Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear.Behold, Yahweh’s hand is not shortened, that it can’t save; nor his ear dull, that it can’t hear.Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:Behold, Jehovah’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
4 sermons cite this verse
… power, implies strength. I mean, there's so many times in the Old Testament it's referenced in that way, like Isaiah 59 verse 1. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear. What is he saying? He's saying, bro, God doesn't have T-Rex arms. He's got long arms. So trust in him for his power. Joshua 4, 24. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and that you might always fear the Lord your God. He's saying it was God who brought the children of Israel out of Egypt. It was God who split the Red Sea. It was God who caused a drinking fountain to open up from the rock and rained down bread upon them. He did these impossible things so that his people might fear him. God's the God of the impossible. So when it comes to our vision here, that those who are stranded in sin might find life and liberty in Jesus Christ, newsflash, you can't save anybody. …
So I'm looking at a bunch of several different verses on these seven points. Here's Isaiah 59 verse 1 and 2. Here's what Isaiah 59 verse 1 and 2 says. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot say, nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear. It can't be no more clear than that right there. look at your neighbor and say, you got sin. Look at the person on the other side. He said, he can't answer your prayer because you got sin. You got sinful behavior. He says, your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins has hidden his face from you because of your behavior, because of your sin, because of the practices in your life, because of the things that you do that causes God to say, I can't hear. that's the first reason that God will not hear and respond to your prayers oh by the way I need a time keeper because I got to put three minutes apiece three and a half minutes who can keep the time for me let me see can I find somebody let me come over here one of our faithful deacons is going this is going to be it's one of our new deacons over here this is Deacon Jefferson so look When I get to three and a half minutes, you got to make me know. …
He adopted the lowliest posture and manner. He fell on His face and prayed, saying, O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me." What an extraordinary sight! The eternal Son of God had taken upon Himself our nature and there He lay as low as the very dust out of which our nature was originally formed! There He lay as low as the most unrighteous sinner or the most humble beggar can lie before God. Then He began to cry to His Father in plain and simple language, but oh, what force He put into the words He used! Thrice He pleaded with His Father, repeating the same petition—and Luke tells us that, "being in an agony He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground." He was not only in an agony of suffering, but in an agony of prayer at the same time! But while our Lord's prayer in Gethsemane was thus earnest, intense and repeated, it was, at the same time, balanced with a ready acquiescence in His Father's will! "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." So, suffering one, you whose spirit has sunk within you. You who are depressed and well-near distracted with grief, may the Holy Spirit help you to do what Jesus did—to pray, to pray alone, to pray with intensity, to pray with importunity, to pray even unto an agony—for this is the way in which you will prevail with God and be brought through your hour of darkness and grief. Believe not the devil when he tells you that your prayer is in vain! Let not your unbelief say, "The Lord has closed His ears against you." "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither His ears heavy, that they cannot hear." Yet mind that you also imitate your Lord's submission and resignation, for that is not acceptable prayer in which a man seeks to make his own will prevail over the will of God! That is presumption and rebellion—not the cry of a true child of God. You may beseech Him to grant your request, "if it is possible," but you may not go beyond that! You must still cry, with your Lord, "Nevertheless not as I will, but as You will." …
"Fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Immanuel's veins"— there is potency enough in that precious blood to make you whiter than the newly-fallen snow! O poor troubled one, let this arrow be broken in pieces once and for all! Let the thought of God's everlasting mercy and His boundless power to forgive snap it in two and cast it to the ground! Another of the devil's arrows which often goes whizzing through the air is this—"The Holy Spirit cannot soften such a hard heart as yours. You cannot repent as a sinner should do—sin has got too firm a hold upon you. Why, you know that you can listen to a most earnest discourse and yet not be in the least impressed by it! Or if you are for a time moved by the message, you soon go back to your sin as the dog returns to his vomit and as the sow that was washed goes back to her wallowing in the mire. There is no tenderness left in you! Your conscience is seared as with a hot iron! The Holy Spirit is powerless to do anything in such a case as yours." That is another lie—a gross and slanderous lie! What is there that the Holy Spirit cannot do? O my Brothers and Sisters, when anyone is talking about what the Deity can do, the word, "powerless," must never be mentioned! Even the word, "difficult," is not to be put side by side with the name of God! "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save; neither His ears heavy, that they cannot hear." Why, one drop of Jesus' precious blood could melt a mountain of ice as huge as a million worlds! One flash of the Holy Spirit's celestial fire could make a rock of granite run like the water that gushed from the smitten Rock in the wilderness! There is no doubt about the hardness of your heart and the badness of your nature— you are probably much worse than you think are—but it is impossible that your depravity could exceed the potency of the Holy Spirit's influence to renew your nature and change your whole life! So let this diabolical arrow also be smashed to atoms so that even the devil, himself, cannot use it again! …