God’s Hands
Chuck Sligh
August 11, 2013
NOTE: A PowerPoint is available for this sermon upon request by requesting it at chucksligh@hotmail.com.
TEXT: Turn to Hebrews 10 (to be read later)
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – When I was a small child, I remember a song that was very popular, called “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.” For some crazy reason, a while back, that song popped into my mind and I couldn’t get it off of my mind. Then I got to thinking—wait a minute, God doesn’t have hands! But yet I remembered that the Bible actually speaks of God’s having hands—which led me into a word study of hands in the Bible and specifically, God’s hands.
Now when you and I talk about hands, we’re usually referring to those literal five-fingered appendages hanging on the ends of our arms. But in the English language we also use hands in a symbolic or metaphorical sense.
For instance, we say:
• “He got the upper hand,” meaning someone got an advantage over someone else.
• “I’ll have to hand it to you,” meaning you feel that you should give someone credit for something.
• “Can you give me a hand with this,” which is not a call for you to provide someone with a chopped off hand, but rather it is a metaphorical way of asking for help.
I looked up the word hand in the American Heritage Dictionary and was surprised to find THIRTY-SIX definitions and TEN variants of those meanings for the word hand, only one of which means the literal word we use for our physical hands.
To the Hebrew and the Greek, the word hand also had many varying metaphorical meanings and was used to represent a number concepts. For instance, there were several common phrases in which the hands were used as a symbol of power. – For example:
• Psalms 31:15 – “My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.”
• Mark 14:41 – “…it is enough, the hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.”
There are many other ways that hands are used in the Bible:
• The “dropping of the hands” symbolized weakness or lack of resolution.
• To “strengthen the hands” indicated the opposite of dropping of the hands—to show strong resolution and decisive action of the will – as in Isaiah 35:3 – “Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.”
I could go on and on with many other examples in the Bible.
But there’s another very interesting thing in the Bible—which is how it uses hands as a symbol for GOD’S attributes and characteristics. Very frequently, the Bible refers to God’s hands.
Of course, as I said a few minutes ago, we know that God has no literal, physical hands, because in John 4:24 Jesus said, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” A spirit doesn’t have a body and hands are a part of a body.
But the Bible often uses metaphors of God. Though God does not have LITERAL hands, the Bible talks of God having hands to help us understand on a human level His nature and attributes.
Today let’s see some wonderful things God’s Word teaches about God through His hands:
I. GOD’S HANDS ARE FEARFUL HANDS – Hebrews 10:30-31– “For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
The teaching in the Bible is that God is a God of judgment. This isn’t a popular subject in our day. We like to think of God as a sweet sugar daddy in the sky who will overlook all our sins.
God IS a God of mercy and forgiveness. But if we do not come to God on HIS terms or if we reject His love and mercy by refusing or neglecting His free gift of salvation, we have the solemn warning of the Word of God of His everlasting judgment. Yes, we can count on God’s grace and pardon if we come to Him for salvation. But if we do not, we’re reminded in the Scriptures that “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Turn with me to Revelation 20:11-15 (EXPAND AS LED) – “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
It is truly a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, God’s hands are indeed fearful hands, but let me hasten to add that…
II. GOD’S HANDS ARE SAVING HANDS – Isaiah 59:1-2 – “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: 2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”
I’m so thankful that though God’s hands are FEARFUL hands; they’re also SAVING hands. And I’m thankful that God’s hands are not too short that they cannot save.
Verse 2 tells us clearly why God’s hands are fearful hands, while verse 1 teaches us the power of God’s hands to save, rather than punish. Look again at verse 2 – “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”
The Bible teaches over and over again that what separates us from God is our sin. God is holy and He’s also infinite in everything that He is, which means He is infinitely holy, or PERFECT. And His perfection is so infinite that He cannot allow sin in His presence.
So Isaiah reminds us, “your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” God shuns the prayer of a sinners until their sin is taken away. He will not have a relationship with a person until his sin is taken away.
But look at the blessed metaphor in verse 1: where we read, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save.”
Illus. – A few years ago I watched an episode of the TV show Rescue 911. Two boys were playing in a drainage ditch in Central Texas when they got caught in a flash flood. The water became a raging torrent, that they could not escape in time. Somehow they survived until they were emptied out into a stream, that was a roaring flash of water, taking them down the stream. One of the boys was able to grab hold of a tree branch, but could not pull himself to shore because of the extreme pressure of the water flow.
A man, seeing the danger, ran to the tree and reached out to grab the boy’s hand. (ACT OUT) He reached and he reached, but he just couldn’t reach far enough. Finally, the boy lost his grip of the branch and perished. This man was well-intentioned, but his reach was too short.
But praise God, the Bible says that the LORD’S hand is not too short that it cannot save. No matter how desperate your condition before God; no matter how far down into the depths of sin you have sunk; no matter how frail your grip on God’s grace—God’s hand is LONG ENOUGH to pull you in and save your soul!
Verse 2 says our sins have separated us from God. But even though we were all sinners, living in sin, sinning willfully, often controlled by our sin, the Bible says that God did something for us that we simply did not deserve—He paid the penalty for our sin in our place. He reached down his long and strong hand to save us.
