420: Shawn Snobolen - Exhortation: God Is Able

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   Welcome to Good Christadelphian 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.

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   Hello all, and welcome back. This is Brother Benji. This week's talk will be an exhortation given by Brother Sean Snowblen at the Victoria Christadelphian Ecclesia, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, on the 28th of September, 2025, to the theme, God is Able. About a year ago, I recommended a talk by the same name, God is Able, although that one was given by Brother Andrew Johns. This theme of God not only being capable, but willing and wanting to save us is so powerful and relevant. I'm compelled to recommend again.

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   God wants us to rely on him, to trust him, to give our circumstance over to him, to believe him when he says he can and will deliver us.

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   We can live joyfully knowing our salvation is not based on some ability of ours to acquire it, but on God's grace and ability. Brother Sean begins with a moving anecdote and reminder of the human experience and condition. Following this, he develops the aforementioned hope slash blessing we have, drawing on examples from scripture.

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   Brother Sean presents a simple message. Trust God. He does this in a thoughtful, encouraging and passionate way. I pray this talk will uplift and encourage you. With that said, I'll give you over to our brother Sean for his exhort. God is Able. Good morning, everyone. Some of us were able to witness the laying to rest of my aunt and our sister Pam Snowballin yesterday. It's very important, I think, to witness a funeral. And standing at the graveside, you realize the full impact of our mortality. You feel the heavy weight of loss. And brothers and sisters, it is the reality, the outcome of all humanity.

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   Brother Dan Rossetti, Sister Pam's son-in-law, said as much in the comments that he made at the graveside. He said, we are putting her back in the dust. And this is where we all end up. This is where all of our lives end. But God does not just give us the severity of this life. But also the goodness. This week, as we all know, a new life was born. A brand new life was born into this world.

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   And as exciting as that is, a new life born is a life reborn. And we've just heard the letter for baptism for Noel. And just a cute little aside.

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   Brother Mike in his letter to the arranging brethren about the letter for baptism. He said, brethren, attaching a wonderful letter to round out our week, Brother Noel has requested baptism. I think reflecting the sentiment that our soon-to-be brother is already part of this community.

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   And so for these three reasons, brethren and sisters, the passing of life, the birth of new life, and the rebirth of one among us, I am happy to be here this morning.

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    And I pray you are also. But sometimes, brethren and sisters, the pressures of our life, they really can bear down on us. I think every one of us, brethren and sisters, at some point in our lives will hit that wall, that moment when we feel we simply cannot do it anymore.

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    The diagnosis the doctors can't explain. The loved one that is suffering. The relationship, perhaps, falling apart. Or the strength we no longer possess. And brethren and sisters, sometimes we whisper under our breath, I am just not able.

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    Maybe, brethren and sisters, we're sitting here this morning and we have doubts in our heart about why we're even here and we pray for healing and it doesn't come.

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    We seek for strength and yet we still feel weak and we ask for the anxiety of living in this present age to pass. But it does not.

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    We might pray, brethren and sisters, desperately for those that are close to us to find God in their life. but they have not. And maybe sometimes we even feel our own faith ebbing away.

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    And sometimes, brethren and sisters, we might catch ourselves quietly wondering, is God able? Is God able? You know, these questions, oftentimes, brethren and sisters, they rise uninvited in our heart and this is the constant struggle that we have with our nature. The creeping doubt that comes when the weight of simply being human overshadows us with darkness.

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    And if you feel like that sometimes, brethren and sisters, you are not alone. You know, my weakest moments come in the middle of the night and some nagging question that won't leave my mind alone and I can't sleep. And in this very surreal, semi-conscious state, I'm wrestling with this issue and it rolls over and over in my mind kind of like a clothes dryer where nothing ever dries and it's just wet and thumping over and over again.

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    I can go hours like this. Sometimes I have to get up and I have to walk around. I have to have a glass of water. I get very emotional and I wonder sometimes if this burden is too much to bear. That perhaps this question is just unanswerable. If this situation is just too impossible.

