hands and
that your times are in His hands and God is indeed at work in
your heart. Do you hear God asking you this
morning, is there anything too hard for me? Now, brother, sister,
really, we don't believe all we think we do, do we? We really
do not believe all we think we believe. You say, well I could
trust God in a storm at sea. I could trust God if I was up
in an airplane and the pilot was to say that the engines had
failed. I could trust God. But brother,
sister, you cannot trust him about that trifling matter. which
is just now bothering you. You're having trouble with something
here this morning, and it may be that it's just something that's
irritating and something that's bothering you, but you just can't
trust the Lord about that. Well, what is the truth? Is there
anything? Let me state it. Is there anything,
great or small, that is too hard for God? That's exactly what
God asked the prophet. And this is the question that
I'm to deal with here this morning. And I want to throw down the
challenge this morning in the name of that glorious God of
the Bible. Is there anything too hard for
the Lord? And now is your opportunity.
Here you sit. before us this morning, and now
is your opportunity to bring up your hard things. Now is your
opportunity to bring up those apparently impossible things,
yea, your difficult, your trying things, and see how they're affected
by this challenge of the Most High God. Is there anything too
hard for me? Well, I want to say three things,
basically, today. First of all, let me say that
the hardest conceivable things have already been done by God. The hardest conceivable things
have already been done by God. And secondly, we'll say a few
things about some of the hard things that are yet to be done
by God for us. And thirdly, we want to talk
a little bit about, if nothing is too hard for the Lord, then
what then? Where does it leave us here this
morning? Well, using the prayer of Jeremiah,
beginning with verse 17, I want to talk just a little bit, in
talking about God having already done the hardest conceivable
things, I want to talk a little bit about the creation. The creation. I believe that God created this
world, don't you? I believe he said, thou hast
made the heavens and the earth by thy great power and stretched
out arm. And I believe that. I believe
that. This church believes that. There
was a time when there was nothing that had been created and God
dwelt alone. Furthermore, there was no raw
material out of which to construct the universe. Yet when it pleased
God to do so, everything was formed in fashion by God out
of nothing. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 3 says,
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the
word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made
of things which do appear. He spoke. and his unaided power
achieved it all. God created the heavens and earth.
He said, let there be light, and there was light. He spake
and divided the land from the sea, and the clouds rose up to
paint the sky. The rivers sought their bed,
and the ocean was girded about with a belt of sand. God did
it all. But as yet, there was no life
anywhere to be seen. But God spoke again, and the
earth was green with grass and herbs and trees. Fish was in
the water, birds in the air, beasts of the field roamed the
plains. And God said, let us make man
in our image. and let them have dominion over
the creation. And I believe that God made Adam,
don't you? I believe he created him and
breathed in Adam the breath of life and became a living soul.
And I believe that God took a rib out of Adam and he made Eve.
And I believe that God used a man and a woman to make Cain and
Abel. But I believe there came a time when God just used a woman
to make a body for our Lord Jesus Christ and didn't use the man.
I believe that God is a God of creation, regardless of what
the evolutionists have to say. Now, I don't know how much stock
you put in evolution, but some of my relatives might have hung
by the neck, but none of them, as far as I know, ever hung by
their tails. I believe that God created man, and this is what
I'm trying to say this morning. This is one of the hard things,
but it's been done already. God has done it. Now, when you
doubt the power of God to do anything, what you should do
is take down your Bible and read the first few chapters of the
book of Genesis, and then say with Jeremiah, Oh, Lord God,
behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power,
and there's nothing that is too hard for thee. And then another
thing that I see here is the work of destruction in verse
18 and 19. Not only was a God a God of creation,
but he's a God of judgment and a God of wrath. And let any who
doubt the power of God uh... let them tremble this morning
the god of the bible listen to it his wrath of romans chapter
one in verse eighteen says that his wrath has been revealed from
heaven that god has revealed his wrath from heaven against
all ungodliness you cannot help as you think back about sodom
and gomorrah and then you think about the people of the time
of the flood how easily that god can rid himself of his adversaries
Oh, God can open the earth and swallow up like he did the sons
of Corin. Remember old brother Barnard,
some of you might have heard the tape where he said that God
opened up the earth and sent him to hell without giving him
time to pack a suitcase. And it's true, God can rid himself
of his adversaries when he wants to. So you go back to the flood.
