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 your 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, "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." (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 that high of 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!

 

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).  In other words, 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.  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?