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    And the problem grows and it grows. Sometimes it gets so big that it's overwhelming. And it's at times like that I see no reasonable solution that might set my mind at ease. And it's in these moments of extreme anxiety I can feel my mind starting to go and I think I am just not able.

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    And sometimes, brethren and sisters, I question the ability of my God to act on my behalf. And I have to stop myself. I just have to stop the madness of that moment and I pray. I just, I start to pray and sometimes I repeat the same short prayer over and over again. 10, 15, 20 times over and over and over again just in my mind.

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    Just pray, pray, pray. And in that moment of prayer, brethren and sisters, I have to give up any doubt about whatever the problem is and I just have to believe. I have to believe.

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    There's no other option but to believe. that when I am not able in any capacity to resolve the futile issues of my own humanity that God is.

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    And that God will. And in the morning I wake up and somehow things are better and maybe it's the light of morning that brings hope but I think it is more, brethren and sisters, the wrestling with our faith brings strength.

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    Now I've learned something, brethren and sisters, with the trials in my life and the praying and the meditating and the wrestling with my weaknesses and my doubts and my issues. I've learned something and it is definitely not that God sends a package the next morning that solves all of our problems.

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    It is, brethren and sisters, that in the prayer and in the meditation and in the wrestling we come to a better understanding of what God's will is.

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    And in His presence we're able to realign our lives to His reality. You know, a simpler, more relevant way to explain it might be to say that God doesn't give us a fish every time we're hungry. But each and every day He's teaching us to fish. You might recall the verse in Deuteronomy chapter 8 about the nation of Israel that wandered the wilderness and God said about them, He said, He humbled you and let you hunger and then fed you with manna which you did not know that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.

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    Or maybe a little more relatable as the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 4 and verse 11 Paul says, For I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content, he says. I know now how to be brought low. I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance Paul says, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger and abundance and need and I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

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    The spiritual reality, the practical reality, the reality is, brethren and sisters, that where we stop, that's where God begins. Where we are not able, God is. And even when, as Paul says, he told us, we are strengthened, even when we are able, it is God working in us. God working in us to make it so.

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    If this is the reality, brethren and sisters, if this is God, is where God needs us to be, then how do we get there?

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    How do we develop that belief and that understanding, that absolute knowledge that God is able? Well, how do we get to that mindset where when blessings abound, and they do, brethren and sisters, in our lives, they abound, we give praise to God. But even when trials arise, we give praise also.

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    Well, let's talk a little bit about God's power and His sovereignty. It's a subject matter that I love. So this phrase, He is able, it's a little phrase. It doesn't happen that many times in God's Word, less than ten times. You will see this phrase come up in the Bible. But it emphasizes, it truly underlines God's limitless power to act in creation, in world events, in the lives of His people.

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    And unlike human ability, God's capacity has no weakness. It has no limit. It has no point of failure. Prophet Jeremiah says in chapter 32, he says, Ah, Lord God, behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and your outstretched arm. Nothing, Jeremiah says, nothing is too hard for you.

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    Just this last summer watching Bible School, I was recommended to re-listen to an old exhortation by Brother Harry Tennant. Many of you probably have listened to it. It is actually entitled He is Able.

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    And it's certainly better than what you're going to get from me this morning. But I'll try. And not try to replay what our brother said so many years ago, but give you my thoughts on this topic based on my own experience on this theme, He is Able. And you know, interestingly, unlike many themes in the Bible, this one's not really one that jumps out everywhere.

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    It's actually hard to find. It's not like love or faith or hope that is really from Genesis to Revelation. It's not like that theme of the great and dreadful day of the Lord that we're seeing through the prophetic vision of the prophets that God has given us. It's kind of woven throughout Scripture.

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    It's not like that. With this one, you kind of have to go looking for it. But it does appear, brethren and sisters, in every single case, this phrase, He is Able, in every single case, it appears in a specific moment of crisis or promise or in the testing of someone's faith. Old Testament, New Testament, it's more scattered than central.

