Last week, we looked at God's
declaration to His elect concerning Jacob's name. The name of God's
elect. Remember in Romans chapter 9
how God pulled out Jacob. Actually, all through Romans
9 and Romans 10, He pulls out these old patriarchs and identifies
the spiritual children of God with these old patriarchs. There
in Romans chapter 9, he pulls out Jacob and he calls him, my
elect. This is my elect. I chose him. I loved him and hated Esau. I chose him to rule over his
elder brother. And God told him back here in
Genesis chapter 35 four things concerning his name. Told him
that his name was Jacob. That's your name, he said. Jacob,
the penegler, the philosopher, the reasoner, the prudent man,
wise and prudent, figures things out. Everybody has one on the
job. You got this one fellow, if you
got a problem, you go to him, he can figure it out. He's a
prudent man. That's what that means. He's
wise and he figures things out. He's able to. He's a prudent
man, wise. He arranges things. He tries
to get the advantage, trying to make something happen. His
name suits him. That's what the Lord was telling
him. This is how this world identifies you, Jacob. This is who this
world knows, Jacob. This is who this world approves,
Jacob. Jacob's your name. That's your
name. You were rightly named. I'm not
changing your name because you weren't rightly named. You're
rightly so called Jacob. That's our name. That's what
the Lord tells you. And then the Lord said this,
you're not going to be called Jacob anymore. That's not how you're going to
be identified. This world is going to look at
you differently than they used to. They're not going to identify
you with these things. You're not going to fit in anymore.
Your name not going to be synonymous with this world anymore. You're
not going to be a heel grasper anymore. You're going to be mine
elect. They're not going to call you Jacob anymore. And then thirdly,
he tells him this. He said, your name shall be called
Israel. That's what it's going to be
in that day. I tell you, it don't look like it now, does it? But
in that day, standing before the throne of God, I was in the
Word of God today dealing with our subject for the night here
in Genesis. And it just so overwhelmed me
that I just sat there in my study for the longest time and thought, what a statement this is in that
day that the angels... Do you know that it's the seraphims
that he pictured in the ark, over top of the ark of the Testament,
looking down at it? hovering over it, looking to
see what they can see, standing there in wonder. And here's these
seraphs. Here's the heavenly host. In
the book of Revelation, it even pictures the elders, whoever
they are. Here's all the elders, and they're
standing around. And the heavenly host, and everybody,
and they're all pointing to this little crowd up around the throne.
It's no little crowd. It's a number that no man can
number. And they're saying, who's this? That's Israel. This is
the children of Israel. The children of Israel. 144,000.
That's just a number to identify them with Israel. A number. And
then He tells you right after that that it's a number that
no man can number. It's a spiritual Israel. Thy
name shall be called Israel. It speaks of that day yet to
come. In that day when men and angels stand before Throne, stand
before Him who alone is able to separate the weak from the
tear, the false from the true, real
from the pretense. Had not we done many wonderful
works in Thy name, we were able to fool everybody else. Depart
from me, I never knew you. You don't fool me. Stand before
that throne. Your name's history. Well done,
thy good and faithful servant." A true Jew. True son of Abraham. Isaac's chosen son. And then,
fourthly, he tells him this. God called his name Israel. Right
then. Right there. In spite of everything
that he did. In spite of the mess that he
was in. In spite of all that he'd done. In spite of all that
he was. In spite of all that circumstance
had revealed. God said, your name right now
is Israel. I'm treating you right now as
a justified son of God. I'm treating you right now with
all the full benefits and rewards of salvation. Right now, in spite
of what you are. God called him Israel, as if
the inheritance had already been given. His house was in ruins,
his son guilty of blood, It appeared like the Canaanites would surely
come and wipe him off the face of the map. But God said, Your
name is Israel, and you are a prince with me. And God caused the terror,
the terror of the Lord to fill their hearts, and they would
not touch Him. How in the world can a guilty
man like Jacob take heart in, find comfort in, find a calm
assurance in such a declaration and view of what's just taken
place. Ain't that where we have our problem? Every day manifesting
some, man is of a few days and full of trouble. He doesn't lack
for trouble. Every day brings trouble. Every
day brings circumstance. Every day brings trial and temptation
and trouble. Every day. How can we find calm
assurance in these promises? It almost appears like God demands
too much for a man to believe. He told him, he said, treat this
land like it's yours. It's yours. Your children are
going to live here. They're going to build a city
here. I've given it to you. How can a guilty man like Jacob,
a man whose sons is covered in blood and he himself is guilty
of a lifetime of rebellion, find hope, find calm assurance in
this declaration of God, in view of what's taking place and what's
out there yet to face. Well, God gives him next the
basis and foundation of all our hope in the very next verse.
