There's a longing in people's hearts in knowing what God has, what He's able to do and how much He cares, how can I make this available to myself? And it isn't a selfish thing for us to say how can I avail myself of the things of God? God has prepared and has had you in mind in the provision that He has. I like that verse of scripture, "my God shall supply all of your need according to His riches in glory." So Jesus then literally becomes the key. There are various needs that we have, doors of need. And we wonder how can I reach this, how can I have it.
We talked about in our first study on God's golden key how the blood of Jesus Christ opened up that door of real assurance and made available to us a confidence that the battle had been settled. That we could face God without fear, that our dept was paid, Jesus paid it all and gave us beautiful assurance. Then we talked about that key that every believer needs to know that there's an authority that we're not on our own, that when we come before God there's a definite key that will open His heart; the name of Jesus. I think of the power of that name, how it unlocks various things. I was allowed to see something like this in action. It made a good illustration for me.
You remember when I was in the Philippine islands in October. There was a tremendous typhoon that came and it came just at the wrong time because it came the day I was supposed to leave. And as a result my reservations were wiped out and the next day because it was still raining those reservations were all wiped out and it left a lot of people without. Then those who still had reservations the following weeks had priority of course because their names were already listed as passengers to leave. In order to get back on the reservation list it would have taken 10 days to 2 weeks because there was so many that lost their places when no planes were going out. And I heard that there were over 10,000 people stranded there because of the typhoon. I just couldn't see staying there that long. It was nice to go there but I had been there all the longer I wanted to be there. I was about ready to start swimming but in the airport I remembered a man that had come to me the very first service in the Philippines. It was in a hotel, the big hotel room where I was having a meeting. In this hotel I asked for people that wanted the fresh touch of God to come forward and we'd pray. We were supposed to be out of that building close to noon because it was one of the agreements that they had and I didn't know about this ruling but the ones who were sponsoring this knew all about it. But nobody seemed to be worried.
The people that would normally come in and set the chairs up didn't seem worried at all. They knew something I didn't know. They knew who one of those people was up there praying, his wife. And they prayed. Everybody else left and they kept on praying, these two people. After they were through and I prayed with them and they asked that God would give them this confidence and this assurance and help them. Then the man told me he said you'll have problems in travel because they don't have a lot of respect and there are times when you get stuck but he said if you ever do, ask them to extend courtesies to you in my name. And then he gave me his card. And here it was, assistant to the president of the Philippine Islands. I thought well I'll take his card but I sure won't use it because I don't like to try and be a name dropper and I didn't think I would ever need that card.
Here in the United States it wouldn't do you any good at all you see and I didn't know if it would be the same over there. But when I stood there wanting that reservation, wanting to get home and no way to get home because of all of the planes being already full of people that had reservations for months on those succeeding flights. So I told them what had happened. I said when I first came I met this man and he said if you're ever stuck ask them to extend courtesies in my name and so they said who was the man? And so I pulled out of my briefcase this man's card and they looked at it and boy things started humming so fast and it just really started moving. They said we can't get you on the manifesto, we'll have to type it on the list here. So I saw them busily typing, they put my name down as a special unlisted passenger by the courtesy of the vice President of the Philippine Islands.
I want you to know I got courtesies that I never thought I would ever be able to buy for a million dollars. We still couldn't take off but they checked everybody in and then herded them to a big hotel. Those first flights out, they were taken to this hotel. We walked into the hotel and I heard my name being called, "Pastor Buck," from the desk. And I came over there and there was a bellhop standing there with a key and they said we have orders to take you to a room. I said I don't have a room here. They said we have orders by the instructions of the vice President we're to take care of you. I couldn't talk them out of it; they said no these are our instructions that we are to take care of you.
So I followed the bellboy and I thought probably that I was going to have a real nice room but I had no idea they were going to take me clear to the top of that place where there was a room with big windows running full length and they called it the V.I.P. room. And there they stuck me and I felt so sorry for all of those people there in that lobby. There was almost enough room up there for all of them. I thought then of the power of the name. When we met Him he said you're going to have some problems in this old world, there's times when you're going to have special needs but he said when you come knocking at heaven's door, you say I need some help and you come and in His name all of the angels in heaven start moving pretty fast because you have come and God said in His book, extend divine courtesies to that person who comes in the name of Jesus. Aren't you glad for the power of that name? Then he said there's going to be some times when the enemy starts harassing you and you feel like everything's going to fall apart. He said all you have to do is look at your enemy and say beat it. The enemy might say by whose authority? You say beat it in the name of Jesus, he has to go. We have a key.
