The Apostle Paul, in the fullness of time,
God sent his son, born of a woman,
to redeem them that were under the law.
The psalmist, he satisfied the longing soul and
he filled the hungry soul with goodness.
He brought them out of darkness and the
shadow of death.
He broke their bands in thunder.
He sent his word and healed them and
delivered them from their destructions.
He sent his word.
Or let's put it another way, God gave
us his word.
The biggest thing God ever said.
Jesus Christ, his incarnate son and our Saviour
and our Lord.
And when God wanted to say the biggest
thing he ever said, his eyes ran to
and fro throughout the whole earth looking for
a young lady, hardly more than a teenager,
whose heart was perfect toward him.
For the eyes of the Lord ran to
and fro throughout the whole earth looking for
the man, the woman, the boy or girl
whose heart being perfect toward him, he may
show himself strong on their behalf.
So if at the outset of this introductory
evening session tonight, you turn with me just
for a moment to the first chapter of
Luke's gospel.
Luke and chapter 1.
God sent his angel to this young lady,
this virgin girl.
And through the lips of his servant, the
angel Gabriel, God said, Fear not Mary, verse
30, thou hast found favour with God.
Now when did Mary find favour with God?
Humanly speaking, this is our first introduction to
the young lady.
We have the foreshadowing of course, as all
of us know in the Old Testament.
That foreshadowing that God gave us in the
third chapter of the first book in the
Bible, Genesis 3.15, God rebuking Satan.
I will put enmity between you and the
woman, between your seed and her seed, it
the seed of that woman.
Jesus, to be born of Mary, shall bruise
your head.
In the process you will bruise his heel.
In the seventh of Isaiah, God said, I
will give you a sign.
A virgin shall conceive and bear a son.
Thou shalt call his name, God with us,
Emmanuel.
The word incarnate, the word made flesh.
The word who was in the beginning with
God was God and by whom all things
were made.
In the ninth chapter, unto us a son
is given.
His name, everlasting father, mighty God, wonderful counsellor,
prince of peace.
And the zeal of the Lord of hosts
will do this, something inexplicable, apart from a
divine intervention.
Without human explanation.
So, the foreshadowing is there in the Old
Testament that this is our first personal encounter
with Mary.
And to this young lady, little more than
a teenager, God says, you have found favour.
When did she find favour?
We know nothing about her educational background.
We don't suppose that she ever went to
Bible school.
She never hit the headlights.
But you see, God had been watching the
little girl grow up.
For the eyes of the Lord run to
and fro throughout the whole earth, looking, looking
simply for any boy, any girl, any man,
any woman, anywhere, who will let God, as
God, be strong on their behalf.
And in all kinds of little ways in
which we are totally unaware, this young girl,
in her early childhood and in her early
teenage years, had learned to reckon with God
on the assumption that, as God, He was
big enough for the job.
Nothing more complicated than that.
Nothing that was recorded for your information or
mine, till now unnamed, unsung, unknown, unrecognized.
But that's exactly where God chooses.
Those through whom He's going to accomplish His
timeless end.
Every now and again, of course, that choice,
based upon their disposition, surfaces.
And the world becomes aware of their availability.
And the things that God is pleased to
accomplish through them.
Not always, always at once.
But long ever before any boy, girl, man
or woman comes out into the limelight, recognized
to be the human vehicle of the divine
end, God's been watching.
That's where He selects each one of us.
In the little nitty-gritty things that are
unknown, unsung, unadvertised.
But where He sees us demonstrating a certain
disposition toward God that allows Him to move
magnificently in all the power and dynamic of
deity into our human circumstances, allowed by us,
in His faithfulness, responding to our faith, to
demonstrate His integrity.
That has found favor.
That's why God didn't expect her to be
shocked, overwhelmed, incredulous, or cynical, when He made
a fantastic proposition.
Fear not, Mary, thou hast found favor with
God.
Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and
bring forth a son, and thou shalt call
his name Jesus.
He shall be great, he shall be called
the Son of the Highest, and the Lord
God shall give unto him the throne of
his father David, and he shall reign over
the house of Jacob forever, and of his
kingdom, of which he will be king.
