Jesus Is NOT Incredible

[00:00:00] Turn with me, if you would, in your bibles to numbers, the 23rd chapter. Begin our reading in verse 16. [00:00:08] Read through verse 20. [00:00:11] I want to preach to you something today that I want you to let me explain before you leave and walk out the door, and don't give me a chance to. [00:00:24] I want to preach to you for just a few moments this morning on this thought that Jesus is not incredible. I want to preach that this morning. Don't leave. Don't go just yet. Let me explain myself. I got some explaining to do. [00:00:42] But I want to preach for a few moments this morning, if you will give me the time. And I want to explain to you why Jesus is not incredible. And he's not incredible to me at all, not even a little bit. And I want to preach about it for a little while this morning. Amen. Numbers, chapter 23 and verse 16. Then the Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, go back to Balak, and thus you shall speak. So he came to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab were with him. And Balak said to him, what has the Lord spoken? [00:01:24] Then he took up his oracle and said, rise up, balak, and hear. Listen to me, son of Zippor. [00:01:31] God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent. Has he said and will he not do, or has he spoken and will he not make it good? Behold, I received a command to bless. He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it. [00:01:55] Balaam said, you want me to curse God's people? In all, six times in the word of God, Balaam was asked to curse God's people. He would open his mouth and try to speak a curse. And every single time he opened his mouth and a word came forth. What was supposed to be a curse was a blessing. And I want to tell you today, that's exactly how it is. If you mess with God's people what Satan means for harm, God will take those words and use them as a blessing for your good. So I want to preach to you this morning from this controversial subject. Jesus is not incredible. [00:02:39] Jesus is not incredible. Lay your bibles and iPads on the pew. Lift your hands towards heaven this morning. Lord Jesus, we love you. We thank you, God, for your spirit that's in this house. We thank you, Lord, for coming down out of heaven and meeting with us this morning. God, I pray that over the next few moments of time that you would deliberately speak to us, God, that you would give us a specific and certain word for the people this morning. God, I pray that you would speak through your servant today. Let every word that comes forth from my mouth be anointed by you. Oh God, we need a moving of your spirit today. We love you, we praise you, and we put our trust in you. Jesus, if you believe that, put your hands together all across this place this morning. [00:03:27] Hallelujah. [00:03:29] Hallelujah. God bless you. You can be seated. [00:03:36] Balaam said to Balak, even if I wanted to open my mouth and curse God's people, a blessing would come out instead. [00:03:49] Eloquence fails a man when he attempts to describe the awesomeness or the grandeur of our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:03:57] Really, I'll be honest with you this morning and very transparent this morning, and please give me your attention, because this is so important that you receive the word of the Lord today. [00:04:08] But preaching, at best, really is an unfair assignment. [00:04:13] And I want you to know that I love preaching. It is my calling. It is a part of who I am. It is within every fiber of my being. As long as I can remember, I have loved preaching. I still have notebooks with sermons I wrote as a child. I love preaching. It is a part of me. I love preaching the gospel. I love sharing Jesus Christ. [00:04:38] But what I have been asked to do in many ways is unattainable. [00:04:44] The effort to use human speech in such a way that would accurately convey the nature and character of our God is far beyond the ability that I as a man hold. And many men who are far more eloquent than I will ever be, fail to communicate just how wonderful our God really is. But we try with the help of things like a strong concordance with commentaries, deep study and prayer. Every resource we have online, such as logos, we try and we attempt to find the proper adjectives to describe who he is and the proper adverbs to portray what he does. [00:05:28] And the goal of our descriptions would be that they would accurately give insight into his character, his characteristics and his nature. [00:05:40] I would say today that if you were to tell me that Jesus Christ is wonderful, I would stand to my feet and with a hearty amen, I would agree with you. [00:05:50] If you were to say that he is full of wonder, I would say that you are right. If you were to proclaim his greatness, I would say you are correct. And so was the psalmist when he said, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. If you describe him as holy, I would agree that he is holy. And with the angels who for eternity will sing holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, if you call him excellent, I would say amen. If you called him compassionate, I will agree. If you call him omnipotent, I will rejoice with you in that truth. Line upon line, all the words that you can think of that would apply to him. If we say righteous or pure or hallowed or holy or clean or virtuous or sacred, that he is powerful, that he is mighty, and that he is strong, and that he is dominant, that he is compelling, that he is great, that he is victorious in every battle, I'm talking about Jesus Christ today. [00:06:56] If you were to say to me, Landon, he is tender, he