“The Three Fingers of God”
In 1989, a Philadelphia financial analyst purchased an old, torn picture of a country scene for $4 at a flea market in Adamstown, PA because he liked the frame. Later, when he attempted to detach the frame from the painting, the frame fell apart in his hands and he found a folded document between the canvas and wood backing which appeared to be an old copy of the Declaration of Independence. A friend who collected Civil War memorabilia advised him to have it appraised.
It was real -- one of 500 official copies from the first printing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. (Only twenty-four similar copies were known to exist before this find, of which a mere three were privately owned.) This rare document was offered for sale by Sotheby's on June 4, 1991 and the lucky find fetched even more than had been anticipated: the $800,000 to $1.2 million estimate turned into $2.42 million by the sound of the gavel.
Last month (June 2000) Donald Scheer of Atlanta, who purchased the original copy for $2.42 million put it up for sale a second time. Months prior to the auction, Sotheby's confirmed the printed broadsheet not only as authentic but also as one of the three finest known - as crisp as it was on the evening it was printed by John Dunlap to carry the news of America's independence to the people of the thirteen colonies. This time, the find that was purchased for $4 at a flea market went for a whopping $8.14 million in an on-line auction!
If that handwritten note, signed by the 56 founding fathers that declared America’s independence from Great Britain was worth $8.14 million, think what an original hand-written note from God must be worth!
I think it is interesting to note that…
PROPOSITION: Three different times in the course of history God took the time to write out His thoughts by hand. What he had to say was so important that he gave hand-written notes so we wouldn’t miss the intent of His message.
I want us to look at those three places in time today.
INTERROGATIVE STATEMENT: What are you going to do with God’s three handwritten notes? Are you going to treat them with great value and respect or are you going to handle them foolishly?
There’s eternal treasure at stake here today. I hope you realize the great opportunity before you.
I. THE FIRST FINGER OF GOD WROTE THE LAW. – Exodus 20:1-21; Deuteronomy 9:10 (READ)
When Adam and Eve lived in innocence in the Garden of Eden there was no knowledge of good or evil because evil did not exist in their hearts or minds. However, when they fell prey to Satan’s deception and ate from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, sin entered their world and they were suddenly confronted with choices they never needed to know. Innocence was lost. That’s one of the by-products of sin – it’s steals your innocence. At this point in time God wanted to make the boundaries of sin very clear to His chosen people so He sent Moses up Mt. Sinai and He etched in stone with His own finger the “10 Commandments.”
He wrote the LAW. It was important because it gave us God’s clear-cut definition of sin. The LAW points out what sin is so we can recognize it.
Don’t have any other gods before me.
Don’t make idols.
Don’t misuse the Name of the Lord your God.
Don’t forget the Sabbath.
Don’t dishonor or disrespect you father and mother.
Don’t kill.
Don’t commit adultery.
Don’t steal.
Don’t lie.
Don’t covet.
The first time God wrote, he wrote the LAW. He drew a line that we shouldn’t cross over. He created clear and distinct boundaries and told us if we move outside of them, we have sinned. It was a high standard but God is a holy God. It created a lot of guilt because we are all sinners and we continuously fall short of the mark.
Romans 3:23 – “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
You and I were never expected to live up to God’s standards without help from God. He drew the lines in an effort to bring definition to sin and to draw us to Him for help. Unfortunately, to this very day, a great many of us either think we can be holy without Him or we get hung up on all the “DON’TS”. You can find people who feel they are saved because they practice a man-made religious system of “do’s and don’ts”, and you can find people who will tell you they don’t need the guilt or the hassle of someone telling them what they can and can’t do.
For years in churches around America, all you heard was what you “couldn’t do” when you became a Christian. Christianity was a long list of “DON’TS.” Who can ever live up to God’s standards on their own? God’s effort to define sin left most of us feeling like we could never live up to His expectations. You may sit here this morning with a load of guilt and shame because you know you’ve fallen short of God’s standards of righteousness. You are not alone. I don’t think there’s one of us that haven’t felt that way.
The FIRST FINGER OF GOD WROTE THE LAW and we’ve been trying unsuccessfully to live up to His standards on our own ever since.
II. THE SECOND FINGER OF GOD WROTE JUDGMENT. – Daniel 5:1-30 (READ)
A. IT IS A TERRIFYING THING TO FALL INTO JUDGMENT AT THE HANDS OF THE LIVING GOD. (Verses 6 & 9)
You might say that King Belshazzar was partying hardy until he read the handwriting on the wall and then the party was suddenly over! “His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way.” He became “terrified and his face grew more pale.” He had mocked God and broken one of His laws – “Thou shalt have no other God’s before me.” “Yeah, bring in the gold goblets from the temple of the God in Jerusalem and fill ‘em up.” And as they drunk themselves into a stupor “they praised the gods of gold and silver, or bronze, iron, wood and stone.” In so doing, Belshazzar mocked the one true God and brought judgment upon himself.