There shall be no end.
And not in cynicism, not in incredulity, but
with wide-eyed wonder, says she to him,
God's messenger, how shall this thing be, seeing
I know not a man?
The physical premise?
Absent.
Betrothed, yes, indeed, to a man called Joseph,
but the marriage not yet consummate.
The answer was very simple.
God's answer always to the question in our
hearts as to how some divine end is
to be accomplished.
God, the holy girl, shall come upon thee,
and the power of the highest shall overshadow
thee, therefore also that holy thing that shall
be born of thee shall be called the
Son of God.
Absolutely no exclamation but God himself, the zeal
of the Lord of hosts, will do this.
And by the way, Mary, just for your
encouragement, it may interest you to know that
your cousin is in the sixth month and
in three months' time another little baby boy
is going to be born, John the Baptist,
of whom it was said of her, Elizabeth,
that she was barren, infertile, physically incapable of
bearing.
So, for your encouragement, with Elizabeth, Mary, it
was too late, and with you it's going
to be too early.
Because, you see, with God nothing shall be
impossible.
What was her reaction?
Well, the reaction of Mary, presented with this
fantastic proposition, was precisely that that God anticipates
of any boy, girl, man or woman whose
heart is perfect towards Him.
And you cannot find anywhere in the Bible
a more magnificent nor simpler illustration of the
true substance of faith.
Behold, said she, the handmaid of the Lord
available.
Be it unto me according to your word.
That's all.
In all its sublime simplicity.
In other words, said she, to God's servant,
the angel Gabriel, God said it.
Let him do it.
What do you think God does when He
has any boy, girl, man or woman in
His presence for whom He has some delightful
plan, part of His timeless strategy, and who,
presenting the proposition, simply looks into God's face
and says, You said it.
You do it.
He does it.
And that boy, girl, man or woman has
learned the secret of living miraculously.
A quality of life that has no possible
explanation but God Himself in action.
Every great missionary enterprise has been established on
that simple basis where some boy, girl, man
or woman, finally in the presence of God,
presented with the proposition, faced with incredible odds,
humanly speaking, everything impossible, simply said, God, You
said it.
You do it.
And He did it.
And of course in that simple way we
discover why it is that God chooses this
one and that one and ignores so many
others who to us might seem highly commendable
and highly qualified.
You remember how in the fifth chapter, the
first of Paul's two epistles to the Thessalonians,
Faithful is he that calls you who will
also do it.
In other words, everything to which God calls
you or me, He Himself, as God, is
prepared to do.
So what would be illogical about anything to
which God calls us?
Absolutely nothing.
Reiterated, of course, in the second chapter of
Paul's epistle to the Philippians where he says,
More in my absence than in my presence
work out your own salvation with free and
friendly because everything that God ever gave me
when I was converted, God gave you.
For it is not Paul the Apostle, it
is God who works in you both to
will and do of His good pleasure.
But what would be illogical about anything that
God wills for you and for me if
He as God, having willed it, prepared Himself
as God to do it?
Nothing.
And this is the sheer simplicity of the
Christian faith so long as you and I
are prepared to settle for God's terms.
And that is that He as God just
happens to be big enough for the job
and created you and me so engineered that
the presence of the Creator in all the
fullness and dynamic and illimitable resources that are
inherently His as God, so created, so engineered
man, that the presence of that Creator within
the creature is indispensable to His humanity.
And so all He asks of you and
me is that disposition which the Bible calls
faith that lets God do it.
But you know, the Lord Jesus said in
the 22nd chapter of the Gospel of Matthew,
Many are called, but few are chosen.
Why do you imagine that the many who
are called so few are chosen?
Well, I trust that by now the answer
is demonstrably obvious.
Faithful is He that calleth you who will
also do it.
And to the many who are called so
few will let Him do it.
So few will adopt that childlike simple relationship
to God that actually lets all God loose,
releases the divine energy, and allows Him to
flesh out in your humanity and mine those
eternal purposes that are quite beyond our human
reach but gloriously possible to the God of
the impossible.
