Let's go back to the book of
Genesis this evening, and I'm going to go back to Genesis chapter
17, and I only have one verse. You know, as I was getting ready
to prepare the message and reading over chapter 17, because last
week I only got through the first two verses, I thought, well,
the Lord willing, this evening I'd try to cover the rest of
the chapter. And then I read the very first
verse and I thought, you know, I want to deal with this subject,
Almighty God. And so that's as far as I got
in my studies today. And yesterday, as I prepared
this, Almighty God, that's the subject. for this evening and
the Lord willing next week, then I want to get into more of the
covenant that God now makes with Abraham here in chapter 17. Whereas before in the covenant,
and it is the same covenant, but before the covenant dealings
of God with Abraham, it had to do more with physical things,
physical mercies and blessings that he would give and make of
thee a great nation and all the world be blessed in you. But
as we look here in the 17th chapter, we'll find that These covenant
mercies, it also included great spiritual blessings that would
benefit Abraham and benefit all of the seed of Abraham as well. But this evening, just the first
verse, and it reads this way, chapter
17 and verse 1, And when Abram was 90 years old and nine, the
Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am the Almighty God. Or literally, I, the Almighty
God, walk before me and be thou perfect. must be righteous. If you're going to walk before
God, you must be perfectly righteous. There's only one way to be perfectly
righteous, and that is in the Lord Jesus, who is himself the
Lord, our righteousness. Now, there's been about 13 years
that have gone by since the Lord appeared to Abram. To Abram, I suppose, he felt
like there was a delay in the dealings of God with him. Certainly
Ishmael is now 13 years of age, and this was a test of Abram's
patience. It is a test of his hope, and
it is a test of his faith. And God often does that for his
people. He will test our patience. Tribulation
worked Patience is what we read in Romans chapter 5. He will
also test our hope. Are we really confident in the
Lord to provide for us everlasting blessings? Do we really have
a good hope? If we do have a good hope, it
is a good hope through grace. And the Lord will also test our
faith. Do we really believe Him? And
I'm sure that you feel just as I do that there are lots of times
when I think, Lord, I wonder if I believe you at all. And
then I'm reminded by the Spirit of God, you've been brought to
believe the Savior. I don't have any hope in anything
I've done, and therefore God would would accept me on the
basis of some work. I don't have any confidence in
anything I've done as a reason why God would receive me. Surely
you don't. There's no work that we've ever
done, no prayer we've ever prayed. no scripture that we've ever
read, no sermon that we've ever preached, or devotional that
we've ever given, or any thought of spiritual things that we've
ever had in our minds that's worthy of God giving us, deserving
of God giving us spiritual blessings. Because all of our efforts at
worship, though they're necessary efforts at worship, they're all
contaminated by our sin. And so nothing is acceptable
to God that we do in and of itself. It must go through Christ Jesus. And in Him, our worship is made
acceptable. In Him, our work is made presentable
to God. In Him, our prayers, our Bible
readings, our faith, our repentance, Every effort toward the spiritual
things in the Lord Jesus, they're perfected. And therefore, God
receives them. So Abram's been tested. And now he is 99 years of age
and his wife is 90. All the hope of Abram His wife,
Sarah, had been dashed. All hope of them having a child
had been dashed. There's no possibility of them
having a child. As a man, he's no longer able
to father a child. As a woman, she's no longer able
to be the mother of a child. Her womb is dry. There's no possibility
here, but as has been said in the past, man's extremity is
God's opportunity. It's when we realize we're nothing,
when we have no ability, then the Lord steps in and he manifests
his omnipotence to do his will. When all hope was gone, As far
as Abram and his wife were concerned, the Lord appeared to Abraham.