God's patience had reached its limit. And down and up came the
water, for God had determined that He would destroy all flesh
from off the face of the earth, except those eight souls that
He would hide away in that ark of safety. And terrible as the
work of destruction must have been, When God drowned that old
world in the days of Noah, it was done as God determined. God is a holy God and he must
punish sin. And you know the testimony before
God brought that awful flood was that the imagination of men's
heart was only evil continually. Let none think that God cannot
overcome his enemies. Let no one ever imagine that
a warfare can be successfully waged against him. Paul asked
the question in his epistle. He said, are we stronger than
he? Are we stronger than he? Can any man expect to win battles
against God Almighty? Can he expect to be a rebel against
God? Can he expect to trample under
his feet? all of the precious and high
and holy things of the Word of God, and yet never to have to
answer for them. God is a God of judgment. He
can create and He can also destroy. So in looking back upon what
He's already done, we can see that He has accomplished inconceivably
great and difficult things, both in making and in unmaking them. God is able to do anything He
sets His heart, anything that He sets His purpose upon. Next
in verses 20 and 21 and 22, I want to think a little bit and say
just a few words about the deliverance of the children of Israel out
of Egypt. And you can read it in detail, I know, in the book
of Exodus. Moses and Aaron. You recall the
story? They said to Pharaoh, thus saith
the Lord God of Israel, you let my people go. And that proud
earthly monarch whom the Bible says in Romans chapter 9 God
raised up to show his power in. This proud earthly monarch, when
he heard those words, said, Who is the Lord? Who is the Lord? That I should obey his voice
to let Israel go. Well, he soon knew who the Lord
was, didn't he? He soon found out who the God
of the Israelites was. He soon found out that he was
Lord in heaven and in earth beneath. for plague after plague. It came
till everything that Egypt had was smitten. And last of all,
God smote all the firstborn in Egypt. Then they were very glad
to see the Israelites go. And we read here in the 21st
verse, And has brought forth thy people Israel out of the
land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong
hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with great terror. God
brought out his people with his stretched out arm, with great
terror, with strong hand. He brought them out and he delivered
them at the Red Sea. And he brought the people through
the depths in safety, you recall, but the sea overwhelmed their
enemies. Then on the shore, Miriam And
the women, they joined in the triumphant song of Moses. Sing
ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his
rider hath he thrown into the sea. That was their song, because
the Lord had triumphed. There's nothing too hard for
the Lord. Can God deliver? Well, can we
think just a little bit of his providence this morning and how
he led the people of Israel through the wilderness and how he fed
them for 40 years? You know God, I'm talking about
the great things that God's done by His power. I'm talking about
how great God is and how He's delivered His people. They never
plowed a furrow while they were in the wilderness. Never planted
crops. Daily manna dropped from heaven.
for their hunger. The smitten rock gave water for
their thirst. Their clothes did not get old
upon them. God blessed them and preserved
them in the wilderness. And the question comes, can God
set a table in the wilderness? Well, of course he can, as the
God who could for 40 years feed 3 million people with nothing
but bare sand beneath their feet can set a table anywhere. Brother,
sister, I've seen evidence of it. Next month I will be in the,
I will be, have been a pastor for 46 years. Next month. And
I have never had at any time in all the years that I've been
a pastor, never have I had any guarantees of any kind. Nobody
ever made any guarantees to me and said, if you'll do this,
we'll do that. I've never had any of it. And
we've raised seven children, and God has set a table in the
wilderness. God has been faithful unto this
man. And I'm here to tell you that
God was faithful unto His people as they were in the wilderness.
