God Is Able
January 24, 2016
Chuck Sligh
TEXT: Turn to Ephesians 3:20
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – When Allen a little boy, his G.I. Joe broke and he was trying to fix it. But he did not have the motor coordination to do what he wanted to do on a part of the G.I. Joe that was just too small for his fumbly fingers.
Frustrated he came to me and asked me to do it. He said, “I can’t do it.”
He came to me because he knew that I WAS able to do it.
That’s one thing we like about dads, isn’t it: They’re able to do things, aren’t they? That incident from Allen’s childhood when I read our text a few years ago: Ephesians 3:20 – “Now unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” (EMPHASIZE “him who is able”)
(OPEN IN PRAYER)
Little kids brag on their dad and what they can do.
Illus. – One time three boys were talking and the first one, who was the child of a DOCTOR, said, “MY Dad makes so much money, it takes a whole bag to hold it all.”
Well, said the child of the LAWYER, “MY Dad makes so much money it takes a big briefcase to hold it all.”
Well, the pastor’s son had it on all of them. He said, “That’s NOTHING. MY dad makes so much money it takes 6 ushers to carry it down the aisle.
Well kids like to brag on their dads, don’t they? They like to think that their dads can do almost anything. God our heavenly Father, is ABLE. “Now unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”
God is ABLE, folks. So many times we limit God. Well this morning, I want to just brag on my spiritual Dad and let you know how ABLE He is for us.
I. FIRST, I WANT YOU TO SEE THAT HE IS ABLE TO SUCCOR – Hebrews 2:18 – “For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.”
Succor means, “To give assistance to someone just in the nick of time,” or “To give help, aid, or assistance in time of need or distress.”
Illus. – Ole TV Westerns: Cowboys holed up and surrounded by Indians. – And then you hear a bugle and in comes the Cavalry to the rescue, just in the nick of time.
That’s the idea of what Jesus does for us when we are being tempted. When we feel weakest in the midst of temptation, He is able. Jesus suffered every kind of temptation that we face, so He knows when we need His help.
That’s what the writer of Hebrew meant when he said in Hebrews 4:15 – “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
We never need to live in defeat because Jesus promises to be there to succor us, to give us the help and grace and encouragement and power we need for victory when we need it the most.
Illus. – Once the Lone Ranger and Tonto were on the range and suddenly they saw hundreds of Indians coming to them from the North, from the South, from the East and from the West. The Lone Ranger—the non-India in the whole bunch—turns to Tonto and says, “Tonto, what are we going to do?” Tonto look at Indians on all sides of them and then says, “What do you mean WE?” Well, I think Tonto wasn’t there for the Lone Ranger in his time of greatest need.
But God is. He’s ALWAYS is there for us in our time of our times of temptation.
That’s why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:13 – “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
Jesus will always provide for us that way of escape in temptation.
II. SECOND, I WANT YOU TO SEE THAT GOD IS ABLE TO SUSTAIN – Psalms 55:22 – “Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.”
“Sustain” means “to maintain, to support, to strengthen, to provide the sustenance and nourishment for.” How many problems have I gone through when the burden was just so heavy that I would never have made it if it were not for the Lord sustaining me, supporting me, strengthening me, nourishing me.
Illus. – of God’s sustenance in the midst of Susan’s appendix surgery, the perentonitis and abscess.
I love that praise song we sing, Everlasting God, whose words go like this:
Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord
Our God, You reign forever
Our hope, our Strong Deliverer
You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint
You won’t grow weary
You’re the defender of the weak
You comfort those in need
You lift us up on wings like eagles
What a blessing to know that God is our deliverer, the defender of the weak, who comforts us in need, who lifts us up on wings like eagles when we experience trials in our lives.
III. GOD IS ABLE TO SECURE – Jude 1:24 – “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 is able to secure you and keep you for eternity.
Note John 10:28-29 – “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.”
Verse 28 teaches that we are in Jesus’s hand and verse 29 teaches that Jesus’s hand is in God the Father’s hand. Now that’s stability and security.
