IS THERE ANYTHING TOO HARD FOR ME?
"Behold,
I am the LORD, the God of all
flesh: is there anything too hard for Me?" (Jeremiah
32:27)
There are many of you who are sincere
Christians, but you struggle with some besetting sin or another, and don't know
how to get free once and for all. You
feel hypocritical every time you fall down, and you are battered by your guilt,
and hindered in your ministry. This
message is for you. There is an answer
to yuor dilemma, and it is much simpler than you might imagine.
I recently read a tract by the great
Charles G. Finney which was first published in 1839 in the Oberlin Evangelist.
The tract was entitled, How to
Overcome Sin, and the portions that I quote were edited by the late
Keith Green. In it he writes:
There are multitudes
of anxious Christians who are inquiring what they shall do to overcome the
world, the flesh, and the devil...They ask, "Why am I overcome by
sin? Why can't I get above its power? Why am I the slave of my appetites and
passions, and the sport of the devil?"
They look all around them for the cause of all this spiritual
wretchedness and death. Sometimes they
think they have discovered the answer in the neglect of one duty, and at another
time in the neglect of another duty.
Sometimes they imagine they have found the cause of their wretchedness
to be that they have yielded to one sin and sometimes in yielding to
another. They put forth efforts in this
direction and patch up their righteousness on one side, while they make a tear
in the other. Thus they spend years
running around in a circle, making dams of sand across the current of their own
corruptions. Instead of at once purifying their hearts by faith (Acts
15:9), they are engaged in trying to stop the overflow of its bitter waters.
How are we
to overcome this corrupt nature, this wickedness, and our sinful habits? I answer, BY FAITH ALONE. No works of law have the least tendency to
overcome our sins, but rather they strengthen the soul in self-righteousness
and unbelief.
As the apostle John said, "For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." (1John 5:4) Without faith it is impossible to please God. The more that we struggle with our flesh,
trying to be good, trying to overcome our baser nature, the more we find we are
helpless in and of ourselves. The Lord
is the God of all flesh, however, and there is nothing too hard for Him! "What
the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but
they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit." (Romans 8:3-5)
Salvation is a gift: first, last, and
foremost. There is nothing that we have,
or ever can do, to merit the great love that our Father in heaven has poured
out upon us. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of
God: not of works, lest any man
should boast. For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them."
(Ephesians 2:8) It was grace
that saved us in the beginning, and it is grace that will deliver us from our
uncleanness now and in the future. To
the degree that we believe that we can help ourselves, to that degree we have
failed of the grace of God. Please
read that statement again and etch it in your consciousness. We often minimize the insidious nature of a
legalistic spirit. We are told plainly,
however, "Christ is become of no
effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen
from grace." (Colossians
2:6, 7) The old adage, "God helps those who help
themselves" was coined by one whose heart had clearly never fully
understood the carnal nature, or the saving grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Beloved, the most offensive
thing that one can do to a giver is refuse his gift, and the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Not through our will power, or through our sacrifices,
or through our best intentions; but through Jesus! He
is the way, He is the truth, and He is the life.
It is faith in the promises of God
that saves us and causes us to mature in Christ. God's goal for your life and mine is that we "Grow up into Him in all things, which
is the head, even Christ." (Ephesians 4:15) If God expects us to become like Christ "in all things," then we must
realize that we cannot fulfill so high an expectation by ourselves. Thank God, though, that "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13) After all, the Lord is the God of all flesh,
and there is nothing too hard for Him! He
will, "change our vile body, that it
may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He
is able even to subdue all things unto Himself." (Philippians 3:21)
A dear sister in Christ recently
shared a Psalm with me that had especially spoken to her heart. In part, it reads, "What shall I render unto the LORD for all His benefits toward me?
I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD." (Psalm 116:12, 13) The one thing that we can do to repay the
Lord for all that He has done, and continues to do, is to take this cup of
salvation - this gift of grace - and drink it up. This is NOT a BYOB party, my friends. The Lord has supplied the new wine Himself,
and there is nothing else that will satisfy!
Let your faith rise up, and believe that God has delivered you from sin,
the flesh, and the devil. Your
deliverance is secured, not by your struggling, but by your believing. He is the God of all flesh; is there anything
too hard for Him?
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