Of the many who are called so few
will let Him do it.
But Mary, you see, was chosen because she
was prepared to let God do it, and
God knew it.
That's why He chose her, because He had
been watching, watching.
In all those years of insignificant little things
in which she demonstrated a disposition, a very
simple disposition.
She didn't tell God that she'd take on
the job and roll up her sleeves and
clench her fists and grit her teeth and
say, leave it to me.
She fully was cognizant of the fact that
it was beyond her reach.
And so her disposition in saying, you said
it, you do it, was simply, I can't.
You never said I could.
You remember?
But you can.
And always said you would.
She'd learned that as a child.
And we've discussed this on many occasions when
it's been my joy to minister to some
of you folks here.
I can't.
God never said I could.
He can.
Always said He would.
Now, if you can't and God can, what's
the smartest thing to do?
Let Him.
And the moment you've learned that, you've learned
what it means, first, to become a Christian,
and secondly, how to be the Christian you've
become.
How did you become a Christian?
What did you have to do to redeem
your soul?
How much did you have to pay?
What examination did you have to sit and
pass?
What long list of good works or self
-improvement did you have to present to God
in order to know that you were redeemed?
Well, you say, there was nothing of that.
He said, Whosoever cometh unto me, I will
in no wise cast out.
He said, My sheep hear my voice, I
know them, and they follow me, and I
give to them eternal life.
And there came a day in my life
when my soul awakened to a sense of
need.
I recognized what He said.
And in that moment of true repentance toward
God and simple faith in Jesus Christ, I
said, You said it, you do it.
And He did it.
And you're redeemed.
And you wouldn't claim one iota of credit
for the fact because you simply took, though
you didn't deserve it, what God delights to
give who don't deserve what He's waiting to
give.
For the wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God's eternal life.
And all you did was say, You said
it, you do it.
Thanks.
And He did it.
Well, as you have received Christ Jesus the
Lord, so walk in Him.
In other words, enjoy His life in you
now as you once enjoyed His death for
you then and reckon with the fact that
the One who gave Himself for you rose
again from the dead to give Himself to
you so that you can step out into
the dawn of every new day marvelously energized
and furnished unto every good work by the
divine presence of One who clothes His activity
with your redeemed humanity.
And every new situation arises no matter whether
it be threat or promise, opportunity or responsibility,
you bow yourself out, you bow Him in
and say, Lord Jesus, You so engineered me
as my Creator, God and Redeemer that Your
presence within me is indispensable to my humanity
and I want to know that I'm counting
on the fact that in this particular situation,
at this particular moment, You're big enough for
the job.
Thanks.
You're in business.
Now, isn't that simple?
Now, this is a principle to live by
and it's a principle we're going to talk
about this week.
You see, when David looked at that lion,
that lion looked so big.
Then David looked at God and that lion,
he says, looked so small.
So I slew him.
Isn't that simple?
You see, when he looked at the lion,
it looked so big and he felt so
small but when he looked at God, God
looked so big and the lion looked so
small.
So he did a very sensible thing.
He slew him.
What a complicated way of living.
And David would go on to tell you,
he said, When I looked at that bear,
that bear looked so big.
I felt so small.
But then I looked at God and God
looked so big and the bear looked so
small.
So I took him by the beard and
slew him.
Did anybody notice?
Well, nobody on earth because the record isn't
preserved for us until after the event.
And that's simply by his own testimony.
But God was watching.
And when you see, God saw that little
shepherd boy deal with bears and deal with
lions on God's terms of reference by that
disposition within his heart that reckoned with the
fact that the God in whom he trusted
was big enough for bears and lions.
God said, I got a king.
I got a king.
Turn to it.
It's in the first book of Samuel, chapter
16.
1 Samuel and chapter 16.
And God said to Samuel, Stop sobbing over
King Saul.
Don't waste your sympathy and your pity.
How long wilt thou mourn for Saul seeing
I have rejected him from reigning over Israel?