So here we have, and I'll give you three things tonight. First
of all, who speaks to Abram? Well, it is the Son of God speaks
to the old man, and he says, I, the Almighty God. He identifies himself. We're
not at a loss as to who's speaking here, who is addressing Abram. It is I, the Almighty God. That's a title that speaks terror
to the wicked, but to the righteous, here's a name that is a haven
of rest. Who is our Savior? Well, He's
the Almighty God. It's a blessed name of all the
names of the Lord, and they're all precious, but surely this
is very dear to us, because when we think of Almighty, we think
of might, we think of power. When we look to ourselves, we
see nothing but weakness, inability, we see nothing but feebleness,
we see we can do nothing, but then we see who our Savior is
and how He identifies Himself to Abram. And Abram's a great
time of need. When he had no ability himself,
And the Lord appeared to him and he identifies himself. He
says, I, the Almighty God. Abram, the one who is speaking
to you, is Almighty God. Here's a verse, and I want you
to look with me in Proverbs chapter 18. Look at Proverbs chapter 18. I read this this morning. I read
it yesterday several times, and then this morning I was thinking
about, this is such a blessing to the children of God. Proverbs
chapter 18. And if you would, look at verse
number 10. The name of the Lord. The name
of the Lord. Oh, it's a strong tower. The
righteous runneth into it. and is safe. Any sense of danger, any awareness
of impending danger will cause the animal world to seek for
a refuge. But you know, man as a guilty
sinner, as a fallen human, though he will seek for shelter physically, Yet, he won't seek for shelter
spiritually because he doesn't know his danger. He doesn't know
of impending doom. He doesn't know of judgment. He won't seek a refuge for his
soul. It reminds me of Luke chapter
11 and verse 21. The Lord said, when a strong
man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. And that's
the way it is with a natural man. Satan keeps them in captivity
and they're in peace. They're not troubled. If they
were troubled, they would run into this great tower This great
refuge of Christ Jesus. But Satan keeps them in peace.
They're in peace because, as far as they're concerned, they
think, well, I've been baptized. I'm in peace. I made a profession of faith.
I'm in peace. I live by the Ten Commandments.
I'm in peace. And therefore, because there
is no real conviction of guilt, of transgressions
against God, they don't run to a strong tower. But when the
Spirit of God strips us of our self-righteousness and He shows
us our guilt, our wretchedness, our sinfulness,
Then the Spirit of God, having revealed to us what we are, the
Spirit of God shows us Christ Jesus, the only refuge for sinners
like us, the only hope that we've got. And you know what we do
then? We run, we run, it says, to the Lord, to the name of the
Lord, because He's the strong tower. We're looking for refuge. None run to the Lord until and
unless enlightened to their danger and brought to see that Christ
is the only Savior and He's the only strong tower. The name of
the Lord, that sets forth who He is. Who He is. And He's Almighty God. And the Lord is a sanctuary,
listen, to needy sinners. He's a sanctuary. Those who see that their righteousness
is as filthy rags, they run to the Son of God, and in Him and
in His sacrifice, they find that He is their righteousness, therefore
they run to Him and they find safety. I like this word, runneth. The righteous runneth, convinced
by the Spirit of God that there is no refuge, there is no safety
from the vengeance of God except in Christ Jesus. They run and
runneth. Every day we run to Christ Jesus,
we flee. Runneth. We continually run to
this tower of strength. We make haste. Runneth sets before
us the idea of this is important. This is no time to delay. I've
mentioned of late about Zacchaeus, just using him as an illustration.
I'll use him as an illustration again from Luke chapter 19. The
Lord Jesus, when He stopped and looked up in the tree, He said,
Zacchaeus, make haste. That's what he said, didn't he?
Make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house. And I say, sinner, make haste! Make haste! Run! Run to this great tower, strong
to save. Who is he? It's the name of the
Lord. It's the Lord Himself. He says here, the righteous runneth
into it. Who will run to Christ Jesus
over and over again? Because faith is not an isolated
act, it's a firm persuasion. And we keep coming to Christ
Jesus. And who will keep coming to Him?
The righteous will. The righteous. The righteous runneth into it.
and it's safe. Safe is a lovely word. It has
a two-fold meaning. The first meaning of safe is
here's the defense for you. Here's your security. Where are
you going to find security? Where are you going to find everlasting
safety? Only in the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's no safety anywhere else. There's no safety in the church.
There's no safety in taking the Lord's Supper. The safety is
in Him. The Lord's our shelter, and He's
our help in times of need. He keeps us safe, safe from wrath
to come, safe from the evil one. Safe from the vengeance of God,
for He bore the vengeance of God in our stead. Safe forever. But the word safe also has another
meaning and it is exalted. So it really would read this
way, the righteous runneth into it and is exalted. We're exalted
in Christ Jesus. You know, God by His grace abases
us. He brings us down. But He brings
us down to lift us up. Isn't that right? To exalt us. And we've been exalted in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We're lifted up. He lifted us
up from the miry clay. He set our feet upon the rock.
He lifted us up with Christ Jesus. Christ said, and I, if I be lifted
up, will draw all unto myself. All of my elect will be brought
to me if I'm lifted up. Let me tell you something. When
He was lifted up, we were lifted up in Him. We're lifted up. And when He went down in the
grave, we went down in the grave with Him. And when He was lifted
up to live forever by His own resurrection, we were lifted
up too. And when He ascended back to
glory, Ephesians chapter 2, we're seated with Him in heavenly places. We've been lifted up. And one
of these days when we die, we're going to be lifted up to be with
Him forever. Oh, how encouraging to Abram.
What a strong refuge he is. The Almighty God. There's no measuring of His might. He's not a weak Savior. He's
not a feeble Jesus. Our Lord and Master is the Almighty
God. Nothing's too hard for Him. We're
going to see in the next chapter that when the Lord with two messengers
comes to visit Abraham and Sarah and he repeats the promise that
Abraham and Sarah are going to have a son. Sarah's in the tent
and she's listening, you know. She's listening to this conversation
with her husband and this visitor, this heavenly visitor. The heavenly visitor says, about
this time next year I'm coming back. Sarah's going to have a
child. And Sarah laughs. We'll study
that. And the messenger says, wherefore
did Sarah laugh? Is there anything too hard for
the Lord? He's already identified Himself to Abram. Who is this? This is Almighty God. Almighty
God. And here's the second thing I
want to say. He is the Almighty God. Who speaks this to Abram over
here in chapter 17? Well, it's the Almighty God.
And He is Almighty. He is. This is the Son of God speaking.
He identifies himself as El El Shaddai, God who is almighty. You remember what Isaiah wrote
in Isaiah chapter 9, for unto us a child is born, and as a
child he was born, unto us a son is given, the son of God was
given. and the government shall be upon
his shoulders and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor
the Mighty God, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father who has
everlasting children by the way. He is the Prince of Peace. One writer It says the word Almighty
might be better translated, the one who overpowers all others. The one who overpowers all others. And this emphasizes the Lord's
ability to achieve that which He has purposed to do. Now we
must always remember that the power of our God, the might of
our God is always holy might. It is holy power and all of His
attributes are governed by holiness. So I want to stress this that
when we read the Almighty God, we're not to understand that
God can do everything. Be careful. We are not to understand
that God can do everything. For He cannot do anything that
is in opposition to His holiness. All things are governed by His
holiness. Therefore, He cannot lie. He cannot tempt a man to do evil. He cannot save without a sacrifice. And He cannot condemn those in
whose stead the suitable substitute has died. There are some things
God can't do. His power is perfect and can
neither be increased nor decreased. And ultimately, it is absolutely
impossible for anyone or anybody to keep him from accomplishing
his sovereign decree. Nobody can stay his hand or say
unto him, What doest thou? And his might and his ability,
his power are frequently set forth in the Word of God. So
the third thing I want to give you is just some examples of
Christ being the Almighty God. First of all, He being Almighty
God could lay down His life and take it up again. Now who else
could do that but God? When the Jews ask Him in John
chapter 2 to validate the reason, to give the reason why he went
into the temple and turned over the money changers tables and
so forth and drove them out of the temple. They said, what's
the sign that you'll show us that you're qualified to do this? And he said, destroy this temple
and in three days I'll raise it up. This spake he of his body. And you remember when that tribunal
gathered together and the Lord Jesus stood before them and they
were ready to pass the sentence of death on Him. One witness
said, this fellow said, I'm able, I'm able to destroy this temple,
the temple of God, and to build it in three days. But he was
speaking of his death, the temple of himself, his own body. Because
his body was the temple of God. There's the God-man who stood
before them. And he had the power to lay down
his life. He died by his own willingness. Nobody could take his life from
him. You can't take life from God. He said, I have the power to
lay down my life. I lay it down of myself, and
