Gospel—Mark Allan
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Thank you. Welcome everyone to the gospel tonight. Maybe we could just get the meeting started by singing #12.
Just as I.
Saw.
Everything.
Let me go.
So there's no difference on your.
Yeah.
Maybe you could just ask for the Lord's help with the time you have.
Before we get started, I'd just like to.
Share with you how I got to the point of what I would like to talk about tonight on Wednesday.
Umm, I came home from work.
About 6:00, I was feeling tired as this is the busiest time of the year for me. In Q4, we're trying to get everything finished by the end of the year and the workload has been extremely heavy, almost to the point of.
Physical and mental breaking. But you know, I have been very thankful for the Lord's health and I, I arrived home and I was feeling very weary and glad to be home with the family and children. And I got a call from Dwight and he asked me if I would be willing to seek this evening.
And you know what? It's it's one of those awkward moments where you're not quite sure.
How to respond? I had been feeling pretty worn out and didn't have anything particularly that I had been enjoying or recently that I felt that I could share. But, you know, I consider the message that we have tonight the most important message that could ever be delivered.
00:05:05
And a while ago, I made the decision that unless I had a very good reason, I would try and give the gospel. But, you know, I was feeling weary. And I said to him, I said, listen. And perhaps this is the cliche answer a little bit. I said I I'd like a little bit of time to pray about it all. Is it OK if I call you back tomorrow?
Umm, so I.
Uh, spend some time, eat supper with the kids, spend some time with the family on Wednesday and.
I still had no idea what I would share tonight. And, uh, you know, sometimes when that happens, there's a brother here who says that, you know, when you go just our daily reading, sometimes the Lord gives us something. I said, oh, I'll go and I'll take a look at my chapter that I, I had read it that morning and to be honest, it didn't, not a whole lot went especially through my mind, But I, I opened up the chapters Isaiah 9 and 10 and I noticed underline in my chapter.
The hand of God is mentioned. I had it underlined a couple times and I said, Lord, is this what you want me to talk about? And then I noticed that it's three more times in, in, uh, between those chapters five times and.
Started thinking about it and I thought oh.
I don't know. Is that what the Lord wants me to talk about? And, uh.
It talks in those chapters about his hand being outstretched still five times. And I thought, well, maybe that's a nice loving story. But then I realized that it was God's hand outstretched in judgment. And, uh, you know, I, I struggled with it. I, you know, I've heard people speak on the finger of God. I've heard people speak on the arm of the Lord and speak, people speak in the hand of the Lord. And I said, oh, I'll just get them mixed up.
And, uh, you know, I.
Got to thinking, well, what about the hand of the Lord? And my mind immediately went to my son Zach. He loves soccer and.
Back in 1986 at the World Cup.
Argentina was playing and the world's best player at that time accidentally hit the ball with his hand and it went in the net. It's one of two goals and it was dubbed the Hand of God and it's been watched millions of times. I just thought.
Maybe that's what the world considers to be the hand of God.
And you know, I thought too 16 or Leonardo da Vinci, that picture, that handout stretch. Is that the hand of God? I you know, I went to bed that night and.
Opened up my Bible and considering a little bit and uh, I thought how, how does the hand of God apply to the gospel?
And I'm gonna start with this and I'm gonna end with this. I thought of that story and it isn't the direct gospel, but I just, you know, the gospel is whosoever shall call upon the name of Lord shall be saved. Any person in this room can call out to God because of what Jesus did, and their eternal destiny can be changed in just a few words. And the portion that's always impressed me is when.
Peter.
Was thinking he was. They were.
Rowing and there was a storm, and he sees the Lord on the water, and the Lord says to him.
Come, and Peter gets out and he sees the waves around him. He starts to think and he says, Lord, save me.
And the Lord grabs Peter and rescues him.
And I'd like that because that's just like the gospel. All you need to say tonight is 3 words.
And mean it, Lord save me, and it will change your eternal destiny. But you know what I was thinking about.
I wondered, is the hand of God mentioned? And it is.
I'll read it at the end, but that I got that, that really got me thinking about the hand of God and what I'd like to do tonight. And time is gonna be very tight, so I'll have to move quickly. As I lay in bed. I, I just started thinking about the hand of God and there's 1010 points I'd like to make about the hand of God that I've enjoyed. I'm gonna do gold, one through each finger. You know, that was Wednesday night.
