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Things God the Father Can Do, 

Cannot Do, and Will Not Do 

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • September 10, In the year of our Lord, 2017

Prelude: 

  1. God is not only a God of power, but 
    1. a God of truth and
    2. a God of order.
      1. Atheists fail to recognize these qualities
      2. when they issue challenges for Him, like:
        1. Can God create a rock so heavy He cannot lift it?
        2. trying to catch Him, or us, in a logical contradiction.
    3. We speak of His limitless powerful,
      1. which moves them to question that power,
      2. as they look for reasons not to believe what the Bible says.
  2. Let us see what the Father can do, but 
    1. let us also talk about some things that God cannot or will not do.
    2. God is not some unlimited power
      1. that has no personalty and
      2. thus cannot control Himself.
        1. He can do or He can not do.
        2. He can create anything or He can stop creating.
          1. He is a power with discernment.
          2. For which the atheists should praise Him and thank Him.
  3. What if God never restrained His power? 
    1. Where would that leave the God-denier?
    2. Where would the God-hater be found?
      1. For He is also a God of righteousness, holiness, justice, and wrath.
      2. What then would happen to them if He exercised His power as they demand that He should?
        1. They demand that He stop all suffering and evil now.
        2. How would God-deniers, Bible-smashers, and church-persecuters
          1. fare if He exerted His limitless power?
          2. Instead He chooses to show patience and mercy to them, because
            1. He is a God of peace, and
            2. He desires peace even with those who hate Him or deny His existence.

Persuasion: 

  1. Things God the Father Can Do 
    1. Anything within His will.
      1. Genesis 18 shows the Lord speaking to Abraham,
        1. promising Him that the next year,
        2. Abraham and Sarah would have a son.
          1. Abraham was 99 and Sarah was 89 years old.
          2. She had already passed the age of child-bearing.
        3. Moses then wrote,

          Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” (Gen 18.12).
        4. Moses then showed the Lord’s reaction,

          13 And the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son” (Gen 18.14).
      2. Numbers 11 reveals that Israel and some others who escaped Egypt
        1. asked who would give them meat to eat,
        2. as though the Lord was not even there to do it.
          1. They longed for the food of Egypt.
          2. Then angered God.
            1. It also displeased Moses.
            2. He asked God how he was supposed to give them meat.
              1. God said that He would give them meat for a month.
              2. Listen to how even Moses responded to that promise,

                21 And Moses said, “The people whom I am among are six hundred thousand men on foot; yet You have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month.’ 22 Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to provide enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to provide enough for them?” (Num 11.21–22).

                1. This is the same Moses who stood before Pharaoh and
                2. brought on the ten plagues on Egypt.
                  1. This is the same mediator who stood at the Red Sea
                  2. with his rod and hand lifted up and parted the Sea.
        3. After Moses questioned God’s ability to feed Israel for a month,

          …the LORD said to Moses, “Has the LORD’S arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether what I say will happen to you or not” (Num 11.23).
      3. In Isaiah 50, Yahweh God asked some questions
        1. that He answered and
        2. that we can answer about Him also,

          2b Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem?
          Or have I no power to deliver?
          Indeed with My rebuke I dry up the sea,
          I make the rivers a wilderness;
          Their fish stink because there is no water,
          And die of thirst.
          (Isa 50.2b)

          1. I saw that just last week at Fort Rock State Natural Area.
          2. It was a volcano that probably came up during Noah’s Flood, for
            1. it was surrounded by water and like Crater Lake
            2. eventually had water in it.
              1. Although the walls of it go as high as 349 feet,
              2. the southeast side must have been week and
                1. after the water around it had receded
                2. that side broke open and the water inside came rushing out.
                  1. You can see how the rock caved in toward the center, and
                  2. even came out from under the rock.
          3. Fort Rock State Natural Area shows that God rebuked the waters and made it a wilderness, and the fish died.
      4. In Mark 10, a wealthy young man approached Jesus,
        1. asking what he had to do to have eternal life.
        2. Jesus told him to keep the commandments.
          1. After Jesus listed some he said that he had kept all of them.
          2. Jesus then said that the young man only lacked one thing,
            1. Jesus told him to sell what he had and
            2. to give it to the poor.
              1. That saddened the young man and
              2. he left Jesus filled with sorrow.
        3. Jesus declared to His disciples that it is hard
          1. for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God.
          2. Jesus illustrated the difficulty by saying
            1. that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of needle
            2. than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
        4. That shocked the disciples and
          1. they asked who could be saved.

