Later Pilate gave in to pressure and ordered Jesus crucified. Because God created all He can use anything in creation. So the emphasis of the chapter is on Gods working out His purpose through ordinary people who obey Him. God was revealing that He was going to use this ungodly power for judgment upon his own straying people. At times, God enlisted non-believers to help His people through the ages. God is still using unlikely people to accomplish His will on earth today. He has many means to accomplish that holy purposeincluding some that are difficult to understand. Those who read my words are in many different situations: May I repeat what I just said: He has not brought us this far to cause us to fail. As the persecution he inflicted was just the jump-start the early church needed to start taking the Gospel to the rest of the world. It was their God, or at least the God of Moses, that just killed all the first born of Egypt. He used sinners to accomplish His sovereign will. So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers but to those who believe. Romans 8:28 says, For those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. All things includes both good and bad things. Many believed they were going to die and complained to Moses (Ex. WebGod Can Use Unbelievers part 1: Cyrus 1. so that they might escape from the devil's snare, even though they've been held captive by him to do his will. Until finally it came to the Red Sea where the Egyptian army was destroyed and the tale spread across the world to the glory of God. Moses was sent by the Lord multiple times to Pharaoh asking for the release of the Hebrews. I have an unimpressive family background and do not come from a long line of important people. God chooses the custodian with a heavy accent to share the gospel and save lives. They scoff at kings, And princes are scorned by them. In spite of our slownessand even sinGod will bless and use us to fulfill His purpose of blessing all nations through Christ, because of our relationship to the Father through the Son. Who would have had his own beliefs and gods that contradicted much of the Bible. God uses all those who humble themselves before the cross, boasting only in him his strength, his wisdom, his righteousness, his accomplishment. No buildings, streets, or hospitals have been named in honor of me. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. We return now to the original question: Why did God allow Judas to betray Jesus? The Prophet Habakkuk wrote during the troubled times before Judahs captivity. It doesnt mean everything will also go perfectly or the way we hope. This week were looking at the other side of the equation. Here are some examples: There are so many amazing things in these few verses. God strengthened Cyrus so that he could conquer nations and overcome opposition Thus says the Lord God to His 2. Grace be with you. 10 people that God used to accomplish his purposes I. Paul: The one with a shameful past and challenging present (4:18) Colossians 4:18 - I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. When we reach a dead end in our own resources, God can part the sea of the impossible and get us through, but I digress. The greater the pain, the harder it is to see Gods fingerprints. C) God uses all eventsgood and badto accomplish his purposes. Everyday Apostolic 2019 | All Rights Reserved, Gods Ability To Use Unlikely People Even Unbelievers, Canceling Church On Christmas Removes Christ From Christmas, Great Resources On Baptism In The Name Of Jesus, A Diluted Christianity: Oneness, Trinitarian, Or Is It All Just Irrelevant, Youre Not David Pastor Raymond Woodward, The Walking Bible Pastor Raymond Woodward, Wait On The Lord by James Wilson NAYC 2019, If I Shout/Lets Testify Medley FAC Sanctuary Choir. He uses believers and unbelievers. 14:11). But God gave the command, Moses obeyed the command, and in a sense Moses divided the Sea, as the Lord commanded, and in a more ultimate sense God did the miracle and divided the Red Sea. Here are some examples: If God did the miracles without Moses, amazing things would have happened, but the people would not have known what was going on or what to do. Going to church wont make you a Christian any more than sleeping in a garage makes you a caror going to a donut shop makes you a cop. And He *said to them, Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. Is that a contradiction? Two questions confront us as we consider the story of Judas: Last weeks sermon dealt with the first question. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. We are here and gone again. The trials that were meant to establish his guilt ended up establishing his innocence for all the world to see. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. God has already determined the end from the beginning (Isa. Jesus says much the same thing in his famous prayer just before Judas arrives: None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that the Scripture would be fulfilled (John17:12b). At the beginning of their sojourn, Joseph was ruler of Egypt, a son of Jacob, and watched over his own. Yet, Solomon turned away from God (1 Kings 11:4, 912). And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. The fact that God ordains both the means and the ends should surely encourage us as we face our own trials. Then we read this in Exodus 14:13-16: But Moses said to the people, Do not fear! (Video #2), Lesson 2: Gods Use of the Ungodly Habakkuk 1:5-11. Which caused the church to grow rapidly. WebJohn 3:16. Literal Standard Version. WebJohn 3:16. But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you. They had no weapons to fight Pharaohs army, no experience in war, no ability to defend themselves, and no way of escape. Summary Prayer is one of the means God uses to accomplish His sovereign will and get glory for himself. Because God is utterly unimpressed by my rsum. Be encouraged, child of God. We when we dont know if something is Gods will, we pray, Yet not my will but yours be done (Mt. A lesson worth considering, but not the main lesson I want to focus on, is that God often put us into situations where only He can deliver us. I find it remarkable how consistently the New Testament writers see the hand of God in the events surrounding the death of Christ. Gods plan even extended to having Jesus buried in a borrowed tomb (see Isaiah 53:9). But most of the time we wont see it fully until we finally arrive in heaven. Anyone who resists God risks falling into spiritual deception (2 When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the people, It is enough! There is no better example of Gods providence at work through the actions of a sinful man. The gospel writers record many Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. WebGod will never set man's will aside and use him for a good purpose without his being willing to be used. The Lord did it, but He did it through Moses. In the healthiest churches, we