Thursday I sat down and typed in hand in the Bible.
1500 times and I'm just gonna go back to these 10 things that really impressed me. I laid awake until probably 2:00 in the morning.
Or it was between 1:00 and 2:00, just thinking about the hands of God. And so Thursday I told Dwight to call him back. I called him back and said that I thought the Lord wanted me to take the gospel. So I'm going to go through these ten points on the hand of God and.
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We'll try and go through them quickly, but there is a tremendous amount there. And my prayer is that if there's anyone in this room who has never done what Peter did and said, Lord save me, that they do it tonight. So the first one I'd like to look at is the hand of God.
In Creation and I'd like to turn to Hebrews chapter one.
And verse 10 says there.
Thou, Lord, in the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the works of thy hands.
You know, popular culture would tell you that this is dead wrong. This week, on Wednesday, and I'm not saying this critically, the Governor General of Canada said it is hard to believe that any educated person or a person in a public office would believe that there is.
Basically intelligent design or divine intervention in the creation of this world.
And the Prime Minister backed her up on that and a number of other things. I didn't even notice this until yesterday. Umm. And again, I don't say critically, but is there evidence of the hand of God in creation?
I'm gonna move quickly. A couple of weeks ago I was watching. I enjoy watching.
Apologetics and, and, and just listening to people's comments on these things, there was a scientist that was he, he was.
Umm, he was talking to a, a, a man who's a Christian and he was saying, well, how on earth can you accept what the Bible says about creation when there's this interrelated thing between time, space, matter, energy, they're all interrelated. How can that the simplicity of what the Bible says be true? And you know what that man said, and I really appreciate it. It's in this verse two, he said, he said, you know.
God is outside.
Of time.
And it says in Genesis 11 you only have to look at the first verse of the Bible. In the beginning time God created the heavens face and earth matter.
Time, past, present, future, space, length, width, height, matter, liquid, solid, gas. You know, it's a Trinity of Trinity there, there you have God.
Outside of all that heat.
Speaks it into being, you know, I don't understand it, but the Word of God is perfect in the way that it presents things. You know, I was watching another, umm, it was a panel. Richard Dawkins was on it. This was just a couple weeks ago. There was a priest there with him. There was a pastor of some sort. There's a number of people on the panel, and they're talking about the problem there is with what happened at the very beginning.
If they're referring to The Big Bang, which is sort of the accepted umm theory and and academic circles, What what what was there before?
And Richard Dawkins had made the comment. And again, I don't say this critically. He he, he said, he said, you know, it's an interesting thing to consider that what came out of it was essentially nothing. And the one of the other people there who who I believe is a Christian said, well, it seems a little bit funny to be trying to explain nothing. If you look at this verse and we have to move quickly, it says here.
Thou, Lord, in the beginning has laid the foundation.
Of the earth and the heavens are the works of thy hands. Time, space, matter. It's very simply here. The Bible is not a scientific book, but it's just remarkable, you know?
The order that God has created is phenomenal. In my work, we build electronic parts and we, umm, built some parts for a spaceship that's going to take a soil sample off an asteroid was launched last year. Sirius racks. It's called the perfect laws of gravitation that have come. And you know, it's interesting.
The, uh, the Governor General who had made the comment about it being hard for an intelligent person to believe that she was an astronaut, She is an Astro or, or was an astronaut, I guess, and an engineer and pilot. And you know what I was into, It's interesting to me, Isaac Newton, and I'm just going to read a quote of Isaac Newton, he says.
Atheism is so senseless. When I look at the solar system, I see the earth at the right distance from the sun to receive the proper amounts of heat and light. This did not happen by chance. He's the one who actually laid out a lot of the formulas that we used to do any of our space travel now.
00:15:17
That was his response to that and, you know, to me.
You don't even A and the word of God is a tremendous thing, but just look at the expanse of the universe and it's perfect order. And one little planet in one little solar system in a massive universe is the only one that they can seem to find that has any ability for life. You know, they're trying definitely the one of the most powerful men in the world right now, Elon Musk is trying to speed up the process.