God was faithful to them. He provided for them. He took
care of them. God owned them and He blessed
them. God has the power to undertake. These works of God show that
there is nothing that is too hard for the Lord. But let me
have your attention. Let me have your attention. I
want to pause briefly. I want your attention because
this is so important and I want you to get this. We've been talking
about the hard things that God has done. Now let me come to
this. All of this that we've been talking
about is nothing compared with what God has done in that great
work of redemption on the behalf of His people. Creation is shorn
of its glory in the light of the masterpiece of wisdom and
power. The terrors of God at the flood
may almost be forgotten. The deliverance of Israel at
the Red Sea must take a secondary place. His providential care
of his people in the wilderness must take a back seat. The work
of redemption. This is the hardest thing, the
most wonderful thing that God has ever done. His Son, His only
begotten Son, His best, well-beloved Son came down from heaven to
live among men. He took on Him a body of our
inferior clay. He was born of the Virgin Mary. He was sheltered in a stable.
He was cradled in a manger. And this to me makes all miracles
seem commonplace. wonder of wonders. He who created
the world received nourishment from the breast of his mother. Do you know this man, Jesus,
is the only man who ever chose his own mother? Do you know that
this man, Jesus, was the only man who ever chose where he was
going to be born? Do you know this man, Jesus, was the only
man who ever came into the world with the purpose of dying in
order to save a people, the Lord Jesus Christ? More marvelous
still is that he took upon himself the sin of his people. He was
willing to be numbered with the transgressors. He was willing
to be treated by his father as if he had committed all of the
sins that all of his people had ever committed. He was willing
to be treated like one who was a transgressor. Brother, and
that was for me, and that was for those for whom He died. And
to bear, He was willing to bear that awful load, that awful load. And no one has the ability to
explain what an awful load it was. I know that He bore all
incarnate God could bear, with strength enough but none to spare.
I know that He bore the awful weight of our guilt and our sin,
and He drank the cup of infinite justice right to its very dregs. Never was God so God-like when
Jesus died upon the cross. You see, God is God, absolutely
just, holy, thrice holy, and God had to deal with sin, and
He chose to deal with sin in His Son. And when Jesus died
on that cross, the Bible said that Jesus was stricken, smitten,
and afflicted. That he was stricken, smitten,
and afflicted by God himself. It was God that plunged the sword
of his wrath into the Lord Jesus Christ because somebody had to
pay for the sins of God's people. Somebody had to meet the demands
of the law and satisfy the justice of God. Somebody had to do that. And I'm telling you, God was
God when Jesus was on that cross. Never was omnipotence so potent
as when Christ died. that men might live, leading
captivity captive while he himself was bound to the accursed tree. I'm telling you, this is the
great masterpiece of our God. This is what he's done on the
behalf of his people, casting death into an eternal grave when
he himself was laid in the sepulcher. That's what he did. Somebody
says, oh, he was a failure. Jesus wound up on a cross. Then
the Jews looked at him and said, curse it! And they quote out
of the Old Testament, curse it! Is everyone that ends up on a
tree. Everyone that is put on a tree
and crucified. Well, what they didn't realize,
yes, yes, he was cursed! Jesus was cursed! And that was
because he was made a curse for us. Can't you rejoice in that?
Those of you that are believers, those of you that entertain a
hope of finally being able to get by the judgment of God and
being able to spend eternity with the Lord, can't you rejoice
in that? That our God, that He was willing
to be made a sin for us, that we might become the righteousness
of God in Him. how glorious and how wonderful,
and I like that, about how that He cast death into an eternal
grave. I know that death has been robbed
of its victory, and I know it was robbed of its victory by
the Lord Jesus Christ. And now, beloved, the grave,
as we go into it, is a comfortable place, because we know that that
death has been robbed of its sting, and that we know that
the victory is ours in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, no man can
adequately tell the story of all these wonders. I certainly
don't have the ability and I've never read where any man could
set them forth in an adequate way in order that the great God
of the Bible could be extolled as he ought to be. Why, the very
angels in heaven, I think they've been wondering ever since that
day and they have been continually telling to one another over and
over again the story of the God that loved and the God that died,
and that by his love and death and living again, how he's defeated
Satan, how he's conquered death, and how that for all his people,
this was for all of his people. They've been telling it back
and forth and they've been looking into it, the angels have. Now
the angels have never felt the joy that our salvation brings.