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    You find it here, you find it there, you find it in the furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you find it with Abraham, trusting in God, you find it in Paul's letters, you find it finally in the book of Jude. But when you start putting all the pieces together, it becomes very powerful that in every trial, in every weakness, in every impossible situation, the message is always the same.

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    The message is, God is able. When all else fails, brethren and sisters, when the world is falling apart, our Father in Heaven will not.

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    So let's start where God's Word introduces us to this principle. Let's go back to Genesis chapter 18. This is the time of Abraham, and this is the record, of course, of an aging man, we think, almost 80 years old, his wife is barren, cannot bear children, they're without their own child, three angels come to visit them, and in verse 10, Genesis chapter 18, it says this, the Lord said, I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah, your wife, shall have a son.

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    And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah, so Sarah laughed to herself, saying, for I am worn out, and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure? She says.

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    The Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh and say, shall I indeed bear a child now that I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? God says, at the appointed time, I will return to you, and about this time next year, Sarah shall have a son.

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    And there it is, in Genesis 18 and 14, at the promise of Isaac's birth, God asks a question, he says, is anything too hard for the Lord? Now, in the Hebrew, this phrase, is anything too hard for the Lord? It actually means anything too wonderful, too extraordinary, too difficult. Is anything beyond God's ability?

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    So that's why it's posed as a question. You say, ah, Sean, but where's your theme? He is able. For that, you have to turn to Romans chapter 4. Because in Romans chapter 4, the Apostle Paul is speaking about this very situation where Abraham's wrestling with this thought in his mind. And speaking of Abraham, in that moment, we just read in Genesis chapter 18, this is what the Apostle Paul says.

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    Romans chapter 4, and starting at verse 20. The Apostle says, no unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

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    Now, if you have Young's literal translation or another translation, it actually says, and having been fully persuaded that what he hath promised, he is able also to do. And so that's really the first instance of this theme, this idea, this principle that God is able. Now, Abraham's faith wasn't rooted in human optimism or just faith in himself, because before them, both, Abraham and Sarah, was a human impossibility.

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    An 80-year-old man and a barren wife. Now, Abraham's belief was anchored in the fact of God's absolute ability. He believed that God could open a barren womb. He believed in a God who does things that humanly cannot be done.

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    But that wasn't it for Abraham, because Abraham's faith is tested again. It's tested. Now he has a son. His son of promise has come. His son is a young man.

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    And God comes to him and says, I want you to sacrifice him. Oh, that's different. Now we read over this section of Scripture quite easily. Genesis chapter 22. Maybe I think we read over it and we already think about the implication of what's happening in Abraham's mind, because we know what the outcome is.

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    But Abraham doesn't know what the outcome is. He only has his faith. We can see one sentence down, a few words down. We can see that there's going to be a ram caught in the thicket. But Abraham doesn't see that. All he can see is his God. Genesis 22, when Abraham lifts the knife over Isaac, he acts on the conviction that God's ability surpasses even death.

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    Verse 10, And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and he took the knife to slay his son, and the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here am I.

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    And he said, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything to him. For now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thine only son from him. And Abraham lifted up his eyes. Behold, behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. And Abraham went out and he took the ram and he offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son.

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    And the echo, and I'll read this to you, of this situation is in Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11 says, By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, considering that God was able even to raise him from the dead. From which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. In other words, Abraham, in his mind, had already done it.

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    But he knew of a certainty that his God was able. And again, if Abraham's reasoning was that if God promised descendants through Isaac, then even death could not stop that descendancy. That God was therefore able to raise the dead. To Abraham, God was able to do the impossible. You know, I think in the King James, even the ESV, and some other versions, they do a disservice to this translation in Hebrews 11.

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    Because they state the term in the past tense. They say, God was able. There's no past tense to the power of God. God is able. And God is able to bring a child from a barren womb. God is able to raise the dead to life. There is no greater power to a human than that of creation.

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    Or the recreation and the resurrection of life. both of those things Abraham had firmly in his mind. Isn't that the definition of faith, brethren and sisters? The belief in the impossibility of our human situation.