Romans 5:8 says “But God commendeth [showed] his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Because of Christ’s death on the cross, the Bible teaches that if you will put your faith in Jesus Christ for your salvation (not in your good life, or your church, or a religion, or a creed, or your baptism—but SIMPLY BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHRIST DIED FOR ALL YOUR SINS—if you’ll just believe that and accept that truth and rely on it and depend on it), you can experience God’s saving hand.
Do you want proof?
• How about John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
• Or John 3:36 – “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
• John 5:24 – “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”
• Or John 6:47 – “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”
Yes, God’s hands are FEARFUL hands, but because of His grace and love and mercy and compassion, they are also SAVING hands if you will believe in Jesus to wash away your sin.
III. THIRD, GOD’S HANDS ARE KEEPING HANDS – John 10:27-29 – “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”
These verses teach one of the most wonderful truths in the Bible—that just as God does everything to SAVE us, He does everything to KEEP us saved. (EXPAND ON THE DOUBLE CLINCHER CONCEPT & ETERNAL SECURITY.)
Listen to just a few of the MANY wonderful promises in God’s Word that God keeps us saved eternally (EXPAND ON EACH AS LED):
• 1 Corinthians 1:8 – “Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
• Philippians 1:6 – “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
• Hebrews 12:2 – “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith…”
• Jude 1 – “Jude,…to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called.”
• Jude 24 – “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.”
God’s hands are SAVING hands, and when God saves somebody, He’s not like a lifeguard who pulls people into the boat only to throw them back in the ocean again later. When He pulls you out of the ocean of sin into the boat of salvation, He takes you ALL THE WAY TO THE SHORE—all the way to heaven! His saving hands are KEEPING hands.
IV. FOURTH, GOD’S HANDS ARE HELPING HANDS – Isaiah 41:10, 13 – “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.…13 For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.”
Isn’t that beautiful?—“For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.”
Illus. – I remember once as a boy, walking among some big gravel rocks on the long path leading up to the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky: The rocks were rather large for a kid’s little feet, or anyone with weak ankles for that matter, and I kept falling down and hurting myself.
So I did what any kid does—I said to my Dad, “Daddy, can you help me? I keep falling down and it hurts.” Dad held my hand and he helped me. When I would start to stumble, he would pull on me, keeping me aright.
Praise God, that’s just the picture we have of God here! We keep fumbling and falling down and messing things up, when all God wants us to do is call out to Him for help. And when we do, He reaches down and holds our hand and HE HELPS US!
There are surely many, many ways He helps us, but two come to mind right now:
• He helps us through our life’s trials. – Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
When you to through life’s problems and trials, isn’t it wonderful to have a spiritual Father to whom we can say, “Daddy, can you help me? I keep falling down and it hurts.” And God is always there to help.
> He says in Hebrew 13:5, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
> The Psalmist rightly said, – “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Psalms 46:1)
> And David said in Psalms 145:18 – “The LORD is nigh [near] unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.”
• Second God helps us in our downfalls. – Psalms 37:23-24 – “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. 24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.”
When we sin, we fail the Lord and sin always causes us pain. Isn’t it a joy to know we can say, “Daddy, can you help me? I keep falling down and it hurts”—and the Lord says that He upholds us with His hand? God is such a wonderful, loving Father with saving, keeping, helping hands.
V. FIFTH, HIS HANDS ARE STRONG HANDS – Psalms 89:13 – “Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.”
Illus. – Remember when you were a little child, putting your hand up to your daddy’s hand? Your hand would be so small and frail compared to his hand. You would marvel at the size and strength of his hands compared to your little hands.
Well, God’s hand is STRONG! It’s stronger than anything we can imagine! It’s stronger than we can even conceive of!
You know, we can try to accomplish spiritual things in the power of our own weak hands, and we always fail, don’t we? How much wiser to turn them over to God’s strong and mighty hands! God’s hands are SO strong, dear people…
• Strong enough to save, no matter how sinful you may be – Hebrews 7:25 – “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”
• Strong enough to handle your biggest problem. There is NO problem too big for God. He is all-powerful and He’s the ruler of the universe!
• And strong enough to conquer your greatest temptation. Psalms 98:1 says, “O sing unto the Lord a new song;…his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.” There is no sin that you cannot conquer in God’s power. He can give you the strength to be an overcomer!
CONCLUSION
God’s hands are a wonderful study of who God is.
• God will JUDGE SIN, for He has FEARFUL hands.
• But He will SAVE, if you trust in His Son, Jesus Christ—for He has SAVING hands.
• And once he saves, He KEEPS—FOREVER—for He has KEEPING hands.
• And He loves us so much that He is ever present to HELP us, for He has HELPING hands.
• And those helping hands are STRONG hands, because God is strong and powerful.
• So if you’ve never put your faith in Jesus Christ ALONE for your salvation, let me urge you to do so today.
• If you have a problem that seems too big for you—rest in God’s strong hands by faith today.
• If you have allowed yourself to fall back into sin, don’t think God cannot deliver you. – Repent, confess you sin to God, and trust in His promise of restoration of fellowship.
