What God Can Do Today — Bill McLeod

May I ask a question to begin with, and I hope I don't embarrass anybody. How many of you took some time, either last night perhaps, or this morning somewhere, to pray just for God's blessing on this session?

May I see your hands. All right. Kind of hard to tell. I guess maybe less than one in five. And if the rest of you don't get a blessing, you know who to blame. Okay? May I just say this, though? Don't ever go to a meeting in the house of God without first praying, calling on God for His blessing, because to quite an extent, we get out of it what we put into it.

Prayer, Faith, and God's Unlimited Power

We are not performers. We're not performers. Paul said, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance for all saints, and for me, he said, and for me.

And I make the same appeal, and for me, and for the same reason, because Paul knew that apart from Christ, he could do nothing. I'm to speak this morning on the subject of what can God do today. Let me just say this at the very beginning.

I believe God can do anything He's done in the past, any time in the past, anywhere in the past. I also believe He can do more than He's done in the past. God is able, Paul wrote in Ephesians 3, God is able to do exceeding, abundantly, above all that we ask or think.

Now that's a big statement. There's a verse in the Old Testament that says, The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards Him.

In other words, God is looking for people through whom He can manifest His power. He doesn't find, apparently, very many. You know how Isaiah 60 ends? A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation.

I, the Lord, will hasten it in His time. Have you ever thought of becoming one of those? A small one, a strong nation, a little one of thousand? You can be one of those. I remember in Sao Paulo, Brazil, talking with a missionary, and he said this.

This place is so open to the gospel. He said if you walk the streets of Sao Paulo, and by the way, they tell us it's going to be the largest city in the world, probably 25 million or more, eventually.

But he said you can walk the streets of this city 365 days a year, and talk to people about Christ, and there will never be a day that you don't win someone to Christ. It's that open. And thousands of us are sitting on our hands here in North America, wishing something would happen.

I talked to a missionary in Buenos Aires. He'd been there, I think, seven years. He'd started four churches. He said the first year I was here, I just walked in the sidewalks and talked to people about Christ, and he led about 70 people to Christ on the sidewalks.

And dear people, God is looking for people whose heart is right towards Him, so He can display His power to such. The possibilities are totally unlimited. We heard something of that this morning in Russia.

Unbelief as the Great Hindrance to God's Work

But the problem is unbelief. So my text will be Hebrews 3, 12 and 13. It's one of those many take heeds in the Bible. Take heed, brethren. He's talking to Christians. Will you take heed to what God is saying there?

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily while it's called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Take heed. In Zechariah we read about Israel, it says, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent in His Spirit by the former prophets.

They did not want to listen. So Hosea said, my God will cast them away because they did not hearken unto Him and they shall be wanderers among the nations. And 12 million of them are still wanderers among the nations.

Now God's power is unlimited. And God's power is not limited except in one respect, that God has limited His power to the faith of His people. To blind men He said, do you believe I'm able to do this?

And they said, yes, Lord. And He said, according to your faith, be it unto you. He didn't say according to my power, according to your faith, be it unto you. In Jeremiah 32, 17, Jeremiah sort of reminded the Lord that he had made the heavens and the earth by His great power.

And then He said, and there is nothing too hard for you. And in verse 27 of the same chapter, God said, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. There is nothing too hard. Or is there anything too hard for me?

How can there be? Because the universe, He spoke and it was done. He commanded and they stood fast. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made. And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. How can there possibly be anything too hard for our God?

And this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide, it says, even until death. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory. But in the meantime, let's be the kind of a Christian that God can use for His glory and the blessing of mankind and to accomplish the purposes of God in Christ.

Salvation by Grace and the Call to Good Works

We know the Bible says, by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. And we put a period in there. What's the next statement? For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before prepared that we should walk in them.

Isn't it time we found out what those good works are that God wants us individually as believers to walk in? It's time we found out and got off our hands. There's a strange statement in the Psalms, none of the men of might have found their hands.

People had lost their hands. Have you lost your hands? Can't work for God? Can't find your hands? Through unbelief, unbelief cripples God. We'll come to that in just a few moments. God's power is so great.

Some examples, Moses prays and the ground opens up and 250 people fall in and the ground closes again. And it says they went down alive into the pit for rebelling against God. Joshua prayed. It doesn't look like a prayer, but it says this, that he spoke to the Lord in the sight of all Israel.

He did it before the whole nation and if nothing had happened, he'd look like a fool. And he said, Son, stand still. Upon Ezra, on in Damun, in the valley of Gibeah. And the sun stood still and did not go down, it says, for a whole day.