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    That God could make life where it previously did not exist? Our God is able. And you can say the phrase however you want in whatever emphasis you need. God is able. God is able. And God is able, brethren and sisters, because it doesn't matter how we say it, the outcome is always the same.

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    What God intends to do is done. And we must get to the same place, brethren and sisters, in the development of our faith where we actually believe this. That in any context, that in any situation, that we might believe even the impossible nature of the circumstances that we find ourselves in, that God is able to get us through it.

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    Now you think, okay, well, Abraham believed, but he was given the solution. In other words, Abraham kind of did get a package at the door, right? He believed that he'd have a son and then he had a son and that kind of reinforced the thing that he believed in. He was going to slay his son, but it was stopped and the ram was put in the thicket.

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    So in a sense, we could say, well, Abraham got what he asked for very shortly after. But turn to Daniel chapter 3. We have a different kind of situation regarding the theme of he is able. This is a story that I like to recount many times. And it's the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

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    Daniel chapter 3. So King Nebuchadnezzar says he's in this huge rage. He finds out that there were some that did not bow down to this great image that he had made. And the king declares in verse 15 of chapter 3, Now if any be ready at that time, you hear the sound of the chordate, the flute, the harp, the sack, but the psaltery, the dulcimer, and all kinds of music that you fall down and worship the image which I have made.

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    But if you do not, you shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a fiery furnace. And who is that God that should be able to deliver you from my hands, he says. Mighty King Nebuchadnezzar.

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    Who is that God? Well, Daniel 3 and 17 gives us the answer. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego declared, Our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver from the burning, fiery furnace. And in verse 18, they put some clarity to God's will. Not God's power, but clarity to God's will when they say that even if God does not, now does not what?

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    Even if God does not deliver us in that moment based on their request, but even if He does not deliver us, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods nor worship the image of gold that you have set up. In other words, they believed that God was able to deliver.

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    But we don't know His will. And it may not be at this moment in time that God saves us. This might not be the moment that God chooses to deliver us. But it matters not because we still believe. And so what did they believe that their God was able to do was to secure their future.

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    Faith is, in God's ability to save us, is not that God must save me now from this current predicament. Faith is, God can save me and even if He doesn't, I still believe.

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    You know, many people, they attribute their faith to some kind of payoff. That I will do these things and I will believe these things as long as God pays me back. God may not pay you back today. God may not pay you back in this life, but God will reward you in the future.

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    And that's what they believed. These men obeyed their God even with no guarantee of any earthly rescue. Brethren and sisters, faith is not transactional.

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    It is absolute. And why do we know this? Because they believed in God's future. That the future that God had promised them would be so much better than even the worst of their current situation.

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    And Hebrews 11 recounts all of those faithful men and women who trusted God's ability to save even when their current outcome was uncertain. Even when the odds were terrifyingly against them.

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    This also is faith, brethren and sisters, believing in the impossible. And then believing in God's outcome even when the outcome seems so impossible to happen. That God could save us in the future. even when it does not happen in our lifetime, brethren and sisters. Can you imagine that kind of faith?

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    Throw us into the fiery furnace, O King, because God is able. And even if we succumb to the flames of the furnace, we believe that God is able to bring us back to life in that great day.

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    That's why the Bible is so full of the record of God's outcome in the face of impossible odds. Daniel and the lion's den, possible odds. Possible. the nation of Israel standing between the greatest army that ever walked the earth in their day and the Red Sea. Impossible.

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    David and Goliath. Gideon with the Midianite army. Hannah and her son, Ruth the Moabite, and her inheritance. And possibilities. But these were men and women of faith that did not know the immediate outcome of their struggle or the momentary answer to their prayer. But they did believe, brethren and sisters, that God is able.

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    And surely, brethren and sisters, if God is able to create the heavens and the earth and bring about salvation for sin through the death and resurrection of his son, then surely he is able to bring us into his kingdom.

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    And I challenge you, brethren and sisters, I challenge you to think about this question. What is it then that you think that God cannot do? What?

