The Three Fingers Of God

THE THREE FINGERS OF GOD

Deut. 9:10; Dan. 5:5; Jn. 8:6

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. Kids are so helpful! You've probably seen the tremendous lines in to inspect luggage at airports.

2. Did you hear about the lady who purchased pirate swords for her sons just before flying home from vacation? The sales clerk warned her not to carry them on the plane, fearing they might be confiscated as weapons. "Make sure you pack them in your luggage," the clerk advised.

3. At the airport, as the TSA was checking their bags, the agent asked, "Did anyone give you a suspicious package to take on the plane?"

4. The youngest son blurted out, "Yes, but it's safely packed away in our luggage!"

B. PERSONAL NOTES ARE VALUABLE

1. In 1989, a Philadelphia financial analyst purchased an old, torn picture of a country scene for $4 at a flea market in Adamstown, Pennsylvania because he liked the frame.

2. Later when he attempted to detach the picture, 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 advised him to get it appraised.

3. It was real -- one of 500 official copies from the first printing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Only 24 similar copies are known to exist.

4. He put it up for sale at Sotheby's on June 4, 1991 and it was purchased for $2.42 million. The man who bought it, Donald Scheer of Atlanta, put it up for sale a second time, and it was sold for a whopping $8.14 million.

5. If that hand-written note, signed by the 56 founding fathers was worth $8.14 million, think what an original hand-written note from God must be worth!

C. THESIS

1. This morning we’re going to look at "The Three Fingers of God." Three times in sacred history, God wrote with His finger.

2. How will we treat God's personal notes? So let's look at the three handwritten notes from God.

I. 1ST FINGER OF GOD WROTE THE LAW

“The Lord gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. On them were all the commandments the Lord proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire” Deut 9:10.

A. THE NEED FOR THE LAW

1. When Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden, there was no Law, because evil didn’t exist in their hearts and minds.

2. But once they sinned, their innocence was lost. At this point God wanted to make the boundaries of sin very clear so he sent Moses up Mount Sinai and the etched in stone -- with His own finger -- the 10 Commandments.

3. A Royal Ranger Commander was teaching a lesson on the 10 Commandments. He asked the kids if they could name any. They began to call out several suggestions, including, "Don't drink and drive."

4. What are the 10 Commandements? [Ex. 20:1-17]; 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 disrespect your father and mother. Don't kill. Don't commit adultery. Don't steal. Don't lie. Don't covet.

5. One man said, “Pastor, I really like this series on the 10 Commands. It's made such an impression on me that I'm going to try to keep one of the 10 Commandments each week until I get through them all."

B. PURPOSE OF THE LAW

1. The first time God wrote, He wrote the Law. He drew a line we should not cross over. He established a Standard we should not fall below.

2. Many Americans are under the false assumption that they are living good enough to gain entrance to heaven. This is totally false. In fact, the Bible teaches the exact opposite.

3. Rom. 3:23 says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Ultimately, all of us will fail to keep all of God's commands, so the purpose of the Law is to point us to Christ. The first finger of God wrote the Law...

II. 2ND FINGER OF GOD WROTE JUDGMENT

3 So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them... 4 [and] praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone. 5 Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. 25 “This is the inscription that was written: mene, mene, tekel, parsin. 26 “…Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. 27 Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. 28 Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” Dan. 5:3-5, 22-28.