Of getting life to Mark, getting people to Mars. And he's been very successful thus far. But you know, there's massive problems still that they have to figure out. With no atmosphere, there's no way to land a spaceship that's heavy in the chemical problems that they have with it just keep getting more and more complicated. You know, I'm not here to say that they can't do it, but just consider the hand of God in creation.
The second one that I'd like to look at is the hand of God in life, so Job chapter 12.
And verse 10.
Says In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?
Says in Genesis that.
God breathed in demands, nostrils, the breath of life, and he became a living soul. You know, breath is an interesting thing and it's it's difficult to define.
Easily exactly what life is. But you know, I've been touched recently.
Three people who I knew very well and who have been here on many occasions have passed out of this world into heaven to be with the Lord recently. And that's always a very searching thing, you know, umm, one of them was fairly young, not less than 10 years older than I am, and.
My wife was back and forth with Kathy. This is and uh, just as the breath was leaving.
Going back and forth. Last week it was at a funeral.
Comments on the breast leaving.
Until.
Person is gone. You know, there's solemn things. It's something that's very unique, the breadth of life.
My life few about a month ago she pointed out to me, there's a commentator in the US, Kathie Lee Gifford. Her she and her husband are Christians and her husband passed away. She just came downstairs one day and her husband was dead on the floor and she wrote a song and the song said he saw Jesus and he took his breath away.
Lindsay played it for me and I thought it was very interesting.
The breadth of life. The breadth of life.
In whose hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind? In God's hand. Our breath is in His hand.
The solemn thing to consider and an amazing thing at the same time. The third one I'd like to look at is. So this is the third one, The hand of the hands of design. Psalm 119.
And verse 73.
So I was lying in bed. I.
I was just thinking about versus and I opened this verse and it was very impressive to me. It says Thy hands have made me and fashioned me. Give me understanding that I may learn Thy commandments.
You know, one of the things that's amazing is what has been discovered about the human body recently, particularly with DNA. It's something that they're trying to.
My vote is it's incredibly complicated. Someone's made the comments. I haven't verified it, but that if you were to take some of the DNA and spread it all out, it would go all the way to the sun and back. I, I can't validate that, but it contains all of the information about life, the color of our hair, that all the things about us genetically. It's absolutely incredible and it's in just in every cell of our body. You know, I don't begin to understand it. I was.
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Read a little bit about it, but it's amazing, you know, and.
The whole theory of evolution had came out. They didn't know anything about it. Bill Gates made the comments that DNA is more complicated. Our genetic code is more complicated in incredibly more complicated than the most complex computer program ever written. And I'd just like to read to you the comment of a genetic biologist. I'll read it with a molecular biologist. He was interviewed by a man named George Taylor.
Very. This is in the year 2000.
I was absolutely. It was just very interesting to see what he said about it. He said a bit like an editor trying to find a spelling mistake inside a document larger than four complete sets of Encyclopedia Britannica. Do you believe, and this is, this is the interviewer, do you believe that the information evolved? The biologist says, George, nobody in my profession believes that evolve evolved. It was engineered by genius. Beyond genius. Such information could not have been written any other way.
The paper and ink did not write the book. Knowing what we know, it is ridiculous to think otherwise, the interviewer said. Have you ever stated that in a public lecture or in any public writings?
And he said no, I just say it evolved to be a molecular biologist requires 1 to hold on to two insanities at all times.
One would be one, it would be insane to believe that evolution when you can see the truth for yourself. Two, it would be insane to say you did not believe in evolution. All government work, research grants, papers, big college lectures, everything would stop. I'd be out of a job or regulated to the outer fringes where I couldn't earn a decent living.
And, uh, the interviewer said. I hate to say it, but that sounds intellectually dishonest.
And uh, the biologist said the work that I do in genetic research is honorable. We will find the cures to many of man's mankind's worst diseases, but in the meantime, we will have to live with the elephant in the living room.
The interviewer said. What elephant creation design? It's like the elephant in the living room. It moves around, takes up an enormous amount of space, loudly trumpets, bumps into us, knocks things over, eats tons of hay and smells like an elephant. And yet we have to swear it isn't there. You know, it's interesting.
To consider the design.
Of God in our bodies, that in one little cell.
We have the whole code, just very quickly.
And I just want to say this.
