Jacob, at this time, is dying. This is his last sickness before
he becomes well. And Joseph heard about this sickness
that his dad was going through, and he took his two boys, Ephraim
and Manasseh, to come and see him for the last time. And we
read where Jacob strengthened himself when Joseph came and
sat upon his bed. He encouraged himself. You know, if the greater Joseph
comes to you, the Lord Jesus Christ, it's an encouraging thing,
isn't it? It's something that strengthens
you and helps you. And then we read in verse three,
And Jacob said unto Joseph, El Shaddai appeared unto me. God Almighty appeared unto me. That's what I've entitled this
message. God Almighty. Now, this is the name that God
revealed to Abraham back in Genesis 17. And when Abram was ninety years
old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I
am the Almighty God. Walk thou before me, and be thou
perfect. God Almighty. In the New Testament, when John
speaks of the Lord God, this is the way the New Testament
says the exact same thing. You can read this in Revelation
chapter 19, verse 6. We read where the heavenly choir
says, Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Omnipotent means all powerful. He is the almighty, the all powerful
God. It's all omnipotence means all
powerful. God all powerful appeared to
be. Would you turn with me for a moment to Luke chapter one?
I think this these verses describe God's omnipotence. Luke chapter
one. Beginning in verse 26. And in the sixth month, the angel
Gabriel was sent from God into the city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
to a virgin, someone who had never known intimate relations
with a man. Mary was a virgin, a spouse to
a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the
virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her
and said, Hail, thou art highly favored. The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was
troubled at his saying and cast in her mind what manner of salutation
this should be. And the angel said unto her,
fear not, Mary, for thou has found favor with God. That's literally you found grace
with God. Now, understand this. Yes, Mary
was a virgin. She'd never known intimate relations
with a man. Mary was also a sinner. She needed
grace just like you and I did. Verse 31, and behold, Thou shalt conceive in thy womb,
and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus." Now, how
is she going to conceive if she's a virgin? Look what he goes on
to say. He shall be great, and shall
be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto
him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over
the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be
no end. Then said Mary unto the angel,
How should this be, saying, I know not a man? And the angel answered
and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the
power, the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore,
also that holy thing. What a name for our Lord. It's
almost like you can't even come up with a word to describe it.
That holy thing. which shall be born of thee shall
be called the Son of God. And behold, thy cousin Elizabeth,
she hath also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the
sixth month with her, who is called barren." Now, here's the
reason behind all this. A virgin having a baby called
the Son of God? For with God, nothing shall be
impossible. Now, that's as clear a definition
as I can come up with the omnipotence of God. With God, nothing shall
be impossible. His power knows no limitations. It knows no boundaries. We have so much power, and what
power we have, it was given to us. We don't naturally have powers,
what He has given us. But we have so much power, then
we run out. You ever lifted weights? You
lift weights, you can lift them so many times, but after so many
times, you run out of power. You can't move it a bit. It's
gone. I mean, you have no power left. Our power is limited. A
car can run so long as the gas is in there, but when the gas
is gone, the car loses its power. It stops. Our power is limited. His power is unlimited. It's infinite. Nothing is too
hard for him. Do you remember when Sarah heard
the Lord tell Abraham that she was 90 years old. She'd already
gone through the process of menopause. I mean, there's no way she could
have a baby. And she hears the Lord tell Abraham, Sarah's going
to have a son. And she laughed. She laughed. I think it's really interesting
when the Lord says, why'd you laugh? She said, I didn't laugh.
She lied to the Lord right then. I mean, Sarah. Sarah, Sarah,
just like you and I. But the Lord said to her, is
anything too hard for the Lord? Is there anything that's beyond
his ability? He has no laws of nature or laws
of physics that he is controlled by, you know, and he wills it. He makes something that's physically
impossible to happen. I love that passage of Scripture
where Elisha, he was watching, he was swinging his axe and the
axe head fell in the water and went down. And Elisha prayed
and something impossible happened. That axe head came up and started
floating. That's impossible. Yes, it is
physically impossible, but with God, nothing shall be impossible. That doesn't even take effort
on His part. All He has to do is will it.