            But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible” (Mark 10.27).
          2. God can put a camel through the eye of a needle and
          3. God can put a wealthy man into the kingdom of God, because
            1. God the Father can do anything.
            2. This demonstrates that with God all things are possible.
      5. Luke 1 shows the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary,
        1. telling her that she would have a boy,
        2. even the Son of God.
          1. The first thing she said to the angel was this,

            “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” (Luke 1.34).
          2. Then Gabriel explained to her,

            35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1.35–37).

            1. God the Father can cause a barren woman,
              1. advanced in years,
              2. to bear one who would be the greatest man.
            2. God the Father can cause a young betrothed woman,
              1. who had not yet been with a man,
              2. to bear someone even greater than who Elizabeth would bear.
      6. Romans 4 reveals the thought of Abraham,
        1. that although God had promised that he and his wife would have a son
        2. in their old ages (he was approaching 100 and she about 90), yet,
          1. Abraham believed that the God had the power to keep His word.
          2. Thus, Paul told us this about Abraham’s thinking,

            17 (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; 18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” 19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform (Rom 4.17–21).
    2. Does it surprise us that He can do those things?
      1. If you believe the first sentence of the Bible,

        In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1.1),
      2. then what is the big deal that He can do those things?
    3. He can even do something that most people find impossible to do:
      1. He can forgive the most vile sinner.
      2. The people on Pentecost
      3. Paul
  2. Things God the Father Cannot Do 
    1. The Bible specifies lying.
      1. Titus 1.2

        …in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began… (Tts 1.2).
      2. First Samuel 15.29

        “And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor relent. For He is not a man, that He should relent” (1Sa 15.29).
    2. Justify, excuse, or rationalize sin.
    3. Does this mean that God cannot do everything?
      1. No, remember He is a God of truth and order,
      2. He is not a God of falsehood and chaos.
  3. Things God the Father Will Not Do 
    1. Satisfy our curiosity.
    2. Do things contrary to what He has said He will do.
    3. He will not forgive the impenitent.
    4. He will not change His mind at the Judgment.

Exhortation: 

  1. Some people believe that Almighty God has met His match in them. 
    1. They believe their sins to be so great that He cannot forgive them.
    2. I often wonder if it is actually that they do not want to be forgiven or
      1. if they want an excuse to stay away from the church, for
        1. they say that if they showed up,
        2. the walls would fall in.
      2. Do you have any idea of the extreme wickedness of some people
        1. who have entered the doors of the church building.
          1. The Savage Street walls went up in 1960.
          2. In 2017, those walls still stand.
  2. Does Almighty God have what it takes to forgive you? 
    1. He forgave the people who crucified His Son.
    2. He forgave Paul who persecuted body of Christ to the point of death.
      1. Have you done things worse than those sins?
      2. If you want to connect with this awesome God,
        1. you have to deal with your sins and
        2. He has to deal with those sins.
          1. Yes, He has what it takes to forgive you of your sins,
          2. if you truly want them forgiven,

            1 Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened,
            That it cannot save;
            Nor His ear heavy,
            That it cannot hear.
            2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God;
            And your sins have hidden His face from you,
            So that He will not hear.
            (Isa 59.1–2)

            1. It is not a question of His power or ability.
            2. It is a question of what you want.
              1. Do you want Him to hear your prayers?
              2. Do you want Him to save you
                1. from your sins, which you have to turn from the, and
                2. from the consequence of your sins?