God said to Samuel, Samuel, he's a writer.
Fill thine horn with oil and go.
I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite
for I have provided me a king among
his sons.
He said, I got a king.
Now Samuel didn't know who it was.
Didn't even know how many sons Jesse had,
but God did.
And he knew precisely which of those eight
sons would replace Saul as king of Israel.
Just a little ruddy faced shepherd boy who
had learned how to deal with lions and
had learned how to deal with bears on
the simple basis that God just happens to
be big enough to be God if only
we'll let him loose and handle those situations
with which we are confronted.
You see why so few of us enjoy
the fantastic excitement of this miraculous quality of
living that has no explanation but God himself
is that we seldom learn to let God
be as big as God is.
We're always trying to be man-sized for
God instead of allowing God to be God
-sized in the man.
Now David as a little boy had learned
to let God be God-sized.
So God said, Thou shalt anoint unto me
him whom verse 3 I name unto thee.
God wasn't in any doubt as to who
was going to be king of Israel because
you see the eyes of the Lord run
to and fro throughout the whole earth looking
for any little boy any little girl any
man any woman anywhere who'll let God be
God and in response to what the Bible
calls a heart that is perfect toward God
shows himself strong in their behalf.
Isn't it interesting to think that God's accumulating
names right now?
You've got a little family back home has
God got a king or a little queen
among your kids?
You teach a Sunday school class Bible class
preach in some pulpits when you look at
those faces in front of you some looking
sleepy others looking unpromising some looking unintelligent every
now and again one who appears to be
alert don't be deceived somebody beautifully dressed and
somebody a little shabby somebody obviously the byproduct
of an affluent society somebody only just making
the grade just get excited about what you
don't know because you see tucked away within
the heart of some boy, girl, man or
woman in that congregation God's got a king
and he knows because he's been watching that
bunch of rascals you teach on Sunday morning
chewing gum looking out of the window sticking
pins in the one in front God's got
a king in that bunch because all kinds
of things are going on in the hearts
of those kids that you don't know about
in ways that are unsound and unseen but
one day it's going to surface always have
an unshakable confidence in the word of God
and the power of God the Holy Ghost
to take that truth that you present in
general and make it the truth in particular
to most unlikely people and in their own
hearts maybe too timid too shy too reserved
too admitted they're beginning to experiment in the
silence of their heart in those little things
of life that are immensely important and meaningful
to them and mean absolutely nothing to anybody
else but in those areas of experiment they're
letting God be God they're growing in a
way that you would never dream until the
day one day God says I've got a
king Samuel did verse 4 that which the
Lord spoke he came to Bethlehem and they
were somewhat alarmed at his presence come as
thou said they peaceably he said yes peaceably
I'm going to church why don't you sanctify
yourselves and come to church with me and
it came to pass verse 6 when they
were come that Samuel looked upon Eliab and
from the sheer physique of the man fine
magnificent perfect specimen of humanity he said to
himself surely the Lord's anointed is before him
but God said uh uh the Lord said
to Samuel look not on his countenance or
on the height of his stature because I
have refused him don't be impressed by his
physique man looketh on the outward appearance of
Samuel but the Lord looketh on the heart
I'm not looking for muscle I haven't counted
the hairs on his chest I've been looking
at his heart what concerns me Samuel is
a man's disposition not an impression he can
make on his fellow human beings his heart
so if you're thinking about Eliab said God
to Samuel forget it I have refused him
then Jesse called Abinadab made him pass before
Samuel and God said again uh uh so
Jesse made Shammah to pass by and God
said uh uh and so Jesse brought four
other sons and God said uh uh uh
uh uh uh seven times God said uh
uh and when God says uh uh he
means uh uh so finally you see Samuel
said you've got any more sons we're running
out running out of sons I hear said
he to Jesse verse 11 I hear all
thy children and he said there remaineth yet
the youngest and behold he keepeth the sheep
just a kid in the hillside and Samuel
said unto him send and pet him and
we will not sit down till he come
hither and he sent and he brought him
in he was running and with all of
a beautiful countenance and goodly to look on
and the Lord said arise anoint him this
is he I've got a king then Samuel
took the horn of oil and he anointed
him in the midst of his brethren and
the spirit of the Lord came upon David
from that day forward so Samuel rose up
and he went to Ramah touch away in
that family a little boy had learned to
deal with lions and learned to deal with
bears on God's terms of reference you'll remember
that King Saul himself whom God rejected as
a young man was of no mean stature
the son of a Benjamin whose name was
Kiss hmm in terms of this I'm citing
from the ninth chapter you're familiar with the
facts he had a son whose name was
Saul a choice young man and a goodly
there was not among the children of Israel
a goodly, a person than he from his
shoulders and upward he was higher than any
