Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Psalm 62. Psalm 62 and verse
11. particularly the last part, power
belongeth unto God. Reading the whole verse, God
hath spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth
unto God. And we'll also read the next
verse, also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy, for thou renderest
to every man according to his work. Our text speaks of God speaking. God hath spoken. And there's three ways. I want just briefly in a way
of introduction to think of God speaking, and especially twice,
as in our text here, spoken once and then twice, have I heard
this. In the actual context here, with
the two verses, there are two things that belong unto God. The first is power belonging
unto God and the second is mercy belonging unto Him. God in that
sense has spoken once and spoken twice. His power is revealed and His mercy is revealed, and
how vital it is that we know both of those. If we only know
God's power, that power is sufficient to dash a thousand worlds to
hell, and God's sovereignty, His might, His holiness, if His
power was for him, that when we have revealed
by that same God and spoken by that same God another thing,
and that is mercy, then we have power and mercy, and that is
hope for a poor sinner. So if we gather this morning
and we've had some sense of the power of God, His greatness,
We have trembled at his power. Elijah saw this. When he was
at the cave, the Lord passed by, and there was that great
wind that rent the rocks. Then there was an earthquake,
then there was the fire. Elijah hid himself in the cave. He said the Lord was not in those,
but the Lord passed by. The great power of God and then
a still small voice and the Lord spoke to Elijah. We need not the naked power of
God and if we're gathering this morning trembling at the power
of God, what he's able to do, what he might do, what we deserve. May we also know that spoken
by that same voice that reveals his power is his mercy. The mercy of God in our Lord
Jesus Christ. The second thing to think of
God speaking once and then twice is that it is through this way
that God emphasizes and seals his word. We have this throughout the word
of God. With the law of God, we have
it recorded twice. We have it in Exodus chapter
20. We have it in Deuteronomy chapter
5. God has spoken twice in giving
the law of God. In the birth of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that is recorded in two places, in Matthew and in Luke,
recorded the line through the kingship line to Joseph, the
husband of Mary, and then in Luke recorded down from Mary
right through to Adam and to God. Twice it's recorded in the
birth, the coming of our Lord and Saviour to this world. But then we have four times in
each of the Gospels and we may say that even further in the
epistles as well and constantly in the ministry, we have recorded
the crucifixion of our Lord. His death, His suffering at Calvary,
His laying down His life to take it again. That is recorded not
once, not twice, but four times. And four times also, that he
not only died but rose again from the dead and then ascended
up into heaven. And so we have the way of God
speaking more than once, emphasizing his word. Other times we could
think of when this was so, we think of with Samuel, when he
first knew the Lord and he had the Lord speak to him, the Lord
came and three times called unto him Samuel. But not only that,
the message that Samuel was first given to speak to Eli, Eli had
already heard it at the mouth of another one of his servants. And so Eli knew that the words
spoken to Samuel were certainly from the Lord, because the Lord
confirmed that word. It was concerning Eli's wicked
sons in the priesthood, and how he hadn't put them out of the
priesthood, and how God would judge him, and that those two
sons would be slain, both of them, in one day. And so, in
that instance again, It was used that the word was spoken twice,
and many times in the experience of God's children as he works
in their hearts and in their lives. He speaks through his
word not just once, but more than once. He uses different
ones of his servants at different times, different circumstances,
and powerfully speaks the word confirms his word, he seals his
word by not just speaking the once, but more than once. May we then truly take note of
the importance in the word of God, the law of God, the offering
of our Lord, his resurrection, and his word to us. repeated
again and again through the holy scriptures. There's another aspect of twice hearing of the power of
God. And this comes under two great
heads in the word of God. Firstly in creation, we read,
in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And God spoke this earth and the heavens into
existence. In each time it was through the
word of God. And God said, let there be light
and there was light. And each time, it is and God
said, right through creation. The Word of God, the power of
the Word of God. God has spoken once, twice have
I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. There's power in God's
mighty voice As we see it now, all that is
in it, all of the creation is nothing made, nothing that we
see or even cannot see. Great things and small things
that God has not made with his power of speaking it into existence. What a solemn thing. that many
are taught today, that instead of God speaking this world into
existence, it just happened. In fact, happened through a great
big bang. We've had some big bangs, as
it were, in history. You think of the nuclear bombs
that were used to finish the Second World War. And it didn't
bring about anything beautiful, but complete and utter destruction. And yet men would rather believe
that than believe that God created by speaking into existence. Our Lord, when he was upon the
earth, commended the faith of the centurion as being that he
had not seen so great faith, no, not in all Israel. When the
centurion, who wanted his servant healed, said that he was not
worthy that the Lord should come under his roof, but said to the
Lord, speak the word only, and thy servant shall be healed.
