God's Fingerprint

God’s Fingerprint

Luke 11:20, “But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the Kingdom of God has come upon you.”

Does God have fingerprints? I think, that at least figuratively, we have to say that He does.

Let me give you a few facts about fingerprints before we get into the message today.

In about 2000 BC, Babylonians put fingerprints in soft clay to protect against forgery of important documents.

In ancient China impressions of fingerprints were used as signatures of those who couldn’t write.

Fingerprints first appear on a fetus about 4 months into a pregnancy.

Ps 139:13-16

13 For You have formed my inward parts; You have covered me in my mother’s

Womb.

14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are

Your works. And that my soul knows very well.

15 My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed, and in Your book they all

Were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none written.

Fingerprints were first accepted as valid police procedure in 1901, at Scotland Yard.

Prior to the use of fingerprints a system of identification known as the Bertillion system was used. The Bertillion system was developed in 1883, in France, and used the following information to identify a person:

A. Length and breadth of skull

B. Length of each foot

C. Length of forearm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger.

D. Length of the middle finger.

E. Exact size of the ears.

This system failed in 1903 at Leavenworth Penitentiary.

There were two men in custody there, one named Willie West, and the other named William West. They were both committed to Leavenworth in 1903, their Bertillion measurements were almost identical. Strangely enough, they were in no way related. Only their fingerprints could positively identify one from the other. The Scripture that I think we can apply here is found in 2 Cor 11:14-15

14 And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself in to an angel of light.

15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

Now, you may be asking yourself right now just how this applies to the situation that I described. Well, I want us to apply the principle to our Christian walk.

Just because it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, doesn’t necessarily make it a duck. A person can make all the noises like a Christian, put up a good appearance of being a Christian (Know all the right works and cliché’s) without actually being a Christian.

Satan and his servants can fool us by appearing to be attractive, good, and moral people. A lot of unsuspecting people will follow a smooth-talking, Bible quoting “preacher” right into a cult. A cult that will alienate them from their families and into a practice of immorality and deceit. We can’t allow ourselves to be fooled by looking only at external appearances. Our impressions aren’t accurate indicators of who is, or who isn’t a true follower of Christ. We should ask three questions about any teaching or teacher:

A. Do their teachings confirm Scripture? (Acts 17:10-11)

10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.

When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.

11 These were more fair-minded (KJV Noble) that those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with al readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

These verses give us guidelines for how we’re to evaluate sermons or teachings. The people of Berea researched the Scriptures themselves and looked for the truth in them to verify or disprove the message that they heard. We should always compare what we’re told, with what the Bible has to say on the subject.

B. Do the teachers affirm and proclaim that Jesus Christ is God who came

Into the world as a man to save people from their sins? (1 John 4:1-3)

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ

Has come in the flesh is of God,

3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh

Is not of God. And is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was

Coming, and is now already in the world.

We shouldn’t believe everything we see or hear just because the one showing or telling claims that it’s a message from God. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who do just that, they believe whatever they see on TV, or read in a book, magazine, or newspaper.