GOD CAN DO EVERYTHING
C.F.Dadd
At the time of the Lord's supper, which is the doorway into the service of God, the last hymn we sang was given out by a very young brother; it was number 406, and the last line of that hymn says 'Thou canst be hindered in no thought of Thine!'. Those words have since been echoing through my mind. The greatness of God is brought forward in that hymn beautifully, finalising with that thought that Thou canst be hindered in no thought of Thine.
Job comes through to this thought. We have been reminded tonight of discipline, of pressure, adversity, suffering; this is something we have come to learn possibly as we never thought we would experience, but in it all God has had His own designs, He has had His own thoughts, and in the way He is proceeding He is reaching His own end. This is the way that God moved with Job. If you and I had been contemporary with Job we would have known him to be a very remarkable man and no doubt a very upright man, but Satan challenged God as to Job and in his audacity he said to God, If you did not hedge him around and protect him he would not be the same. He said, If you let me get at him He will curse you to your face. The audacity of the devil to say a thing like that! but that is the devil that we are dealing with. So in the ways of God He gave Satan certain latitude and the discipline that came on Job I suppose stirs every one of us when we read about it. Sometimes we think that our discipline is extremely deep, and no doubt we would have to say that with some it is deeper than with others, but when you read the history of Job you say, What that man went through! But in all his discipline, all the pressure, the loss of his family, the loss of everything he had, he learned God; that is what he got through to.
My concern, beloved, is that we might come to know God, the God who can do everything. Job says, "I know that thou canst do everything". That is marvellous! What a thing to come to! You might say that Job had had a lot to say; maybe some of us have had in our histories too much to say, but God worked with Job and brought him through. And Job says to Jehovah, "I know that thou canst do everything" - not anything, but everything. I wonder as to myself and as to my beloved brethren whether in our experience with God we have come through with the settled knowledge of and a relationship with God in which we can say, I know that Thou canst do everything. If it is calling the universe into being He can do that with His word; if it is calling the sun and the moon, putting the stars in their courses, He can do that with a word. That is the God, beloved, with whom we have to do. Job says "thou canst do everything".
If in His ways with the children of Israel they go down into Egypt for four hundred years the eye of God was always upon them and the time came when He opened the way through the Red Sea. Think of that! There was the sea, a wall on one side and a wall on the other and they went through on dry ground. We know that God can do everything. What has been accomplished in the death of Jesus! The scene which is blotted with the power of sin and shame and violence and corruption is, in the power of the death of Jesus, held in reconciliation to God. Job says "I know that thou canst do everything". I wonder if we have embraced this. Would it not help us as to our families that God can do everything? Would it not help us in our localities, New York or Plainfield or wherever it might be, that God is able for every matter? Do we know God in this way, that He is a God who can do everything? He wants to get us through to this. This is why some of us have to go through so much discipline, to get us through to a settled knowledge of God, and in that knowledge would be the understanding that He can do everything. The people will dwell in Zion, they will be in Jerusalem, He will bring them into their own land. Where are they now? Scattered to the corners of the earth. But God knows where they are, He will bring them back from every corner and will place them in Jerusalem; He will place them there according to His own purposes, His own thoughts; He can do everything. That is the God with whom we have to do. I wonder if we have confidence for this. I believe we need to be strengthened. We are in a day of small things, we are still going through much in the way of pressure and feeling the effect of smallness, but, beloved brethren, God wants to get us through to a knowledge of Himself and in that knowledge He would teach us that He can do everything. Do we believe this? Do we have confidence in God? Job came through. Look at his end: what an end he had! His family: what were they morally against what he had before! What were they spiritually! There was no numerical change but what they were spiritually! There was none more beautiful than the daughters of Job.
Job goes on to say: "and that thou canst be hindered in no thought of thine". What a God! Our thoughts have been directed tonight to the purpose of God, the sovereignty of God. Can you take it in that before the foundation of the earth God chose you in Christ? Just think of it! How long ago was that? Was it ten thousand years ago? Was it a million years ago? It was back before God had created time. We know that God created time and in Christ has dipped down into it and worked out certain things, and when He has brought His final thought into operation He will terminate things here. Time will cease to be, it will have served its purpose. In the meantime we are in the time scene and Job arrives at the fact that God can be hindered in no thought of His. So He is going to ta e us in, beloved brethren. Here we are but a handful; we are in a city of eight and one half million people and we are insignificant, you might say meaningless, as far as the city is concerned and yet God has His eye on us, He has His eye on every believer in the city, He knows every one of them. How many do you and I know? A handful. But He knows every one, He knows every one that has been covered by the blood and He will bring every one through to His final thought - He can be hindered in no thought of His.
Think of the final touches that we get in the end of Revelation as to what God will do, how He will terminate things - the rapture, all that He is going to do among the nations, what is going to be seen in the city coming down out of the heaven from God having the glory of God. God can be hindered in no thought of His, and He will dwell with men eternally, He will dwell with men through the assembly "the tabernacle of God is with men", chap 21: 3. He can be hindered in no thought of His, every thought of God is going through; it cannot be intruded upon because God is God. This is what Job gets through to and this is what I believe God would have us get through to. Our brother referred to the fact that we may be still in the trouble time in our minds, in our hearts we still might be in the latter part of Luke's gospel where they were very much concerned and upset when the Lord came in amongst them. They were disturbed; maybe we are disturbed. I believe, beloved, that God would have us get through to a knowledge of Himself which would bring in stability in our affections; it would bring in stability in our minds if we could just get through to the thoughts of God and the fact that He can be hindered in no thought of His. Now that includes everything as to you and as to me. God is going to see us through. Can we depend on God for that? Let me tell you brethren, God has committed Himself to get us through and He is going to take us through; the Father is committed to take His children through. Through the grace of God we can be numbered amongst the children of God; not of our choosing, you did not choose me I did not choose you, but God chose both of us, that is God's thought, and He says, I am going to take you through. And Job says that he knows that God can be hindered in no thought of His.
So let us be restful beloved brethren, let us have confidence in God, let us believe God. It says of Abraham that he "believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness", Rom 4: 3. Think of that! Can we get through to that, that we really believe God? I believe it would bring in the great matter of stability, it would build us up. Oh, how God intends to build us up and strengthen us in our faith. May we now with the help of the blessed Spirit of God, the help of that blessed One who is at the right hand of God who is the Leader and the Completer of faith, may we come to it in our own souls that the God we know can do everything and that He can be hindered in no thought of His. May it be so for His Name's sake.
NEW YORK
11 October 1983