Now some people say it was just a refraction of light in the atmosphere. If that's all it was, why does it say in the book of Joshua that there was never a day like this before it or after it when God hearkened to the voice of a man?

It was a miracle. God stopped the spinning of the world and he had to stop the oceans, the lakes, the people and everything in the world from moving off into space, depending where you live. The equator, a thousand miles an hour.

It's the greatest miracle in the history of the world. Joshua, he really believed God would do it and God did it. The prophets of Baal and the prophets of the groves, they prayed from morning till night.

They cried, they shouted, they screamed, they cut themselves with knives. They leaped up and down in front of their altar and absolutely nothing happened. And Elijah prayed. Did you ever time his prayer?

I timed it the other day. Fifteen seconds long and the fire of God fell. It burned up the sacrifice, it burnt the wood, it burnt the stones, it licked up all the water in the trench. What a demonstration of the power of God.

Elijah, Dothan, and the Chariots of Fire

Apparently, Elijah was some kind of an optician. He was staying in a place called Dothan with his servant and the king of Syria had sent his army over and it surrounded the place in the night. And the servant went out in the morning and saw these horses and chariots everywhere he looked.

And he said, alas my master, what are we going to do? And Elijah prayed and said, Lord, open the eyes of this young man that he may see. I love this. And the Lord opened his eyes and he looked. And the whole mountain around Elijah was filled with horses and chariots of fire.

I say he was an optician because he opened his eyes. And then he went down to the army and he prayed and said, Lord, smite these men with blindness. He's still working on the eyes. And the whole army was blinded.

And he said, this is not the place, but I'll take you to where the man is. And they followed him and he took them to Samaria where the army of Israel was. And then he prayed again, Lord, open their eyes.

He was an optician. And all their eyes were open. Now, dear people, how could he do this? I mean, this is rather audacious praying, isn't it? I would say so. But these people knew that God was in it. In John 15, 7, Christ said, If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.

Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit. So shall you be my disciples. If you bear much fruit, you are a true disciple of Jesus, because he bore much fruit. Hezekiah prayed over a nasty letter he got.

And 185 ,000 soldiers, it says, when they woke in the morning, they were all dead men. I can see them standing there looking at their bodies. How did this happen? How did we get here? In Acts chapter 2, a few people prayed.

The Spirit of God was poured out by the Lord Jesus Christ. I like what Peter said, therefore, about Christ,. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He, that's Jesus, has shed forth this, which you now see and hear.

And I love to say that Pentecost was a Jesus Christ happening. He did. And there have been many extensions of Pentecost ever since, and one of them we find in Acts chapter 4. Actually, two of them. Because early in chapter 4, it says,.

And the number of the men came to be about five thousand. Two thousand on the day of Pentecost, five thousand a little later. Then in Acts chapter 4, they prayed another short prayer. It's not half a minute long.

And when they had prayed, the place was shaken, where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the Word of God with boldness. Do things like this challenge you?

They should. They should. God has done all He can do to encourage us to believe Him. But I'm sure He has to say about us, as He said about ancient Israel,. How long shall His people provoke me? How long will it be ere they believe Me?

How it must provoke God, dear people, when we walk in unbelief, doubting, doubting, fearful, worried. Powerless. We're supposed to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. Are you a good advertisement for the doctrine of God?

Many of us are a poor advertisement, and some of us are no advertisement at all. And sometimes we are more an advertisement for the devil than we are for God. What can God do? It depends on the faith of His people.

Unbelief as the Root of Sin and Spiritual Powerlessness

Let's explore that more fully. Unbelief. Now, Spurgeon said that to him, unbelief was the bottom line of all sin. To put it differently, every sin that men may commit rises out of the sin, the foundational sin of unbelief.

That's where it all starts. And he said this, Spurgeon did, Other sins strike at God's territory, but unbelief strikes at God's person. Because in 1 John 5, 10 it says, He that does not believe God has made him a liar.

It strikes at God. Unbelief does. And you may go to the prayer room and deal with a lot of things, thank God that you've done that. But maybe you went to the prayer room three days ago, and now you're saying, I don't see any change.

I am no different than I was. And you're discouraged. It's likely because you're not willing to believe. There are many people, I have talked different times with people who have told me this, I've asked Jesus into my heart 50 times at least, and He never entered in.

And then I say, now who's lying, you or God? Well I'm not, oh so God is? What are you getting at, they say. Well He said, if you'll repent and open the door of your heart to me, I will enter in. Now you tell me you asked Him to do it, and you tell me He didn't do it.

Is He lying when He said, I will enter in? No. Then what do you mean, He didn't enter in when you asked Him? He didn't enter in when you asked Him to. You see, people don't understand what faith is, how it works.

