372: Andrew Johns - Exhortation: God is Able

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   Welcome to Good Christophian Talks. Thank you for joining us this week on this podcast. We select one talk a week to help us get the Bible in our Daily News feed. Each week we post a talk that we previewed from suggestions sent in by listeners from around the world. Then we record a short intro beforehand as a personalized recommendation to you on why we are sharing the talk. And now let’s talk more about this week’s talk. Hello all, and welcome back.

2. 0:36

   This is Brother Benji. This week’s talk will be an exhortation given by Brother Andrew Johns to the theme God is able. Brother Andrew describes for us the method of God’s salvation. Although this is not your typical atonement talk, he focuses on the stress the Scripture places on God’s ability to save.

3. 1:10

   I loved Brother Andrew’s passion, which comes through really strongly in this talk. The approach our brother takes here is very understandable and clear in breaking small the word of God for us. I’ve found this talk exciting, relieving, and uplifting, and I’m sure you will too.

4. 1:37

   So with that, I’ll give you over to our brother Andrew for his exhortation. God is able. Good morning, my dearly loved brother and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ. There’s great causes and not for joy and Thanksgiving as we made around this table this morning, brothers and sisters, because he has symbolized before us in a very simple way are the greatest truths that any individual could ever know. And we’re privileged to know them. And we’ve come to to strengthen our connection with the greatest man that ever lived.

5. 2:31

   Yet it’s true, is it not, brothers and sisters, that we don’t always arrive feeling that sense of joy and Thanksgiving as we come here? Because there are times when we feel weighed down and times when we we are distracted and perhaps even crushed by life’s experiences where pressures and family issues and all manner of things that happen in our lives take take their toll and rob us of our vision.

6. 3:11

   And perhaps even at times, brothers and sisters, sin repeated in our lives and forgiven and repeated and forgiven, leaves us feeling worthless and despondent, even depressed. However, brothers and sisters, in whatever state we come, we ought to leave this place whenever we have this opportunity, enlivened and thankful and hopeful. And the apostles constantly through the New Testament, give us the key.

7. 3:55

   In fact, they pick up Paul particularly, and Jude this morning, and John and Peter all pick up a theme from the Old Testament and drive it into their teaching.

8. 4:11

   Now I was reminded of this the other day as I was began reading first of John. I don’t know whether you’re like me, but sometimes just starting a reading, I just keep on reading. I suppose we’ve all had that experience in Esther and other books, but I was just reading on through John, the whole of John and 2nd of John and 3rd of John and I kept on going into Jude and and I was reminded of this antidotes that pulls us to the things that pull us down.

9. 4:52

   Brothers and sisters, let’s let Paul first tell us what this is. Just come, will you please for a moment to Hebrews Chapter 7, because here the apostle encapsulates this in just three simple words in verse 25 where he says verse 24. But this man Christ, because he continueth ever has an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him saying he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

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    He is able to save brothers and sisters completely. That word uttermost means he is able to save completely those who come to God by him. It doesn’t say brothers and sisters that he might be possible under certain circumstances. That’s not what Paul said. He doesn’t say that he’s able to save those who are righteous.

11. 6:16

    He doesn’t say that it’s not for some brothers and sisters. It’s for all of those who come to God by him. And all of us brothers and sisters this morning have done just that. We’ve come to God by him because we know that this is the only place where there is hope. This is the only inspiration for us.

12. 6:42

    And the apostle tells us he is Abel. Do we believe it? Brothers and sisters, when we probe our own hearts, we doubt. But we’ve got to ask ourselves, brothers and sisters, do we actually believe that God is able to save not just those who come to God, but us as we come to him in Christ? Do we believe that he’s actually working in our lives, brothers and sisters?

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    And I think that question has to come personally to all of us individually. None of us can answer that for each other. And it’s no good keeping it as a general principle, just sitting as black print on white page.

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    Do you believe, brother or sister, that God is actually right now working in your life? Because verse 25 is not just a statement of fact that happened in the past or is yet something that’s gonna happen in the future. It’s telling about a process that God is actively involved in right this moment. He is able to save completely those who come to Him because he is ever living to make intercession. This is a process that hasn’t stopped yet. He is in the process and He has the power. You know, in the Greek, that little phrase he is able comes from the the word dunamis, a word which we understand. And it’s the basis of many English words, Dynamo and dynamic.

15. 8:34

    It’s it’s talks about power and it’s often translated power in the New Testament. But it’s a little phrase that tells us that God has the power. He is able. We are not brothers and sisters. We understand that and it’s why we’re here. But he is, you know, it’s fundamental, brothers, is as we come to the table this morning to get our perspective right. And one of the great values of us meeting here with a focus on our Lord Jesus Christ in these symbols here before us is to help us get that perspective right. And when we get that perspective right, brothers and sisters, that it’s God that’s working.