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    What is it that you think God cannot do? Because in those moments when my mind is rolling over and over with an issue that seems of such great importance to me, I think about those three men in the furnace.

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    Sometimes, brethren and sisters, our lives seem like a furnace. Sometimes, brethren and sisters, our lives are like a furnace. And we feel the heat and there seems to be no escape. And I think about what they said, which is basically even when the worst thing happens, when I succumb to the flames, I will still believe.

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    Even in the most existential moment of our lives, brethren and sisters, with death staring us in the face, we will believe. Because God's future is so much greater than any present trial. His power is so much stronger than any issue that we have. And even if, brethren and sisters, in God's wisdom, he chooses not to act in that moment to give some of us relief that we feel we deserve,

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    may we know of a certainty that he will grant us the future that he's promised. God's trust. I used to say, I have to believe this. Now I say, I believe this.

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    I believe that God is able to save absolutely and completely. God can do all these things, and what he wants to do more than anything is to save us from ourselves and give us life eternal. That's what he wants to do more than anything else in the world. It's to see us in his kingdom.

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    So don't you think that he'll do whatever he can to carry us through our problems? Or to let those problems shape us and mold us? And that life eternal, brothers and sisters, means that through Christ God is able to save completely and eternally through his son. Turn to Hebrews chapter 7.

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    Picking up this theme again. There used to be like a box of Kleenex in here, and now there isn't. You might just want to wipe this down, Matt, when you get back up here.

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    Hebrews chapter 7 verse 25. Jeff, thank you. You're probably not going to want to get these back. I have a cold and so multiply that by silly emotions and you have a problem.

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    Hebrews 7 and 25. Paul gets right to the point. He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them. God now in the King James and the ESV it uses the term uttermost. So in relation to Christ, which is what he's talking about here, that Christ is able to save to the uttermost.

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    Now what does that mean? What does the word uttermost mean? Well it means to its fullest end, to its completion entirely. Brothers and sisters, salvation is not partial, it's not temporary, it is complete and it is eternal.

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    No matter the situation, no matter how impossible our lives might become or how egregious our sin, God is able to save to the uttermost through his son.

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    You know, I don't have a lot of time this morning, but, oh wow, here's a little cameo. This phrase, he is able. From the most unlikely of places.

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    Turn back to Daniel chapter 6, because, here's Darius, and I, you may contest me on this, but, I think Darius was a believer. And here it is, when I said that this term always comes up in a moment of crisis, or impossibility, or this testing of faith. Well here it is. Here's Darius, Daniel chapter 6, Daniel is thrown into the lion's den.

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    He survives the night, and the king, Darius, tricked into making a law that trapped Daniel in his faith, is now in peril. Daniel, this man that he loved, in the early morning, it says, and Darius raced to the den. He's running through the palace, and down into the prison cells, and his robes flowing behind them, and he's got to get there.

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    Verse 20, the coming near to the den, to Daniel, with a grieved voice. He hasn't even arrived as he cries out, the king hath answered and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, by God whom thou are serving continually, is he able to deliver you from the lions? Daniel says, my God has sent his angel and has shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me, for as much as before him innocence he was found in me, and also before thee, O king, have I been done no hurt?

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    The answer to Darius' question was absolute. Daniel's God, he is able. And I dare say, if Darius is granted a place in the kingdom, after quite an emotional conversation, I'm sure, with King Nebuchadnezzar, that he will see that even God is able to save him.

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    God is able, brethren and sisters, to meet our needs, to strengthen us as believers, to provide grace, even in our most dire moments and the times that we feel we are without hope, the apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, he says, God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things, at all times, you may abound in every good work.

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    Now, what's Paul talking about here? Well, he's really talking about the giving, right? The cheerful giver, that God supplies us material resources so that we might give them. And giving is like sowing a seed. It can come back to us bountifully. The more we sow, the more we can reap. Giving and faith multiplies.

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    Now, the promise here is that God will give us everything that we want, that he'll give us financial resources, but that he gives what is sufficient for what God calls us to do. This doesn't mean God hands us a bank account full of money. It means he gives exactly what is needed for the good work that he wants from us today and tomorrow and next month.

