1. In Luke 18
we have the interesting conversation between our Lord and the rich young ruler
(Luke 18:18-25).
2. After the
conversation, “they that heard it said, Who then can be saved?”
(18:26).
3. Our Lord
answered them, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with
God” (18:27).
4. That is a
wonderful Scripture, and it is taught throughout the Word of God. Genesis 18:14 says, “Is any thing too
hard for the LORD?”
5. Matthew
19:26 says, “With God all things are possible.”
6. In Mark
9:23, Jesus said, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him
that believeth.”
7. In Mark
14:36, our Lord prayed, “Abba, Father, all things are possible unto
Thee.”
8. In Matthew
17:20, our Lord said, “For verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of
mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and
it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto
you.”
9. In Luke
1:37, the angel said to Mary, “For with God nothing shall be
impossible.”
I. THE THINGS WHICH ARE IMPOSSIBLE WITH
MEN
1. Some things
seem physically impossible.
When Mary was told she was going to give birth, she asked, “How shall
this be, seeing I know not a man?” (Luke 1:34).
2. But with God
all things are possible (cf. Matthew 17:20; Luke 18:27).
3. When it
comes to salvation, it is impossible for man to save himself (Luke 18:26,
27).
4. Nicodemus
was a great man, a very religious man – “a ruler of the Jews” (John 3:1).
5. Jesus told
this great religious leader, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born
again” (John 3:7).
6. Nicodemus
was baffled at this statement, and he said, “How can a man be born when he is
old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?” (John
3:4).
7. In other
words, this is impossible for man.
8. The new
birth is described in John 1:13, “Which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but
of God.”
9. In other
words, this is impossible for man.
Man can invent rituals and ceremonies. He can make idols and altars. He can write holy books and make up his
own religion.
10.
But man cannot regenerate a man who is dead in trespasses and
sins.
11.
In John 15:5, our Lord said, “For without me ye can do
nothing.”
12.
In John 15, our Lord is talking to His disciples, not to an unregenerate
religious leader. Therefore, not
only is salvation impossible for man; so is service and
sanctification.
13.
All efforts to serve God in the flesh are certain to fail.
14.
Peter tried to serve God in the flesh and he failed miserably. He was so self-confident, that he
boasted, “Though all men shall be offended because of Thee, yet will I never be
offended. (Matthew 26:33).
15.
Our Lord responded to this boast by saying, “Verily I say unto thee, That
this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice” (Matthew
26:34).
16.
Ignoring our Lord’s warning, Peter continued in his carnal
self-confidence: “Peter said unto Him, Though I should die with Thee, yet will I
not deny Thee” (Matthew 26:35).
17.
Soon, Peter denied our Lord three times, just as our Lord had predicted
(cf. Matthew 26:69-75).
18.
Peter was full of self-will.
And we cannot be full of the Holy Spirit when we are full of self.
19.
Andrew Murray preached often on this theme. He wrote, “At the beginning of the
Christian life, the young convert has no conception of this truth. He has been converted; he has the joy of
the Lord in his heart; he begins to run the race and fight the battle. He is
sure he can conquer, for he is earnest and honest, and God will help him. Yet,
somehow, very soon he fails where he did not expect it, and sin gets the better
of him. He is disappointed, but he thinks: ‘I was not cautious enough. I did not
make my resolutions strong enough.’ And again he vows, and again he prays, and
yet he fails” (Absolute Surrender).
20.
I thought this quote was timely since this is New Year’s Eve, a time when
many people make vows, only to fail by the end of the month (and sometimes a lot
sooner than that).
21.
Andrew Murray points out that after repeated failure, many Christians
give up attempting to live a holy life.
“There are multitudes of Christians who come to this point: ‘I cannot.’
They then think that God never expected them to do what they cannot do. If you
tell them that God does expect it, it is a mystery to them. A good many
Christians are living a low life – a life of failure and of sin – instead of
rest and victory, because they began to say: ‘I cannot, it is impossible.’ And
yet they do not understand it fully. So, under the impression, I cannot, they
give way to despair. They will do their best, but they never expect to get on
very far.”
22.
We should not be content to live a life of defeat and despair. The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 7:24,
“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?”
23.
Paul answers that question in the next verse, “I thank God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with
the flesh the law of sin” (Rom. 7:25).
24.
When a man is determined (“So then with my mind I myself serve the law of
God”) to do the will of God, God will give that man the power to obey the
will of God (cf. John 5:14; 8:11; I Peter 1:15, 16; I John 2:1).
25.
Philippians 2:13 says, “For it is God which worketh in you both to
will and to do of His good pleasure.”
26.
Judson W Van De Venter wrote the great hymn, “I Surrender All.” This is how the song came to him: “For
some time, I had struggled between developing my
talents in the field of art and going into full-time
evangelistic work. At last the pivotal hour of my life
came, and I surrendered all.”