16. 9:25

    It’s we who are not able to get ourselves to the Kingdom. When we get that perspective right, then we are able to lift our heads and our hearts will fill with wonder and with thankfulness. You know, it’s the central reason for us being here, is it not? Brothers and sisters, being here before this table to focus and we citing word to focus on what God has done and what Christ has achieved. And that’s something we can never do. You know, we all sent to that, brethren and sisters, there’s not one of us here that would would disagree with that in principle principle.

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    But do we actually really believe that God can lift us to be part of his family into eternity? Do you believe that He is able to save you? Do I believe that He is able to save me? You know, if we doubt, brothers and sisters, it’s because we’re focusing too much on self and not on Christ.

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    And it’s not our purpose this morning, brothers and sisters, though certainly it’s true that we should examine ourselves and see our own hearts, It’s not our purpose as we come to this table, brothers and sisters, to just dwell there. It’s got to go beyond. The reason our Lord instituted this feast is so that we would lift our eyes to Him despite our own weakness. Just remember that if we doubt that He is able, not doubt that He is able to get some other brother or sister into the Kingdom, but doubt that we could be there. We not only doubt our ability, but we limit the grace and the power of God.

19. 11:51

    Paul here says God is able to say completely those who come to God by him. It’s not a matter of our feelings of unworthiness. All of us are unworthy, brothers and sisters. The focus is on God, you know, and this is not an isolated passage, not an isolated statement by the apostle Paul by any means.

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    It’s a frequent theme of his that he’s picked up from the Old Testament. We haven’t got time to do to deal with that this morning to, to examine the Old Testament origins of this. But this great truth must affect the way we think and the way we view God. And when it does, brothers and sisters, it will transform us.

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    And I want to just consider briefly this morning just two prayers, one of the apostle Paul and one of Jude, because there’s just an amazing thing. I don’t know whether you’ve ever really noticed it. Let’s have a look at the first of those in Ephesians 3. I want you to notice how both Paul and Jude viewed God. Ephesians 3 contains one of the most amazing prayers that Paul wrote and there’s many in his epistles. And it starts back in verse 14 and goes through to the end of the chapter with the final Amen in verse 21. But come to verse 20, to the very end of this prayer, where the apostle says now unto him, that is Abel, He doesn’t say now unto our loving Father or the God Almighty. He says now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in US.

22. 14:19

    Unto him be glory in the ecclesia by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Pope Paul’s description of God note his conception of God. This is the God that he worshipped him that is able to do exceedingly above all that we ask or think. God is powerfully at work in the mind of Paul. God was powerfully at work in the lives of individuals, and He is able, according to the apostle Paul, to do not only more than we ask, but more than we can even possibly imagine. That plays with my mind.

23. 15:11

    Brothers and sisters, that is just an amazing thing. God did not send Christ into the world because we were able. He sent him into the world because we were not able, and because he was, as Paul on another place in Romans says, while we were. Yet since Christ died for us, it’s got nothing to do with us. He is able to do abundantly.

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    Above all, we ask or think. We might feel unworthy and and rightly so, but God says He can transform any who come to Him for the Kingdom. Do we believe it?

25. 16:01

    But he goes on according to the power, and there’s a repeat of that same Greek word, dunamis. He is able is the same Greek word as this word power, according to the power that works in US. Do you feel that power, brothers and sisters, is God working with a power that is uniquely His in our lives? What is this power that’s working? What He tells us in verse 16 earlier in this prayer, where He says that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might. Same word, power, dunamis to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the Saints the breadth and depth, length and depth and height.

26. 17:11

    You see, brothers and sisters, it’s a power that’s a process being used by God in our lives right now. Jesus said the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are life. And here we are strengthened by might, with might, by His Spirit in the inner man, the word in US, brothers and sisters, if only we will let it can transform us. As we know, we’ve all had some experience of that, brothers and sisters, But perhaps at times we’re not as free in letting God work.

27. 17:53

    We’re not free enough to let God penetrate our pride, to penetrate our stubbornness, to penetrate our laziness and work in our hearts. Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith. That is the power initiated by God, and it requires little of us, brothers and sisters, except to come to God by him and to be receptive to His work in our lives. You know, it’s a very easy thing to say that we should allow God to work in our lives.

28. 18:39

    But here is one of the greatest struggles that every one of us face, brothers and sisters. And I believe it’s heightened by the by the environment and the age in which we live. We are living brothers and sisters, in a time of human history where we have probably more than most common people have ever had. We have more education, we have more opportunity, we have more time, we have more money.

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    We have the ability to do anything we want in reality. And we’re encouraged by our age to be independent and to make our plans and to seek our dreams and to do everything ourselves and not have to be dependent on anyone else. And God says no, that’s not how I want you.