How vital it is. that we have faith to believe
that when the Lord speaks, and he speaks with power, that things
are done, things are created, men are healed, men are saved,
men are converted. So that is the second. The first
is in creation, but second, it is in conversion. It is in the
gospel. It is in the power of redemption,
the power that brought the Lord from the grave. This commandment
have I received of my father, said our Lord. I have power to
lay down my life and I have power to take it again. That was a
commandment given by his father. and that which is being wrought
out in redemption is wrought out in the saving of every soul
and it is through the Word of God. Through the Word of God. So when we read in our text,
God has spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth
unto God, we think of the Word of God in creation and the power
there, and we think of the Word of God in salvation, in saving
sinners through the Gospel, through the preached Word, and the power
there, under those two great hands, the power of God is so
wonderfully seen. Both are great works, the miracle of a sinner saved
by grace. God has spoken once, twice have
I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. Power, and with power,
strength, as we have in the margin. Well, I want to then look with
the Lord's help three points. Firstly, our Lack of power. We read in Romans that when we were
yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Our lack of power, our lack of
strength. Then secondly, God's power in
salvation. And thirdly, an imparted power. An imparted power. Firstly then, our lack of power. As born in Adam, we are under
the sentence of death. In that position we are as lacking
of power as one that would be on death row in one of America's
prisons. We are a lack of power as those
under the law in the prisons in our own land. We are guilty. We are under another power, a
sentence, a sentence of death. We have not power to give ourselves
liberty or life. It is that sense of a lack of
power in the very matter of our soul's salvation that will make
the power of God, as revealed in the Word, very attractive
to us. Paul says in Romans, what the
law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending
his own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh. The law could demand, it could
show us what is required, but we have no power, ability. We are fallen, we have no spiritual
strength, no ability to obey, or to perform what is right. And very often the declarations
of the gospel come with a counterpart in our inability. We think of
the beautiful words in the Beatitudes, blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. Why
do they hunger and thirst after righteousness? Because they feel
they are not what they would be. They feel they are unholy. They would be holy. They would
be upright. They would seek the Lord. They
would cleave to Him. They would obey Him. They want
to do these things. They hunger and thirst after
that ability. but their inability they feel,
and yet God has pronounced them blessed, not that are filled
or have this righteousness, but that hunger and thirst after
it. We might have a young person
that really wants to do well and they want to get a degree,
they want to get a good marks in their education, And they
really hunger for it, they really long for it. But that's not a
possession of it. And indeed, they might not even
have the ability to do it. Man has been given that ability
to study and to attain these things. But in the things of
God, though he may see what he wants to be, isn't able to attain
unto it. We read another contrast in Paul's
epistle to the Colossians in the first chapter, and we have
this in verse 19. It pleased the Father that in
him, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, all fullness should dwell. And if the fullness is in Christ,
then it has not pleased God the Father that that fullness should
be in us. I had a lesson in that many,
many years ago, feeling so empty and going to preach, in fact,
feeling not even to have a text, but that word was so impressed
upon me and I saw such a beauty in that, the fullness was not
in the preacher. However much he might and should
study and search the word, the fullness was not in him. It was in Christ. That's where
the fullness is. That's where the provision is.