Illus. – Have a man and a child come up. Put a coin in the man’s hand and tell him to clench it. Then have my hand clench his hand. Then tell the child to try to take the coin out of the man’s hand.
IV. LASTLY, GOD IS ABLE TO SAVE – 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.”
Illus. – In the 18th Century in North Hampton, England, an Irish man named Connell was sentenced to die on the gallows. After he’d already been convicted and sentenced, a preacher named Philip Doddridge became concerned and felt like this man Connell was not guilty of the crimes for which he had been convicted and sentenced.
So he took Connell’s case, and was able to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that Mr. Connell was 120 miles away from the scene of the crime the day it occurred. But this being the 18th century, the sentence had already been handed down and nobody would reexamine the case.
Doddridge tried every legal maneuver he could, to no avail. So they took Mr. Connell to hang him in the gallows.
So they asked him, “Do you have any last wish?”
He replied, “Yes. On the way to the gallows, please take me by Rev. Doddridge’s house.”
So they did. They took a little detour and went by his house. On the doorstep of Rev. Dodridge’s house, Connel knelt down at his doorstep and with tears streaming down his face, he shouted to the top of his lungs, with tears coursing his cheeks, “Rev. Dodridge. Every hair on my head thanks you! Every throb of my heart thanks you. Every drop of my blood thanks you. You tried to save me. You did all you could to save me. But YOU COULD NOT SAVE ME.”
You can say the same thing about all anything you have tried to do to make yourself acceptable to God.
• You can bow before your GOOD WORKS and say, “You tried to save me, but you could not save me.”
• You can bow before your CONFIRMATION and say, “You tried to save me, but you could not save me.”
• You can bow before your BAPTISM and say, “You tried to save me, but you could not save me.”
• You can bow before your CHURCH and say, “You tried to save me, but you could not save me.”
• You can bow before your DENOMINATION and say, “You tried to save me, but you could not save me.”
And you can bow before Jesus and say, “You tried to save me. You did your best to save me. You gave your ALL to save me. You died on the cross to save me. And you ARE ABLE to save me to the UTTERMOST.”
Friend, I don’t care how bad you’ve been, or what depths of depravity you have sunk: God is able to save! You cannot save yourself with your own efforts. Your good works, your religion, your church attendance, your giving to the church or to the poor—none of these will save you—none of these are ABLE to save you.
But Jesus IS able, and He WILL save you if you will believe on His name; if you will place your trust and your confidence in HIM to save you, not in yourself to save yourself.
Illus. – John Bunyon, who wrote Pilgrim’s Progress, loved this Scripture in Hebrews because one morning he got to doubting his salvation. Oh, he thought, could someone as wretched a sinner as me really be saved?
You say, “Pastor Sligh, have you ever doubted your salvation?”
No. But I’ve doubted Dan Feazelle’s salvation before though. No, just kidding.
Almost all of us had bouts of doubt about our salvation, haven’t we? We get to looking at ourselves, instead of Jesus. We get to looking down instead of looking up. We get to looking and comparing ourselves to others instead of looking to Calvary. And we get to thinking, Oh, am I really saved?
John Bunyon got up that morning and he wrestled with his doubts. Fear gripped his soul. Guilt and unworthiness weighed heavy on his heart.
All morning he wrestled with this thing… Am I really saved? Is it true? Did Jesus really die for me? Am I really going to heaven?
And then at about 8 o’clock in the evening as he read his Bible seeking assurance from God, he came to this jewel in the coffers of the word of God and he read, “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.”
Suddenly light came into his soul and he got up and shouted, “HE IS ABLE! HE IS ABLE! He is able to save me to the uttermost, for I have come to God, not by my goodness, but I have come to God through Jesus Christ. He is able!”
And dear friend, God is able AND WILLING to save you to the uttermost.
Would you believe that this morning. Jesus said, “…him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” (John 6:37b) (EXPAND)