is kind, he is benevolent, he is sympathetic, he is caring, and he is gentle. That he is omnipotent, that he is omnipresent and that he is omniscient, that he is awesome, grand, breathtaking, overwhelming, tremendous, remarkable, amazing and outstanding, I would say that you are right. [00:07:18] That is what he is. But if you were to go on and look at me and say he is incredible, I would stand here and I would tell you that you are wrong. [00:07:27] That Jesus is not incredible. [00:07:32] I understand this morning that I have my work completely out for me. But I want you to hear me. Incredible doesn't mean what we think it means and how we use it in the context of today. And I know what we mean. When we sing songs about an incredible God who deserves incredible praise. We're using it as a synonym for the words like awesome or grand, breathtaking, and all of the greatness that comes along with that. But look into it with me this morning. Put your thinking caps on and let's go back to english class for a few moments. God help us all. [00:08:09] And I want you to hear me. [00:08:11] If you go to Webster's dictionary, or any dictionary, and you look up the word incredible, you will find that next to it is a prefix. A prefix means that there is an attachment to the word. [00:08:25] In other words, Stephen, if I use the word complete, we know that I'm meaning it is finished, it is done. But if I attach the letters I in to complete, we know that it is not finished, it is not done, it is no or not or without. So then inconsiderate would be someone who is not considerate. Inconvenient would be someone who is not convenient. Inexplicable means something that is without explanation. [00:08:59] So listen to what Webster's defines as the word incredible. [00:09:04] It means absurd, far fetched, it means fishy, it means impulsive, it means impossible or improbable. It means inconceivable and outlandish. It means phony and preposterous. It is questionable. It is ridiculous. It is suspect. It is unbelievable. It is unimaginable. It is simply not true. So to use the word incredible to describe Jesus Christ would absolutely be wrong, because Jesus Christ is the opposite of incredible. He is altogether credible in this house today. That means whatever he said, you can take it to the bank, because he never lies. He is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent. [00:09:55] I think it's okay that we give God, who is credible in every aspect, praise. Today I want to cram it down the devil's throat, that every word he has tried to use against me, my God, will take and turn and use for my blessing, because he never fails. His word is never wrong. He is always on time, and he is always credible. [00:10:23] So if I were to use the word incredible to describe the Lord Jesus Christ, it would be to suggest that he is not credible. [00:10:33] Please remember that credible means it is believable or that it is a reliable issue which you have heard. [00:10:44] If you go into the court system, a lawyer will attempt to attack the credibility of a damaging witness. [00:10:51] They want to call into question their character, call into question how far you can believe the words that are coming out of their mouth from the person who is on the stand. [00:11:03] So they attempt to refute and dismantle the credibility of the witness. [00:11:08] My message for you today is simply this, that there is nothing incredible about our God. [00:11:16] There is nothing in the scripture that would let us think anything other. That he is on time. He is omnipresent, a God who is a strong tower that the righteous run into and are safe, a refuge for his people. [00:11:31] That is what your scripture declares today. Everything that our God says is true. Everything that he promises, you can trust in everything he states is sure. [00:11:47] You can trust him. You can believe him. You can rely on him. You can depend on him. Jesus is not incredible. He is completely credible. [00:11:59] Somebody push your neighbor real hard and tell him he is credible. [00:12:04] Say it again. He is credible. [00:12:09] Our text today provides a glimpse into the interaction between Balak and Balaam. [00:12:16] Balak wanted the foolish prophet Balaam to curse Israel. He wanted him to literally speak a word against God's people. Side note. There's power in your tongue, and it matters what you say. [00:12:32] There is authority in the words that we speak. [00:12:37] Balak was so much wanting this curse to be spoken, he was willing to pay for it. He was willing to put money into the hands of Balaam. The midianite prophet, if he would just speak a curse against Israel, that's what he wanted. But notice what happens in the story every time this foolish prophet would stand up and try to utter a curse. Instead, a blessing of God would proceed from his mouth. Balak says, okay, it didn't work in this spot. So, balaam, come on. We're gonna go. Move. We're gonna try this somewhere else. So Balak takes Balaam the prophet to a mountaintop, to a high place, and he said, okay, balaam, we're in a different place. I want you to try it again. Go ahead and speak the curse. So the Bible says that Balak offered a sacrifice, and Balaam walks away to go and speak to God. And when he goes to speak to Goddesse, one of the verses we read is the response God gave to Balaam when he came back to Balak. Put verse 19 back up of numbers 23. [00:13:39] God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent. [00:13:48] Has he said and will he not do, or has he spoken and will he not make it good? He said, Balak learned this one thing about the God of Israel. When a word goes out of his mouth, you can bank on it. He