He said in Genesis 35, 11, God said unto him, I am God Almighty. That's the foundation of our
hope. He's God Almighty. You think about that. He's Almighty
to protect and defend you. He's Almighty to fulfill all
His promises to you. He's Almighty to give all that's
required and needed to bring everything that He's promised
to pass. He said, I'm God Almighty. Way back in Genesis chapter 17,
verse 1, when God first made promise to Abraham, He made this
declaration. He called him out of that heathen
idolatry and out of his father's house, out of Mesopotamia. And
He said, you're going to come to a place that I'm going to
show you at when we get there. Pack up. Pack up. What kind of foundation? What
did He tell Abraham? Do you remember? Told him the
same thing that he's telling Jacob. He said, I'm God Almighty. God Almighty, El Shaddai. Then a little later on, God will
tell Moses. He said unto Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob, I reveal myself as El Shaddai, God Almighty. But His name Jehovah was not
yet made known. Now God attaches the name Jehovah
to this El Shaddai. Jehovah. It means God our Savior. God our Deliverer. So that then
when He begins to attach these names to the name Lord, and all
through the Old Testament you're going to find the word God and
the word Lord used. Whenever you see the word God,
He's talking about God the Creator, God El Shaddai, God Almighty,
God, Unfathomable God. When He's talking about the Lord,
He's talking about Jehovah. Still talking about God, but
He's talking about God our Savior. God in His saving revelation. And so that you go through all
these names, Jehovah, Jireh, to be Savior. God as Savior will
provide. And Jehovah Rapha, God that healeth
thee. To be Savior, God must heal us. And so on. The Lord our righteousness. The Lord our banner. And so on. All through these names. I think
there's 12 of them in the Old Testament. 12 different names.
But in particular, As these names of God are being established
to the patriarchs and the foundation principles being laid of faith,
I want you to see that He reveals His name in particular as Jehovah-halion, the Lord Most High. To be Savior,
He must be all-powerful. He must be almighty to save. And to all three of the patriarchs
of Israel, God establishes His name, God Almighty. I believe
He does this because it's the very basis and first principle
of faith. When a person comes to me and
they begin to talk about all they know about the doctrines
of grace and they're trying to get all their I's dotted and
their T's crossed and all that kind of nonsense, it goes right
in one ear and right out the other. It's good that you study. It's good that you know these
things. It's good that you write on these things. But you're not
going anywhere until you find out who God is. And when you
find out who God is, you'll find out who you are. And then those
doctrines will mean something to you. Then those doctrines
will be applied to you. Then you'll tremble before God.
Then you'll take heart in His promises. They won't just be
promises. You'll take heart in them. You
can lay down your head in them. You can go to the operating table
with them if you know Him. You know Him. Oh, John Gill made
this statement. He said, a weak deity is an absolute
absurdity. Now you think about it. Absolute
absurdity. A weak deity. A God who cannot
do what he wants to do. He's not God. He's not God. Stephen Sharnock, one of the
old Puritans, said this, as holiness is the beauty of all God's attributes,
So power gives life and action to all his perfection. He said,
how vain would his eternal counsels be if he had no power to execute
them? How vain would they be? Without
power, his mercy would be at best just feeble pity. Without power, his promises would
be a tinkling cymbal and sounding brass. And without power, his
threatenings would be no more than a scarecrow But God is almighty. He's no scarecrow. And when our
Lord told His disciples, He said, don't fear them that can destroy
the body. You fear Him who can destroy
both body and soul in hell. You fear Him. He is almighty. Almighty. His power is infinite,
eternal, inexhaustible, unlimited, and incomprehensible. There's
no way that you can comprehend the power of God. The power of
God. We see it as He manifests it.