The angels, well, they've not been redeemed as the Lord's living
family. You see, the Bible says that
he didn't take upon himself the nature of angels. He took upon
himself Our nature. Sin accepted. He took upon himself
our nature. It was for us. Salvation and
redemption. I want to say it, and I don't
think anybody can contradict what I'm saying, is God's greatest
work. It's God's greatest masterpiece. Now I think I've shown you that
the hardest conceivable things have already been done then by
God. And he asked Now, at this time,
is there anything too hard for me? Now, I know that there are
some hard things, as we look at them, that is from our viewpoint
that is yet to be done. There are some of them, at least,
that relate to temporal matters, our troubles and our afflictions. Now, beloved, there's one thing
I would never do. I've lived in this world too
long. I've lived in a body of flesh too long to ever discount
the troubles that God's people have and the afflictions that
God's people have and to think that they're unreal. No, beloved,
they are real. The troubles and the tests and
the trials and the adversities, they are real. But really, after
all that God has done, will you, can you this morning, Dare you
to think to yourself that He cannot deliver you, where you
are this morning, whatever your situation is. Dare you, have
you lost hope? Dare you in that, that there
is nothing too hard for the Lord. Do you think that He cannot deliver
you? Surely the Lord can deliver you. Are you His child? Do you
love Him? Has His love been spread abroad
in your heart? Shed abroad in your heart by
the Holy Spirit? Do you trust Him? Do you rely upon Him? Have
you made God your trust? I'm certain that you'd be ashamed
today to lead anybody to think that God could not, in His good
time, according to His good pleasure, deliver you. And that, my friend,
He will never give up on you. The Lord will help you. Can you
believe that? There's nothing too hard for
Him. Can you believe it? Because He can. Your case, beloved,
is in His hands and it's not going to be difficult for Him.
God can help you in simple ways or in very extraordinary and
unexpected ways also. I remember one time when I was
stewing over how God might undertake for me and how He might deliver
me, and I was walking along in Sam's Club over here and making
some purchases, and there was a word came to me, and I thought,
well, there's only just one way for God to ever deliver me, just
one way. One way is all that there is for God to ever deliver
me. And the word came to my soul
and said, I got a thousand and one ways I can deliver you. I'm
not shut up to any one way. I can do whatever I please to
do. I can do what I will to do. You trust me. I've got a thousand
and one ways I can deliver you. Well, God, as we said, can help
you in very simple ways or in very extraordinary and very unexpected
ways also. Spurgeon told a story one time
about a poor man who had no bread for his family, and they were
almost starving to death. And one of his children said
to him, said, Father, you know God sent bread to Elijah by the
ravens? Ah yes, the father replied, but
God does not use birds in that way now. Now this man was a shoe
cobbler and he had a shop and it was a warm time of the year
and he had the door open and a short time afterwards there
was a bird that flew into his shop. And when the father looked
upon the bird, he saw it was a very rare bird, so he caught
it and he put it into a cage. And in a little while, there
was a servant that came along the street looking for this bird. And so he came in and asked,
have you seen a bird such and such, looks like this and so
on, described it. The man said, yes, I have it
right here in the cage. And so he gave it to the servant
and the servant left and in a little while he came back. And what
do you suppose he had? He had a reward in his hand of
some money. And he gave it to the man. So
you see that God is able to supply in simple ways. or in unexpected ways. God can
supply. God can meet your needs. God
is able, and we need to trust Him. Now, nobody wants to get
that poor, do they? To where they see the hand of
the Lord in that way. It's like I was telling this
brother here the other day, you know, the Bible says that the
strength of God is made perfect in weakness, but we don't want
to be weak. We don't want to be weak. We'd
like to remain strong, you see, and not have to suffer any of
the indignities of being brought down and brought low before God
in order that God might be pleased to fill us and give us a word
and give us the ability to bring it. But nevertheless, I'll tell
you, God can deliver. There are some hard things that
relate to spiritual matters. One is, somebody says, you know,
preacher, I've been saved for a number of years. But somehow
or other, I just cannot get the tail of the old serpent buried
in my life. I cannot conquer. sin in my life. There are things in my life that
I just absolutely, I'm so weak. My temptations are terrible. Tempted in this way and tempted
in that way. Preacher, I feel that I will
be overcome at last. Finally, I will be overcome. Well, you remember how that David
lived out a number of years of his life Believing, he said,
that one day I shall perish at the hands of Saul. I believe
that one day I'm going to perish at the hands of Saul. But he
never did. You know that David wound up in his bed, an old man
dying in his bed. He didn't perish at the hands
of Saul. And I'll tell you this, I believe that the believer will
be made an overcomer. He will be made an overcomer.