was saying, balak, if God said that it's going to be okay, then it's going to be okay. He was wanting Balak to know that. You do not have to wonder if God will change his mind, because he is not a man, nor the son of man that he should repent. He is not a man that he changes his mind when God says it. God always does it. [00:14:27] You don't ever have to worry, did God really mean it? [00:14:31] You don't have to consider if there was a possibility of it not being true, because the Bible said, he will not lie. [00:14:39] Do you really think that he said something that he cannot do or he cannot accomplish or that he can't hold up his end of the bargain. [00:14:48] Do you really believe that God spoke something to you in error? No, because our God makes no errors. You can put your trust in him because he is not incredible. He is completely credible, and we need to get that into our hearts and our spirits this morning, that our God is completely and totally credible in every situation of our life. Amen. [00:15:18] We see examples. And hear me this morning, because I really, really want to deliver all of this word to you today. [00:15:25] We see examples of his credibility all around us. After the flood, when Noah offered a burnt offering notice what the word says in Genesis 822, while the earth remains seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not what cease every year, especially this time of year, when I walk out of my house and I get in my car and the register on my dash says 100 degrees, it does not surprise me because the Bible is very clear in Genesis chapter eight that every year when the hot weather comes and the skyrocketing thermometer screams, it is just a reminder that you can trust God. Because back in Genesis eight, he said these things will happen. [00:16:19] In other words, when the sun comes up in the morning, it's no accident because God said it would. When the moon pops up in the evening sky, it's no surprise because God said it would. [00:16:32] Let me tell you this morning, these things happen by the word of God. And if God spoke to you, he preaches to you, you had better take it and say whatever he said, I'm going to do it. [00:16:47] Every winter when the bone chilling air arrives and the snow. You don't know anything about that. Here in the south, it flurries and all the bread is gone and the eggs are gone. And it takes a foot of snow for us to get a school to lay back home in Ohio. [00:17:06] But when that cold air comes, when the snow arrives, it's bearing witness to the fact that Jesus is not incredible because he said it would never change. [00:17:20] Every morning when the sun comes up and its first rays touch the ground, they are screaming that he is true in all of his word. [00:17:31] Every night when the sun sets, all you romantics out there, you hold hands, look each other in the eyes as the sun goes down. And you know what that son is saying to you? Don't worry, I'll be back in the morning. [00:17:46] I tell you that Arnold Schwarzenegger was not the first one, to coin the phrase, I'll be back. [00:17:54] Over 2000 years ago, almighty God spoke his word, his inerrant, incarnate word, and he said, in three days I will be back. And three days later, he came back. [00:18:08] You say, landon, where is Jesus Christ? I don't know where he's at right now. He has a lot on his plate. But I do know this. He said, I go away to prepare a place for you. That where I am, you may be also. If it were not so, I would have told you. But though I'm leaving, I'm going to come back. You know why? Because he said he would. [00:18:30] You go ahead and believe that there's no heaven. You go ahead and say it's just a fairy tale, that this is just some made up human mumbo jumbo. But if Jesus said, I'm going to come back and rapture a church, you had better believe there is about to be a rapture. He said, I am coming back. [00:18:51] Every change of season, every rotation of the earth, every revolution of every star, every planet only serves witness to one fact, and that is Jesus is credible. [00:19:04] Look at me with Hebrews one three, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things. By what? [00:19:15] By what? Somebody say it? By the word of his power, he holds the world in orbit. By his spoken word. Can God heal my marriage? I'm telling you what. He holds the world up with his word. Can God fix my problem, heal my tumor, heal my issue? God has the whole world held, and it's not even in his hand. [00:19:39] He just spoke it. And it was. [00:19:43] And I think that sometimes there are some of us in this room who ought to lift our hands every now and then and say, oh, God, I believe your word because it is supernatural, it is superseding, and it is powerful. [00:19:59] If he can hold the whole earth in orbit by just his spoken word, then don't you think that he can fix your problems? [00:20:09] Every bird, every flower testifies to us that Jesus Christ is not incredible, but that he is credible. Put your hands together all across this place. [00:20:27] Matthew, chapter six, verse 26 through 30. [00:20:31] Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. [00:20:39] Are you not of more value than they? Which of you, by worrying, can add one cubit to his stature? [00:20:49] So why do you worry about clothing? [00:20:53] Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spend. [00:20:59] And yet I say to you that even solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. [00:21:07] Now, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, o you of little faith? In other words, if the birds are taken care of and the lilies are taken care of, how much more should God's people know that he is