The ministers but the messenger. You might have one of the servants
in Buckingham Palace and they're laying out a great banquet, they're
bringing out dish after dish, but the fullness, all of that
provision is not in the waiter, not in the servant. It's in the
palace, it resides in the queen. It is provided from her, from
her estate, is but the messenger. And so we have these statements
of the fullness or the power that rests in someone else, but
it highlights where it does not. And I would say to any that really
feel that emptiness, the lack of power, the lack of ability,
the lack of any spiritual grace, the lack of ability, that that
felt want is a very necessary thing for the Gospel to truly
be known while we have any thought of having something of our own. We will never glorify God, nor
his salvation, nor his beloved Son. It is that lack of power,
a lack of ability, and opens the ear to hear where
that power and ability is. We can think of many situations
in our lives where this is the case. We might have broken down
the side of the road. We might have a flat tire and
we've got a jack We've got the tools, but we haven't got the
strength to turn the handles or to break the wheel nuts off
and turn them. And there we sit, and just because
we have not got power, we've got no ability to get going again. When that is realized, instead
of trying and trying to fix it ourselves, might try and flag
someone else down. We're looking for help and power
and strength from someone else other than ourselves. Or it may
be that we've tried to do and lift the car, the jack is broken,
we haven't even got the tools and the ability. We need someone
to come along that not only has the power, but has the tools
and has the ability to do what we can't do ourselves. How many
times can we think of things in our lives that we need to
summon help, summon power from someone else, because we haven't
got it ourselves? All the while we've got it ourselves,
we don't need someone else's help. And so the preparation
of the gospel is Not to weaken us, yes. God weakens our strength
in the way, in making us to feel that weakened strength. But really
our state is weakened already, and yet we don't realise so.
Paul, when he wrote to the Romans, he longed for the salvation of
his own countrymen, but he said they were ignorant of God's righteousness. They were going about to establish
themselves. In other words, establish their
own righteousness. In other words, they were still
trying to save themselves by their own good works. They weren't
looking for mercy. They weren't looking for the
power of God through Christ in salvation. So I say this to encouragement
of those that feel their sinnership, feel that with, as the Apostle
said, for me to will is present with me, but how to perform that
which is good, I find not. That was the testimony of the
Apostle Paul. He was very mindful. that he
himself did not have that power to perform. To will, yes, but
not to perform. And even by nature, we do not
even have the power to will. That is given us by God as well. And so that lack of power is
felt. The children of Israel in Egypt,
They felt the lack of power to deliver them from Egyptian bondage. They had no power to open the
Red Sea. There was before them seal. God had to do that. They had
no power to feed themselves in the wilderness. God had to send
the manna. They had no power to give themselves
water. God had to do that. through the
water of the smitten rock and the healed waters at Mara. Man,
God's people, have to prove again and again their weakness, their
insufficiency, their sinfulness, their inability, a lack of power. And it makes then that soul look
to where to be found. The psalmist says
in Psalm 121, My help cometh from the Lord which made heaven
and earth. It is the mercy of God that brings
the help and brings the saving strength and power where otherwise
it would not be. No help, says the hymn writer,
no help in self I find, and yet have sought it well. The native
treasure of my mind is sin and death and hell. Have we proved
that so? Do we know that? Do we know the
condition of our heart? Do we know what the malady is?
