{"id":105,"date":"2018-11-06T16:36:07","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T00:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/migrate.bettersermons.org\/?p=105"},"modified":"2020-06-01T11:41:03","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T18:41:03","slug":"when-god-says-two-and-two-is-five","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/when-god-says-two-and-two-is-five\/","title":{"rendered":"When God Says Two and Two is Five"},"content":{"rendered":"
When God Says Two and Two is Five<\/span><\/div>\n

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Key Text:<\/strong>\u00a0Psalm 98:1.\u00a0Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things; His right hand and His holy arm have worked salvation for Him.<\/i>Key Thought:\u00a0<\/strong>The power of God transforms what would otherwise be fixed impossibilities.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Illustration:\u00a0<\/b>A mathematician with binoculars intently watches the house across the street, the comings and goings. Two people walk up the sidewalk, open the door, and go in. Two hours later it opens up, and three people come walking out. They get into a car and drive away. \u201cWhat do you deduce from that?\u201d asks a friend who is watching the mathematician do his watching. \u201cWell, it\u2019s obvious,\u201d said the professor. \u201cThat house now has negative one people in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

From a math number line point of view, that would be right. Positive two minus three would be negative one. Unless there were already some people inside the house before we came along to do our watching and surmising.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0God in the Dock<\/i>, C. S. Lewis addresses the question of miracles. Can the Bible\u2019s supernatural things actually happen?<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Healings
\n2.\u00a0Resurrections
\n3.\u00a0The sun standing still
\n4.\u00a0The Red Sea parting
\n5.\u00a0Virgins giving birth<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

An Imaginary Conversation:<\/b>\u00a0Lewis writes, imagining a casual debate with a skeptical friend,\u00a0 \u201c\u2019I think the laws of Nature are really like two and two making four. The idea of their being altered is as absurd as the idea of altering the laws of arithmetic.\u2019 \u2018Half a moment,\u2019 said I. \u2018Suppose you put sixpence into a drawer today, and sixpence into the same drawer tomorrow. Do the laws of arithmetic make it certain you\u2019ll find a shilling\u2019s worth there the day after?\u2019 \u2018Of course,\u2019 said he, \u2018providing no one\u2019s been tampering with your drawer.\u2019 \u2018Ah, but that\u2019s the whole point,\u2019 said I. \u2018The laws of arithmetic can tell you what you\u2019ll find, with absolute certainty, provided that there\u2019s no interference. If a thief has been at the drawer of course you\u2019ll get a different result. But the thief won\u2019t have broken the laws of arithmetic\u2014only the laws of England. Now, aren\u2019t the laws of Nature much in the same boat? Don\u2019t they all tell you what will happen provided there\u2019s no interference?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Paralytic in Mark 2:<\/b>\u00a0As this sick man comes through the roof, everyone can see that he\u2019s beyond help. By the medical math of the world, he\u2019s maybe got six months. One word defines his medical file: terminal. And unless someone reaches into that file with a supernatural fix, that\u2019s all it\u2019s going to say.<\/p>\n

Transformation:<\/b>\u00a0\u201cReach in\u201d is exactly what Jesus does. He reaches into the man\u2019s heart with forgiveness and into his body with divine healing power. He tampers with the normal time line, which was hurtling this man toward the cemetery. And this sick person doesn\u2019t just get a little bit better, he is completely well! The transformation is complete.<\/p>\n

Tyndale New Testament Commentary:<\/i>\u00a0[after the masses marveled: \u201cWe have seen remarkable things today] \u201cThe crowd at least realized that an entirely new factor had now entered the situation, the \u2018finger of God.\u2019 That which was impossible by nature took place, and a paralyzed man walked home, carrying his mattress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doubts?<\/b>\u00a0When the finger of God enters the equation, the old math is swept away.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u201ccan\u2019t be done\u201d
\n2.\u00a0\u201cfixed laws of nature\u201d
\n3.\u00a0\u201cdoomed to die\u201d
\n4.\u00a0\u201ccannot be forgiven\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that without something from heaven invading the story, we\u2019re all going to be claimed eventually by the dirt and the grass at Forest Lawn. \u201cA time to be born, and a time to die\u201d is the unalterable equation, unless God does something on our behalf. And the good news is that He has moved in to change the rules.<\/p>\n

The \u201cFinger of God\u201d:<\/b>\u00a0In the early plagues of Exodus, Pharaoh\u2019s magicians managed to duplicate God\u2019s workings. But as the curses continued, they were unable to match heaven\u2019s power. The magicians lamented to their leader: \u201cThis is the finger of God.\u201d And the omnipotent finger of divine power was felt seven more times before Pharaoh finally gave in and admitted that God was God, and that He was a higher power than the genetic laws governing the normal multiplying ability of frogs.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0The evolutionist points to carbon dating and levels of strata at the Grand Canyon and says: our world evolved in such-and-such way. The Christian responds: \u201cHow do you know the finger of God didn\u2019t come in at some point and change the time line? That a flood didn\u2019t throw your scientific numbers off?\u201d<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0A philosopher suggests that all the Gospel stories of healings, of demons being cast out, of the dead being raised are just fables. That you can\u2019t trust either the stories of Jesus or the teachings of Jesus. The person of God rejoinders: \u201cHow do you know that the finger of God didn\u2019t move upon these people, and create new bodies and new hearts and new spirits and an entirely new world religion based on the possibility that one Man did indeed go through the tunnel marked Death and come out on the other side?\u201d<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0The secular psychologist might point to how your spouse cheated on you, and say, \u201cDivorce is inevitable.\u201d<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0The counselor looks at your son\u2019s drug habit and says, \u201cIt\u2019s pretty hard to lick that problem. There\u2019s not much we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0Things are hard at work, and you don\u2019t know if you can continue to deal with a co-worker who cuts you down behind your back and gossips about you. And the HR director says: \u201cIt\u2019s not going to get much better. Better brush up your resum\u00e9.\u201d We live in a hard world where fixed bad things loom on all fronts.<\/p>\n

Conclusion:<\/b>\u00a0To all these challenges, the person of faith can say: \u201cBut what about the finger of God moving in my marriage? Allowing me to forgive and seek reconciliation? What about God\u2019s power to see my kid through a drug rehab program, and giving me the strength to still love him? What about God\u2019s mighty arm around me, helping me to stay on this hard job, helping me to realize that I\u2019m actually working for Him, and that these personnel problems and petty distractions are nothing compared to what Jesus went through with His enemies?\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s never lose sight of the fact that two and two being four is only true until the great Mathematician of the universe steps to the blackboard and begins to write with power and determination a new law, a new hope, a new beginning.
\n______________________________<\/p>\n

Submitted by David B. Smith. Better Sermons \u00a9 2005-2008. Click here for\u00a0<\/span>usage guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When God Says Two and Two is Five Key Text:\u00a0Psalm 98:1.\u00a0Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things; His right hand and His holy arm …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions\/106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}