Then we talked about the key of the power of the Holy Spirit that's within us that will help us in those times when we don't even know all of the problems that are around us. God has placed weapons in our hands but he said when the enemy comes in, like a flood the Spirit of the Lord knowing the designs of the enemy will raise up a standard against him and will protect us. Hallelujah.
Today I just wanted to real briefly mention the fourth key. Oh what a beautiful key this is, that will literally release forces in heaven for us. I was reading in the Word about how wonderful the touch of Jesus' hand was on people's lives. I thought of the way the parents in those days brought their children. They could see what Jesus did, how He was so gracious. Something happens to us when He touches us. That chorus that has been sung that has meant so much that has brought new hope and life to many. "He touched me; Oh He touched me, Oh the joy that filled my soul. Something happened and I know now He touched me and made me whole."
The touch of God released power. It released forces within us that respond to His power. The touch of Jesus. I think of the leper that came to Jesus in the third verse of Matthew 8 and when the leper came Jesus put forth his hand and touched him. I get kind of creeps when I touch a leper. But Jesus didn't seem to mind. He touched him and he was cleansed of the leprosy.
When I was in the Philippine islands, we don't have the same feeling that the Lord does but He wants us to have it. One brother in the church said, "I want you to pray for my leprosy." Did you know there are hundreds of thousands of lepers in the Philippine islands? Here was a leper that didn't get into the colony and he came to the service that I was having and he said, "Put your hand on my sore hand." It looked all scaly and rotten and he said, "Pray for me that God would heal me." So I grabbed his hand and was holding that spot and then he told me, "I've had leprosy all of my life." I really scoured my hand after that but the sad part was I went up into my room in the best hotel in that city and this man happened to be the one that tidies up the rooms and he was spreading my sheet out with that hand that didn't even have a bondage on it. The Lord didn't seem to mind. The Lord reached out and put his hand right on that leper and the leper was cleansed.
I think of those blind men, two of them came and they said, "Lord if you will you can make us well. We want to see we've been walking in darkness all of our lives." And Jesus said, "This is what I came to do. I came to open the eyes of the blind," and so He put His hands on their eyes and he opened them and they saw. I think of the man that was blind and his family and friends were attacked and harassed. They said, "Don't you suppose He did the wrong thing by touching you?" And this man said, "Once I was blind but now I can see. I don't know a lot about Him. But I do know this, I know a lot about me, once I was blind but now I see." The touch of Jesus.
How many of you have felt the touch of Jesus? Have you noticed in your own life when things are going heavy and your burden seems to weight you down how when He touches you everything changes? It's all the same out there but everything's different because He has touched you. But this morning I would like to talk to even a larger group of people. Do you know that the testimonies that we hear are oftentimes testimonies of people that have found the handle to God's key and have learned how to turn it. They have learned the power of Jesus' name and they saw it work. They have learned the release of God's forces in these many ways. But when you sum it up this might only be 5 or 10% of the people. The others are saying, "Oh I wish that I could somehow find the secret of getting God to do it for me."
I've had many business men come to me after listening to some successful person at a full gospel businessmen's convention. And they've said we've tried the same things, we've done the same things but it just doesn't seem to work for us. What's a matter with us? The problem is this. We receive a lot from God but I believe I would even be stretching it if I said that even 5% of what we receive we actually have met the conditions to where we could say, "God I found the combination, I've turned the key, I've opened the door you give me this." Less than 5% of what God gives you do you receive because you have met the conditions. Most of the things that we receive, we receive because of the grace and mercy of God. If we got only what we deserve how much would you receive?
One of the Pastors in Texas was telling us about a statement that he made that if God were to strip us of everything except what we had somehow earned or had the right to claim he said most of us would go around pure naked because we really have nothing that we can really say I earned the right for this thing. If He rewarded us according to our iniquities we'd really be in trouble too you see. God's grace is there but so much time, and this is the message the Lord's put on my heart that the charismatic world is spending almost 100% of it's time working on the thing that's only netting 5% of the gain. If I could twist this lever, say these words pull this string; we're spending our time on this. But the Lord wants us now to shift our eyes and to see that the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all man.
The word grace means unmerited, unearned favor. And his mercy then is what we have. "When we haven't found the key to turn, when it seems as though we haven't been able to find God's touch for the things that we need, God is telling us that He has not left any of His bases uncovered. His plan is a complete plan and He has never made a plan that isn't good or that doesn't work. So let us read Hebrews 4:14-16. "Seeing then that we have a great high Priest that has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Let us cling to Him and never stop trusting Him. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it."