Let me assure you, my brother and sister, that there's no form
of sin which it cannot be delivered from by the grace of God. God
is able to deliver you, and God will deliver His people. He's
not left you in bondage to the flesh that you should live after
the flesh. God will deliver you, and you
look to Him. And when God destroyed the Egyptians
at the Red Sea. This was a picture of how God
will destroy the flesh life in a believer and enable them to
come out victorious on the other side. God will deliver his people. And then you say, Preacher, I
have another hard thing. I have a very, very hard thing. And preacher, I wouldn't want
to just come right out with it and tell it in a mixed congregation. But preacher, I have a sin in
my life that I just don't believe that God will ever forgive me
of. I just don't believe that God is going to forgive me of
this sin. Now, my friend, I want to talk
to you just a little bit. You know, there's nothing too
hard for the Lord. Scripture says, Seek ye the Lord while
he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Let the
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts,
and let him return unto the Lord. And the Lord will have mercy
upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Now
let me tell you some other things here. Matthew chapter 12 and
verse 31. What is your sin? Hush your mouth. Hold your tongue. We're not interested
in hearing about what your sin is. The problem is you do not
believe that God will ever forgive you of a particular sin in your
life. Matthew chapter 12 and verse
31 says, Wherefore, I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy
shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy
Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh the
word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But
whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven. Now, you're here this morning
and you say, well, I would love to be a Christian if I could
just believe that God would forgive my sin. If he could just blot
out this sin that I've committed. If he'd just be able to blot
it out. Well, beloved, the scripture says, all manner of sin and blasphemy
shall be forgiven unto men. And it says, whosoever speaketh
the word against the Son of Man even, it shall be forgiven unto
him. Now, beloved, if you had spoken
against the Holy Ghost, You wouldn't be here this morning in your
heart wanting God to wipe out, wanting God to forgive, wanting
God to blot out as with a thick cloud your sin. You wouldn't
want that. You wouldn't be here. You'd already
be a reprobate. You'd already gone to hell, on
your road to hell. You'd already be in hell as far
as your soul is concerned and just as much as if you were already
there. And you would have no desire for forgiveness whatsoever. So, think about this. What is
your sin? Well, in 1 John 1 and 8, if we
say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us. 1 John 1 and 9, if we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. And so I'm here
to tell you this morning that God's promised that he would
forgive and there's nothing too hard for the Lord. So my friend,
I want you to come off of that idea. I want you just to go to
God. The God who said, I'm faithful. The God who says, I'm just. And
if you bring your sin and you confess that sin to me, I will
forgive that sin and I will, I will forgive that sin and I'll
cleanse you from all unrighteousness." That's what God said. He said,
I'm faithful and I'm just. And I'm here to tell you this
morning, there's nothing too hard for Him. and your ways are not
his ways, you say, well, I'd never forgive myself. I could
never forgive myself. That's one thing about a believer.