We see it in bits and pieces. We see it in degrees. But we
never see it in its infinity. God cannot be questioned. That's
what it says. That's what it says. God cannot
be restrained. God cannot be frustrated or resisted. He does what he will in the armies
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay
his hand or say unto him, what you done. He's God. He has, the potter has power
over the clay to make one vessel to honor and another to dishonor.
He got the power to do that. And you just keep reading that
word power, power, power all through the New Testament. You
just keep seeing that word power. What's he talking about? He's
talking about God. Talking about God. Now, there's eight things
in which God reveals to us his sovereign, omnipotent power and
character as God Almighty. Eight things. Now, I want you
to listen to these. I'm just going to touch on them,
but I suggest you go home and read these things. What a blessing
it was to me today as I read and studied through these things.
God reveals His name as Almighty in the creation of all things. God Almighty. I don't know how
many times in the Psalms where David talks about God our Savior
and the first thing he tells us is He's mighty to save and
he goes back and he starts talking about creation. He set the mountains
there. He stayed the waves. He did all
these things in creation. God reveals His name as Almighty
in the creation of all things. Listen to this in Psalm 33.6.
The Holy Ghost tells us this. He
said, By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all
the host of them by the breath of His mouth. Think about it.
Think about it. God just said, Let it be. And
it was. It was. You're talking about
power. He gathereth the waters of the
sea together as a heap. He layeth up the depth in the
storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord.
Let the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him, for He spake
and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast.
That's power. That's power. There's no gray
area here. Don't you listen to me. Either
the Word of God is true and accurate and a solid foundation on which
we can build our faith and be established in faith, or it's
completely false, one or the other. You can't believe a portion
of it. You can't believe part of it.
It'll do you no good. If you read these things and
see these things that are so far out of your grasp, you either
believe them or you don't. You don't believe part of it.
But think about how ridiculous it would be if you did. What
are you going to divide in creation? You mean God only created a third
of creation? How silly is that? If He can
create a third, He can create all. Well, science says this little
Paramecium came forth from the salt water and walked up on the
earth and evolved into a man. Who made the Paramecium? Huh? Who gave it the knowledge to
walk up on the sand? You see what I'm saying? How
ridiculous it is when we begin to ascribe a part of creation
to God. God is all in all. And you either believe this book
or you don't. And if you don't believe this
book, These things are no more than just a rabbit's foot to
put around your neck, like whistling in the cemetery. And you might as well just dance
naked around a fire and worship a cow as an attempt to worship
a God who's not almighty. The first revelation of God came
before man appeared on the earth in creation. To this day, the
invisible things of God from the creation of the world are
clearly seen being understood by the things that are made."
Now listen to this. Even His eternal power in God
even. There's no other way to explain
it. So that mankind as a whole, whether they ever hear the gospel
or not, are without excuse. That's Romans 1, verse 20. All
right, here's the second thing. God Almighty reveals His unlimited
power in the preservation of creation. Turn with me to 2 Peter
chapter 3. Peter says, in the last days,
scoffers are going to come. I've already met some of them,
haven't you? Scoffers. Scoffers. They laugh. They laugh. Ah, religion is just something
that man come up with, some clever man came up with this whole scheme
of religion just to keep men in line. It's just superstition. Why, I studied religion in college. I know what it's all about. It
developed. It come down through time and
evolved just like everything else did. Scoffers. Men scoff and mock at the promises
of God. Because everything in them is
the same, they suppose that everything around them is too. Because they see no sign, they
suppose that nobody else can see one. Because they've become
free thinkers, they call it, they suppose everybody that don't
join in is a fool. You're a fool. And here's what
they say, 2 Peter 3 verse 4. Where's the promise of His coming?
Where's He at? Where's He at? For since the
fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the
beginning of creation. There's been no change. The sea's
still the sea. The sun's still the sun. The
field's still the field. The environment's still here.
I still see birds. I still see fish. What's changed?
What's changed? Everything's the same. Everything
is the same. Watch this, verse 5. For this
they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens
were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water.
