Isaiah 40. The 40th chapter of
Isaiah. Our study tonight is on the omnipotence
of God or the power of God. And there are so many Scriptures
that we could have went to and took a text, but I wanted to
look at Isaiah 40. And let's begin here reading
in verse 25. Isaiah 40. Verse 25. The power
of God. We're going to have to look at
this in two lessons. We'll look at this one tonight,
and then we'll look at it, the Lord's willing, next week again,
because I want to look at it tonight in just some general
statements made in these passages. Then maybe next week we'll get
more particular into the power of God. But let's read it here
in verse 25 of Isaiah chapter 14. To whom then will you liken
me? Or shall I be equal, saith the
Holy One? Lift up your eyes on high, and
behold, who has created these things, that brings out their
hosts by number? He calls them all by names, by
the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power, not
one fails. Why saith thou, O Jacob, and
why speakest thou, O Israel? My way is hid from the Lord,
and my judgment is passed over from my God. Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the
everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth,
fainteth not? Neither is weary, there is no
searching of his understanding. He gives power to the faint,
and to them that have no might he increases strength. Even the
youth shall faint and be weary, the young men shall utterly fall,
but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They
shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not
be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Now in verse 25, if
we consider the context, and you and I have, and I'll leave
that to you to do, but he makes the statement here in verse 25,
to whom then will you liken me? And shall I be equal, saith the
Lord? And if you study the context, he's been describing his greatness. He describes it in many ways.
He says, the nations are before Me as nothing, and they're less
than nothing. He's the Creator and He's the
Sustainer of all things. And He's dealing with that in
those verses before. And then He comes here and He
asks this verse, in the light of who I am, in the light of
what I've done, He says, who then can you liken unto Me? Any equals? Well, the obvious
answer is no. But He tells us this to get our
minds thinking. Is there any like Him? Well, no, there's not. And one
of the ways that no one is like Him is this power. This power. He is the Almighty. Remember in Genesis 17 where
Abraham had been seeking the Lord, and
the Lord appeared to Abraham and said, Abraham, I am the Almighty. Now, that's the way he described
himself. I am not just mighty, but I am the Almighty. You know there can only be one
Almighty. One Almighty. Just one. When you and I think
about spirits, Most spirits, if we think about the human spirit,
if we think about angelic spirits, there is something to be said
about the power of spirits. Humanity, you and I, we are spiritual
beings, really. We have a body, we have a spirit. And you know the human spirit
is really a powerful thing when you just consider it. I was reading
some about David's mighty men. If you've ever read about some
mighty men, read about David's men sometimes. He had one fellow,
his name was Adeno, and he took a spear, all he had in his hand
was one spear, and he killed 800 men at once. Remember Samson? He took a jawbone
of a jackass that had decayed in the old white jawbone land
there, and he picked that jawbone up and he clavaged his hands
and slew 1,000 Philistines. Now, can you imagine the power
of the Spirit? The Spirit of a man? You know,
if your spirit was cast down and you were discouraged, you
couldn't do something like that. I saw a documentary on World
War II, when they bombed Pearl Harbor, a Japanese bombed Pearl
Harbor, and they had one of their mighty generals, one of their
greatest generals, tried to talk the Emperor out of bombing Pearl
Harbor. They said, America is a sleeping
giant. Let her sleep. Let her sleep. Don't wake her up. And look what
happened when Pearl Harbor was bombed. The spirit of this nation
revived, and look what we did as a nation. The spirit of a
man, even when it's seen in an individual or seen in a nation.
It's a mighty thing, isn't it? It's a mighty thing. I also saw
a documentary on World War II where Hitler was killing so many
of the Jews, and one of the reasons he's able to do that, the documentary
said they had lost their spirit to resist. And it showed them
marching in to those gas chambers. Just had a few guards with rifles.
They could have overcame those guards, but they didn't have
the spirit. You could tell them they urinated
on themselves, defecated on themselves, but they had no spirit to resist
those guards. They marched in there and died.
So the spirit can be a mighty thing in a man. It can be a mighty
thing in angels. How often do we read about the
power of angels? The Lord Jesus shall be revealed
with His mighty angels. You remember one night, the Scripture
says, God sent one angel and killed 180,000 Assyrians. 180,000 Assyrian troops. That's
a bunch of people in there. Angels are might. They're full
of might. They're full of power. The holy
angels or the fallen angels? Look what the devils can do.