They can forgive sin in others, but they can never forgive themselves
of their sin. They can't do that. They just
don't have the ability somehow or other to do that. And I'm
not asking you to forgive yourself. I'm asking you to believe that
God can forgive you and that God can blot out your sins and
your iniquities. I think also this subject that
we're preaching about this morning, and I'm going to hurry here,
and just very shortly I'll be finished. But I think this contains
a lesson or two for those who are trying to serve the Lord
also in our desperate day, in this desperate time in which
we live. Now, beloved, I can believe in the triumph, in the
ultimate triumph of the eternal purpose of God through the gospel,
even though there's much error in our day, even though the earth
is saturated with heretics and heresy. And I know that men by
nature will believe a lie long before they'll believe the truth.
I believe that the spirit of Antichrist is great in the earth.
But I believe in the ultimate triumph of the eternal purpose
of God in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I believe in it.
And that is because there's nothing too hard for the Lord, brother.
There's nothing too hard for Him. Well, we must lean on His
omnipotent arm. We must trust His wisdom. and
preach in season and out of season. We must stick to the revelation
of God and stand fast in the declarations of the truth as
we know it. Isaiah 42 and 4 says, He will
not fail nor be discouraged. The Lord Jesus said, I'll not
fail and I'll not be discouraged. I will win the day. My purpose
will win the day. In John 17 and verse 2, you know
when the Lord spoke to Jeremiah here in verse 27, He says, Behold,
I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. I want those of you that
are unfamiliar with the verse to turn with me to John chapter
17, and I want you to look at verse 2, and I want you to see
this. This is very important. Say, Preacher, I don't know whether
or not we'll ever see God saving anybody, God doing anything with
His people. Well, the Lord said, I'm the
God of all flesh, Jeremiah. I'm the God of all flesh. And
in verse 2 of John 17, it says, As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he, this is talking about Jesus Christ
in his mediatorial work, he says, As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. Now, does that not give you hope? Jesus said, I have all power
in heaven and in earth. He said, I have been given all
power over all flesh. I can come to a man. I can visit
a man by the Holy Spirit and I can draw that man unto myself. I can draw him. I can save a
man because I got power over his flesh. and I can do whatever
I will to do, whatever I please to do. Life is given to me and
I can save whomsoever I will. I am able to do it. The power
is mine and I can do it. Now any Arminian that wants to
quarrel with that verse of scripture, they can just quarrel with it
if they please, but I'm telling you the Lord Jesus, the Sovereign
Christ, He has power over all flesh, and I believe He's going
to win the day. I believe that every one of the
elect will come into the fold. Every one of them will be drawn
in God's time unto the Lord Jesus. The scripture says they shall
be all taught of God, even from the least to the greatest. And
they shall all know the Lord. They shall be taught. And oh,
Jesus said, all that the Father giveth me, they're going to come
to me. They're going to come to me. Jesus said, or the scripture
says about Jesus and his name, thou shalt call his name Jesus.
For he shall save his people from their sin, Matthew 1 and
21, he shall. He shall save his people from their sin. And then
also in Isaiah 53 11 it says, he shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. This ought to encourage those
who are trying to serve the Lord in our day. It ought to encourage
you. The Lord Jesus is going to see
the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Well, lastly, quickly,
since nothing is too hard for the Lord, then what then? Well,
Maybe I should say it like this. Do let us trust Him, whatever
be our trials, whatever be our difficulty. Let's trust Him. Let's not lose hope. Let's have
no sham faith, no pretended faith. Let's have a real confidence,
a real trust in a real God. Then let us act as if we trusted
God, because we can bring a reproach on the name of the Lord. Do not
let us waver, O Lord, for he that wavereth is like the wave
of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. I'll never forget,
as long as I live, the first time I read about Abraham and
Sarah trying to help out God. When God had promised Abraham
a seed, and he was getting old and he didn't have one.