INTRO.- ILL.- Frank was the manager of an upscale men's wear store in a wealthy section of town and was interviewing Larry for the recently advertised salesman role. Frank looked at Larry's resume and noticed that Larry had never worked in retail before.
Frank mused, "For someone with no retail experience, you are certainly asking for a high salary."
"Well I suppose I am," Larry replied, "but you must understand that the work is so much harder when you don't know what you're doing."
It’s hard to do anything if you don’t know what you’re doing.
ILL.- When I was young I liked hot rod cars. My three year older brother was a fan of hot rods, fast cars, drag racing, etc. In fact, his first car was a 1951 Chevrolet fastback with a three speed manual shift on the column. It wasn’t much but he sure drove it hard. And I got the racing and speed bug from my brother. You know, the blame game! I started out with a 1954 Chevy and then finally, bought my dad’s old 1955 Chevy, and about that time I got the big idea in my head that I wanted to build a hot rod.
I knew a guy who had a 1936 Ford, five-window coupe for sale. It had a newer model flathead V8 engine (maybe a 40 model engine). I bought it, drove it home and thought I would transform that old 36 Ford into a first class hot rod. BUT I HAD A PROBLEM? I didn’t know how to do much of anything except change spark plugs on an engine and I knew absolutely nothing about body work. CARE TO GUESS WHAT HAPPENED?
Needless to say, that 36 Ford coupe did not become hot rod. I ended up selling it as is and I think I even took a loss on it.
That sort of thing can happen when you don’t know anything about what you are doing. EVER BEEN THERE? Did you ever buy something and couldn’t figure out how it worked or you couldn’t get it to work so you sold it, traded it or maybe even trashed it?
There are some things that we can’t do in life. All of us may be able to do some things, but we can’t do everything. I have seen a few people, however, that could do many things well but still, they were limited.
ILL.- I knew of a preacher who could preach good sermons and make good house calls on people. He was good with people, but he was also good with livestock and had a farm. He always doing something. And he was also a trustee of a Christian College. It seemed like whatever he wanted to do, he did well! He was a jack of trades and mastered many of them, unlike most of us.
What about you? We’re all somewhat limited, but there is someone who is not limited in anything He does. Our God is able to do all things, all good things.
25 “Now to him who is able...”
2 Corinthians 9:8 “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”
Ephesians 3:20-21 “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
2 Timothy 1:12 “That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.”
Hebrews 2:18 “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
Hebrews 5:2 “He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness.”
Hebrews 7:25 “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.”
Jude 1:24 “To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy...”
It sounds like our God is able! He is able to many things and all things that are good!
PROP.- What did God do for which He deserves praise and glory?
1- God established us in the faith
2- God revealed His mystery to all
I. GOD ESTABLISHED US IN THE FAITH
25 Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past.
New Century Version 25 Glory to God who can make you strong in faith by the Good News that I tell people and by the message about Jesus Christ.
The idea of being established is that God can make you strong in the faith. But some people don’t want to be strong. They don’t want to change. They resist change. They like themselves the way they are. They like their lives the way they are. Being more spiritual and doing more for the cause of Christ is not on their agenda even though it should be if they are in Christ.
ILL.- I have a daily schedule which I like to keep. I prefer to rise between 4 and 4:30 every morning, seven days a week. We go to bed every night at 9 o’clock.
I don’t want to change my sleep patterns. I learned a long time ago that the human body survives well and thrives better on a consistent schedule such as going to bed the same time every night and getting up at the same time every morning. And the same is true for my spiritual habits. We thrive better spiritually if we have regular spiritual habits that we keep; study and prayer.
Most of us are creatures of habit, some more than others. I LIKE QUIET TIME WITH THE LORD. I don’t like to change that time or lose that time. And private time with the Lord is one big way that He establishes us in the faith.
Mark 1:35 “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”
Jesus had a quiet time with His heavenly Father. If Jesus needed this quiet time with God then what about us? If we expect to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we must meet with God on a regular basis and I prefer early rather than late. Because I fall asleep if it’s very late.
But people resist change. I have discovered over the years than many Christians don’t want to change. They don’t want to change the way they live and they certainly don’t want to do more for the kingdom of God. They prefer ease and comfort.
ILL.- Preacher Ben Merold went to the St. Louis area, actually St. Charles (northwest of St. Louis) to preach for the Harvester Christian Church when he was 65 years old. I think he felt he was just getting started and of course, that’s when most want to retire. Ben preached there into his 80‘s.
