We delve into the trials of biblical figures like Nebuchadnezzar, illustrating how pride can be dismantled by divine intervention. Through these timeless stories, the episode reassures listeners that life’s challenges are met by God’s promise to protect us amidst the fire, uphold us in adversity, and enrich our lives with His blessings. God’s sovereignty assures that our life’s journey is under His care, working all things for our ultimate good.
Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, December 20th. Scripture makes it clear, God has everything completely under His control. Today, we are reminded to trust the Lord for the perfect solution for every issue. Here’s part two of God is Able.
SPEAKER 02 :
The God of the Bible is not the God many people talk about. The God of the Bible is not some force. He is not some grandfather sitting up in heaven just waiting for us to call upon him. This God is not some force within us. This God is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. When people talk to you about God… if they remove the name of Jesus, if they eliminate him, if they refuse to talk about Jesus Christ, they are not talking about the God of the Bible because the God of the Bible says, the only way you’re going to know me is through my son, Jesus Christ. Now, if we’re talking about that kind of God, then the question is, is God able in my circumstances? Is He able to bring me through them? Is He able to conquer this? Is He able to meet this need of mine? Is He able to strengthen me in this time of weakness? Is God able? If we’re talking about the God of the Bible, the answer is yes. But be sure you’re talking about the God that the Bible describes as Jehovah God. Now, You know, for example, today what circumstance you would change if you could, or what circumstance you want God to bring you through, or whatever the situation, what needs you may have. So what I’d like to do is to take you through the Scriptures and give you some examples of very specific promises where the Bible says, God is able, God is able, God is able, God is able. And somewhere along this, you’re going to find yourself in maybe something that you are dealing with. So I want us to begin with the basic one, and that is that God is able to save. Now, there are people who will tell you, well, I don’t believe I can be saved because. Because of sins in their past or because of some particular sin that they’ve done. Or because they see themselves so unworthy, which all of us are. Or they do not believe that somehow God could love someone like them. So they have all kinds of reasons for believing that God cannot save them. My friend, listen. You cannot commit any type of sin so evil, so wicked, so vile that almighty, sovereign, loving God cannot reach down and take you, forgive you of your sin, save you, make a brand new person out of you, which he calls the experience of the new birth. and make you a new creation in Christ Jesus. You couldn’t possibly do anything so wicked, so evil, so vile that God cannot save you. He will save you if you’re willing to ask Him and ask Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. God is able to save no matter what. Well, He’s also able to help us do something else. He’s able to help us to keep us from stumbling in our life. You see, we’re walking through landmines every single day of our life. And friend, listen, the devil’s going to have them out there until the day you die. If you think there’s ever going to come a time when you can just blindfolded go say, well, praise the Lord, I know I’m going to make it today. If you do, what’s going to happen? You’re going to take a right turn right here and fall flat on your face. He says, God is able to keep us from falling. But how does he keep us from falling? How does he keep us from stumbling? Will we stumble? Yes, we’ll stumble. Why do we stumble? Because we don’t listen. Because we don’t believe him. Because we think we’re smart enough to do it our way. We can’t live this Christian life. We have to have a guide on the inside. These minds are covered. Now, sometimes they blare out at you, but oftentimes they’re covered. And so what happens? We have to ask the Lord, Lord, give me direction for today. Now, when he gives us direction, we have to do what he says. I must be willing to submit to that direction and believe that God is giving me guidance. And so God is always there. Ready to enable us, ready to guide us and direct us to keep us from stumbling and falling in life. And to keep us from making wrong decisions. If we’re willing to submit to him, if we’re willing to yield to him, if we’re willing to believe him. And he says, not only is he able to keep us from stumbling, but one of these days when we stand before him, he says, we will stand before him blameless. Now, that’s hard for the human mind to comprehend. Let’s say you live to be 85 years of age. And let’s say that you saved, whether you saved at 75 or 12. It doesn’t make any difference. But you look back and you say, how could God present me blameless? After all these years of disobedience, and even though we’ve been saved a long time, we still disobey God. And over a period of 75 or 80 or 90 years or 60 or whatever it may be, you think about all the times we disobey Him. He says, present us blameless. How can a holy God present people like us blameless before Himself when we look at ourselves and we think, well, I’m certainly not blameless, God. Because that is the power of the blood of Jesus. That is the power of the grace of God. It will never be comprehended by man that you and I can explain how a loving, gracious, holy God could so forgive us and so cleanse us and so justify us that when we stand before him, he says, blameless. That’s why it is eternal security, not temporary security. It is based on the blood of Jesus Christ, not upon our conduct. He says he is able also to keep us from falling. Well, He’s able to do something else. Turn, if you will, to 2 Corinthians chapter 9. 