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    Sometimes, brothers and sisters, those resources are money. Sometimes it's time. Sometimes it's a word of encouragement. Sometimes it's simply endurance. If we feel insufficient, it may be because we're comparing our material resources to others. That's not the point of Paul's statement either. Or because we're trying to do more than he actually has called us to do.

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    But for the work he sets before us, Paul says, his grace is always sufficient. And Paul closes in verse 15 and says, thanks be to God for this indescribable gift. What gift? Well, the gift of God's generosity. What's God's generosity? That he was able to offer us his son. The gift that God is able to save us.

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    It's the best gift of all, brethren and sisters. Salvation from our sins and life eternal. Now, what about Ephesians 3 that we had read? We'll turn to Ephesians 3 because this is one of the last few times where this statement occurs. Ephesians 3 and verse 20.

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    And again, the Apostle Paul gets right busy with this phrase. Now, to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us.

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    Or 2 Timothy chapter 1 and 12. Paul says, this is why I suffer as I do, but I'm not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. Brethren and sisters, God is able to do anything.

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    If we're at God's side, he can do anything for us that he sees we need. If we are on God's side. Now, sometimes you might think, I want God to be on my side.

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     I want God to be on my side. You know, I saw, I was in the Christian book room like 10 years ago, and on the turnstile of all these Christian books, there was this book that says, God is my co-pilot.

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     God is not our co-pilot. God is our captain. The Lord Jesus Christ is the captain of our faith. I'm not even sure we're the co-pilot. We're just serving almonds and coffee in the barrack. It is God's will that we are following. And God is able. No, we should never say, I want God on my side.

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     But we should always say, I am on God's side. And I will go wherever God wants me to follow. And so, brethren and sisters, we're in a world of impossible equations, impossible situations. You know, men can transplant a heart, but they can't create life. You know, we can build a rocket and we can put a dune buggy on Mars, but we cannot create the heavens.

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     Mankind can record our sins in a book of law, but they can't forgive them. And yet, oftentimes, brethren and sisters, we have very human expectations for a very divine God.

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     We get upset when God doesn't seem to provide us what we want, not knowing perhaps that in the long trial of our lives, God is giving us exactly what we need. need.

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     I've said this before, I'm sure I'm not the only one that has said this, but God plays a long game, and we live a very short one.

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     And so in the trials of our lives, it seems so potent and so real and so difficult. In the long game of God's will are necessary for us to refine our character, to remove our dependence on what we think, and begin to understand and know what God thinks. And so when we open God's word, we see the impossible in his everyday work.

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     He speaks, and the universe just exploded into being. Joshua needed more time to win the battle, and the sun just stood still. Possibility. Starving people follow Moses, and then bread rains from heaven. Israel scattered like dry bones across the earth, but God breathes life into them and raises them again to their own land.

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     But the greatest impossibility of all times was when mankind needed a savior, and God gave one. And that's why we're here this morning to accept this impossibility that a perfect man might live a perfect life without sin.

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     He yet is condemned and killed by wicked hands. And then three days later, by the force of an unseen hand, stone is rolled back and that man walks out of his tomb and he's alive.

110. 44:15

     The ultimate proof of the righteousness of God and his ability to save. brothers and sisters, the word of God is not full of myths and fables.

111. 44:36

     It is the signature handwriting of a God who delights in the impossible. possible. Why? Because only then will we learn, brothers and sisters, what God has been saying all along. I am able.

112. 44:58

     We have to stop thinking, brothers and sisters, about what God cannot do. And start actually believing what God can do, what he has already done, and what he will do in our lives, and in the lives of our brothers and sisters, and in the lives of our families, and in the lives of this ecclesia.

113. 45:25

     We cannot lay on the complaint, brothers and sisters, that God is not listening, but start to believe and to listen for God's will being applied in our lives.

114. 45:41

     And to accept his hand in shaping our future. You know, we read the record of the potter and the clay. God's going to bend us sometimes and squeeze us, and at times we're going to feel like we're ready to snap. God's trying to mold us into a shape that oftentimes, brothers and sisters, we will resist.