30. 19:30

    Because sometimes we are just too independent and too proud. We’re too used to fighting our battles and organising ourselves and planning everything down to the last detail so that nothing can can go wrong, insuring ourselves to the hilt and making all sorts of plans for the future, brothers and sisters. And God can bring that all to nothing in just a moment.

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    We tend by our nature to just want to do things our own way, to be in control, to sort things out. But the exercise of faith, brothers and sisters, what Paul is talking about here, letting God work, requires us to trust that God knows better than us, that he has a plan. We don’t know all the details, we know the broad outline.

32. 20:38

    But we have to learn to trust brothers and sisters. It’s not something that is innating us or easy for any of us now. It was no different for the faithful of old. You know, take Abraham just as an example. He had to learn that in his life, Though he responded to God in faith, he had to had to learn what that actually really meant. And year after year after year of his life went on and on with nothing happening about what God had promised him. He was faced with disillusion and all manner of things that happened in his life that that could have crushed him. But in the end, Paul says in Romans, he staggered not after he’d learned he staggered, not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able to perform.

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    There’s the start of that Old Testament theme brothers and sisters because Abraham after many, many years of experience of ups and downs of failures of restarting his life, he learned and was fully persuaded that what God had promised he was able to perform. He didn’t understand how, brothers and sisters, but he got to that point of believing, you know what the very next verse says in Romans there for it was imputed to him for righteousness because through all of the ups and downs of his life, he’d understood that faith is not just something that is just an idea.

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    He became fully persuaded that God is able. It’s something we all know, Bun sisters. It’s so commonly spoken about amongst us. But submitting ourselves and being persuaded, as Abraham was, that God is able is a very challenging experience for us.

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    Come to Jude for a moment and just at the end, as we know, Jude concludes his little letter with prayer. He’s talked about the difficulties the ecclesia will face. Verse 17 for example, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they told you there should be mockers in the last time they should walk after their own godly, ungodly lusts. There’s going to be difficulties. You’re going to find it not only out in the world, you’re going to find it in the Ecclesiastes, Jude and he gives them an exhortation.

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    But beloved, verse 20, building yourselves up on your most holy faith and praying Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God. The ends with a prayer now under him that is Abel, Him that is Abel. You know, brothers and sisters, this is a view of God that in challenging times we need to hang on to.

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    We need to grasp and make it our own, like Jude had and the Apostle Paul had under him that is able to keep you from falling, and it presents you faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding joy. To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, now and forever. I find that, brothers and sisters, utterly astounding. Do you see God like that as the one who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy?

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    It’s not something that God is doing because He has to, or that while He sees that we’re weak and failing and well, I suppose I should help these poor creatures.

39. 26:18

    He’s able to do this, brothers and sisters, with exceeding joy. It is the desire of the Father to give his children the Kingdom and to be able to help them to to from falling and to present them faultless. God won’t force us, brothers and sisters, but if only we can see Him as the amazing God that has the power that provides for us, the power to keep us from falling and to present us faultless.

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    It doesn’t mean to say, brothers and sisters, that we won’t fail at times, but that power will strengthen by might in the inner man, as Paul said in Ephesians 3.

41. 27:24

    Do we believe strongly enough, brothers and sisters, to grasp that power and to let that power actually be seen in our lives? If we call upon Him that He’s able, we must believe that He is able, that He is able to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Have you ever thought about that, brothers and sisters? How can we ever be faultless?

42. 27:52

    Are you in fault? Are you faultless? Well, I’m far from faultless and I know it, and you do too. It’s impossible for us to be faultless. But notice that Jude does not say we are faultless. It says God is able to present us faultless. This is something we are utterly powerless to do.

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    We can never ever possibly stand before the presence of God unless we are faultless. And yet God is able to present us faultless if only we can come to God by Him. You know, it’s the Scripture testimony over and over again, brothers and sisters. It’s not just an isolated little phrase here by by Judah in this prayer at the end of his little epistle when when the the Saints are described in Revelation 14, it says and in their mouth was found no guile.

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    Does that mean brothers and sisters, that by the time they’ve been made immortal, that at that point they have no God? I don’t think so. There is no guile for they are without fault before the throne of God.

45. 29:21

    That’s how God sees the Saints, brothers and sisters. It’s utterly amazing. Just come back to Colossians for a moment. Colossians 1. Do we believe this? Verse 21 And you, he says, that was sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, Yet now hath He reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. It’s just an amazing verse.

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    Isn’t that, brothers and sisters, holy without blame, irreproachable in God’s sight. But notice verse 23. If you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you have heard, and which is preached to every creature under heaven. Notice, brothers and sisters, the apostle did not say that God will present you wholly unblownable, unreprovable, if you remain sinless. He said God can present us.