of the people and he was rejected because
he was a moral coward because he played
to the gary he wanted to be popular
and for the moral coward he was he
always blamed the people they did it and
God said I've rejected him no matter how
impressive he may have been as a young
man he ended up by his own testimony
a man who played the fool now we're
told in the 17th chapter of the first
book of Samuel and the third verse that
the Philistines stood on a mountain on the
one side and Israel stood on a mountain
on the other side and there was a
valley between them and there went out a
champion out of a camp of the Philistines
named Goliath a gap whose height was six
cubits in a span and he had a
helmet of brass upon his head and he
was armed with a coat of mail and
the weight of the coat was five thousand
shekels of brass and the Philistines said verse
10 I defy the armies of Israel this
day give me a man that we may
fight together and when Saul and all Israel
heard these words of the Philistines they were
dismayed and greatly afraid who do you think
they were looking at?
well the giant you see they hadn't learned
the principle that a little shepherd boy had
come to know and seen his sheep on
the hillside and these you see the king
and his men when they looked at the
giant felt so small but David came around
because he'd been sent if you remember by
his dad to bring some packed lunch for
the all the brothers and a few cheeses
for the captain and all the men of
Israel verse 24 of that chapter when they
saw the man fled from him and were
so afraid and the men of Israel said
have you seen this man that has come
up surely to defy Israel if he come
up it shall be that the man who
kills him the king will enrich him with
great riches and will give him his daughter
and make his father's house free to Israel
in Israel and David you know sort of
talking to his older brothers and taking the
cheeses listened to their conversation so finally he
muscled up somebody and said verse 26 what
shall be done to the man that kills
this Philistine and take it away the reproach
from Israel and by this time David was
getting quite quite indignant who is this uncircumcised
Philistine that he should defy the armies of
the living God and finally you see he
had become the sort of talk of the
town this was the whippersnapper and they brought
him to David and they brought him to
Saul and in verse 32 David said to
Saul let no man's heart fail because of
him thy servant will go and fight with
this Philistine and Saul needless to say said
to the Philistine I am not able to
go against this Philistine to fight with him
but a youth you are only a kid
he is a man of war from his
youth and then David told the story he
said thy servant verse 34 kept his father
and there came a lion and a bear
and took a lamb out of the flock
and I went out after him and I
smote him mind you he said to the
king when he looked when I looked at
the lion he looked so big but when
I looked at God he looked so small
so I killed him and then that bear
came and that bear learned nothing from the
lion and when that bear came he looked
so big and I felt so small but
then I looked at God and God looked
so big and that bear looked so small
and I smote him thy servant verse 36
slew both the lion and the bear and
this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of
them he, he hath defied the armies of
the living God the Lord that delivered me
out of the port of the lion and
the Lord that delivered me out of the
port of the bear he, that God will
deliver me out of the hand of this
Philistine now that's quite an arguing with David
and so said so and the Lord be
with thee a very pious thought he'd much
rather David go than go himself and David
we're told in verse 40 took his staff
in his hand chose him five smooth stones
out of the brook and his sling in
his hand of course when the Philistine came
he mocked him and said you think I'm
a dog that you come out against me
with a stick and the Philistine cursed David
by his gossip then said David verse 45
to the Philistine thou comest to me with
a sword and with a spear and with
a sheath I come to thee in the
name of the Lord of hosts the God
of the armies of Israel whom thou hast
defied you haven't defied me you haven't defied
King Saul you haven't defied this army of
men you've defied the living God this day
will the Lord deliver thee into my hand
and I will smite thee and I'll take
thine head from thee and I'll give thee
the carcasses of the host of the Philistines
this day unto the fowls of the air
and to the wild beasts of the earth
that all the earth may know that there
is a champion to maintain the cause of
Israel and David is his name then he
said that all the earth may know that
there is a God in Israel a living,
a real one a living one not a
rubber dummy not just a name not a
stained glass window not a melancholy history of
somebody who lived long ago but a God
who is alive and well and very much
in business that all the earth may know
that there is a God in Israel and
all this assembly shall know that the Lord
sayeth not with sword and spear for the
battle is the Lord's and he will give
you into our hands and God said
I've got a king I've got a king
you know this is the supreme privilege that
God has given to you and to me
to demonstrate precisely now today in the nitty
-gritty of living on earth he's given to
you and to me the privilege of demonstrating
no matter what walk of life we may
be in no matter what our human circumstance
that there does just happen to be in
heaven a God who is big enough to
do the job have your family found that
out?