You don’t want to mess around with the one true God. The writer of Hebrews put it this way:
Hebrews 10:31 – “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
You can mock gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone because they’re dead anyway. But if you mock the living God you bring judgment upon yourself. There are people all around us who mock the one true and living God every day by the way they are living. Taking His Holy name in vain. Living in immorality – sleeping around, committing adultery. Drinking themselves into a drunken stupor every weekend. Taking the things of God lightly as if they aren’t true. Making fun of the Bible, of church, of Christians. Acting like they can do anything they want with no consequences. Arrogant in their sin.
Listen to me, if you’re living in arrogance and rebellion and you had to stand before Almighty God today to give an account for the way you’ve been living “your face would turn pale, and your knees would begin to knock from fright until your legs collapsed underneath you!” Sin is not, never has been and never will be a joke to God. If you stand before Him and your sin has never been covered by the shed blood of Christ, it will be terrifying! Hear me this morning, don’t walk in pride and arrogance before God as if He can’t touch you and you can do whatever you feel like doing. One day you’ll stand before Him to give an account.
You can’t mock God and get by with it.
B. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE PEOPLE WHO TRY TO “SUGAR-COAT” OR DOWNPLAY THE JUDGMENT OF GOD. (Verse 23)
Belshazzar did not realize the serious nature of what he asked for or he would never have requested those gold goblets from Jerusalem be brought in to him. Daniel told him, “…you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You honored all these false gods but you dishonored the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways.”
Then he went on to tell King Belshazzar what the handwriting on the wall meant.
Your days are numbered.
You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
You have lost your kingdom.
He had to have been shocked when he realized the drastic outcome of his sin. Likewise, if you and I go on willfully sinning with no interest in repentance or in calling upon the mercy of God, we will be shocked with the drastic outcome of our sin.
Romans 6:23 – “The wages of sin is death…”
Hebrews 9:27 – “It is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment.”
Have you noticed there is a theological movement taking place in America to water down hell?
Apparently many people don’t think hell is as hot as it used to be. In fact, I’ve met people today who don’t even believe hell exists as we see it described in the bible! If I were the devil, guess what I’d want as many people as I could possibly get to believe? THAT THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS HELL. THAT A LOVING GOD WOULD NEVER BRING JUDGMENT UPON ANYONE.
Listen, hell is real and I don’t like to talk about it but I do because I don’t want anyone to go there. When the hand of God appeared on the wall the king was shocked because he didn’t believe something like that could happen to him. Hell is full of people who felt the same way. If you could get a 10-second look into hell you’d run to the altar to get right with God! Don’t listen to people who are trying to “cool down” hell. As Belshazzar learned, the judgment of God is serious business.
C. LOOK AT GOD’S PAST JUDGMENTS AND REMEMBER NOT TO LET HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF. (Verse 30)
“That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain…”
I have often heard people say, “God would never send someone to a place as awful as hell.” To say God will not judge sin is to deny history. He has always judged sin. In this instance, his finger of judgment wrote death and destruction for one man. In the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, (Genesis 18&19) it wrote destruction for an entire city that was living in sin. In the case of Noah and the Ark, (Genesis 6) it wrote destruction for the entire planet when the world was described as a place where man’s every thought “was only evil all the time.”
Jesus said hell is a place where there is, “weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.” He said if your eye causes you to sin you’d be better of to gouge it out or if your hand causes you to sin to cut it off – better to go through life with one eye or one hand than to go into hell with both. No one talked about the realities of hell more than Christ. This is serious stuff. Eternity is forever. You cannot afford to be wrong.
THE FIRST FINGER WROTE THE LAW.
THE SECOND FINGER WROTE JUDGMENT.
III. THE THIRD FINGER OF GOD WROTE GRACE. – John 8:1-11 (READ)
Now, no one really knows just what it was that Jesus wrote on the ground with his finger that day, but I can tell you what he wrote onto the heart of a hurting woman standing naked and ashamed because of her obvious sin. Through His Son, Jesus Christ, the same God who wrote the LAW defining sin, the same God that wrote certain JUDGMENT for all those who willfully crossed over that line into sin now wrote a third time –and this time he wrote GRACE! And oh how beautifully he wrote!
Romans 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
I John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just…”
She had broken God’s LAW. Crossed over the line. Missed the mark. She deserved JUDGMENT – and the religious leaders were ready and willing to oblige. But Jesus’ message to her and to every one of us who would follow was clear: As long as you are living and breathing in this life my GRACE extends to you one more chance. I’m so thankful for the GRACE of God!
Illustr. – There is a story that one night Martin Luther went to sleep troubled about his sin. In a dream he saw an angel standing by a blackboard, and at the top of the board was Luther’s name. The angel, chalk in hand, was listing all of Luther’s sins, and the list filled the blackboard. Luther shuddered in despair, feeling that his sins were so many that he could never be forgiven. But suddenly in his dream he saw a pierced hand writing above the list these words: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” As Luther gazed in amazement, the blood flowed from the wounded hand and washed the record clean.
“When I bring my sins to the Lord Jesus He casts them into the depths of the sea – forgiven and forgotten. He also puts up a sign, ‘No Fishing Allowed!” – Corrie ten Boom