God is all-powerful. He doesn't know limitations the
way you and I do. Now, His omnipotence is displayed
in these three areas. First, His omnipotence, His almighty
power that knows no limitations is seen in creation. Listen to
this scripture from Romans 1, verse 20. It says, The invisible
things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen
being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal
power and Godhead. Creation tells us that God is
all-powerful. How? He's faked the world into
existence. You know, there was a time when
there was no sun, there was no moon, there was no earth, there
was no atmosphere, there was nothing. There was nothing but
God. That's all there was, was God.
And He said, like me, and life was. He spake the universe into
existence merely as an act of His will. Now, that's powerful,
isn't it? You try it. Ain't no way any of us can do
anything like that. But by an act of His will, He spake the
universe into existence. Creation shows His mighty power.
Now, here's the second thing that shows His mighty power,
His providence. What's providence? It's everything
that happens in time. Everything. Now, he demonstrates
his power in providence. That's everything that happens
in time. And here's how. He controls everything. The wise man said
the lot is cast into the lap. And when we think of that, we
think of lot, don't we? The lot being cast in the lap, who gets
the shortest lot and so on. But the scripture says the whole
disposing thereof is of the Lord. Whatever happens, it's His will
being done. Whatever it is, doesn't matter
what we're talking about. Ultimately, He did it. He was
in control of it. Whatever happens in providence,
whatever happens in time, He is in control of it. Let me show
you an example of this in Genesis 45. You remember that terrible thing
that happened to Joseph? His brother sold him into slavery.
And what they did, they were responsible for. It was a wicked
thing that they did. But look what Joseph says to
them. Verse 4, this is after he makes himself known to them.
Genesis 45, verse 4. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said,
I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Now, therefore,
be not greed, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me
hither. God didn't send me before you to preserve life. For these
two years hath the famine been in the land, and yet there are
five years in which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
God sent me before you to preserve a posterity in the earth, and
to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now, it was not
you that sent me hither. Now wait a minute. You read that
passage of Scripture, they conspired together to get rid of their
brother. They hated his guts. They were jealous of him. They
wanted him out of the picture. They wanted him dead. And they
conspired together to sell him into slavery. And yet, Joseph
said, you're not the ones who did it. God did it. Regarding everything, now listen
to me, this is everything. God did it. You know, I think
it's interesting the way we'll say, well, that was providential.
When something good happens, that's providential. Everyone
was bad, it was providential too. Everything that happens
is God's perfect providence taking place. I'm so thankful for that. I'd be miserable if it was any
other way. God is in control. Listen to Scripture. And we know,
Romans 8, 28, and we know that all things Does that mean everything? We
know that all things work together for good. God's mind is so infinite,
so in control, that everything is working together. He's causing
it all to work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are called according to His purpose. And God doesn't have
any contingency plans. God doesn't have a plan B in
case something messes up. He's in absolute sovereign control. What power it takes. But here's
where his power is most clearly seen. We've talked about creation. Boy, we get a real view of his
power there. And providence, how powerful
he seems in providence. But his power is most especially
seen in the salvation of the sinner. Now, would you turn with
me to Mark chapter 10? Mark chapter 10, verse 26, And they were astonished out
of measure, saying among themselves in utter despair and dejection,
Who then can be saved? And this rich young ruler, he
came up to the Lord. And talk about a guy that had an impressive
resume. He said, all these things that I kept from my youth up.
I mean, he thought he kept the law. This was a fine young man,
a rich young ruler. And the Lord sends him away.
The disciples see this, they say, who can be saved? If this
fella can't be saved, who can be saved? He's a lot better than
we are. Who can be saved? Look how the Lord answers in
verse 27. And Jesus, looking upon them, saith with men, It,
salvation, is impossible. But not with God. For with God,
all things are possible. Why? Because He is omnipotent. And how His power is displayed
in the salvation of a sinner. Now, I want to talk about that
for a few minutes. I want to camp here. What power was displayed in the
incarnation of Jesus Christ. Now, you think about that. When
God, the infinite God, became flesh, what power was displayed? Grace is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. What power was displayed when
the infinite Creator became a seed? in Mary's womb and grew. What power is manifested by that? What power is seen in His perfectly
obedient life? He lived for 30 years in total
obscurity. Nobody knew who He was. His brothers
and sisters didn't know who He was. I mean, they knew He was
a brother, but they didn't understand He was the Son of God. But He
never sinned. He never even fought a sin. He
knew no sin. If you would have tried to describe
sin to Him, He wouldn't have been able to understand really
what you were talking about at that time. Because He knew no
sin. Now, He was made sin on the cross. He was made to know what that
means. But when He walked upon this earth, He never sinned. I love that passage of Scripture
in Romans chapter 1 where it says, He was declared to be the
Son of God with power. by the spirit of holiness. What
is it that demonstrated his power? Was it the fact that he could
create, that he could cast demons out and steal the waves and the
wind and perform all kinds of miracles, give sight to the blind,
heal the lepers, raise the dead? Yeah, those do show his power.