There are 7 ,487 promises in the Bible. I've never counted, Herbert Lockyer has. He's written a book called All the Promises of the Bible. I've got it in my library. They're all catalogued, all the work is done.

You ought to get the book sometime. We don't have it on the book table, but I'm sure it can be, you know, gotten in bookstores and so on. 7 ,487. I tell people, if you take a different promise every day, you can go for 21 years.

Well, you might say, well, they're not all for me. Well, maybe not. Maybe not directly. But let me say, let me look at it from another angle. You will never come against any problem, any trial, any danger, anything in life that isn't covered somewhere in the Word of God by a promise of God.

Thanks for the Amen. It's true though, dear people, it's true. That's why we need to get to know this book. You know, listen, when you're reading the Bible, every time you come across a promise, put a great big P in the margin.

And when you've gone through the Bible entirely, and remember that George Mueller read the Bible through 200 times, he read it through 100 times on his knees, in the attitude of worship, if you please, and he was one of the busiest men who ever lived.

He had 2 ,000 orphans to look after and a staff of 200 or 300. He was pastor of a church, co-pastor with Henry Craig of a church with 2 ,000 members, pardon me, 1 ,200 members in Bristol, England. He started a thing called Scriptural Knowledge Institution, which sent men money and literature around the world.

He probably sent more money to the China Inland Mission than any person did. But he found time to read the Bible through 200 times. He spent three hours every day in prayer. He said, if I don't pray, I can't get the work done.

And on top of that, he spent one hour a day praying with his wife. And you think you're busy? But God is saying, how long? How long will it be? There are these people, believe me, God's power is limited to our faith.

Faith, the Word of God, and Answered Prayer

Psalm 78 says so. It says they turned back and they tempted God and they limited the Holy One of Israel. They tied God up through their wicked unbelief. Do you suppose it's any different today? I don't think so.

In Mark 6, Matthew 13, it says that Jesus Christ, in His hometown of Nazareth, could not do any mighty works because of their unbelief. Now, if you read the record carefully in the Gospels, you'll find when He first began to preach there, He did mighty works.

Then unbelief took over and they were saying, well, who does He think He is? And from then on it says all He could do was heal a few sick people. He could not display the fullness of the power of God because unbelief had taken over.

And every one of us is responsible for the unbelief that's in our heart because of the bad effect it has on the work of God everywhere. The preacher preaches away. He spent hours preparing. And half or more of the people are sitting there looking at their watches.

You know, a fellow did that to me one time in a rally down in Minnesota. It was one of these fall harvest home rallies, which are very popular in Minnesota generally. And anyway, the place was packed.

All the people in the area were, you know, all the Christians at least and others besides. The church was packed. The aisles were filled with seats and all. And this fellow came in late. They told me afterwards he always comes in late.

He was the wealthiest man in the community. And he loves to come in last of all and parade down the aisle. He would always go right to the front and look around and bow and bob and take his seat. And so he did.

He loved to sing. He went lots of singing. And he was smiling and appreciating all the music. Then I got to preaching and he got to frowning. And finally, you know, he had a vest on and a big pocket watch with a chain.

And he pulled this pocket watch out and he held it up like this. And it was spinning on the end of the chain like that. And he looked at the watch and he looked at me. I did a nasty thing. I said, if I catch anybody looking at their watch, I will automatically add ten minutes to my sermon.

You know, I had so many people pat me on the back afterwards, I figured I must have done the right thing. Anyway, lest there be in you. We can preach with great gusto, you know. We can sing with a smile.

And our failures and fears are disguised by our outward expression. But God knows, man looks on the outward appearance and the Lord looks on the heart. Unbelief, I say again, by far our greatest problem.

Let's deal with it if it is a problem. Now, unbelief grieves God greatly. We know that because Israel was not allowed to enter the Promised Land because of their unbelief of Kadesh Barnea. And they had to wander for 40 years in the wilderness.

It was only an 11-day journey from Mount Horeb to Kadesh Barnea and it took them 40 years. Why? Because of their unbelief. That's why. And as Paul wrote in Romans 15, whatever things were written before were written for our learning.

That we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope for our learning. What did we learn from Israel? Moses grieved God so greatly, God wouldn't let him enter the Promised Land. Do you know what happened?

Well, they were in the wilderness and they needed water and God said, Moses, I'll stand on the rock in Horeb and you smite the rock with your rod and the water will come out. Can you fancy that? You hit a rock with a rod, a wood, a piece of wood and water comes out.