This wasn't a natural act. The sea didn't settle into a
low place. God made for it a place. That's
what He says over in the book of Job. He gathered those waters
into a place that He made. They didn't just settle into
a low spot. It's not a natural act. God healed these waters
back and sustained that land by the Word of God. Ain't that
what they're saying? They're willingly ignorant of
that. They want to find some other reason for it. They want
to say that Mother Nature does these things. They want to say
that these things have evolved. These things have just come to
pass. These are natural laws. God doesn't have anything to
do with it. Not what he says. Not what he says. He said those
things were held back by the Word of God. Verse 6, whereby
the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. God said to them waves, you're
not going to be staying anymore. Now you're going to pass those
boundaries. And He turned loose the great springs of the earth
and turned loose the waters from the heavens and He turned loose
the seas and He covered this world in water. And this world
perished. Verse 7, but the heavens and
the earth which are now by the same word, see that? The same power, the same authority,
the same one who stayed those ways in the Old Testament and
then caused them to come in and rush upon that ark and caused
this world to perish. The heavens and the earth which
are now by the same word are kept in store. reserved unto
fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
In Romans 8, verse 19, he says this, The earnest expectation
of the creation waiteth, it waiteth for the manifestation of the
children of God. For the creation was made subject
to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of God who subjected
the same in hope. We're talking about the Word
of His power in the preservation of creation. And that's what
he says. Nothing less than absolute deity
and omnipotence could preserve creation and maintain order in
spite of all that goes on in this universe. You see what I'm
saying? God Almighty. That's what he
tells you. You're worried about a few men. You're worried about
Canaanites. You're worried about Hittites. You're worried about
these Ites and all these other things. You're worried about
your children. You're worried about this. I'm God Almighty,
he said. That's the first thing you need
to know about me. I'm God Almighty. What I say
goes. I can enforce my words. My commandments
are not to be winked at. My commandments are not to be
doubted. My commandments to you are to be obeyed. I'm God Almighty."
That's what he tells him. And then thirdly, God reveals
His power, His almighty power in the wonders of providence.
Who can read Romans 8, 28 through 39 and not stand in wonder of
a power that arranges everything in time and eternity to work
together for your good and His good? What a wonder! I can't even make
the simplest things work for my good in His glory. Can you?
But He does everything. Everything. The tiniest little
things to the greatest things. All things He sees. In Romans chapter 8 and verse
11, Paul tells us of the wonders of our God. I mean in chapters
8 through 11, he tells us about the wonders of our God, His sovereignty
over salvation, the potter over the clay, His eternal wisdom
and grace. And then he tells us in time
how that natural Israel was brought by the purpose of God under the
curse to save the Gentiles. What a curse! What an awful thing
it was for the Jews to reject Christ and fall under that curse
and fall into perdition and fall away from Him. What a horrible
thing! But God worked it together for
His good. Because of their fall, He brought
in the Gentiles. And He didn't curse them all.
He maintained a remnant. There was a remnant in there.
And He's going to pull them out. And so He said, shall all Israel
be saved. And Paul got to thinking about
these things and thinking about these wonders and thinking about
the sovereign power and control and authority that it took to
bring them to pass. And finally, he just breaks out
in Romans chapter 11. He just breaks out in praise
to God. And he said, oh, the depth of
the riches both of wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable
are His judgments and His ways past finding out. For of Him
and through Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. You think about the wonders
of God's providence. Oh, He said, I'm God Almighty.
I'm God Almighty. And then fourthly, the Almighty
God reveals Himself in the redemption of sinners. There's five things
here in the redemption of sinners that declare the power of God.
The first is this, the incarnation of Christ. God robed himself,
Winston, in human flesh. Don't you find that amazing?
Amazing that not one man born of Adam could ever change his
character. Not in the slightest. He couldn't
be any better. God restrained some and caused
them to be better than others, but there's no man of himself.
He didn't change. He's the same. He declared what
man was. He looked down from heaven. He's
seen every one of them. And he said, every imagination
of man, mankind, man's heart, is only evil continually. No change in him. He didn't change.
He didn't evolve. He didn't get better. He didn't
get wiser. At the end, Paul sums it all
up and said, there's none that understand it. None go from here
all the way back to Adam. There's none that understand
it. There's none righteous. There is none that seeketh after
God. Just get it out of your head. It ain't going to happen.