Do we need a remedy? But then I want to look secondly
at God's power in salvation. And I specifically want to emphasize
that it is in salvation. We spoke of the power of God
in creation, But it needs something more of
that in salvation. In Psalm 3, also a Psalm of David,
we read in verse 8, salvation belongeth unto the Lord. One
of those other things that belongs to the Lord. Thy blessing is
upon thy people, Selah. Our Lord Jesus Christ, when he
was to ascend up into heaven, he gave commission to his disciples. And in the end of the gospel,
according to Matthew, chapter 28, in verse 18, we read this. And Jesus came and spake unto
them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost. God's power in salvation is in
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the arm of his power. This was shown in time with the
children of Israel in Egypt, where nine great signs were brought
in Egypt, and Egypt was brought to its knees. But still the children
of Israel were not set free until the blood was shed. Without the
shedding of blood there is no remission. When the blood was
shed, typifying the shed blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, then immediately the children of Israel were set free. It is the blood of their Lord
that gives that power and authority. Because God is holy and righteous
and spotless, He cannot just show mercy and forgive a sinner. But when the Lord Jesus Christ
has put away their sins, when He has paid their debts, when
he has satisfied the justice of God, when he has endured the
wrath of God for his people, then he has power, God has power,
to save unto the uttermost all that cometh unto God by him,
that is by the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is where the power is. The Jews ask our Lord, when he
was on earth, when he worked the miracles, showed the power
God had given him to perform those things. They said, who
gave thee this authority? And by what authority doest thou
these things? Our Lord was given that authority
from heaven. His Father gave him that authority,
gave him those commandments, what he should say, what he should
do. And that gave him the ability
to exercise that power in salvation, in saving his people. The people of God are given to
the Lord in two ways. One by gift, and the Lord says,
Thine they were, thou gavest them thee. They were the father's,
thou given to the son to redeem. and also by purchase. Paul says
of a believer, you are not your own, you are bought with a price.
Wherefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which
are his. The Lord Jesus Christ's people
are a purchased people, the same as the children of Israel were
a purchased people. They are redeemed people. set
free by the payment of a price, and that price, the precious
blood of Christ. So our Lord then has the authority
to save His people, to save them unto the uttermost. He has already
settled their debts. perhaps in an illustration of
authority, because the word here is a power that belongeth, a
power that belongeth unto God. We think of the arrangement in
our own land of our parliament. There is a saying with a political
party, whether it is in power or not. And we have in this land,
the main political parties. We have the Tory party and we
have the Labour party and other minor parties. But over the history,
at least of the last 30 or so years, it has been either one
or the other, those main parties, that has been in power. They're still, as it were, in
Parliament. they still meet in the chambers. But one is in opposition, the
other is in power. One is in government. One has
authority to actually make laws, to institute laws, to govern. They're given that power at the
ballot box, they're given that power by the law of the land.
The other party that is in opposition do not have that power. They
may be there in Westminster, but they don't have authority,
they don't have power. And so we are used to, in our
land, having a party or a people, a Prime Minister, that have a
power invested upon them, and they can exercise it. And we
see daily, we and especially through the pandemic, we see
them exercising that power, making laws and causing those law to
be enforced. And they in turn have power to
give power to other people, power to the courts, power to our police,
power to schools and to teachers. The idea of power and authority
we are used to in our land. And God's power and salvation
is not vested in a church, is not vested in a pope, is not
vested in a man, but the man Christ Jesus alone. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the only name given among men whereby we must
be saved. It is the name that was given
him, you can read it in Matthew 1, his name shall be called Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins. He has power
to do it and he will do it, he will accomplish, he has saved
them, he will save them from their sins. So God's power in salvation,
God's ability to save, is in our Lord Jesus Christ alone. I want to look then thirdly at
an imparted power. An imparted power. We read in the gospel according
to John chapter 1 and verse 11 and 12. He came, this is our
Lord Jesus Christ, he came unto his own and his own received
him not. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them
that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
That is, it is not in our line just because our parents were
God's people that we are God's people. It's not that way. is not because the parent wanted
the child to be a believer and to be saved, that because of
the will of the parent the child was saved, not the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, not the will of ourselves or
of the will of another person, but of God. Father, I will that
thou, thy whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am that
they may behold my glory. That is the prayer of our Lord
in John 17. It is his will that he should
save his people and that none of them should be lost. And so that power then that our
Lord has, he imparts to his people. we read how that power was given