But no more than this shows his power, he never sinned. What
power it took for him to never sin. But His amazing power is
also seen in His miracles. I love what the disciples said.
What manner of man is this? What manner of man is this that
even the winds and the sea obey Him? There was a great storm
going on. They were scared to death. He
gets up and He rebukes the wind. He rebukes the sea. Peace, be
still. And the Scripture says there
was a great calm. That lake all of a sudden looked like glass.
What manner of man is this that has the power to do this? He
could raise the dead. That's power. He could bring
into existence food that was not there before. He had creative
power. You know, people talk about creative
people. There's no such thing. There's only one who can create.
That's God Himself. And He demonstrated His power
in His miracles. What amazing power is seen in
His death. How could God, the God-man, die? And you think of the power it
took for Him to die. I mean, it doesn't take any power
for us to die. We're just weak, frail creatures. But we're talking about the Son
of God. We're talking about the God-Man. What power it took for
Him to die. And what power He manifested
in the accomplishments of His death. If you're a believer,
did you come in here heavy over your sin? heavy hearted over your weakness
and sinfulness, maybe a particular simple life even. And listen
to this. Do you know that his death has
already put that away so it's not even existent? That thing
that you feel bad about, it's not. His blood has put it away. Here's what His death did. His
death. This is the power of His death.
His death completely saved everybody He died for. What kind of power
is that? Oh, the power of His death. The
power of His resurrection when He raised Himself from the dead. And what power is seen in the
salvation of the sinner? You have he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. And I want you, if you're a believer,
what power does it take to give you life? You know, it didn't
come from you. The same power that raised Christ
from the dead gave you the spiritual life that you have. And what
about the fact that you've persevered all the way up to this point,
the fact that you haven't fallen away, the fact that you haven't
quit, the fact that you haven't left? Why is that? by the power
of God through faith unto salvation. And how his power will be magnified
when this sinner talking to you and every sinner he died for,
how his power will be magnified when I stand before the very
throne of God's holiness and God looks me over through and
through and he sees nothing but that which is well pleasing to
him. Is that going to take power? Omnipotence is essential to His
being. He could not be God without being
God Almighty. Without omnipotence, His other
attributes could not be. You know, we talk about the sovereignty
of God, the fact that He has a will and controls everything. But what would His sovereignty
be without omnipotence? He wouldn't have the power to
make sure His will comes to pass. What would his wrath be if he
didn't have the power to execute his wrath? What would his mercy
be if he didn't have the power to save the objects of his mercy? Omnipotence, almighty power,
is essential to his being. And this attribute is what theologians
call non-communicable. Only he is omnipotent. Psalm
62 verse 11 says, God had spoken once, twice have I heard this,
that power belongeth unto God. He said, all power is given unto
me in heaven and in earth. Now let's go back to our text
in Genesis 48. God Almighty. Now the only one who can do anything
for you is God Almighty. He's all powerful. But I want
you to think this Almighty God, I want you to think because of
His power, what He can do for you. I mean, I know that's a
selfish way to look at things. I realize that, but I can't help
it. That's what, what can He do for
me? What can He do for me? If He's Almighty, that's what
I'm interested in. What can He do for me? Now look what Jacob
says, verse 3. And Jacob said unto Joseph, God
Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan. This is talking about when he
was fleeing from his brother Esau. You can read about it in
Genesis chapter 28, and this is what he tells him of. God
Almighty appeared unto me in Luz in the land of Canaan and
blessed me. Now, I'm awfully interested in
having the blessing of God Almighty, aren't you? I want Him to bless
me. Now, I've had people say to me,
bless you. Bless you. And they mean well. I don't want
to be hateful, but I want to say, can you do that? Is it in your power to bless
me? It's not in your power to bless
me and it's not in my power to bless you. But it is in His power
to bless you. God Almighty appeared to me and
blessed me. Now, I'm interested in having
His blessing, aren't you? What is God's blessing? Well,
look what He says. He tells us anything He does
for us is God's blessing. But look in verse 4. And He said unto me, Behold,
I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make
of thee a multitude of people, and will give this land to thy
seed after thee for an everlasting possession." Now, in that verse,
I see precisely what God's blessing is. Now, I know a lot of times
when we think of God's blessing, we think of having plenty of
money in the bank or good health or plenty to eat and so on. And the fact of the matter is
the opposite of those things may be God's blessing. Don't
particularly think that those things necessarily are indicative
of God's blessing. I am thankful for them, but that's
really not what the Scriptures is much referring to when it
talks about God's blessing. In that verse of Scripture, you'll
notice when he says, God bless me, when God spoke to him, he
said, I'm going to make you something and I'm going to give you something.