It takes an intervention of God. God intervened. God came down,
become a man, robed Himself in human flesh to redeem sinners. Secondly, consider the preservation
of His life and the fulfillment of prophecy. My soul is... I've
got a message I'm working on for over in Wichita Falls. What
I'm working on is the foundation of the Old Testament and how
you can't, you know, people carry around this little thing the
Gideons used to write called a New Testament. You're carrying
around a half a Bible. That's all you got. You're not
going to know anything in that. You got to go back here and find
out who made the world. You got to go back here and find
out the foundation of this thing. We're not just built on the New
Testament. He said, you're built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets. And all through the
book of Acts, all through the beginning of the churches in
the New Testament, he goes back and he points out these things
from the Old Testament and he said, here's the way they are.
Here's the picture of what's taking place. You're not going
to understand it until you understand this. You're going to have to
get this foundation. This foundation. Oh, the Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. And then you think about
that preservation. Oh, all through his life, men
sought to kill him, expose him as a fraud. But in all their
attempts to get rid of him, they only manifested him to be who
he claimed to be. And they did what God's hand
and God's counsel determined before to be done. And then thirdly,
he manifested his power as the God-man on many occasions. and
with plain testimony to it. Who else but God could call a
man out of the tomb? This man was stinking. This man
was corrupted. Rigor mortis had already set
in. He wasn't embalmed. He was dead. He was stinking. He was rotting
in the tomb. And he waited three days on purpose. And then he come up there and
told him he should come out. And he did. He looked like God
to me. Huh? Take this lunch sack and
go out there and feed that monkey to him. We got to pay taxes. We ain't got no money. Go down
there to the sea and there's going to be a fish swimming right
there in the shallows. Reach down and get him. The coin's
in his mouth. Huh? This is God. Think about
the wondrous preservation. And then think about that power
that he said, I have power. No man takes my life from me.
I lay my life down. God gave me power to do that.
I lay my life down and pick it up again. I and the Father are
one. That's when the Jews wanted to
stone him. All through his life, think about that right there
in John chapter 18 that we're studying right now. That little
group come to get him. And they said, who are you looking
for? He said, Jesus of Nazareth. He
said, I am. And the whole outfit fell backward
on the ground. Half an army standing out there
with staves and spears, including little Judas, so prompt to betray.
The whole outfit just went backwards on the ground at His Word. That's
His power. And He demonstrated that power
right here on this earth. And then fourthly, He demonstrated
this almighty power of God in His death on the cross. Martin Luther looked at this,
threw his Bible down. He said, how can a man understand
this? God killing God. How can life die on the cross? How can a righteous man be made
sin who knew no sin? How can that be? Huh? It can be through the omnipotent
God. That's how those things can be.
None but the omnipotent God could demand and take the life of His
Son. And then fifthly, He demonstrated
this power in His resurrection and ascension into glory. These
things are called in Ephesians 1, the exceeding greatness of
His power to us who believe according to the working of His mighty
power that He brought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead
and set Him at His own right hand. That's omnipotent power. God Almighty. All right, here's
the fourth thing. God reveals His Almighty power
in the redemption of a people in Christ His Son. And then He
reveals this power in the salvation of God's elect. Now what in the
world am I talking about? I'm talking about their college.
Man's not saved until he's called, is he? Huh? He's not saved until
he's called. David said, thy people, thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. You know what he said? The day of thy power. I laugh
sometimes when I catch myself trying to explain things to natural
men. My brother or sister or somebody
will get me on the phone or come to visit or somebody will and
they sit down and they're asking me things and I catch myself
trying to explain it. You can't explain these things.
These things have to be revealed. You have to take God at His word. You have to receive the testimony
of God. These people haven't done that.
They're waiting for you to reason something. They're looking for
some scientific explanation. They're looking for some philosophy,
some reason for that. I just laugh at myself. I'm telling you it's an utter
waste of time to try to explain to a man what the Scriptures
tell us plainly. that he cannot and will not receive.
