OceanSide church of Christ

 Previous Return to Sermons Next  Click to download Audio

IMPOSSIBLE FOR MAN

Victor M. Eskew

 

INTRODUCTION

 

A.     Our theme for this year is:  “Trusting God for the Impossible.”  In our lesson’s today, we will be discussing this theme.

1.       “Impossible for Man”

2.       “The God of the Impossible”

3.       Trusting the God of the Impossible”

 

B.      Impossible:

1.       Dictionary.com:  unable to happen, unable to be done, not possible, inconceivable

2.       Strong (101):  to be unable

3.       Thayer:  cannot be done

 

C.     Man has done what some have thought to be impossible.

1.       Climbing Mount Everest

2.       Sail around the world

3.       Fly like birds

4.       Go to the moon

5.       Cure certain diseases

 

D.     Even though man has done some seemingly impossible things, there are some things that he just cannot do.

 

I.                    TO CREATE SOMETHING FROM ABSOLUTE NOTHING

 

A.     Man can take things that are created and develop them into some very unusual and very useful things.

 

B.      But, man cannot create something from absolute nothing.

 

Image result for nothing

 

C.     The story of an atheist arguing with God about the creation of man.

1.       Atheist:  Anyone can create a man.

2.       God:  Let’s watch you do it.

3.       Atheist:  Bent down and took some dirt in his hands.

4.       God:  Put the dirt down.  That’s my dirt.  You make your own.

 

II.                 TO BRING THE NATION OF EGYPT TO ITS KNEES WITH NO WAR

 

A.     A “world power.”

1.       A world power is the strongest power on the earth.

2.       A world power has the most powerful military.

3.       A world power dominates and controls the other nations.

4.       Most of the time world powers are destroyed from within.  They are just too strong for another nation to overcome them.

 

B.      There was a time when Egypt was a world power. 

 

Image result for Old Testament Egypt

 

1.       It was a world power during the reign of a group of kings called the Pharaohs.

2.       Israel existed, but

a.       It was under the authority of Egypt.

b.      It was not organized into a nation.

c.       It was just a large mass of people.

3.       At that time, it was impossible for Israel to bring the nation of Egypt to its knees, especially without going against the nation in a war.

 

III.              TO DESTROY A WALLED CITY WITHOUT ANY WEAPONS

 

A.     Walled cities used to be very common.

1.       They protected the cities from their enemies.

2.       The walls were massive structures.

a.       Tens of feet high.

b.      They were thick enough for one or two chariots to ride side by side.

c.       It would take rams and catapults and a lot of manpower and time to put even a hole in the wall.

 

B.      Jericho, a city of Canaan, was a city with a great wall.  It would be impossible to bring that wall down without any kind of weapons at all.

 

 

 Image result for ancient walled city           Related image     

 

IV.              TO HEAL A MAN OF LEPROSY

 

A.     Definition:  A chronic and infectious disease, characterized by patches of altered skin and nerve tissue (lesions) that gradually spread to cause muscle weakness, deformities, and paralysis (www.dictionary.com).

 

B.      In the Old Testament, the disease could not be cured (II Kings 5:6-7).  If a person contracted it, the ultimate outcome was death.

 

Related image                 Related image

   

V.                 TO ENABLE AN ANIMAL TO TALK

 

A.     All of us know that animals cannot talk.

 

B.      The best we might do it:

1.       Have a dog that grunts out what sounds like a word

2.       Own a parakeet that repeats two or three lines.

 

C.     In the Old Testament, we read about a donkey that carried on a conversation with a man.  Impossible, right?

 

Related image

 

 

VI.              TO FULFILL 300 PROPHECIES TO PREDICT ONE’S COMING

 

A.     A prophecy is a statement that proclaims something to come to pass in the distant future.

 

B.      It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to make general predictions about future events.  (Ex., Name four teams that could be in the Super Bowl next year?)

 

C.     In the Old Testament, there are over 300 prophesies about the coming Messiah.

1.       These prophecies are minute in their details:  place of birth, price of his betrayal, and the way the Messiah would die.

2.       There is no way all of these prophecies could be fulfilled to the letter.

 

Related image

 

VII.           TO ENABLE GOD TO BECOME A MAN

 

A.     God is a very unique being.

1.       He is a Spirit.

2.       He has unique qualities such as omnipresence.

3.       He is eternal.

 

B.      God could never become a man.  The two thoughts just do not go together.

 

Image result for Jesus in a manger

 

VIII.        TO WALK ON WATER

 

A.     It is impossible for a man to walk on water.

1.       The laws of physics will not allow it.

2.       Man is much too heavy and dense.

 

B.      In the New Testament, we read of not one man, but two men, who walked on water.

 

Related image

 

IX.               TO RAISE ONE FROM THE DEAD

 

A.     Death is a very final event. 

 

B.      There is not a person on earth who could go to a mausoleum and bring one of those individuals back to life.

 

C.     During the life of Christ, there was a man who had died who was brought back to life, not on the day of his death, but four days after he died.

 

Related image

 

X.                  TO KNOW THE MIND OF GOD

 

A.     It is impossible for one man to read the mind of another.

 

B.      It is just as impossible for man to know the mind of God.

 

C.     But, man does know the mind of God.  It is found in a book we call “The Holy Bible.”

 

Related image

 

CONCLUSION

 

A.     As we stated at the beginning of this lesson, man has done some wonderful things.

 

B.      But, regardless of how many magnificent things he has done, there are many, many things that are impossible for him to do.

 

C.     We have looked at ten things in this lesson.

 

D.     The Bible, however, declares:  “But with God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37).

 

E.      In our next lesson, we will see that God can do all of the things men believes to be impossible.