27.
Have you reached that point of complete surrender to the perfect will of
God?
II. ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE WITH
GOD
1. After we
have realized that it is impossible for us to live the Christian life in our own
strength, we come to the blessed realization that, “But with God all things
are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
2. “The things
which are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke
18:27).
3. Hudson
Taylor said, “There are three great truths, first, that there is a God; second,
that He has spoken to us in the Bible; third, that He means what He says. Oh,
the joy of trusting Him!”
4. Hudson
Taylor was right. God means what He
says (Luke 18:27).
5. In Isaiah
45:2, the LORD said to Cyrus, “I will go before thee, and make the
crooked places straight.”
6. As we head
into a new year, let us consider what the LORD says in Isaiah 52:12: “For the
LORD will go before you.”
7. When Abraham
was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him, and said, “I am the
Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect” (Genesis
17:1).
8. Our Lord
said in Matthew 5:48, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which
is in heaven is perfect.”
9. How could
Abraham leave home and travel to a far distant country where he did not know a
single soul? By faith. We understand that all things are
possible by faith.
10.
Hebrews 11:8 says, “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out
into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed;
and he went out, not knowing whither he went.”
11.
That is why Jesus said, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard
seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it
shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto
you.”
12.
When we study Hebrews 11, that great chapter on faith, we notice all the
great men and women of faith obeyed God – Abraham, Noah, Moses, et al.
13.
They had faith. They trusted
God. And since they were trusting
in God, they were able to obey God.
The reason many Christians do not obey God is because they are not
trusting God.
14.
Do you really believe God’s plans are better than your plans?
15.
Do you really believe God’s will is better than your will?
16. Than “trust and obey.”
When we walk with the Lord in the light of
His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good
will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and
obey.
Trust and obey, for
there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and
obey.
17.
Over 100 years ago, after one DL Moody’s evangelistic
meetings in Brockton, Massachusetts, there was a
testimony meeting, and a young convert stood up to
speak. It soon became clear
that this man knew very little Christian doctrine. But he
finished his testimony by saying, “I’m not quite sure—but I’m
going to trust, and I’m going to obey.”
18.
Daniel Towner, the great musician and hymnwriter (“At Calvary,”
“My Anchor Holds,” “Only A Sinner Saved By Grace,” “Ship Ahoy!” etc.) was there
at that meeting. He
jotted down the words, and gave them to John Sammis, who then wrote
the lyrics to “Trust and Obey.”
19.
That new convert grasped what many older Christians haven’t. “I’m not quite sure—but I’m going
to trust, and I’m going to obey.”
20.
All too often, Christians think they can work things out their way, and
then they can ask God to come along and help them (usually after they mess
everything up). That is certainly not what the Bible teaches.
21. In order to let God work in our
lives we have to come to the point of complete helplessness. God is omnipotent. God is sovereign. But man is weak and hopeless and
helpless.
22.
And yet, God is willing, with His whole omnipotence (“With God all
things are possible”), to place Himself at our disposal.
23. In Mark 14:36, our Lord prayed,
“Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee.”
24.
God is our Father too.
Galatians 4:6 and 7 says, “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth
the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant,
but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”
III. GOD WORKS IN AND THROUGH
MEN
1. Ephesians
3:20 says God “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we
ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”
2. Now if the
Bible merely said God is able to do all that we ask or think, that would
be wonderful enough. But it does
not say that.
3. It says, God
“is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or
think.”
4. And this is
all “according to the power that worketh in us.”
5. What is that
“power”?
·
That power is the indwelling Holy
Spirit (Eph. 3:16).
·
That power is Christ, dwelling in our
hearts by faith (Eph. 3:17).
·
That power is “the love of Christ,
which passeth knowledge” (Eph. 3:18, 19).
·
That power is “all the fulness of
God” (Eph. 3:19b).
6. God works in
us and through us. Without Him,
things are impossible.
7. With Him,
“all things are possible.”
8. God wants to
work out our lives for us, but He cannot and will not until we are yielded and
surrendered (Romans 12:1, 2).
9. Some
Christians think they are unable to live a life that is completely surrendered
to the will of God. Jesus said,
“With God all things are possible.”
10.
I have heard young people make excuses for their lack of dedication by
saying, “This is New York!” As if
Jesus meant to say, “But with God all things are possible, except
in NYC.”
11.
In fact, Romans 5:20 says, “But where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound.”
12.
The Gospel light shines much brighter in dark places like NY.
CONCLUSION:
1. Hudson
Taylor said, “I have found that there are three stages in every great work of
God: first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.”
2. Hudson
Taylor learned that great lesson and God greatly used him in China.
3. The flesh
and the self-life must be conquered.
There must be an absolute surrender to the will of God. Then God starts working in us and
through us.