We've often said, look at the boils they afflict each other. One, we're told in the Gospel,
they had a woman that was bowed down for 18 long years because
the devil bowed her over. So there's some powerful spirits
if you consider humanity or you consider these spirits. But you
know something? They're not to be compared to
God Almighty. He's over, He rules the human
spirits and He rules the angelic host. If it be the elect angels
or if it be fallen angels, He rules. They're created powers. They have powers that was given
to them and you know most of it will only be temporary power.
Most of the spirit of men will lose what power it has. And those
fallen angels, they are going to lose that power someday. They
won't have it when they are cast into the lake of fire. But listen
to what Romans chapter 1 and verse 20 says of God's power.
We read of His eternal power and Godhead. God is not a created
being. He is an eternal sovereign God. He is eternal power and Godhead. I want to begin with reading
something Stephen Chanock wrote. I thought this was very good
concerning the power of God, His eternal power. He is not
a created being as we are. Here is what Stephen Chanock
said, The power of God is that ability and strength whereby
he can bring to pass whatsoever he pleases. whatsoever his infinite
wisdom may direct, and whatsoever the infinite purity of his will
may resolve. As holiness is the beauty of
God's attributes, so power is that which gives life and action
to all the perfections of his divine nature. Now listen to
this. How vain would be his eternal
counsels if power did not step in to execute them. Without power,
His mercy would be feeble pity. His promise isn't an empty sound,
and His threatening's a mere scarecrow. God's power is like
Himself. It's infinite. It's eternal. It's incomprehensible. It can
neither be checked, restrained, nor frustrated by the creature."
Now, that's a pretty good definition of the power of God, isn't it?
And listen to what John Gill said. The omnipotence of God
may be argued from His independence. All creatures depend on Him,
but He depends on none. There is no cause prior to Him. He's the first cause of all things.
nor any superior to him or above him, neither does any control
him. That's why we read in the Scriptures
that he doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of this earth. And this is why David
said, Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he. Now how can he do
that? How can he perform his will?
How can he bring his counsels to pass? How can He do as He
pleases, when He pleases, with whom He pleases? Because He's
the Almighty. He's the Almighty. You know,
we can't get to Him, can we? If we've got a controversy with
Him, if we want to fuss with Him, if we want to argue our
case, how do we get to Him to do that? And if we could get
to Him to do that, how would we overcome Him? How would we
out-argue Him? And if we could out-argue Him
for the sake of argument, We still can't outpower Him. We
can't overpower Him, can we? Why? Because He's the Almighty. What power we have has been given
to us, and it's temporary. But God's power is eternal. It's like Himself. He is indeed
the Almighty. So the answer here to verse 25
is obvious, isn't it? To whom will you liken me? Lord,
there's nobody like You. Do I have an equal? No, you don't
have an equal. You're God. You're God Almighty. And you know, it's not impotence. It's omnipotence. And how many
in the religious circle today have got those two confused?
Our forefathers used to look at the omnipotence of God. Now
so often we hear about the impotence of God. That God is trying His
best in case. That people have His hands tied.
Untie His hands and let Him have His way. Listen, this is The
Almighty. And you can't liken Him to us.
He won't stoop to our level. He's not human. He's omnipotent. Who are we to liken Him to? Lord,
there's none like Him. Look what he says in verse 26.
Now, he goes on here, and this is so important, and we'll get
into this more next week. But he goes on here to reveal,
he manifests his power, and he does it in creation. Now, there's
two things that when we consider the attributes of God, and I've
always been careful to do this in our studies of the attributes
of God. We look at the attributes of God as they're found in Him. And then we look at them as they
relate to us. I don't want a God that's a for
all. I don't want a God that I can't relate to. I don't want
a God that doesn't come near me and reveal Himself to me.
When we talked about the holiness of God a couple of weeks ago,
we related it to us. How does that affect me? Well,
I'll tell you how that affects you and how it affects me. We
worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. We give thanks at
the remembrance of His holiness. When we see Him high and lifted
up, and the angels saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, how does that affect
you? Woe is me! We get down, don't
we? We get down at His throne, down
at His feet, and we worship Him. And we see a need of a mediator
to bring us into God's holy presence. And it's the same way with His
power. How does this affect me? How can I see this power? How
can I know this God of power? Well, he tells us here, look
in verse 26. He hints at here what he states plainly in other
places. Lift up your eyes on high, and
behold who hath created these things, that brings out their
hosts by number. He calls them all by names, by
the greatness of His might. He is strong in power, not one. He's the Creator. He's the Creator. By Him were all things created. That's said of the Son of God,
who is God, isn't it? He created all things that's
in the heavens, that's in the earth, things visible and things
invisible. They may be thrones or dominions
or principalities of power. He created all things. He created everything. And the
scripture, well look over in Romans, let me read this to you.