47. 30:55

    He is able to present US holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight, if we continue in the faith and I’m not moved away in the sacrifice of Christ that we’ve come to remember this morning. Brother and sisters, there is assurance of forgiveness. It leads us not to license, but to holiness and to stand before God, blameless for an amazing cause, for wonder and thankfulness.

48. 31:32

    Because here Paul highlights what our role is in this. God is at work and we need to continue in faith and move not away from what we have been called to continue because those that come to God must believe that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. We don’t believe, brothers and sisters, that God is a rewarder of those who are the righteous.

49. 32:10

    We believe as Paul said, that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek and they will fail and we all do, but God guarantees that he will work in the lives of Saints that seek him, that trust him, that rely on Him. You know Jesus all through his ministry highlighted that he said, for example, if thou canst believe all things are possible.

50. 32:42

    Do you know what, brethren, sisters, that word possible is the same Greek word dynamis. He is able to achieve. In other words, all things are possible to the leper in in Matthew 8. Well, the leper came to him and said, Lord, if thou wilt, you canst make me clean. You know what that how that that can be translated.

51. 33:05

    Lord, if thou wilt, you are able to make me clean. Here’s that leper coming with a confession that Paul and Jude make later. I know that you are able and I’m not. That’s what he said and Jesus response I will. And he made him clean. And when he was confronted by two blind men in Matthew 9, he says to them, Believe ye that I am able to do this.

52. 33:45

    And they said, yes, he said, be it according to your faith, receive your sight. You know, brothers and sisters, too often we’re we’re focused on on all the things we need to do. And I don’t mean by that that works of faith should not be part of our life and that we should not be outward looking.

53. 34:13

    We certainly and unquestionably should be, but sometimes our focus shifts. You know, when, when the, the people after Jesus had fed the 5000, they came around the lake to Capernaum and they, he met them again at that point and they said to him, what should we do, Lord, what should we do that we might work the works of God? And it’s something that we sometimes think about. And Jesus said this is the work of God that you believe on him who he had sent.

54. 35:05

    And from that brethren, sisters will follow everything else. You know, believing is the work of God. It’s more difficult than we sometimes realise because it involves us coming to Him and letting go of self. It means humility. It means letting go of our stubbornness, our self will and giving them to Him.

55. 35:37

    You know, it’s different brothers and sisters, to just assenting to the truth or understanding words. Merely. If we are to believe on Him whom God has sent and we’ve come to remember him now, then we’ve got to work at that. It’s the work of God because our natures are hard wired against it.

56. 36:10

    Belief goes beyond words, beyond assent to principles. Brothers and sisters, though, it’s important to have those, and it’s important to assent to principles. But it must and can change the way we think and our attitudes. That leads to a deep and abiding trust that God is able to do what we cannot. And God will take us, brothers and sisters, the long way home at times in our lives.

57. 36:45

    He will take us through circumstances so that we don’t have answers in order that we might learn that He is able and we are not. It’s the point of the cross, brothers and sisters, and it’s the end of the story of Job. You remember Job starts we we first read about Job as a faithful and godly man, the greatest man in the truth.

58. 37:21

    In those days, God has got nothing but praise for him, and God takes him through a whole series of tragic circumstances. In the end, what Job said in Job 42. Now I know that you are able to do everything. That’s what Job said. Brothers, sisters, through all of the experiences of his life, he learned that there was nothing that can be hindered from God.

59. 37:59

    He is able to do more than we can even imagine. God has made astounding promises, brothers and sisters. He is able to save us completely, to do more than we ask or imagine. He’s able to keep us from stumbling and present us faultless and unthinkable thing,

60. 38:34

    and our part is simply to come to Him in Christ, to diligently seek and to allow that power to work in us. So now as we remember our Lord, brothers and sisters, this is not just a mere casual 2 minutes remembering the life of Jesus. Here is a reaffirmation of our faith that He is able to do what we are not, that by the grace of God we stand related to eternity. Though we don’t deserve it.

61. 39:26

    It’s a reinvigoration of our confidence that God, as the great mastermind, has the power to bring all his children, everyone of us, to glory. It’s an appreciation, brothers and sisters, of the love of the Father that is fuelled all of that. It’s our opportunity, brothers and sisters, to reassess the great and eternal truths that we know that can drive our lives. And for us now, an opportunity

62. 40:07

    to redetermine in our lives, to let God work as we seek His face, as we trust and wait and respond to His love. We now have an opportunity to honour. And thank the all wise God and our Lord Jesus Christ, and ascribe to them glory and majesty, dominion and power. For God, working through His Son alone, is able to present us faultless in His presence. Thank you for listening to the Good Christadelphian Talks podcast.

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64. 41:28

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65. 42:01

    God bless and talk to you next week.