This ought to make you shout because you know you haven't met all the conditions. Maybe 5% of the time you met the conditions. What about all of those other times. His mercy endures forever. David found a real secret. His mercy, His mercy, His mercy. And when we find his grace it helps us to rise above those things that were struggling with and have victory over a lot of those things that are troubling us in our life. Hebrews 5. "For every High Priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God. That he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins who can have compassion on the ignorant. This High Priest that we have," mark this down, if you can't remember one other thing about this message I want you to remember these lines. "He can be touched." He can be touched. Hallelujah. He can be touched. You can reach Him. Then he said, "He can have compassion on those people who don't know enough." They don't know the conditions. They have missed it. He can have compassion on the ignorant. Then he said but for those people who know better, there's no compassion for them, no, he said for those people who have lost their way, they should have had better sense, they're in trouble because of their own mistakes.
Those problems we find ourselves in that we know were the result of our own ignorance, of not listening, of our stubbornness and we say the rule has to apply that a man will reap what he sows. I'm not going to deny this. That is truth. But you know what God tells us about Jesus? Our High Priest, when He came he said that we have beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. Truth says this is the law, you're going to reap what you sow, you've gotten yourself into a mess and you're going to have to get yourself out of that mess. And there are a lot of believers who are listening to this, all they know is the truth shows them what a rotten situation there in but God's grace says, "I love you anyway and even those who have gone out of the way." Look at it there. I'll even help them. My grace is something they don't deserve. I want you to shout a loud amen if you know this has meaning to you. AMEN.
Somebody's saying if you say that a person doesn't have to reap what they sow you're taking the teeth out of the gospel. The truth of the matter is you do have to reap what you sow except for God's grace. But when He came He brought you truth and He said I still can do what I want to do. If I want to keep that tree from bearing I can do it. God still is Sovereign and He does all things after the counsel of his own will. He will not do anything in violation with His nature, God is love. So this isn't telling you to go out and sin. But for people that have sown a lot of rotten things instead of going through the open door that God is given to you, you keep looking at that thing that God wants you to know that your free from. And you can go out of here knowing that you don't have to reap what you sow when your faith is in Jesus Christ. God is not going to penalize you for a lifetime for some of those mistakes that you made. If all we had was what we earned, truth says we will. But God says I died and I came down and I felt the pain and the torture and he was tested in every one of the points that we've been tested so He can have compassion on those who are hurting. And so He himself was encompassed with infirmity so that he could help us.
Now do you know how we touch God even when we feel like we're too low, we have these circumstances against us where we can't reach out and touch Him? God says, "I feel fingers and hands other then your human fingers and hands, I feel your weaknesses reaching out, and they're reaching out there and they're touching me. I feel them." He is touched by your infirmities. Your weaknesses and your inabilities and then His heart flows over with love and with grace. He himself feels the throb of the hurt that you feel. He feels the strain and the pressure that you're under. God feels that and it reaches up and even when you feel so low, I can't touch you God, there's a cry coming out of your soul, there's a voice, there's a hand reaching from your life that is not a flesh and blood hand but it's an arm of your weakness that is reaching and even if it's short and weak God bends real low so you don't have to reach very far. He's touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He can have compassion on us. He knows those needs that we have and the release of God's force is something that we do not realize but if it is true that at least 95% of what we receive comes when we haven't met the conditions do you know what God is telling us? God is telling us, I've given you a plan of reaching Me and I've smiled on you in giving you this but because I have so much invested in you, because I love you so much your needs, your weaknesses are reaching out. Hallelujah. And the world today needs to feel this warmth and this love instead of the harshness, you've missed it, you've messed things up, you've made a wrong turn and all of these things and God can only forgive you so many times. Ah listen, His forgiveness is so great, our High Priest has things covered so beautifully that when you, that's why he has here in this verse that his forgiveness is complete. The reason why is because God knows the enemy would continue to throw things at us.
Dave sitting here, he could come to God and say, "God I realize that I've failed you and this thing has troubled me 10 times and your love is just so great and you've forgiven me over and over all of those 10 times, God the thing has overwhelmed me again. Can you find it in your heart just to forgive me one more time, can you make it 11?" God looks down at Dave and He says, "What are you talking about? This is the first time this ever happened." Dave says, "You know that I've done this 11 times." God has to tell him I don't have any records of it. God, your memory is complete you could never forget. God says, "When I destroy from my records I also pull it from my memory. I don't even know that you had any problems before. This is the first time." That's grace to help in time of need. He would say it's all complete. When I forgave you I forgot that I even forgave you.
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