Look in Romans chapter 1. So many places in the scripture
you see creation and it's said to be created by the power of
God. And that's what we see when we
lift up our eyes and see the planets, we see the stars and
the sun, things around us. We see the power of God. that
manifest the power of God. Look in Romans chapter 1 and
look in verse 18 and 19 and 20. Romans chapter 1 verse 18. The
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth. They suppress
the truth. They hold it down in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them. in their hearts, their conscience.
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 which are made." What invisible things is he talking
about? Even his eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse. What do men see? What do you
see when you go out of a night? These beautiful nights. I went
out on my back porch several times and just stood and looked
up in the air. We have had some of the most
beautiful, spectacular views the last month or so that I've
ever seen. And you know what I think when
I stand and look up into the universe, into the heaven? The
mighty power of God. The eternal power of God. Men are without excuse if they
don't bow down and acknowledge the Creator. Nobody else could
have did that. And you know it preaches to us.
There's no language or voice where this creation's not preaching. It speaks every language. And
you know what it says? Eternal power. Look at me. Who made me? Who created me? God. The power of God. And there's two or three wonderful
and marvelous things when we talk about this creation. When
you and I make something, the first thing we've got to have
is what? Material. Is it not? If you go to build
a house, you've got to run down to the hardware store. You've
got to run to the lumber yard. You've got to have material,
not God. Listen to Hebrews 11, verse 3.
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." Where did all this come from? Out of nothing.
Out of nothing. You say, Bruce, what about the
little sail that exploded? Nothing. Nothing. What about
the big bang? Nothing there to bang, was it?
Nothing. Where did it come from? In the
beginning, there was nothing. Nothing. God doesn't need material,
does He? You and I do. He's not like us. Well, how did He do it? Power. He's eternal power. The second
thing we need is tools. Don't we? You've got to have tools. You
see, I remember one time, Ginny, I was trying to shear a horse.
I did it with a rock. I didn't have a hammer. And poor
horse, he was a mess when I got this one. If you're going to
do anything and do it right, you've got to have proper tools.
Do you know what God used to create this world? He didn't
have a tool in His hand, did He? Listen to this. The worlds
were framed by the Word of God. By the Word of the Lord were
the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of
His mouth. For He spake, and it was sung. He commanded, and it stood fast."
That's Psalms 33, 6-9. He had no tools left. He spake
it. And I'll tell you something else
you and I need if we're going to build something. We need time.
We need time. And some of us, a lot of time.
You know when the Lord spake? It was done. Let there be light. There was light. Let there be
a firmament. There was a firmament. Let the
sea bring forth its creatures. It came forth. He used six days
to create this universe. But you know he did that just
to fulfill his purpose It didn't take him that long to do it.
He could have done it all by just speaking and it all came
in. He did it for us, too, that we take time to stop. Each time
God speaks, we take time and say, look at that. He spoke. And it was. He commanded. And there it is. There it is.
Now, how can He do that, brothers and sisters? Power. He is the Almighty. And it's
manifested. He could have been in heaven
for all eternity, and He was. And no heaven. He doesn't need
a heaven dwelling. He's been here all eternity, and I don't
know what He did back in eternity. Maybe He did nothing. He didn't
need anything to make Him complete. He was complete already. He didn't
need anything to bring Him pleasure. He's the God of joy. If He hadn't
have done anything, He would have still been the Almighty.
But when he begins to do something, that brings us into the picture.
Then he says, here, I want to show you my power. Look. Look at my power. My eternal
power and my Godhead. But look back over in our text.
Not only did he say, lift up your eyes on high. And Isaiah
chapter 40. Who hath created these things
that brings out their host by number and so on. But look what
he says again in verse 26. He calleth them all by names,
by the greatness of His might. He is strong in power, and because
He is strong in power, look at this, not one felleth. He preserves everything that
He has made. He not only brought all of His
hosts, all the stars, the planets, those big fireballs up into heaven,
they got that fire from Him. They got their life from Him.
And He suffers some of them to burn out. I don't know if that's
what Shanna saw the other day or something else. But the Lord
suffers some of them to fall, doesn't He? But who upholds them? Why don't they all fall out of
the sky? Why don't the sun go dark? What upholds these things? Those
fireballs. Man, you and I can't get within
What, a million miles of those things, can't we? That'd burn
us up. Do you know who upholds those fireballs? The Almighty. And not only those things, but
we're told in Hebrews 1, verses 2 and 3, that He upholds all
things by the Word of His power. All things by the Word of His
power. He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. Power. Power. Look at a couple
more scriptures with me. Over to your left. Look in Psalms
chapter 36. Look in Psalms chapter 36. I
could have wrote this down according to you, but I want you to see
three or four scriptures. Psalms 36 and look in verse 6. Lift up your eyes on high. Who
is creating these things? Who upholds them? But He not
only upholds those starry heavens, but look here what he upholds.