He tells us time and again the Gospel is a revelation. It demands
a new birth. It demands a resurrection from
the dead. The days coming, our Lord said,
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they
that hear shall live. Paul prayed for those he preached
to this way. Listen to this. This is in Ephesians
chapter 1. He said that the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ The Father of glory may give unto you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of
your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the
hope of His calling." So when you're talking about being called
of God, you're talking about infinite power. That's what you're
talking about. And you can stand up and jump
around and dress up and say things and learn philosophy and go to
seminary and you can do all this. You're not going to convince
anybody of anything. It takes almighty power by the
Spirit of God to give him revelation. The best thing to do is just
tell men the truth and leave the enlightening in God's hands.
Just leave it in his hands. He'll take care of it. He'll
take care of it. God's almighty power is revealed
in the perpetuity of the gospel. Now, I know that that's a big
word, but I don't have any other words to replace it. But here's
what it means. It means a state of continuance. The gospel is a continuing thing,
and they can't get rid of it. They can't explain it away. They
can't do away with it. They can't get around it. God's
almighty power. God almighty decreed to save
sinners through the preaching of the gospel. And man can't
do anything about it. He wants to. He wants to. He'd love to. But God said, this
is how it is. Paul said, I'm not ashamed. He
said, I'm coming to you. He wrote to the church at Rome.
I'm coming to you. And I'm not ashamed of the gospel
I preach, for I am persuaded that it is the power of God,
he said, unto salvation. That's what it is. And I'm not
ashamed. I'll preach it. I'm not afraid
to declare these things and leave this revelation in His hand,
because He's the one who determined it. In 2 Corinthians 2, verse
15, he said, for we are unto God. And I'm talking about a gospel
unhindered, unresisted, always successful. The preaching of
the gospel is always, always triumphant. Always. It's triumphant
when they get up and stomp out. It's triumphant. That's what
Paul said. He said, we are unto God a sweet
savor of Christ. in them that are saved and in
them that perish. And to the one we're the saver
of death unto death, and to the other the saver of life unto
life." But he said, our gospels always triumph. Please God, through the foolishness
of preaching, to save them that believe. And he said, unto all
those who are being saved, this gospel is the power and wisdom
of God. And I believe this. I believe
nowhere has God's awesome power demonstrated as clearly as it
is in the perpetuity of the gospel. Nothing more challenged in our
day than that, than the gospel. And if you take your time and
read about it, you'll see that you'll see God's sovereign hand
in it. You'll see his sovereign declaration. He said, not just
any preacher is going to save you. He can't preach unless I
send him. He's not a preacher until I send
him, until I qualify him, until I anoint him and teach him this
gospel. And he's not a preacher until
I cross your path with his. Then he becomes a preacher to
you. That's God's sovereignty. That's absolute, omnipotent power. That's what that is. Well, I
just believe God could do it some other way. He could. It's
not a matter of can, it's a matter of will. God said, I will do
it this way. I'm not going to resist Him.
You do what you want to. And then look at this. Here's
the seventh thing. God demonstrates His power in
the perseverance of His saints. Turn with me over to Hebrews
chapter 3. Hebrews chapter 3. Look down here at verse 3. Here's
what we're doing in this chapter. We're considering the apostle
and high priest of our faith. That's what we're doing. We're
considering this one that we believe on, this one that we
trust. We're in Hebrews chapter 3, verse 3. Well, this man was counted worthy
of more glory than Moses inasmuch as he who hath builted the house
has more honor than the house. For every house is built by some
man, but he that built all things is God. This apostle and high
priest of our faith, he's God. He does the building. And Moses
verily was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony
of those things which were to be spoken after. But Christ as
a son over his own house, whose house are we. Now watch this. If we hold fast to confidence
and the rejoicing of the hope, firm unto the end. That work which God begins, he
performs all the way to the end. That man whom God saves will
persevere in the faith. He'll persevere to the end. And
there's two doctrines which must be considered together. That
is perseverance and preservation. You cannot have the one without
the other. You have to enter into an understanding
of both these things. Saints persevere because they're
preserved of God. And it's absolutely true. I want
you to hear me now. It's absolutely true that men
are to work out their own salvation in fear and trembling. Paul said
he didn't even hiccup when he said that. He didn't stutter
when he said that. He said, let every man work out
his own salvation in fear and tribulation, reasoning what they
hear, studying the Word of God, attending the preaching of the
Gospel, repenting of their sins, seeking the Lord Jesus Christ.