2 Corinthians chapter 9. Now, I want you to look at this passage. It’s a wonderful passage. And it is one of those passages that for someone who has a particular need, here’s the passage you need to work on and meditate on. He says, beginning in verse 6, 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 6. Here’s what he says. He says, Now this I say, he who sows how? Sparingly, shall also reap how? Sparingly. And he who sows bountifully shall also reap what? Bountifully. Now listen. He says in verse 7, Let each one of you do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a what kind of giver? Cheerful giver. Now, Look at this next verse. And God is able to make all grace abound to you that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed. What in the world does that mean? God is able to make all grace abound to you. Now, grace usually, when we’re talking about salvation, is His goodness and love and kindness toward us without regard to our merit or our worth and in spite of what we deserve. That’s what grace is all about. We talk about the grace to be saved. It is God’s goodness and love toward us through the blood of Jesus Christ. Here, when He talks about the grace abounding to you, He’s talking about the blessings of God. We’re talking about material things. That’s what this passage is about. He says, God is able to make His grace abound to you so that you will, listen, not only will you always have enough for yourself, but you will always have enough to give to the Lord’s work and to give to those who are in need. God is able to bless his children. He wants to bless his children. He says abounding, not just stingily, but look at this. He says in abundance for every good deed, God is willing to give all of us what we need to meet our needs. And in that abundance is enough to meet someone else’s need or enough to meet the needs of the work of the Lord. Now, if there were no other passage in the Bible about giving, that right there would be sufficient for me. God says, here’s what I’m going to do. He says, it’s a work of grace. He says, my grace will abound towards you. That is, my goodness and love and kindness towards you will be such that you’ll always have enough to meet your needs and you’ll always have enough to give for the needs of God’s people. That’s the promise of God. Now, let’s say that my circumstances, I have very little. If I look at the promises of God… then I can see that my circumstances can be changed. Because he says, if I will begin to sow more bountifully, then something’s going to happen in my circumstances. Now, if I get my circumstances over here and say, but Lord, I have so little. You could not expect me to give to others more. when I have hardly enough to meet my own need. Lord, I know what you’re saying in your promise, but God, when I look at my circumstances and I see how little I have, how can I expect you to bless me if I give it away? Because you are looking at the wrong thing. You look at the promise and you look at the circumstance of the promise. God will enlarge. He will enlarge what you have when you see it from his perspective and act on it. It is just that simple. Whenever you get these two confused, you get them mixed up, down goes your faith, down goes the blessing. God is able, he says, to make all grace abound to you, no matter what that may be. Now, he says also he is able to do something else, that God is able to destroy our pride. I want you to go back, if you will, all the way back to the Old Testament, to Daniel. And I want you to notice what’s going on here. Nebuchadnezzar is the king of Babylon. He is the king who destroyed Judah, destroyed the walls of Jerusalem, burnt the gates, destroyed everything. Took all of these hostages back to Babylon, made slaves out of them, one of whom was Daniel. Well, Daniel, you’ll recall, interpreted his dream. So he interprets this dream. And this is a very particular dream that I’m sure Daniel did not enjoy interpreting because of what it meant. because his interpretation of this dream was a very, very bad omen for Nebuchadnezzar. And so he told him what the dream meant. And look, if you will, in verse 33 of Daniel chapter 4. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, great ruler of the world of his day. Verse 33, immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle. And his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like eagle’s feathers and his nails like bird’s claws. Can you imagine him walking around? This king who lived in a palace to whom everybody would bow and scrape. He’s the one who built this great golden image that everybody had to bow down to at the sound of music. And now he’s down on all fours and his fingernails are like claws. His hair has grown so long he looks like an animal eating grass. Prideful, conquering Nebuchadnezzar. But look what happens. Look in verse 37. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are true and his ways just, and he is able to humble those who walk in pride. God knows exactly how to strip us of our pride. He wants us to walk humbly before him, which means we walk in absolute continuous acknowledgement that we are totally dependent upon him. Everything we are and everything we have is to be found in him. He is the source of every good thing that comes our way. Nebuchadnezzar discovered that God knew exactly how to strip his pride. What could he have done to make him more humble than to make him act and look like an animal? And if you’ll notice in verse 36, it says, “…at that time my reason returned to me, and my majesty and splendor were restored to me for the glory of my kingdom, and my counselors and my nobles began seeking me out. So I was reestablished in my sovereignty.” And surpassing greatness was added to me. But then he says, but now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, honor the king of heaven. He understood Daniel, what Daniel’s God was all about. He said, I exalt the king of heaven for all his works are true. His ways are just, and he’s able to humble those who walk in pride. Let me ask, what have any of us had to