Now, there's God's blessing. He's going to make me something.
And he's going to give me something. First, I will make thee. I will
cause thee to be fruitful. I will make you a multitude of
nations. Now, was Jacob that in himself?
Of course not. He was a weak, weak, sinful man. But he became what God made him
to be. Now, when God blesses a man,
He causes him to be what he was not. He causes him to be. I mean, to be. What he was not,
and listen to this scripture, you're familiar with this scripture,
I quote it all the time. Second Corinthians 521. For he hath
made him to be sin who knew no sin that we might be made. the very righteousness of God
in him. Now, do you want to see God's
righteousness? And I say this with fear and trembling. I mean,
it makes me nervous to say this, but I believe it. And I'm going
to say, you want to see God's righteousness? You're looking
at it. How could you say something like that? How could you say
something like that? Because he was made to be sin. My sin became his. That's what happened on the cross.
My sin became His, and His righteousness becomes mine. It's called substitution. Substitution. I made the very
righteousness of God. That's what the Bible says. So
when I say that, that's not... I guarantee you a lot of folks
will hear me say that, and they think, what a ridiculous thing. You,
the righteousness of God? Yes. If Christ died for me, my
sin was given to Him. It became His. He paid the penalty. His righteousness becomes mine. It really is mine. I'm made to
be what I was not. I'm made to be the very righteousness
of God in Him. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things have become new. Listen to this Scripture. 1 Corinthians
1.30. Of Him. Of Him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom. Am I wise in myself? Oh, I'm
such a fool. But now in Christ, I'm actually
made the wisdom of God. In this sense, God sees me as
fit for communion and fellowship with Him because Christ is my
wisdom before God. He's made unto us wisdom. He's
made unto us righteousness. God can't find any fault with
me. I'm perfectly righteous in His sight. He's made unto us
sanctification, holiness. I'm holy in God's sight. He's made unto us redemption,
a complete sin payment. So here's the first blessing
of God. When God, the Almighty God, blesses you, He causes you
to be what you were not. And not only does He cause you
to be what you were not, there's a lot of things He gives you. I will give this land to thy
seed after thee for an everlasting possession. He gives. Not only
does He make us to be what we're not, He gives us things. It would
take all night to talk about all the things He gives us. You
know, all the blessings of His grace and His mercy, His kindness
to us and so on. But you know, what is being spoken
of specifically here is pointed out in verse five. And look what
he says. He says, I will give this land
to thee for an everlasting possession. A possession is that which belongs
to you. It's actually yours. You're not
renting it. You're not borrowing it. You're
not acting as if it were yours. It's yours everlastingly. Now,
he says this to every believer. I'm going to give you this land.
I'm going to give you this for your everlasting possession to
where it's actually yours. You're not borrowing it. You're
not just saying that this is yours. I'm interested in this. I want to have whatever he gives
in his blessings that actually becomes mine. Now, let's go on
reading verse five. And now this is very curious. And now thy
two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in
the land of Egypt before I came unto thee in Egypt, are mine." He tells Joseph, your boys are
mine. They belong to me. Now, the kids
you have after these kids, they're yours. He said that in verse
6. You can have it. But these two are mine. They're my possession. And if you want to know what
your everlasting possession is, Here it is. Ephraim and Manasseh. Now, what's that all about? Well,
turn back to Genesis 41. Now, God has said to Jacob, I'm
going to give you this as an everlasting possession, and so
he looks at Joseph. He says, your two boys are mine.