find a holy conspiracy between pastors who gladly care for the sheep, and sheep who do what they can so that the pastors might serve joyfully. Your children, however, whom you said would become a preyI will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected. The unbeliever has made an exchangethe truth for a lieand the devil is happy to facilitate the swap by presenting the sinner with a wide array of lies from which to choose. His betrayal proved that the Jewish leaders were far from innocent bystanders in the death of Christ. Dont mistake temporary material victories for true success. I might preach to 100 people on Sunday morning in my own little church, but I preach to thousands over the internet. So the emphasis of the chapter is on Gods working out His purpose through ordinary people who obey Him. Jesus responded to the false testimony by saying nothing at all. Judas served Gods purposes even though what he did was wrong and he ended up in hell. Now relax your hand! And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. This truth about Judas illustrates Gods control of every event in the universe. Do not lament your insufficiency. Though absolutely sovereign, all knowing, all wise, and everywhere present, God uses sinners to accomplish His will. In this period of Judahs last kings, the Prophets warned of the fulfillment of this covenant promise. Grace be with you. Do not lament your insufficiency. But the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; Immediately the boys father cried out and said, I do believe; help my unbelief.. He does this for obvious reasons. How does this truth apply to Judas? Matthew 26:3-5 informs us that the leaders of the Jews were looking for an opportunity to arrest Jesus and put him to death. But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared, Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now., but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the. Providence means that God is in charge of the entire universe at all times and nothing happens outside his control. International Standard Version. 13:17). God uses pathetic people for his glorious purposes to show his superior power. Remember my imprisonment. The Lord said to Moses, How long will this people spurn Me? Gods Ability To Use Unlikely People Even Unbelievers. Solomon was given a mind like no one before and like none even after him (1 Kings 3:12). Its okay to be a nobody, if in all you do, you serve Somebody. Many that people can plan to do much but is God that will always have the final say. So He brought their days to an end in futility And their years in sudden terror. WebGod never does evil Himself. This New-Babylon marched through Canaan and took hostages (one of them was Daniel). Because God created all He can use anything in creation. In this wilderness they shall be destroyed, and there they will die. As for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land and who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report concerning the land, even those men who brought out the very bad report of the land died by a plague before the Lord. They will be held guilty. He has not brought us this far to cause us to fail. Everything fits into Gods plan. He stands behind it indirectly, but He directly stands behind good. We need to remember that God uses the foolish. We turn now to consider how the sin of Judas served many good purposesnone of which were seen that night and none of which diminish his true moral guilt. Because God created all He can use anything in creation. Often in the confusion of life, we cant see the ends, much less the means God intends for us. When God desires to save someone, He raises up Christians to preach the gospel. Click here. At times, God enlisted non-believers to help His people through the ages. There he said in 1 Corinthians 14:21, With men of other tongues and other lips I will speak to this people; And yet, for all that, they will not hear Me, says the Lord. He directly quoted the covenant warning of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Deuteronomy. in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. I have not written a New York Times Bestseller, and no one has publicly endorsed, recommended, or vouched for me. Wisdom alone, though, is insufficient. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. At first he ordered the Israelite babies to be killed at birth by the midwives (Ex. It was all the Lord. And he was an exalted and successful king. 10:14-15). Moses had great faith! They gather captives like sand. God is unimpressed by our collection of readers, likes, retweets, friends, connections, or admirers. During our conversationwhich lasted two hours and was both cordial and very frankI told him that his religion could not save him. He has but one endto make us like Jesus. Your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your corpses lie in the wilderness. What does it mean that the righteous will live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4)? And goes on to say, How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? 1:22). But this much is clear: He never believed that Jesus was guilty of any crime. Isaiah 28:11 warned, For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people. Jeremiah 5:15 said, Behold, I will bring a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel, says the LORD. As Christians, we have nothing to fear or worry about because we know that God is in control. Even those who have a very low view of Gods sovereignty, if they pray, pray because God is perfectly sovereign, otherwise prayer would be an exercise in futility. Guiding our world whether we are able to see it or not. They all come for violence; Their faces are set like the east wind. It only made sense on Sunday morning when Jesus rose from the dead. He recognized what was evil because he believed Gods law. Here we see that when believers are doing the will of God, obeying the Word of God, and serving even the least of the Saints, they are Gods instruments, doing Jesus will, ministering to Jesus people, His body, His bride. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. He stands behind it indirectly, but He directly stands behind good. His words imply that all the torment will be tolerable. We know from the sowing and reaping principle that t here will be degrees of torment in the lake of fire. In the beginning Satan challenged Gods right to rule. Embrace your weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon you to reveal Gods surpassing greatness (2 Corinthians 12:9). This could be the begging of a time of great growth for the church. This seems to be one of the reasons God had Moses lift up his staff and hands to divide the Red Sea. But we need to grow in faith and obedience. Peter told the early Christians that the Scripture had to be fulfilled. He meant that the betrayal had to happen the way it did.
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