115. 46:15

     We don't want change. We don't want to be changed into the image of somebody else. We want to be glorified in our own. That's not what God wants. But the outcome that we have to believe in is that God is turning us into a vessel of honor. And now, just some final thoughts.

116. 46:39

     And the last verse where this phrase comes up is in relation to Christ's ability. God has given us his son so that in him we are able. In our sin we are able. In our weakness we are able. And when we're under trial, brothers and sisters, we are able. And I'll just read you Hebrews 2 and 17.

117. 47:01

     Therefore, he had to be made like his brethren in every respect so that he might become merciful and a faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of his people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

118. 47:23

     And so for the last time this phrase is used, I want you to turn to the book of Jude. It's a tiny book. It doesn't even have chapters. It's just before Revelation, in case you're trying to find it.

119. 47:44

     Now what is Jude talking about? Well, it's not that often actually that we study this book. I'm not sure why. It's a great letter. What Jude is doing, he's warning us about the doubt and the fear that will be sown into the hearts of us if we listen to the world. Jude is giving a call for vigilance, for mercy, for confidence that God himself will preserve the faithful.

120. 48:08

     His most famous quote perhaps is when Jude says, I exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints. We quote that verse often. And contend we must, brothers and sisters, but starting in verse 20, Jude says this, but you, beloved, building yourselves up in the most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

121. 48:45

     And have mercy on those who doubt. Save others, Jude says, by snatching them out of the fire. To others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

122. 49:02

     You know, there's a connection, I think, to what Jude says here about the saving others by the snatching out of the fire. The echo, I think, is back to the fiery furnace. Well, God certainly snatched three men out of the fiery furnace, but, brothers and sisters, we too are instruments of God's will, and we're called on to help others, to save others in our midst from the fiery furnace of their lives.

123. 49:22

     Perhaps, brothers and sisters, the solution to the issues in our lives sometimes might be the helping of others to solve theirs. Isn't that a novel idea? Now, here it is. Verse 24.

124. 49:40

     Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, to him, who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, be glory and majesty and power and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord before all ages, now and for evermore.

125. 49:58

     That's that word uttermost you might have if you have the King James. Amen, Jude says. Is that not why we're here, brothers and sisters? those of us stumbling, caught up in the turmoil of our lives, the sin that so easily besets us, the issues and the trials and the problems and the debilitating effects of age and disease and the breakdown of human relationships.

126. 50:32

     we come to be forgiven, to be declared faultless and brought joy in that salvation. In a moment, brothers and sisters, we will take the bread and the wine. We won't just actually take the bread and the wine, we will share the bread and the wine. let's hope we don't do this out of ritual or habit, and maybe not even out of an exercise of self-will, although sometimes we have to will ourselves to come,

127. 51:18

     but that it is an intentional and spiritual response to God's call that we might remember his son and that we might do it together.

128. 51:28

     When we take of the bread and the wine, that in that symbol, is the body and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ that was given in sacrifice to save us from ourselves.

129. 51:46

     May we commit, brothers and sisters, in our lives, every single day, to present our bodies a living sacrifice, a faithful response, saying, I am able, through Christ who strengthens me. And so when doubts and fears arise in our lives, when possibilities surround us, when our bodies are failing, when the heat of the fiery furnace is approaching,

130. 52:19

     let us remember, brothers and sisters, that God is able. He is always being able and he will always be able so that we might leave this place with confidence not in ourselves, but in God. The God who, through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, it says, begin a good work in us.

131. 52:57

     And through his son, we'll finish it. As it says in Acts chapter 20, it says, and now I commend you to God, to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

132. 53:21

     And so, brethren and sisters, may we be strengthened by this living hope, the reality that he will carry us faultless, overflowing with joy, and complete into his glorious presence on that great day when his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, will come to gather his elect. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Good Christadelphian Talks podcast.

133. 54:03

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134. 54:20

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135. 54:40

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