Come unto me, he said. There's coming involved. You'll
find me, he said, when you seek me with all your heart. These are not things accomplished
for you, but things accomplished in you and through you. God does
not believe for any man. You do the believing. You do
the believing. He doesn't repent for you. You're
going to repent. He doesn't trust for you. He
doesn't persevere for you. But here's the other side of
that coin. Here's what's equally true. And
Paul quickly follows up that statement with this. He says
this over in the book of Philippians. He said, it's God that worketh
in you, both the will and the do of His good pleasure. And
that's how you work out your own salvation. It's God that
worketh in you. So that in the end, like Peter
said, we're kept by the power of God. That's what we're talking
about here tonight, His omnipotent power. He's God Almighty. And
Peter said, we're kept by the power of God through faith. unto
salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. And then here's
the last thing, in which God manifests His name as Almighty
God. It's this resurrection from the
dead. And I'm not talking about His
resurrection from the dead when he died on the cross and was
buried and God raised him from the dead. When he did that, that's
the reason for this last resurrection. That's the reason for it. And
I'm not talking about our faith, which is the earnest of it. We're
raised with a spiritual resurrection when a man believes he's born
again. He's raised from the dead. That's what he tells us over
there in the last part Ephesians chapter 1 and the first part
of Ephesians chapter 2. You hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. But in that day, I'm talking
about the reality of it. Raising up these vile bodies
from the dead to be clothed with perfection and robed in glory
and immortality and to live forever with the Lord. Caught up to be
with Him in the air, he said. in that last day. That's omnipotent. That's almighty power. He said,
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump,
for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall
be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. What basis
do I have of that? Huh? Everything that I've said
to you tonight is so far out of our reach, it ain't even funny. And that's the question I'm asking. This is what God... Here's Jacob. He's been called up to the house
of God to hear. And God began to tell him some
things. He told him who he was. Told him what he was going to
be. And now He's given him the basis for it. I'm God Almighty. That's how these things can be.
Now, He tells him, He said, Be fruitful and multiply. He said,
you're worried about getting wiped off the face of the map.
But he said, a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee,
and kings shall come out of thy loins. And the land which I gave
Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed after
thee will I give the land. Don't that seem a little hard
to believe? Don't you know Jacob was... Wouldn't you have trouble
with that? Huh? Does it seem like God demands
a little bit more than what we can produce? It does until you
perceive that this is God Almighty. And that's what He's telling
us. Every promise of eternal life, every promise that He has
to the believer is just so far out of our hands, it's not even
worth talking about. It's almost hilarious to me anymore
to listen to people talk about how they got saved and how they
what they call salvation and how they define salvation and
how they define the gospel. It's so ridiculous once you understand
how infinite, out of reach these things are to you. Has to be
given of God. There's no need too great for
God to supply. Paul said, my God shall supply
all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. No resistance. Too strong for God to overcome. Listen to this, and you that
were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,
now hath He reconciled. No misery too great for God to
relieve. He said, if in this life only
we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But
now is Christ risen from the dead. No promise too hard for
God to keep. Paul said, all the promises of
God in Christ are yea and amen. No evil too great for God to
deliver from. God stood over Paul the apostle.
I think this is over in Acts 26 if I remember right. He stood
over Paul and he said to him this. He said, you take my gospel
to the heathen. He told that to a Jewish Pharisee
converted. And there he was in scales on
his eyes and mud on his face being unholy and laying in the
mud. God said, you take my gospel to the heathen. You take it to
the heathen and I'll deliver thee from the people and from
the Gentiles and I'll open their eyes and turn them from darkness
to light and from the power of Satan. Listen to this. unto God
that they might receive forgiveness of sins and be heirs among them
which are sanctified by faith that is in me. I'm God Almighty. Now you get up out of that mud
and go preach my gospel. I'm God Almighty, all power,
he said, in heaven and earth given unto me. Now go preach. Go preach. You see what he's
telling him? Oh, God tell me that. Tell me
that in my heart. Apply that to my heart. What
hope I'd have in preaching this gospel if I could just get a
handle on that. I am God of