OceanSide church of Christ




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TRUSTING THE GOD OF THE IMPOSSIBLE

Victor M. Eskew

 

INTRODUCTION

 

A.    This morning, we say that God is “the God of the Impossible.”

1.      What man could never do, God can do.

2.      What man cannot even conceive of doing God can do.

 

B.      With this knowledge before us, we must now trust the God of the impossible.

1.      Proverbs 3:5

 

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

 

2.      Job 13:15

 

Though he slay me, yet will I trust him…

 

3.      Isaiah 26:4

 

Trust ye in the Lord for ever:  for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.

 

4.      Jeremiah 17:7

 

Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.

 

C.     Trust is not always something that is easy to have, nor is it always easy to hold on to.

1.      We doubt.

2.      We do not test.

3.      We wonder.

4.      We hold back.

5.      We listen to others.

6.      We limit ourselves.

7.      We rationalize.

8.      We deny.

9.      We fail to combine with action.

10.  We don’t think to apply.   (Ex., we know God can do the impossible.  We face the impossible.  We limit ourselves to only the probable.  The budget).

 

I.                   WE MUST TRUST THE UNBELIEVABLE

 

A.    Creation is a very difficult concept to grasp.

1.      An invisible God created everything.

2.      This invisible God created everything out of nothing.

3.      This invisible God has always existed.  He did not have a beginning. 

 

B.      Regardless of how unfathomable it is to our minds, we must trust.

1.      God said that this is how it was done (Exo. 20:11).

 

For in six days the Lord made the heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day…

 

2.      Fortunately for us, the alternative is even more unbelievable. 

a.      Matter is eternal.

b.      Lifeless matter created all things that exist today.

 

II.                WE MUST TRUST GOD’S WORD

 

A.    God did what was impossible for man to do and revealed His mind to us in His Word.

 

B.      We must now trust what God says in all things.

1.      We must trust the facts.

2.      We must trust the promises.

3.      We must trust the commands.

 

C.     Paul commended the Thessalonians for their trust in God’s Word (I Thess. 2:13).

 

For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

 

III.             WE MUST TRUST IN THE CHRIST

 

A.    Jesus’ fulfillment of the 300+ prophecies proves he is the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one of God.

 

B.      We must put our trust in Him if we expect to be saved in the last day.

1.      Romans 5:1-2

 

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:  by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

 

2.      Romans 10:9-10

 

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

 

3.      Hebrews 10:38-39

 

Now the just shall live by faith:  but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.  But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

 

IV.             WE MUST TRUST AND OBEY

 

A.    Mental assent is all we can do when it comes to fact revealed by God and promises that God has provided to us.

 

B.      Commands, however, are much different.  The only way to show our trust in a command is to obey.

 

 

 

C.     Two powerful examples:

1.      Abraham (James 2:21-22)

 

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?  Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect.

 

2.      The Philippian jailor.

a.      When he asked what he needed to do to be saved, Paul told him to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 16:31).

b.      Acts 16:34 tells us that he “rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.”  Notice all that comes before his salvation by faith (Acts 16:32-34a).

 

And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.  And he took the the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.  And when he had brought them into his house, he sat meat before them…

 

D.    When God gives us a command, the only way for us to manifest faith in God is to obey the command.

 

V.                WE MUST TRUST GOD IN LIFE

 

A.    Trust God for success (Ps. 52:8)

 

But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God:  I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.

 

B.      Trust God for strength (Ps. 28:7)

 

The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped…

 

C.     Trust God when in fear (Ps. 56:4)

 

In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.

 

VI.             WE MUST TRUST GOD IN DEATH

 

A.    One of the enemies of man is death.

1.      He is powerful.

2.      He can bring agony and pain.

3.      He destroys relationships.

4.      He is always successful.

 

B.      When death comes, all begin to ask:  “What now?” 

 

C.     If we trust in God, we have nothing to fear.

1.      Psalm 23:4

 

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil:  for thou art with me.

 

2.      When death comes, we can say just Jesus did:  “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46).

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

A.    God is the God of the impossible.

 

B.      When the impossible comes our way, we must not cringe or fear or fall back.  We trust in the God of the impossible to see us through.

 

C.     Jeremiah 32:17

 

Ah Lord God!  Behold, thou has made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee.