Open your Bible to Psalm 62. You would think that of all that the Bible says, about the omnipotence of God, that we could trust Him. God is omnipotent, and that simply means that He
is all-powerful. If you look here in Psalm 62,
we've read this many times. But here in verse 11, it is stated
so clearly, God hath spoken once, twice have
I heard this, that power belongeth unto God." Now, I don't read any additions
after that. It says that power belongs to
God. And therefore, He is all-powerful. His power on the one hand, has
to do with his authority. And we saw that under his sovereignty. But his power also has to do
with his ability. He not only has the right to
do what he will, but he also has the ability to do what he
will. As a matter of fact, what good
would it do to have all authority if you didn't have the ability
to back it up? You see, the illustration that
he gives us in Scripture shows us in the potter that he has
the power in the sense that he has the authority, but also that
he has the power in that he has the ability. Turn over to Romans
9, and look with me in Romans 9 in verse 21. Romans 9. and verse 21. He says, Hath not
the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one
vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour? That's the right
or the authority, but it goes on. What if God, willing to show
His wrath and to make his power known, to actually do it, of
the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. What if God, willing to show
his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy
which he had aforeprepared unto glory." Now, in order to accomplish
what he just spoke of in those verses, With regard to the vessels
of wrath and the vessels of mercy, he has not only to have power
in the sense of authority, but also of ability. He has not only to choose and
to prepare and to plan, but he also has to act. He has to do. And the power of God, as we just
read in those verses, it takes two directions and has two objectives. On the one hand, it has to do
with the salvation of those vessels of mercy. And yet at the same
time, it has to do also with that judgment that is brought
against those who are described as vessels of wrath. And His power, His power in grace,
that's what I like to think about. His power in grace is equal to
His power in wrath. In other words, He can do and
does do with regard to those people that he saves, just as
much so as he can do and does do toward those that he passes
by, because he is all-powerful. As a matter of fact, James describes
him in this way. He says, There is one Lawgiver,
not a lot, just one. And He describes Him in this
way. He says, "...who is able to save
and to destroy." Who is what? Who is able. He is able to save
and He is able to destroy. And were he not able to convert,
to save, to actually save these he calls vessels of mercy, then
surely he would not have power to then condemn and judge those
he calls vessels of wrath. He has to have power to do all
these things. And if he can be held at bay,
as so many say that he is right now by sinners all over this
world. If he can be kept from carrying
out his purpose, if he can be kept from glorifying himself,
if he can be kept from saving those he desires to save, if
he can be held at bay, then he is not the mighty God that the
Scriptures say that He is. But when you look over in the
Revelation, turn over to Revelation chapter 19. One of the things that is a great
blessing to the elect of God, and shall be not only in time
but for all eternity, And a thing that we rejoice in, it is this
very thing. Revelation 19 and verse 5, And a voice came out of the throne,
saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants. I sure want to
be found amongst that number. commanded to praise our God,
all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the
voice of a great multitude." Not a little two or three member
choir somewhere in heaven. But he says, I heard the voice
of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and
as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia. 4. For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. We praise our God, and we rejoice
here on earth with those already in His presence, not quietly,
but loudly, to the praise of His name, that the Lord God Almighty,
Omnipotent, He reigns. He rules. And he does so with
this power, first of all, that is totally, absolutely his own. There is no power except that
which belongs to him and that which is delegated by him. As a matter of fact, Nebuchadnezzar
found this out in a very clear way that ought to be a real lesson
to every person who would hear this. Because when God got through
dealing with him, this is his confession. He was the absolute
king of the world, you might as well say, in his day. He says,
all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he put himself in that same
category. Everybody in this world in his
sight is counted as nothing in this sense, and he does according
to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay his hand. That means stop him. Nobody. They cannot stop the hand of
the omnipotent God. They cannot in any way raise
up a power to equal His, and neither can they say unto Him,
What doest Thou? They cannot question Him. He
is absolute in His power. And so Paul writes and expresses
it this way. He says, now unto him that is
able, I like to read the Scriptures in what it says about the ability
of God. The only ability that man has
is the ability to sin. and every other ability has to
come from God. Now unto Him that is able to
do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according
to the power that He works in us. We can't even acknowledge Him. We don't even have power to acknowledge
His power unless He has His power working in us, this absolute
power. In Matthew 19, it says this. It says, when Jesus beheld these
people in this occasion, He said unto them in light of the circumstances, He said, with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. You don't have the power to do
this, but God has the power to do it all. He has absolute power,
and it's controlled only, exclusively by His own desire. It's controlled
by his own will and purpose. And not only that, his is original
power, not derived power. He didn't
get his power from somebody else. He doesn't have anybody that
he has the answer to or get permission from or ability from. He didn't
get it from anyone. He did not anything with a borrowed power. Do you
remember what our Lord said to Pilate? What He said of Pilate can be said of every person that
lives in this world or has ever lived in this world outside of
himself. Pilate said, don't you know I've
got the power crucify you, or let you go, or this, all this
stuff. The Lord said, you could have
no power at all against Me. You couldn't even have You don't
have the strength to command one of these soldiers to rise
up and take me. You certainly could not ever
do it of yourself. Thou couldest have no power at
all against me except it were given thee from above." And you know, here we are in
this world sometimes, and we're fretting over what this one may
do, or fretting over what that one may say, and all this kind
of stuff. But it's the same with them.
They could have no power. They can do nothing except it
is given them from above, as a matter of fact. If you look
back in Job chapter 1, you'll see the devil there, Satan himself,
hamstrung, unable to do anything, unable to touch Job or anybody
else except God giving permission. You and I are no match for the
devil. We're not like these preachers running around up and down the
land rebuking the devil and doing all this kind of stuff. It says
that The archangel did not even dispute
over the body of Moses with the devil. But though that's the
case and he is like a roaring lion going about seeking whom
he may devour, at the same time, he can't do anything except what
Almighty God allows him to do. Dave, you've got a new dog and
you're going to lead him around? Wherever you want him to go,
on a leash, you're going to teach him what to do. You're not going
to let him do something. That's the way the devil is with
God. He's on God's chain, the Bible says, and he can only do
what it is that God allows him to do, which will work to the
salvation of his people and the glory of his name. He's Almighty
God. And every power, every government,
every ruler, every person, whether they're promoted to foreman on
the job or president of the United States or king of whatever land
it is, everyone, he says, let every soul be subject unto the
higher powers. That kind of grates on us sometimes
that there are higher powers in us. You get up and you drive to work
and you run up with one of those higher powers. Tax time, license plate time,
every way you turn you run up with these higher powers. But
he says, be subject to them for there is no power but of God. And the powers that be are ordained
of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth
the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist
shall receive to themselves damnation." Why? Because the powers that
be. It doesn't say how they got there. He didn't say whatever kind of
secondary cause or whether it was an election, whether or not
it was an appointment of some. The powers that be are ordained
of God because all power is of God, all derived from God. And this power, this ability
primarily, this ability is essential to all of God's nature and to
all His attributes. It's the life of His attributes. He not only has to be God, He
has to act like God. He has to do like God. He has
to be this almighty, omnipotent God. And the very first thing
that we see in this book when we open up the very first page
of the book of Genesis, the very first being that we run up with
is the omnipotent God. How powerful is He? Well, I'll
tell you just how powerful He is. And this ought to tell us
a lot about Him right to start with. The Almighty, all-powerful
God opens up on the scene in the book of Genesis, creating
worlds out of nothing. That which He made was made out
of that which did not exist. That's right. As a matter of
fact, you can look in that book, if you read it real slow, you
can see this omnipotent God dwelling in eternity and having need of
nothing but in this creation speaking that into existence
which was not saying, let there be light. And there was light. As a matter of fact, that really
is just said for our poor benefits. They call that the divine fiat,
which is really not to even have to utter a word, just to will
it into existence out of nothing. Jeremiah says, All Lord God,
behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power,
and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee. Thou showest lovingkindness unto
thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers unto
the bosom of their children after them. The great, the mighty God,
the Lord of hosts is His name. As a matter of fact, this same
omnipotence, this same power, as it is demonstrated in God
creating this world, reveals a sufficient amount that men
will be accountable just on what God displayed of His power in
creation. Do you know that? There's not
anybody sitting out somewhere that doesn't know anything about
the power of God. Turn over to Romans chapter 1. And look down in Romans chapter
1 at verse 19. Men hold the truth, he says,
in unrighteousness. Why? Because that which may be
known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, by the things the invisible God
has manifested a sufficient revelation in Himself in the things that
He has made, even His eternal power and Godhead
so that they are without excuse. Now, if you walked in that door
tomorrow morning and you saw muddy footprints all over this
carpet, what would you think? Well, there hadn't been anybody
here. By what you saw, you would know
somebody had been here. If you walked in that door, you
saw a pile of sawdust and wood chips and a new table sitting
there that had been sanded and polished up nice, you would say,
somebody made this table. Sun, sky, trees, everything in
this creation show His eternal power and Godhead. And every man is without excuse
and will be held accountable based on that refused revelation
of God. For by Him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. all things were created by Him
and for Him. The writer of Hebrews saying,
Also through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by
the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made
of things which do appear. Here we are all this time into
this created world. And just about the time men think
they have reached the last frontier of detail, they get to this part
of a molecule, they get to this DNA, and the farther they go,
And the more that they're enabled and increased in capacity to
look and to examine and to measure, the less they really know. Because Almighty God created
this world. And not only that, it is His
power that sustains it. This doesn't just happen. We like to think sometimes that
we're the reason why everything carries on. Not so. Not so. He is before all things, Paul
says to the Colossians, and by Him all things consist. Now, if I didn't believe that,
you might cadoot me into the global warming thing. You might
could. But it says, by Him all things
consist. You see, at the root and heart
of all these things is not only a denial of God, but a mockery
at the Word and character and power of God. You say, well,
this world just can't go on unless we do this, that, and the other.
We have nothing to do with bringing it into being to start with.
We have nothing to do with sustaining it, though we are to be wise
stewards of everything the Lord has given us. But when we get
to thinking that it's up to us, that's when we're on His territory. He's all-powerful. I want to go into the depths.
In Hebrews 1, it says, "...upholding all things by the word of His
power." He's the sustainer of His universe. But most especially, this power
is brought to light in the grace of God to His people in His mighty
Christ. Sweet little baby Jesus in a
manger. Sweet little Jesus boy in the
carpenter's shop in Nazareth. Sweet little man Jesus walking
in sandals by the Sea of Galilee? No. The one that is described in
Scripture as He who is mighty to save. Mighty to save. You see, in His
birth, He is described in His birth
now as the One that shall be born of the power
of the highest. The Holy Ghost, the angel says
to Mary, shall come upon thee and the power of the highest
shall overshadow thee." Now, there's got to be a man
born in this world, the Messiah. And he can't be sinful, so he
can't have a natural fallen from Adam father. So it says, a virgin
conceived. Not of a man, but of the highest. The power of the highest. And he himself is described by
the apostle when he writes to the Corinthians, he describes
this same one as Christ, the power of God. The authority? Sure. But also
the ability. The ability. When he walked on
this earth as a man who looked just exactly like any other man
of his day. Didn't have a halo around his
head. Didn't have prettier facial features. He looked like a Jewish
man. But everywhere he went, he did things that no other man
could do. In other words, whatever could be
counterfeited by the devil, he did in such a way that it was
unmistakably the power of God. So much so that the worst of
his enemies, They could not deny what they
saw. They could not deny what He did. They tried to turn and just call
Him a healer and a teacher and a man sent from God and all these
things because they couldn't deny what He did. And it went not only from healing
the sick, raising the lame, raising up the paralyzed, opening the
eyes of the blind, everything to show what miracles of grace
He would perform in the saving of His people, right down to
raising them from the dead. Now, He didn't go everywhere
and do that to everybody. which really showed that he had
the authority as well as the ability. But he came and he did
those things, and all the way in his life he did everything
to accomplish the will of the One who sent him. The sad thing
about us is we couldn't do the will of the Father if we wanted
to, which is a great part of it. By nature, we don't. He did. He did. He demonstrated power in the
resistance of sin right down especially in the time when it
looked like that He had the least power. That's when He demonstrated the
greatest power. He said, takes my life from me."
You say, well, preacher, those Roman soldiers were right there
taking it. No, they weren't. He says, but I lay it down of
myself. I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my Father. He in that power lived that life. He in that power died that death. And He in that power raised from
the dead. He raised from the dead. Paul says in Ephesians 1, I am
praying that you might know what is the exceeding greatness of
His power to us who believe according to the working of His mighty
power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead
and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places and
He ascended into glory. He is the Almighty God. And in
his accomplishments, it says that the Father has given
him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him. One of the last things he reminded
his disciples of, Maybe he told them in a way they had no perception
of it prior to that. But he said before he ascended
back, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Right down to the power to forgive
sins. And not only that. But he has power to make spiritually alive all his people who are spiritually
dead just like he did Lazarus who was physically dead. I dare say that if you had been
there on that occasion had known for a fact that this man, Lazarus,
was dead, undeniably dead, three days old and stinking dead. And you beheld him standing at
that tomb door saying, Lazarus, come forth. You had been impressed. But I can tell you this, great
and glorious as that may be, that's nothing compared to what
it takes to make alive one who is dead
in trespasses and sin and who has not the life of God. has
no faith, has no understanding of spiritual things, has no eye
to behold the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. No desire to
be saved. No desire to know God. Self-righteous
and loathing with that stench that's an abomination in the
nostrils of God, and he comes to that sinner that He has loved
with an everlasting love and redeemed by His blood. He says, live. Live. And live they do. He has the power in this demonstration
of omnipotent grace. I love that term. omnipotent, all-powerful grace. Let men have their grace that's
goodwill and a nice feeling and a benevolent attitude. Give me
omnipotent grace, all-powerful grace. He has His grace, and in the
power of His grace, He gets the gospel to His people. And He gets His people to the
gospel. He does so by that means that
He calls the power of God unto salvation. What's that? The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He causes His gospel to be preached. Do you think for one minute that
the gospel would even be whispered anywhere in this day if it were
not for the power of God? Do you think there would even
be a copy of the Scriptures anywhere? Atheists after atheists have
said wherever they were and whenever they were that in a hundred years
nobody would even know what a Bible is. But they do, don't they? Because He is Almighty. And He brings such poor and pitiful
human instruments to preach it. And He brings them to preach
to such dead, dead sinners. And He causes them to believe. Why? The power of God. Paul said, our gospel came not
to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance, because the omnipotent God brought
it. Power over the so-called free
wills of men, because His people shall be willing in the day of
His power. and power to apply every promise,
power to assure that everything is fulfilled, and power to preserve is redeemed. Peter says that the Lord's people
are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time." Kept by what? The power of God. It says through
faith, yes? But it is God who gives faith. And our Lord said, I know my
sheep, I love my sheep, I lay down my life for my sheep, My
sheep hear my voice. They follow me. I give unto them
eternal life, and they'll never perish. No man can pluck them out of my Father's
hand, because that's the hand. That's the hand of the omnipotent
God. Oh, He has power to judge His
enemies, to cast every rebel into the very depths of hell
for eternity. That's nothing. This power to
save. Like the old hymn writer said,
we'll sing thy power to save. And we'll bow our heads as our
Lord has taught us. And we'll pray, Thine is the
power, therefore Thine is the glory
forever and ever. Amen. Amen. To God alone belongs power. I'm just glad He demonstrates
that power to save a poor sinner like me and to sustain us in
this fallen world until He comes. Provide for us and preserve us
and help us and bring every promise and every prophecy to pass. for his glory. Father, we thank you tonight
for your great power and that you've shown yourself
to us and others, demonstrating your omnipotent
grace as the one who is mighty to save. Power belongs unto you in every
sense. Thank you for displaying it and
saving us. Amen.