I mean you mums and dads by the
way you confront your problems do your children
know there's a God in the land who's
alive and well and with whom you enjoy
a living, intimate, dynamic robust, adventurous and related
are you a pastor of a church?
is your primary occupation to make quite sure
that everybody knows there's a pastor in that
particular church or are you particularly concerned that
everybody, pastor or no pastor knows there's a
God in that particular church who's alive and
well teaching in a school?
running a business downtown?
pioneering some financial empire?
what's your primary preoccupation?
what you are what are you primarily concerned
about?
that everybody recognizes just how smart you are
in business?
or how fine you are a coach because
your team always wins?
what's your supreme preoccupation?
God has entrusted to you and to me
one supreme priority and that is no matter
whether it's in the home or in the
business or whether it's in school or whether
it's in church whether it's on vacation in
every area of life you and I are
to demonstrate indisputably by the quality of lives
that we live and the way we handle
our problems that there's a God in the
land and He lives and David verse
49 put his hand in his bag and
he took sense of stone on this planet
and he smote the Philistine in his forehead
that the stone sunk into his forehead and
he fell upon his face to the earth
so David prevailed over the Philistine with a
sling and with a stone and smote the
Philistine and slew him but there was no
sword in the hand of David no sword
in his hand but faith in his heart
in a God whose eyes run to and
fro throughout the whole earth not looking for
a fat bank balance not looking for a
three and a half inch skin not looking
for a whole string of academic degrees not
looking for some built in inherent native talents
and gifts all of which are perfectly legitimate
and all of which if God so pleases
he can use at his pleasure that's what
he's looking for he's just looking for any
little girl any little boy any man or
woman totally unknown unsung unrecognized he's learned a
principle to live by no sword in his
hand but faith in his heart in a
God whose eyes run to and fro throughout
the whole earth looking for any boy girl,
man or woman his heart being perfect toward
him are such that he God being who
he is can show himself strong on their
behalf and then there's only one person to
be congratulated God himself what a delightful thing
it is that we have been redeemed in
the precious blood of God's dear son that
we might be sealed by the Holy Ghost
so that the Lord Jesus on earth today
may close himself with our humanity and others
looking into our face who will say isn't
Jesus Christ marvellous because we've learned to live
to the praise of his glory reflecting like
a mirror the glory of the Lord and
it's also simple so long as we're prepared
to let him do it of course if
you don't you'll fight your own bears you'll
fight your own lions and you'll fight your
own giants and you know what you'll find
out that the bears and lions and giants
that you meet are just as busy as
you think they are when you look at
yourself instead of looking at God but he's
told us to reign in life by one
Christ Jesus and be more than conquerors through
him that loves you and to embark upon
that incredible adventure whereby every day dawns making
ourselves available to the living Christ who's promised
to close himself with our humanity and all
his divine activities we look into his face
and say he said it he did it
I can't but you can and that's all
I need to know let's go