I have the power to take it up again. I have power. Dunamis,
like dynamite. I have unlimited power. I'm the mighty God. I'll lay
down my life when I please, and I'll take it up again when I
please. He said, this commandment have
I received from my Father. He manifested Himself as the
Almighty God who was in charge of His own death. And then He
being Almighty God, He's able to save sinners. This is good
news for sinners. It isn't a Savior who's knocking
on your heart's door and begging for an entrance. No, this is
the Savior who knocks the door down and comes on in and makes
a welcome for Himself. He's the one whose heart, who opened the heart of Lydia
so that she received, she attended to the things that were spoken
to her. He's the almighty God who saves. James chapter 4 and
verse 12 says, there's one lawgiver who is able to save and able
to destroy. who is able to save and who is
able to destroy, but that one who is almighty. He's able to
save. We read in Hebrews chapter 7,
but this man, Christ Jesus, because he continueth forever, he hath
an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able, he is able, he has
the ability, he has the power, he has the might, he's almighty
God, to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him.
He's capable of saving. He's strong. He's powerful. There's no heart too hard, but
what, He can't break it? There's no eye so blind, but
what, He can't give sight? There's no ear so deaf that the
Lord can't give hearing? There's no sinner too far gone,
too stooped in iniquity, but what, he can't break the cords
that bind him? There's no slave of Satan who's
been dead in trespasses and sins for years and years and years,
but what, this almighty God can come to him and say, live! And
you'll live. The sinner will live. Why? Because He's Almighty God. Lazarus
come forth. And he who was bound hand and
foot came forth. The Lord said release him and
let him go. He's the Almighty God. Total forgiveness and perfect
righteousness. That's what He's got the power
to give. Think about that. Total forgiveness. Well, when was this forgiveness
worked out? When he died. It isn't your repentance
that merits forgiveness, that earns forgiveness, that brings
forgiveness. Forgiveness is based on justice
satisfied 2,000 years ago when the Savior died. And perfect righteousness. And
here's what we've got to have. We've got to have total forgiveness,
past, present, future sins. And of course, all of our sins
of the people for the last 2,000 years, all of them were in the
future. We hadn't even been born yet. He died for sin that hadn't
even been committed. He knew every sin, sins of omission,
sins of commission, sinful thoughts, sinful words, sinful actions,
sinful motives, sinful dreams, you name it, He knew them all
and He died on the cross to satisfy God's justice and perfect righteousness, total
forgiveness and perfect righteousness. Jim, where can I get? Where can
I get total forgiveness and perfect righteousness? The Almighty God. That's what he needs. The Almighty
God. But now wait. He's not only able
to save, He's able to destroy. None shall be able to stand against
Him in the day of judgment. No wonder. He said in Matthew
chapter 10 in verse 28, And fear not them who can kill the body,
but are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear him which
is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. He's able to do that too. And then, you know, he manifested
his almightiness by the miracles that He did when He was on this
earth. I'll just give you one. On one occasion, two blind men
followed Him. And they said, Thou Son of David,
have mercy on us. The Scripture says, and then
He went in a house. And these two blind men followed
Him, I suppose somebody led them. I don't know how they followed
Him, He was blind. They must have got somebody and
said, Hey, lead me. That Savior that I hear people
talking about, I can't see Him, but wherever He's going, you
take us to Him. And He went into a house. They
just followed Him right into a house. And Jesus said to them, Believe
ye, that I'm able to do this. That's what he asked. Do you
believe I'm able? Do you believe I have the power
to do this? And they said, yes, Lord. And then he touched their eyes
and he said, according to your faith, be it unto you. And all of a sudden, their eyes
were opened. Who can do that but the almighty
God? And I'm asking you, do you believe
he's able to open blinded eyes? I am. He opened mine. He opened yours, didn't he? Open
yours. He's still in the business of
opening blinded eyes. Minds that are blinded by the
God of this world. minds that are filled with unbelief. He can give a restoration of
sight if He will. If He will. I believe you're able. That's
what the two blind men said. That's what I said, Lord, I believe. Yeah, you're able. I believe
you're able to do this. I believe you're able to save
sinners. and he's able to keep his people
safe. Another illustration. 2 Timothy 1 and 12, Paul said,
for the which cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I'm
not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded
that he is able. He's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. Here the apostle speaks
as one who had committed the most valuable thing on this earth
to himself, to Christ Jesus. His soul. You're able to save. I believe
he's able, don't you? I believe it, Terry, don't you?