I started a project this time last year. They switched their company around and they wanted to move some work out from the US and they want us to build something we had built five years ago. And we had the drawings, we had the parts list, we had the instructions on how to build it. We had moved to a new building, so they asked us to build a new room and we hired 20 employees and assigned a project manager and manufacturing support, test support.
And we've been building it.
It's just, it's 2000 cables, nothing terribly complicated and you know, even though everything was there.
It took us 50% more time than we thought it was going to take. We thought that would go away from the last time and it did improve over time last time. But we started back very close to where we started before and it caused me a lot of Gray hair. The last table of that project shipped this Thursday.
And, you know, I was thinking, how does that compare to God's design of our body? You know, when conception happens, 21 days later, there's a heartbeat. Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump nine months later.
Very close to the day you have a perfect child and nobody did anything other than what God had done in the background. God rested the 7th day.
Yes, there is the effect of sin in this world. The design that God has is amazing. Just think of the hand of God in the design of our life.
Thy hands have made me in fashion me, give me understanding that I may learn thy commandments.
I had to laugh. Uh, or not laugh. I like to compare recent articles with with.
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Sort of a biblical worldview to popular culture, yes. Yesterday there was an article in the Guardian about, umm, aliens and the need for evolution. And I'm just gonna read you a couple of comments here.
About it it says there's been many attempts to find life over the years, and all of them run into trouble at some point. Take, for example, the idea that life's defining characteristic is that it must be able to reproduce.
While a flame reproduces but can hardly be said to be alive, then there are the mules, creatures that are usually sterile but clearly alive. Chemical definitions such as life must be based on carbon and contained DNA are no better.
This is the most interesting part of the paper, the call to jettison our attempts at defining life and just recognize it by something that is uniquely that it uniquely does, which is evolved. It reminds me of Isaac Newton's response to queries about the meaning of the his mathematical law of gravity in 1687. When asked how gravity gets from 1 celestial object to another, he said it didn't matter how it happened, all that matter is that it did, and that his equation gave the right answer.
They refer to Newton in this question saying that.
That, uh, evolution, it was something that just just happened, you know?
After looking at this I thought, man, to quote a believer in something like this is hard to believe and I looked up a comment and it this is another quote of Isaac Newton. He said in the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God's existence.
Isaac Newton.
A hands in design. So there's three. We have to move quickly. For the remaining ones, the hands of evaluation, I'd like to turn to Daniel Chapter 5.
One of the most powerful empires in the entire world.
Phil Schizer.
Grandson of Nebuchadnezzar is having a party and a hand comes and writes on the wall.
Mini mini pico Ufarsen. He's terrified.
And he goes and gets Daniel.
Uh, some to interpret it and what does it say or what does it mean? It means numbered, numbered, weighed, divided or they were gonna be defeated.
I'll just read the verse actually, we'll start. This is umm, Daniel 5, verse 23 God, in whose hand thy breath is, and who are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified? Then was part of the hand sent from him, and this writing was written and this is the writing that was written many, many tequila Parson. This is the interpretation of the thing meaning God's number, thy Kingdom and finished it Tico, thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting. Perry's thy Kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.
Why am I reading this? It's talking about the hand of God written on the wall of the greatest one of the greatest empires that ever existed. Why God?
Evaluated he, he numbered and he weighed and he saw that they were wanting. You know, sometimes I wonder what God sees when he looks at North America.
Built on biblical principles, the 10 commandments.
And yet they've turned their back on God.
It's a very solemn thing by the hand of God in evaluation.
The hand of God in evaluation. What do you think God sees when he looks at this nation? Hardly anybody looking at at this world from an objective standpoint can't say that there's a day of reckoning coming.
Very interesting to consider that and that leads to the hand of.
Judgment, it's not something that any of us like to talk about is judgment. It's not a very popular thing to talk about in a meeting like this, a gospel meeting. You know, those verses in Isaiah impressed me. Isaiah 9, Isaiah 5, the the five verses, Isaiah 525, nine, twelve, nine, 17921, 10-4.
Each one of them says, For all this is anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out. Still there is a consequence for sin. It says in the New Testament, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.
So we look at these things, these five things, creation, life, design, evaluation, and judgment. It doesn't look very good, does it?