taking care of? Every need we have, every burden we have, or every trial? Don't worry about it, because he's got it under control. [00:21:40] Stop waiting up all night on your doctor's report. [00:21:44] Go and get some rest. I know what it's like to walk into a doctor's office not sure if everything's going to be okay. [00:21:52] I know what it's like to sit in that small room with the only company being the sound of fluorescent lighting. [00:21:59] I know what it's like to be told to go home and wait for the word. [00:22:04] They say go home. And if it's bad news, well, we'll call you. Why did you tell me that? If it's good news, we'll send you a letter in the mail. You couldn't have just left it with the letter? And we could have talked about the phone call later. [00:22:18] But then what happens? I go home and I sit by the phone and I wait. And I wait, waiting for a phone call to come. Every time it rings, my heart drops a little and I think, oh, dear goddess, I hope it's not bad. Bad news. [00:22:33] Let me tell you something. This morning, I'm just messing with you. You really think I would go home and I'd spend one day of my life worried about a doctor's report? Let me tell you something. There are some things that I can't control. But one thing I can control is my response to bad news. [00:22:50] So what am I going to do? I'm going to get up. I'm going to keep living for God. I'm going to sing. I'm going to dance, I'm going to shout. Why? Because even if it is bad news, my God is credible. My God is infallible. And my God always keeps his word. [00:23:09] Some of us need to turn our phones off. We need to turn our Internet off and let God take care of our needs. [00:23:17] If he takes care of the birds, if he takes care of the lilies, how much more will he take care of you? [00:23:25] You say, but, Landon, what about when it doesn't make sense to our human minds? I tell you this this morning, and this is true. He can still be trusted, even when it doesn't make sense. [00:23:40] God told Noah, Noah, go and build an ark they had never seen rain. [00:23:45] God told Abraham at a point in his life where he didn't have many children, he said, abraham, you're going to be the father of many nations. And your children will be as the sands of the sea. He said, moses, stretch forth your rod over the sea. And he did. [00:24:00] He told Joshua to march around Jericho seven times. I don't know why it wasn't five or why it wasn't six. But that's our problem. We question when God tells us to do something because we're not sure that he is credible. [00:24:14] Because at times we believe that he is incredible. But I stand here and tell you that if God said it, you had better obey it. If there is a door, you had better walk through it, because Jesus Christ is altogether credible. [00:24:31] He told Naaman to dip seven times in the Jordan. He made clay and anointed the eyes of a blind man and told him to go and wash in the pool of siloam. [00:24:42] Now I tell you, according to historians and theologians, it was not as if the pool of siloam was next door. It wasn't like it was a couple hundred feet away. It was some 2 miles away from that place. It didn't make sense. But that's what he wanted. [00:24:58] Every word that comes out of the mouth of Jesus Christ is sure he is working in ways that we do not know. So what do we do? We go ahead and we trust him because he is nothing. Incredible. [00:25:15] The floods came in Noah's day and the reason they did is because God said they would. [00:25:21] Abraham was the patriarch of many nations because God said he would be. The seed did part and Moses and his people crossed on dry ground. And they turned around to watch 400 years of oppression and slavery and murder and hate be swallowed by the sea. The Bible says that the walls of Jericho did fall. It says that Gideon and 300 men did conquer an army against all odds. Leprosy was cleaned, blinded, eyes were opened, the dead was raised, the deaf gained their hearing. What do these have in common? They testify to one truth, and that is Jesus is credible. [00:26:05] If the Bible does one thing, it demonstrates the trustworthiness of our God. [00:26:13] You can generally learn the character of someone by those who know them best. Typically, for instance, a husband and wife are going to know each other better than anybody. You might see one version at the grocery store or at church or wherever it is that you are. But when they get home, they see the real person. [00:26:34] And if you don't know Jesus today, or at the very least, the devil is attacking your faith and making you question his credibility. I would like to bring before you some of Jesus characteristics. But more than that, I would like to give you some character references by people who knew him well. [00:26:53] Solomon was the wisest man in history. According to the Bible. First kings 856 says, blessed be the name of the Lord who has given rest to his people, Israel. According to all that he promised. There has not failed one word of all his good promise, which he has promised through his servant Moses. Solomon said, you can trust him. [00:27:22] Next on the stand would be Simon Peter. Anybody know who he is? Do you remember Simon? [00:27:30] Before Peter ever said, thou art the Messiah, the son of the living God, before he ever said, repent and be baptized. Before any of that, we find their first encounter between Peter and Jesus in Luke, chapter five. Peter said, we had been out all night fishing. He said we hadn't caught anything. The fish weren't biting. There was nothing. There was no luck. There was no catch. So we did what we knew to do. We cleaned our nets and we brought everything in. We