Enough for a million and a half people and their beasts. But Moses believed and the water came abundantly. On another occasion they needed water and this time God said, speak to the rock. And Moses didn't believe that speaking to the rock would do it, so he took his rod and he smote the rock twice and God said, because you did not believe me, you will never enter the Promised Land.

And he never did. He never did. Even Moses. I know he had been provoked by the people. That was part of the problem. But his faith faltered and failed. And this is what happened. It's unbelief that sends unconverted people to hell.

It's not their sin, it's their unbelief, which of course is a sin also. He that believes not the Son, the Son of God, does not have life. But it says the wrath of God is abiding on him. It's on him now.

He that believes not is already condemned. Regardless of what kind of a moral life you live, if you have not believed savingly on Jesus Christ, you are condemned now, already condemned, it says. And it's unbelief that shuts the door of heaven to sinners.

Revelation 21 .8, it says, The fearful and the unbelieving shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone. Unbelieving. It shuts heaven to sinners. Faith opens the door to sinners.

By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast. By faith we are saved. Now, unbelief cripples God. We've seen that already in Psalm 78 and Mark 6 and Matthew 13.

How they could not work because they were limited through unbelief. And God wanted to bless, and God could not bless because His people would not believe. Dear people, this is taught, I think, everywhere in the Word of God.

By examples, illustrations, by precepts, everywhere. God wants us, by His grace, to be filled with faith. And we'll come to that a little later on as well. Now, unbelief prevents God from answering our prayers.

Faith and the Healing of the Demon-Possessed Child

And we have a classic example in the case of a man mentioned in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, whose son was demon-possessed. Now, there's something very significant about this story that I want you to get.

In Luke's Gospel chapter 9, the opening verses, Jesus gave the apostles power over all demons. In the same chapter, they tried to cast a demon out of a child, and they couldn't do it. And it looks as if Jesus didn't really give them the power.

I mean, how can this be that He gave them the power, and then they tried to use it, and it wasn't there? And they were, rightly so, very embarrassed. And so when they were alone with Christ after they said, Why couldn't we?

He did it so easily. Why couldn't we? And He said, Because of your unbelief. They tried. They ordered that demon to go in the name of Jesus Christ. And he didn't go. There was no power there, because they did not believe.

It's as simple as that. Now, when Christ talked to the father of the child, the father of the child said something like this. He said, He told him what had happened to his son. And then he said, I brought him to your disciples, and they couldn't do anything.

And then he says to Jesus, If you can do anything, have compassion on us, and help us. Do you remember what Jesus said? He said, If you can believe. People, it goes like this. If you can do anything, God.

No, no. If you can believe. It's up to you. It's not up to me, God is saying. It's your problem. If you'll believe, I'll work. I'll work. But I can't, if you won't. And that's what he said to the father of the child.

If thou can't believe, all things are possible to him that believes. What did he say? Lord, I believe. I believe. Deal with my unbelief. He could feel unbelief rising, but faith was in the ascendancy, and the child was instantly healed.

The apostles could have seen this victory themselves, but they were filled with unbelief. Now, here's something amazing to me. Jesus gave the twelve apostles power to cast out all demons, power over all evil spirits.

They tried to do it. It didn't work. He never gave the seventy power to cast out demons. You read it. All he said to them was, Heal the sick. Heal the sick and preach the kingdom. They came back and said, Lord, even the demons are subject unto us through your name.

And the seventy could do what the twelve couldn't do because they were filled with faith. Isn't that amazing? But, dear people, I mean, what a lesson. I remember so well an eastern Canadian city, and I had preached on the prayer of faith.

And a lady took a hold of it like it was a life preserver because she had problems. She'd been getting these migraine headaches once a year, then once a month, then once a week, and then almost every day.

Her husband, his stomach was so bad, all he could eat was milk and soup. And then she had an eight-year-old daughter that had never professed a Christian faith and had some psychological block. She had never spoken a single word outside the house.

They took her to a psychiatrist. They said, There's some block there. We don't know what it is. We can't seem to get a hold of it. And she couldn't be helped. Well, my mother heard me preach on the prayer of faith, and she decided I'm going to go for the whole thing.

So she talked to a pastor. He was a dear, godly man, but he uttered a word of caution and said, Well, you know, sister, you might pray this prayer of faith, and then maybe God won't do it, and then you'll fall flat on your face.

And so she accepted that. But a week later it came back again, the prayer of faith, the prayer of faith. And she decided to do it. I was in their home a year and a half later, and she told me what happened.

She said within 24 hours after she prayed the prayer of faith, her daughter came and said, Mom, guess what I just did? I just asked Jesus into my heart. And she went to school that day and unannounced got up in front of the class and repeated the 23rd Psalm to the class and began talking normally.