be proud about? We’re just a bunch of sinners saved by the grace of God. Now we’ve become saints. We’re just as dependent upon him today as we were the day we got saved. We need just as much grace to live by as we did to get saved by. We have nothing within ourselves to boast of. And when Paul said, I boast about nothing in this world but the cross of Jesus Christ. Listen, do you understand what that means? Here’s what it means. Because all of us should feel the same way. There’s not anything that you and I have. There’s no privilege we have. There’s no possession that we have. There’s nothing, anything that we have that did not come except by the way of the cross of Jesus Christ. His death at Calvary, atoned for our sins, making us a child of God, opening the windows of heavens to the blessings of God. We have nothing to boast upon except Jesus Christ and the cross of our Savior. That’s all we have to boast of. Pride and egotism have no place in the kingdom of God. There is no sin he hates like that of pride. And Nebuchadnezzar is a good example. He says, God knows how to bring us off of our pride and put us down here where we belong. Now, I want you to stay in Daniel for just a moment because God not only is able to correct our pride, He’s able to protect us in every circumstance of life. Go back, if you will, to this third chapter now. The third chapter, you recall, we said that he had made this golden image. Now, whether the golden image was of himself or something else, we don’t know. But he passed the decree that when the music would begin, that everyone would fall down and worship him. And he says in verse six of this third chapter, but whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast in the midst of a furnace of blazing fire. And so you know the names of the three Hebrew children. What’s their names? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Now, so these three fellows decide, no, we’re not bowing down to any images. And so here’s what happens. Now, if you’re ready, at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psalter, and bagpipe, and all kinds of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, very well. But if you will not worship, you will immediately be cast in the midst of a furnace blazing fire. What God is there who can deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we don’t even have to answer that. How’s that for a good, brave, courageous answer? Standing, and listen, before a furnace of burning fire, we don’t even have to answer that. Watch their answer. If it be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if he does not… Now, what did they not say? They didn’t say, but if he is not able. But if he does not… He’s able to deliver us. But if He chooses not to, if He chooses not to, O King, He says, know this, we’re not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you’ve set up no matter what. And of course, threw them in the fire. And the only thing that happened was the very thing that bound them, the fire loosed, and that was the ropes on their hands. God is able to protect us When we go through the fire and listen carefully, sometimes he will protect you from the furnace. Sometimes he will protect you in the furnace and sometimes he protects you through the furnace. God does not guarantee us that we will always escape the furnace. All of us go through difficulties and hardships and trials in life that sometimes are fiery and sometimes like a den of lions, sometimes like deep troubled water, sometimes like a long dark valley. And there may be enemies on all sides. The enemy is always there. There may be criticism. There may be all kinds of things that goes on. And it may be physical danger or emotional danger or spiritual danger, whatever the attack may be. This you and I know. Our God who created us. is able, listen, exceeding, abundant, above all that we ask or think to protect us in every, through every, or from every single danger in life. Why? Because he knows all about it before it ever happens. Before it’s ever planned, he knows about it. He knows where, he knows when, he knows how. God knows everything about it. He has never caught off guard. He says in Hebrews that everything is laid bare before his precious eyes. The omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God is able to protect us. He said, well, then how do you explain death and all these things? Because it is not always God’s will to Listen, though he protects us in and through and sometimes from, sometimes he protects us from losing our faith in the midst of difficulty and hardship. Sometimes he allows the flame. Sometimes he allows the deep waters. But what does he do? He uses those things and allows those things to build character, commitment, faith, devotion, and love for himself. Whatever God allows in our life, He allows for our good. If in the process of some circumstance or situation, He chooses to take that person’s life, He has still protected them. Protected them from losing their faith. Protected them from further danger. God only operates and works according to His will. Whatever He allows, He always has our good, our best in mind. He is able to protect us. And oftentimes, we forget and we cry out, God, how? How, how, how? And so what does the Scripture say? And I’ve just given you a few of them. Here’s what he says. God is able to save you no matter what. God is able to establish you in your faith no matter what. God is able to come to your rescue in time of need no matter what. God… is able to keep you from stumbling on the path of life. God is able to bless you bountifully with material blessings if that is His will for your life and as you obey Him and as you trust Him. God is able to protect you in difficulties and trials. He’s able to remove our pride and bring us down to humility. God is able to do anything and everything you and I need in our life.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you for listening to part two of God is able. If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