couldn't catch anything. So we came back to the shore. And when we got to the shore, there was this man standing by the water, and his name was Jesus. [00:28:11] He came up to me and he asked if he could borrow our boat. We weren't using it, obviously, and so we said, sure. And he used it as a platform. And when he finished giving a great word, he told us to get back in our boat and to row back out to the deep and to cast our nets again. [00:28:29] Peter said, I will never forget it because it was too late in the day. I will never forget it because it was not the right time to go fishing. I don't know if this man Jesus was a fisherman or not, but nevertheless, we did what he said. We have toiled all night and caught nothing. And then Peter said, but nevertheless, if you go and you study that word, nevertheless, it discounts everything that precedes it. So when he said they hadn't been biting, when he said, we fished all night long and our nets are empty, when he got to that place where he said, nevertheless, at thy word, what he was saying was, forget everything else that happened. At your word, we will let down our nets. [00:29:16] Notice what Peter then says. We went back to the deep. We cast our nets, and when we started to pull them in, I could not believe what my eyes were seeing. It didn't make sense. The nets were so unbelievably full and heavy that we could hardly pull them in. It was so heavy that the nets began to break. And I wish we would have thrown every net that we had. [00:29:40] He said, I wish we would have gone out there and thrown everything we had, because this man said to do it, and we did it, and it worked. [00:29:54] Let me bring it to where we are today. [00:29:57] Are there any witnesses and references in this church this morning that would like to give credibility to the power, sovereignty of Jesus Christ? [00:30:08] Is there anyone in this sanctuary, and if this is you, this is what I want you to do. I want you to stand to your feet, and I want you to stay standing. Is there anybody in this room that would witness that Jesus has healed your body? [00:30:24] Is there anyone that would witness that you were oppressed, depressed, and felt like your life was worthless? But Jesus came in and today you are living in the house of God. [00:30:36] Is there anybody who has been filled with the Holy Ghost baptized in Jesus name? Then you ought to lift your hands and give some praise to that credible and mighty God. [00:30:50] Is there anybody who has been delivered from addiction? Then you ought to clap your hands. Anybody set free, you ought to clap your hands. Anybody healed? You ought to clap your hands. [00:31:05] As the musicians come and we all stand across this house. [00:31:12] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. [00:31:19] He is not incredible to me because in 26 years, Sadei, in 26 years of my life, he has never broken his word to me, and he has never let me down. [00:31:37] When I walk into that doctor's office, I don't have to walk in fearful, because even if they tell me something bad, I would do what I've done for the last 26 years and I'd come into the church. I walk over to that little spot right there, and I'd put my trust in God and I would get a hold of him. [00:32:03] Hear me? [00:32:05] You can go in and out of church if you want. You can backslide. You can quit. You can be here for a year. You can skip two years. You can live how you want. That's your prerogative. [00:32:16] But I know who he is, and I have seen him work, and I know what he can do. And there is no way that I can leave this. [00:32:27] You go ahead and do what you want. [00:32:30] You go ahead and say, I prayed and he didn't answer. He may not have answered in the way that you wanted, but I have found him to be credible today day. [00:32:43] I found there to be a guarantee with this word. [00:32:48] I found that in proverbs 35 that every word of God is pure, and he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. [00:32:59] That word pure means tested or refined. [00:33:05] It means that which has been put through the fire. [00:33:09] It has been tested, and it's right. It's like a product guarantee that says the contents have been tested and found to be pure. [00:33:18] I have tasted of the Lord, and I can assure you he is pure. I have tasted of the goodness of God, and I can tell you that he is pure in this house today. [00:33:31] The Bible says it is that way. [00:33:35] It is pure. This word is pure. [00:33:38] This word is true. [00:33:42] There are so many wonderful promises in this book. There are so many verses about healing and salvation, provision and blessing, so many verses about heaven, so many verses about whatever it is that you're going through today. [00:34:02] I'm telling you there is something in this Bible for you. [00:34:09] First Peter, chapter five and verse seven. Is powerful, it says, casting all your care upon him. [00:34:18] He cares for you. [00:34:22] Somebody here today needs to know that. All the cares of life that you carry right now, all the things we worry about, things that keep us up through the night, things that rob us of our sleep and our attention, things that stumble us, you need to know whether it is your sickness or your hurt, or whether it is your disappointment or its pain in your body. Whether it is regret or whether it is sin. [00:34:47] He will not turn you away. [00:34:52] You can trust in him because he's wonderful, but he's not incredible. [00:35:00] He's amazing, but he's not incredible. [00:35:05] He is spectacular, and he is grand and he is overwhelming and he is mind boggling, but he is not incredible. [00:35:14] He is altogether credible today.