She said, Migraine headaches? I've only had one since you were here. And that came when I started doubting God. She pointed to her husband. Him? He can eat cactus or barbed wire. The Bible never talks about the prayer of unbelief.

It talks about the prayer of faith. And I know there's other things here. John 15, 7 covers it all. If you abide in me, I repeated it before. That means if you walk in a sweet, unbroken, faith-filled fellowship with Jesus Christ and you feel yourself over the Word of God.

Colossians 3 .16 says, Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, richly, in all wisdom of all books in the world, dear people. Get to know this book because it's the book of God. God who spoke has spoken.

That's how the book of Hebrews begins. That is, the God who spoke in Old Testament days to the prophets has finally spoken His final Word through Jesus, His Son. And it's all in this book called the Bible.

Get to know it. And if those two things are right, fellowship with Christ and the Word of God, then you can ask what you will because you will not be asking selfishly. You'll be asking for the glory of God.

You'll be not asking for self but for others. Sometimes you'll be praying for self, of course. It cripples God, people. Do you know that unbelief robs the Word of God of its power? It says in the book of Hebrews that the Word preached did not profit certain people because it was not mixed with faith in them that heard it.

I think of two brothers. One's in a penitentiary. One's in Africa as a missionary. What made the difference? Raised in the same home. Their parents played no favorites. Went to the same church. Sunday school, young people church.

Heard the same thing. One believed and one didn't. The Word preached did not profit and does not profit that person who doesn't listen to it with faith. When Paul wrote to Church of Thessalonica, among other things, he said this.

He said, I thank God without ceasing because when you received the Word of God which you heard about, you did not receive it as the Word of men but as the Word of God, as it is in truth, he said. The Word of God which effectually works also in you that believe.

It has enormous power in the life of the person who reads it with faith. Believing, this is God speaking to my heart. I say it has enormous power in a heart like that. But otherwise, it does nothing for us.

It can't. Unbelief robs Christians of joy and peace. In Romans 15, 13, Paul said, Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace. And what are the next two words? In believing. In believing. The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace.

In believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. Or 1 Peter 1 .8, Christ whom having not seen you love, in whom though now you see him not,. What are the next two words? Yet believing you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

In Acts 6 it says about Stephen that he was full of power. In another verse it says he was full of the Holy Spirit. But in both verses it first says he was filled with faith. With faith and power. With faith and the Holy Ghost.

And we overlook this. Israel's problem has always been and is today their wicked unbelief. Their wicked unbelief. In Israel there are perhaps 4 million Jews today. Only 7 of them believe that the Old Testament Scriptures are inspired of God.

The rest of them are totally secular. Totally secular. Thousands of them are atheists, agnostics, Marxists. I've read a lot in this area. And books written by Jews too. They don't believe. They're not there in faith.

We need to pray for them. God gave us Christ and the Bible through them. It says Paul wrote and said to the church at Rome that they are beloved for the Father's sake but they're enemies for the Gospel's sake.

So we love them. We pray for them. And Paul wrote and said about his own people. He said when Moses is read, even when Moses is read, the veil is on their heart. But when the heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

And thank God for 8 ,000 Jews a year approximately around the world that are turning to Christ. Let's pray for a greater harvest still. But their problem has always been unbelief. Is that your problem?

Repenting of Unbelief and Trusting God's Promises

Maybe it is. How do we deal with it in closing? First of all, listen carefully. Call it what God calls it. An evil heart of unbelief. The average Christian doesn't think that unbelief is a sin. He says it's unfortunate.

Like people say, I prayed for 10 years for God to give me more faith and He hasn't given me any more faith. So then they're blaming God for their wicked unbelief. People don't see. God says it's evil.

I can't believe the God who is love, who has given me 7 ,487 precious promises. And Hebrews 10 says, He is faithful of promise and I can't believe Him. There must be something drastically wrong with me.

We somehow think that if I ask for faith, God will drill a three inch hole in my head and pour in a can of faith. Then sew me up and I'm good for life. No, no. That's not how it works. It says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

That's how it comes. An evil heart. I don't think there's a sin worse than this that I don't believe my God. I say again, He said, How long, He said to Moses, Moses, Moses, how long will this people provoke me?

How long will it be? They believe me. Secondly, you need to repent of your unbelief. Jesus in Matthew 21 said, and He was speaking to unconverted Jews, He said, John, that's John the Baptist, John came unto you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the publicans and the harlots believed him and you, when you'd seen it afterwards, did not repent that you might believe.