I believe he's able to save. And I have made a deposit of
my soul. Lord, I'm yours. I depend on you for sake keep.
I can't keep myself. All I got to do is hold out to
the end. I can't hold out for five minutes, much less to the
end. He must hold me fast. And he
does. He's able to keep his people
safe. I'll tell you something else.
He's almighty to answer the prayers of his people. Ephesians 3.20
says, Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly
above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh
in us. You say, Jim, why pray? God's ordained everything, why
pray? Well, God commands us to. God
commands us to, and God in a mysterious way, He burdens us to pray about
something which He Himself has purposed to do and He answers
the prayer. He can do more than we even ask
for. But Bill read, I think it was
Bill who read this past Sunday evening in the back, Oh, Matt
Solomon, what did Solomon pray for? Wisdom. The Lord gave him
more than that. He gave him riches. He gave him
power. He gave him wealth. All he asked
for was wisdom. Oh, he's able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think. And he's able to comfort us in
times of trouble, grief, sadness, Hebrews 2.18, for in that he
himself had suffered being tempted, he's able, he's able to succor
them that are tempted. Here's something else he's able
to do because he was made flesh. Because he suffered, bled, and
died for his people as a man, as the God-man. He's able to
sympathize with us. He's able to help us with feeling,
with tenderness. Our Savior, He's not a harsh
taskmaster. He's not a vindictive Savior
when we disobey Him. He's kind. He's gentle. Now, He will chasten us. Don't
misunderstand me, but he's always a tender savior who comes to
our aid. And with the deepest, the deepest
concern for our welfare, he helps us. And I'll tell you something else
he's able to do. He's able to raise our vile bodies
from the grave and glorify us. Philippians 3.21 says, who shall
change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his
glorious body according to the working whereby he is able, he's
able to subdue all things unto himself. He's able to raise our bodies.
Our bodies are gonna die if the Lord Jesus doesn't come soon.
Our bodies are going to die and be buried. Corruption. corruptions within us, the body
will be buried, dust to dust, ashes to ashes as they say, but
He's able. Almighty God's able to raise
our dust. You see, He redeemed not only
our souls, but He redeemed our bodies. He'll have all of us. He'll have the entire man, the
entire woman, all to the praise of the glory of His grace. And then one last thing, and
this I want you to go with me to the next to the last book
of the Bible, which is the book of Jude. We're talking about
the ability of our Lord, the Almighty God, what He's able
to do. And here we go. The book of Jude,
one chapter, Verses 24 and 25. Now unto him that is able, able
to do what? Able to keep you from falling.
Able to keep you from falling into error. Able to keep you
from falling into apostasy. And able to present you faultless. before the presence of His glory
and do it with exceeding joy, He's able to keep us and present
us before the Father. And in verse 25, to the only
wise God, our Savior, Almighty God, be glory and majesty, dominion
and power, both now and ever. Amen. Oh, yes. He's almighty God. Just the kind
of savior we need. Almighty God. He appeared to Abraham. May he,
through the preaching of the gospel, appear to each of us and reveal to us that He is the
Almighty God. Father, bless the words that
have been spoken. Amen.