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The God is a God of love.
He has hands of love before.
The world was created. He had a plan to send his son.
Prophetically, in the Old Testament we read.
That they would look on him whom they had pierced.
Zechariah says actually this is the hands of love. I'd like to look at Zechariah 13, six.
And when you're saying to him, What are these wounds in thy hands? And he shall answer those with which I was wounded in the House of my friend. This was written before.
God became a man. There's another verse in Psalms that says prophetically, they pierced my hands and my feet. God was going to become a man and come into this world.
Because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Probably the most well known verse in the whole Bible that you'll often see it sports games and such.
God had a plan of love to reach his hand down to this world.
And make a way possible that we could be saved.
You know, he came into this world as a baby born to a poor couple.
And you know what those hands did?
Mark 732 He healed the death.
Mark 823. He gave sight to the blind with his hands.
People with different loop 440 he he healed all kinds of different people.
There's even a verse that says, well he in Luke 854 he raised the dead. It says there he put them all out and took her by the hand and called saying made arise.
He cleansed the leopard despised by society back then as as unclean. What does it say about the leper? He put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy was departed from him.
There's another verse that he it says he cleansed all of their diseases.
Incredible to consider the hands of God in healing love to this world.
You know what they did to those hands?
Those hands in death and resurrection, he knew it was gonna happen. It's written in the Old Testament in those verses we already mentioned.
He was nailed to that cross.
He hung there between heaven and earth, and took the punishment for the sins of each one in this room who puts their trust in Him.
Oh.
You know, when he he didn't just die, he rose from the dead.
You know, it's, it's remarkable to me.
Umm.
I'd just like to turn to John 20.
Verse 27 The Lord has been killed by the very creatures he's created, and with those hands He's healed so many people.
And he has one of his disciples who's doubting. And what does he say to him in John 2027 in resurrection? He says. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach thither thy hit her thy finger, and behold my hands.
Reach, hit her thy hand and thrust it into my side. Be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God, the hands of God in death and resurrection.
And now we get to what I had mentioned at the beginning of this meeting.
His hands in salvation.
His hands in salvation. You know, I just would like to turn to that that in Matthew chapter 14 to read it.
And I know this is Peter. He's thinking he cries out to the Lord. But to me it's just beautiful, a beautiful picture of what the Lord will do. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, that is the whole gospel. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord. Matthew chapter 14.
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We'll start at verse 28. Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come to thee on the water. And he said, come.
When Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus, but when he saw the wind was boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to sink. He cried, saying those 3 words that will change your eternity, eternal destiny, Lord save me. And what happened? Immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him.
Every person in this room.
Has been evaluated and found wanting, and yet Jesus died on that cross to make a way possible that that verse could be written. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
That's all Peter had to say as Lord saved me and it happened immediately. The hand of God reached down and pulled him up.
You know, that hand is so powerful in John 10 we read and this is the final one, the hand of protection. I'd just like to read it. John 10.
Verse 28 Well known verse, you know I.
Wondered about starting the meeting by saying you've got the whole world in his hands. I believe it's a nega ***** spiritual. I don't. I'm not sure if it's origin origins. It's very repetitive, but.
You know, if we put our trust in the Lord Jesus.
He's got us in his hands.
John 1027 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
It's in the Lord's hands. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hands.
Incredible protection by God if we are in His hands. If you have cried out those 3 words, Lord save me, you are in his hands and nothing can take you out of those hands.
There's a a song I enjoy that umm.
Has it? It's a fairly recent song. I'd just like to read the verses of it. In Christ alone. Just the first and last verse. It says in Christ alone my hope is found. He's my light, my strength, my song. This cornerstone, this solid ground, firm through the fiercest grout and storm. With what heights of love, what depths of peace, What when fears are still, When striving cease. My comforter, my All in all here in the love of Christ. I stand at the end of the second verse or this last verse that I'd like to mention. No guilt in life.
No Fear in death. This is the power of Christ in me. From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny. No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from his hand till he returns or calls me home. Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.
How does the hand of God compare with the soccer game?
You know.
I.
I can't.
Explain it any better than the word of God does, and my hope tonight is that if there is someone here.
Who has not yet said those 3 words? Lord save me that you would do it tonight.
And we close in prayer.