to the apostles and that they in turn, they were able then
to go forth. They never ever ascribed that
power as to themselves, but that which was given them by God. And it is the, Power that was
so evident they had to tarry at Jerusalem until they were
endued with power from on high. They needed that power. There's
no use preaching and no use bringing the gospel, the good news of
salvation, without the power of God. The Lord has said, I
will pray the Father, he will give you another comforter, which
shall abide with you forever, And so at Pentecost, 10 days
after our Lord ascended up into heaven, the power of God came. It was shown in the speaking
of other languages, in a recognisable tongue, and it was shown in so
many believing the preaching was with power and many thousands
believed the word, believed the gospel, and followed the apostles
and followed the Lord. They were convinced of their
sin, of crucifying the Lord, and they believed. They believed
the good news of salvation, that in believing in the Lord they
should not perish by their sins, but should have eternal life. And so, The apostles then went
forth with that power, and when they preached for the apostles,
they were given power to work miracles, they were given power
to preach the word with power, and they always ascribed it to
the Lord. It was not a power that was imparted
to them as independent from the Lord. In John 15, Our Lord speaks of his people
as being branches in a vine. He says, I am the vine, ye are
the branches. The branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except it abide in the vine, neither can ye except
ye abide in me. That fruitfulness and the blessing
of life needs that constant union with the Lord. And that is so
vital. The Lord will have his people
close to him and deriving all the power and all the help they
have from him. And so in the ministry, the apostles
proved that. And then as we read in Thessalonians,
we have the word blessed and the apostle says in verse five,
that we read in Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 5, for our gospel
came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the
Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. And the effect was that they
became followers of us and of the Lord. having received the
word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. And that is what we need. And
it then brings to another point that it is a power that comes
through the means, through the means of preaching. And I please
God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. It is also a power that comes
through Faith, we are saved by grace through faith and that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. And poor Peter,
when he writes in his first epistle, chapter one and verse four and
five, he says of the people of God that they are chosen to an
inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away,
reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God. But note how that power is put
forth, through faith, unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. God's power works through faith. He gives faith to his people,
and faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And so again, we have the word
of our text, that power belongeth unto God, but it is in the context
of God speaking, God speaking. My word shall not return unto
me void. It shall accomplish the thing
whereto I sent it. So through the means of praying
for the blessing of God, through the means of the Word, written
Word, the Holy Bible, through the means of that preached Word,
God speaking to the heart with power, with authority, that changes
the heart, renews the will, turns the feet to Zion's hill. It affects
the person, it brings a willingness, it brings a power to do what
God requires in you, both to will and to do,
according to his own will and according to his own power. The Apostle Paul speaks of his
efforts in the ministry and his work. He says, I laboured more
abundantly than them all, yet not I, but the grace of God which
was given me. The people of God will always
acknowledge that it is God's power, God's might, God's strength. Our Lord says, without me you
can do nothing. We have no might, we have no
strength. The more we realise that, the
more we'll pray for it. May we be a people that often
pray, always pray. Our Lord exhorted that men ought
always to pray and not to faint. We faint when we feel our inability,
our ignorance, our lack of power. But in prayer, it is prayer that
brings power down. Prayer that brought, when Elijah
prayed, three years and six months of famine. Prayer that brought
the fire from heaven upon the Mount Carmel upon the altar. And prayer that brought rain
again. It is prayer, prayer that our
Lord prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane and prayer that he's
bid us to pray. That we are to be quiet of, God
is to be quiet of, by the House of Israel or by God's children,
to do it for them. We ask for that help. and ask for that power and then
we'll be able to say with the psalmist, my help cometh from
the Lord which made heaven and earth. The same power, the same
word that spoke the world speaks to our souls, speaks to raise
us from spiritual death and to keep alive our souls day by day. May we remember this. In feeling
our weakness, don't despair. Pray. In feeling our helplessness,
still pray. Look to the Lord for his strength,
for his power, for his might. The contrast here and what is
upon my spirit here is the weakness that is felt The lack of power should encourage us to cry to
the Lord for that power and to look to Him for His help and
that He would work in us and impart His power and give us
that strength and ability that we so need, not to make us independent
of Him but dependent upon him for everything. May the Lord
bless this word then and encourage us and strengthen us through
giving us that power, the power of God, through our Lord Jesus
Christ in salvation. God has spoken once, twice have
I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. The Lord add his blessing. Amen.