Ben has since retired or has semi-retired at age 86 but the last I knew that church was running 3500 in attendance. He said, “That’s pretty good for a country church.” A COUNTRY CHURCH? The population of St. Charles is about 66,000. I wouldn’t exactly call it a “country church,” unless he was thinking of country as in comparison to the city of St. Louis which is about 320,000.
What was the secret to Ben’s longevity in life and in the ministry? Steak and ice cream; vanilla. He said, “I’m pretty much vanilla my entire life.” NO, no, no. These are just two foods that he has enjoyed all his life.
The secret to his longevity in ministry and serving is no doubt, allowing the Lord to work in his life and make changes and even when many think they are too old to change.
Philippians 2:12-13 “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”
As you have always obeyed. Have you always obeyed God? If not, why not? And are you willing to obey Him even more now? If not, why not? If we want to be established and strengthened in the faith God will do His part if we do our part.
And our part is a matter of obeying Him and allowing Him to work in us. In fact, that’s how He does work in us...through our obedience to His Word.
If we don’t cooperate with Him He may just decide to operate on us! We must cooperate by obeying His Word and when we do, we will find sweet fellowship with Him as never before and we’ll end up doing more the kingdom of God than ever before!
God is able to establish and strengthen us in the faith but only if we let Him. WE MUST COOPERATE.
II. GOD REVEALED HIS MYSTERY TO ALL
26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him—
ILL.- In a Peanuts cartoon it shows Charlie Brown talking to a girl (Peppermint Patty who liked Charlie). She said, “Boy, look at it rain...what if it floods the whole world?” Charlie said, “It will never do that. In the 9th chapter of Genesis God promised Noah that it would never happen again, and the sign of the promise is the rainbow.” She said, “You’ve taken a great load off my mind.” Charlie replied, “Sound theology has a way of doing that.” AND IT DOES!
Sound Biblical theology has a way of taking a load off a person’s mind and setting things straight in life. Sound Biblical theology is what all people need because God’s word is the truth. It tells the truth about all of life; the good, the bad and the ugly. But God also tells how to escape the sin of this world through faith in Jesus Christ.
God did not leave mankind in the dark! God didn’t just create man and leave him to fend for himself physically and spiritually. God has always given a certain amount of revelation to mankind so we could walk by faith and be saved.
26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him—
God gave us His Word. He revealed His will to us through His Word so that people can believe and obey God and be saved.
God is not a mystery. He is all-powerful and all-wise, eternal and ever-present and He is not a mystery in the sense that He stays hidden and aloof from mankind.
We can know God through His Word better than any other way, because His Word is His Word. You can always come to know someone through their most intimate writings and that’s the Bible!
Even though we can know God through His Word we will never be able to figure out God completely.
Isaiah 55:7-9 "Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
God is quick to forgive when we turn to Him. He is rich in mercy. He freely pardons. How wonderful is that?! How amazing is that?! The reason I say this is because we humans are so unlike God. We are not quick to demonstrate and extend forgiveness. His thoughts and ways are far higher, greater and holier than ours!
26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him—
God has made it possible through the study, the preaching of His Word for people to be saved and forgiven. God does His part by giving us His Word. We do our part by believing Him, His Word and obeying Him.
ILL.- Lord Kenneth Clark, internationally know for his television series Civilization, lived and died without faith in Jesus Christ. He admitted in his autobiography that while visiting a beautiful church he had what he believed to be an overwhelming religious experience. "My whole being," Clark wrote, "was irradiated by a kind of heavenly joy far more intense than anything I had known before."
But the "gloom of grace," as he described it, created a problem. If he allowed himself to be influenced by it, he knew he would have to change, his family might think he had lost his mind, and maybe that intense joy would prove to be an illusion. So he concluded, "I was too deeply embedded in the world to change course."
True for Kenneth Clark and true for many people. They are too deeply embedded in the world, in their own world, to believe God’s word, repent, obey, change, and be saved. But at least God did not leave us in the dark. He has opened the door. He has provided the way through His son Jesus. He has given us the light. He is the way, the truth and the life.
CONCLUSION----------------
27 to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.
Because of who God is and what’s He done for His creation, mankind, in that He saves us through faith and obedience to Christ and builds us up, HE DESERVES PRAISE AND GLORY THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD!
Steve Shepherd, Cape Girardeau, MO
shepherd111@hotmail.com