Psalms 36, verse 6. Thy righteousness is like the
great mountains. Thy judgments are a great depth. O Lord, thou preserveth man and
beast. He upholds all of you. He upholds
me. Did you have any idea this morning
when you got out of your bed who woke you up from your sleep?
Who kept your heart beating during the night? Who kept your lungs
pumping? Who gave you strength to get
out of bed and dress yourself? Who gave you strength to go to
work and work today? Who preserved you today? Think
about this. The minute He moves His hand,
you fall. You're gone. Every moment you
move and live and have your being, it's this Almighty that preserves
you. Can you imagine that? Can you
get a hold of that? He preserved us. Man and the
little fowls in the heaven, the mighty beast in the forest, He
preserves them all. The little worm that rises up
out of his hole and wiggles, He preserves the worms. He's
the preserver. How does He do that? How do you
preserve all these little creatures in the sea and in the swamps?
Have you ever seen some of those documentaries where they show
down in the rainforest, little creatures that can't be numbered,
there are so many? It looks to me like it would
keep God so busy, He couldn't do it. But He does it. He does it. Look at this in Psalm
66 and verse 9. Look at this. This is amazing too. Psalm 66. Look at this. This is a wonderful
thing. Think of this, dear soul. Psalm 66 and verse 9. He said there in verse 8, O bless
our God, you people, and make the voice of His praise to be
heard. Why? Which upholdeth our soul in life. He upholds our soul in life. And suffers not our feet to be
moved. I bet you ladies, some of you
ladies have thought about this. We men don't think much about
this. But isn't this a wonderful thing when you think about conception?
When a baby, when a fetus is conceived in the womb. And I
don't mean this in a derogatory way or anything. I sure don't
want to make any of us sick. Can you imagine what the inside
of a woman's womb looks like? I mean, there's no air there.
You can't breathe in there. It's probably bloody, messy. Can you imagine a fetus being
in there for nine months and living? Not breathing? Being fed by its mother? Ain't that an amazing thing?
Who upholds that, y'all? Here's the awful thing about
abortion. That's a lie. And God is upholding that lie.
And somebody goes in there and kills it. God suffers them to
do that. And some, they'll give an awful
count of themselves if they don't seek the Lord for mercy and for
grace and forgiveness. But who upholds that soul? He
said right there, didn't He? He upholds our soul. Till you
come to Christ and He washes your soul clean, who upholds
that soul? when your soul is ready to perish.
And we've got an account in the Gospels where one man said, remember
this fellow said, I've got many goods laid up for many years,
soul, just take it easy now. What did the Lord say to him?
You fool. Tonight, what will be required
of you? Your soul. Your soul is going
to be required of you. He preserves the soul in this
life until it comes the appointed time when God says, I want you
to come up now and give account to me. Or he sends his angels
and they bundle the soul up and bury it off into Christ's bosom,
buried in heaven. But who upholds the soul? He
does. He does. Look in Psalms 93, right
quickly. I won't keep you too much longer.
Look in Psalms 93. Look at this. I was reading this passage today
because Terence sings this sometimes to us, and I love this. Look
what he says here in Psalm 93, beginning in verse 1. The Lord reigneth. He reigneth. Do you believe that? Don't you
rejoice in that? He reigneth. What does He reign
over? Everything. Everything? Does He really? We've
proved that before, haven't we? Even the minutest of details,
all the circumstances in this life. He reigneth. He must be
almighty. He is clothed with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength. Wherewith He hath girded Himself.
The world also is established that it cannot be moved. I like
that, don't you? Thy throne is established of
old, thou art from everlasting. The floods have lifted up." Oh
Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift
up their waves. Now when you see those floods
have lifted up their voice, he's talking about the nations of
people. Remember the Lord Jesus said in the last day, people's
hearts would be fell on them. I had that wrote down somewhere.