They're my everlasting possession. Well, what about Ephraim and
Manasseh? Look in Genesis 41, beginning
in verse 50. And unto Joseph were born two
sons, Genesis 41, 50. And unto Joseph were born two
sons before the years of famine came, which Asenoth, the daughter
of Potiphar, priest of Olm, bare unto him. These are the two boys
he had that he had after he was brought into Egypt. And Joseph
called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. For God, said he, hath
made me forget all my toil. and my father's house. Manessa's
name means forgetting, and the name of the second called he
Ephraim, for God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land
of my affliction. Now here's these two boys' names.
Manessa. Forgetting. Forgetting. Anything you'd like to forget? Well, there's a lot of things
I'd like to forget. You know, there's things right now that when I think about it,
I start getting embarrassed. Stuff that happened to me 30
years ago. I sting with embarrassment, humiliation. They're things I'd
like to forget. Forget. Well, Manessa's name
is forgetting. And Ephraim's name is caused
to be fruitful. Now, here's what the believer's
everlasting possession is. First, it has something to do
with forgetting. forgetting. And I know exactly what it's
a reference to. Where God said their sins and their iniquities,
I will remember no more. Now, how is it that God can forget
my sins? He's got a very keen memory. I mean, he can remember that,
you know, he can remember how many things if you jog your memory,
how many sins have you committed that you forgot completely about?
Maybe I haven't thought about it for years, and now all of
a sudden, oh, yeah, I do remember that. Well, God's got a memory
where He can remember everything. He never forgets a thing. So
how in the world can He forget my sin? There's only one way
that can be answered. The only way God can forget my
sin is for there to be nothing there to remember. I've never done anything wrong.
Now here's the first blessing that's my everlasting possession
in Christ. I have never done anything wrong. No sin charged against me. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect, God's justified him. Not guilty. He never did anything. That's
my possession. That's my It's not as if that's
the case. That's me. That's the real me.
I never did anything. That rejoices my heart so much.
It seems almost too good to be true, doesn't it? But because
of what Christ has done for me, he put away my sin. So I stand
before God's law. God, the searchlight of God's
holiness looks me over. There's no sin there. That's how God forgets my sin.
There's nothing there to remember. Oh, I find such confidence in
that. And not only is there nothing there to remember, I'm Ephraim
too. I'm not only Manasseh. That's
mine, but Ephraim's mine too. He's caused me to be fruitful. Not only is there nothing against
me, I've done everything right. Everything God requires for me
to do, everything, I've done. I don't only have a negative
righteousness in what I haven't done, I've also got a positive
righteousness in what I have done. Everything God's required
of me to do, I've done in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that's
my possession. That's who I am. You don't look
that way. Well, maybe, I know I don't,
but that's still who I am in Christ. I've never done anything
wrong. And I've done nothing but that
which is right. That is my everlasting possession. This is my eternal standing before
God, and it really is me. Isaiah chapter 54, verse 17. Would you turn with me there? Verse 17, No weapon is formed against thee
shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee
in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants
of the Lord and their righteousness. Now, do you see that word T-H-E-I-R? It does not say the righteousness
that was imputed to them. It was, but that's not what it
says. It doesn't say the righteousness that was charged to their account,
that perfect obedience of Christ. It says their righteousness. Their personal righteousness,
that's the righteousness that every believer possesses. It's
mine. It's mine. But what do you say
of that righteousness? It's of me. You know that, don't
you? It is of me. Every believer knows
that. What I'm talking about is so
high and glorious and altogether above the flesh that we know
this is of the Lord. No man could ever come up with
anything like this. Now, God Almighty is such. His omnipotence is such. That he has the might through
the death of his son. To make this sinner that's looking
at you and talking to you right now. He's got the power to make it
through the death of his son to where I've never done anything
wrong. I've got nothing to feel guilty
about. And I've always done everything
right. Nothing to fear. I can stand
before God in judgment without fear. He's got the might. He's
got the ability. He's got the power to make this
fellow who's talking to you right now perfectly conformed to the
image of Jesus Christ. So I'm going to be, and I am,
not just going to be, I am, but I'm going to realize it, that's
a going to be, when I experience it. I am, as He is, so are we
in the world. I don't much feel that way though,
but one of these days I will. He's got the power and the might
and the ability to make me perfectly conform to the image of Jesus
Christ. Now does that take omnipotence?
To make you Just like Christ, only omnipotence can do that. God Almighty, said Jacob, appeared
to me. Well, He appeared to you too. The hope you have is found in
His omnipotence. Oh, the power of His blood. Okay, let's pray together.