I wanted to read that to you. I don't know where it is at now. Distress
of nations, the sea and the waves roaring. Remember the Lord said
that? The sea and the waves roaring. He wasn't talking about the literal
sea. Nations of people. He said perplexities among the
nations. Look at the nations today. Aren't
they confused? And we know some bad times are
coming, don't we? The Lord said men's hearts would
be fell on them for looking after the things that's coming on the
world. Perplexity of nations. Perplexity. But notice what he says here
in verse 4. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of
many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. He's mightier
than these nations. He's mightier than these turmoils
and confusion and perplexities, Glenn, that's coming. I tell
you, that's going to be comforting to us. I don't know what I'm
going to see before I leave this world. But I tell you what, our
children are going to see some dreadful times. I just can't
help but be convinced of it. They're going to see some sad,
dangerous times. And this Scripture right here
is going to be a comfort to some of them. The Lord is mightier
than the nation. He can still the raging of the
sea. One more thing, back over in
our text. One more thing. Look in Isaiah chapter 40 one
more time. Here's one of the things we'll get off in next
week in some detail. Look in Isaiah chapter 40. Look
in 27 verse 28. Isaiah chapter 40. Look in verse
27 and verse 28. Why sayeth thou, O Jacob, and
speaketh thou Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, my judgment
is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? Hast thou
not heard? That the everlasting God, the
Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, He fainteth not. He doesn't grow weak. He doesn't
lose heart. He doesn't faint. Now look at
this. Neither is weary. He doesn't even get discouraged. He never gets weary with upholding
all these little creatures, and mighty creatures, and mighty
stars and planets. If you ever hold something up
for somebody, and after about 10 seconds you start saying,
man, you better hurry, you better hurry. And here He is upholding
everything. Is He weary? No. Is He saying,
man, I can't do this much longer? Is He about to faint? No. Why? Eternal power. His power can't be diminished.
It can't be used up. It can't wax old. It can't be
depleted. He is almighty today as He ever
has been. And He'll be as almighty tomorrow
as He is today. He's the Eternal I Am. I do not change. Oh, what a glorious
God this is. I worship Him, don't you? Don't
you just love the Bible before such a God and worship Him? The
more you find out about it, the more you love Him. The more you
want to worship Him. And look what He says in verse
29. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no mind,
He increases strength." That's an amazing thing. He gives His
power. This is where the Mediator comes
in. This is what we're going to look at next week. More about
the Lord Jesus, the Mediator. God has put His power into the
care of the Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ
gives this power to his people, some more, some less, as he perceives
they need it. Now, one more scripture, and
I want to show you that, then we'll close with this scripture.
Look in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. This
is one of the reasons I like to study about the attributes
of God, to see how they come near to us. And it's an amazing
thing when we start talking about this eternal power, the mighty
power of God, working in us. Haven't we read that in the book
of Ephesians? That you might know the exceeding
greatness of His power to usward who believe? His power to usward
who believe? according to the working of His
mighty power." You can't believe apart from the same power that
created this universe. Somebody said, just believe.
Well, just believe. Just believe. You can't do it.
Not apart from this power. Can you? You can't repent not
apart from this power. Christ is exalted to give repentance. It can't come except this mighty
power draw you. It worketh in us. And look here
what the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12. Look in verse
7. Unless I should be exalted above
measure, that was given to me through the abundance of revelation.
Boy, the Lord opened his heart and showed him spiritual things.
He even caught him up into heaven. There was given to me a thorn
in the flesh. What was that thorn? A messenger
of Satan. What did it do? It buffeted him,
tormented him, whipped him. Lest I should be exalted above
measure, kept him humble, kept him down. And for this thing,
for the cause of this thorn, I besought the Lord three times
that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace
is sufficient for thee, my strength is made perfect in your weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities, in my weaknesses, that the power
of Christ may rest upon me." Ain't that the same power that
created the universe? It is. I have power to lay down
my life. I've got power to take it up
again. And now your Paul says, That
power rests upon me. Ain't that amazing? Verse 10,
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in
necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I
strong. I'm strong. What made Him strong? This power. This power got in
his heart, in his spirit. If you want to read it, turn
back over to my text or I'll read it for you. Listen to this. Verse 30. Here's what he said
in the light of that. Even the youth shall faint and
be weary, the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait
upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Where do they get this
strength? From Christ. The power of Christ may rest
upon me. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, and they
shall run, and they won't be weary." Ain't that amazing? We just read somebody else wasn't
weary. I don't faint, and I'm not weary. And when I give you
my power, when my power is upon you, when I strengthen you, you
ain't going to be weary. How can you sink? if His power
upholds you. You can't, can you? You can't.
I think a man can't sink any lower than these everlasting
arms that get underneath him. That's as low as you're going
to go. And when you get there, you'll feel that power. And you'll
say, Lord, let me suffer. That's all right. Let me suffer.
Because now I'm strong. You're going to mount up with
wings as eagles. And you're going to run and not be weary. You
shall walk. and not faint. Oh, the power
of God. The power of God. It's amazing.