“I believe in God the Father, Almighty.” These words have been repeated by Christians for almost 2000 years, in both the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, and the truth of those words is fundamental to the Christian faith: we believe that God is “almighty”; “omnipotent.” The past couple of weeks as we have studied what the Bible teaches us about “Our Great God”, we have seen that He is “omniscient” (all-knowing) and that He is “omnipresent” (all-present). This morning we will look at the third of these three classic attributes of God, that He is “omnipotent.” Omnipotent comes from the Latin: “omni”, meaning “all”, and “potent”, meaning “powerful.” Our English word “Almighty” means the same thing: God has all power! The word “Almighty” is used at least 56 times in the English Bible, and it is used of NO ONE but God! From Genesis to Revelation, the doctrine of the Omnipotence of God is taught:
I. The Doctrine of Our Omnipotent God
Now let me say right off that we are not going to spend a lot of time dealing with foolish objections like: “Is God strong enough to make a rock so heavy that He can’t lift it?”, or “Can God make a square fit into a triangle?”, etc., etc. These things are logical absurdities and have no connection with reality. We are not here today to play word games. We are here to seek the Living God. And there is nothing too difficult for the Living God. As John Chrysostom said years ago: God will not do that which is inconsistent with His character or His intelligence. For example, the Bible says that “God cannot lie.” That is not a limitation on the power of God! He WILL not do anything inconsistent with His nature. God can do anything He wills to do. He is Almighty; He is Omnipotent. We see this all through the word of God:
— We see it in the very beginning, in the Book of Genesis, when God “spoke” and created everything that came into being. It is significant that it says; “And God said, ‘Let there be light …” etc. He just SPOKE these things into being; it demonstrates that it was effortless for Him; it was not hard labor, this bringing a universe into being; He just spoke it and it was done. And let us be clear about this: God did not rest on the 7th day because He was tired! He could have spoken a fully created new galaxy into existence every moment for the rest of eternity and never broken a sweat! God rested on the 7th day as an example for OUR sake. He had no need for rest Himself; He is almighty!
— Genesis 18 When God visited Sarah and Abraham and told them that at this time next year he would come back, and Sarah would have a son, :12 says that Sarah laughed to herself. But God responded in :18, “Is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, and this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” Abraham was 99 years old when God spoke those words – but that next year, his son Isaac was born. There is nothing too difficult for the Lord!
— Psalm 62:11 “Once God has spoken; twice I have heard this: that power belongs to God.” All power is His. He has it all. Whatever power any person or any nation or entity has, is only given to them from God. “Power belongs to God.” He is omnipotent; He is the source of all power.
— Psalm 115:3 “But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.” We are not able to do whatever we please. We don’t have the power, the money, the ability to do whatever we want. We are limited. We can think of all kinds of things we would like to do, but we can’t do it, for all kinds of reasons. But God is not limited; He can do “whatever He pleases.” He is almighty!
— Jeremiah 32, Jeremiah prayed in :17 and said, “Ah Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You!” Jeremiah prayed that prayer in the context of thelandofIsraelabout to be taken captive by the king ofBabylon. But God commanded Jeremiah to buy a field – at this of all times?! – because He would again re-establish the land by His power. In the face of a hopeless nation, nothing was too difficult for God!
— Matthew 19:26 after the Rich Young Ruler had gone away sorrowful because he didn’t want to do what Jesus told him to do to be saved, Jesus told His disciples “it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” The Bible says the disciples were “astonished” and said, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus answered, “With men it is impossible, but with God, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE”! God can do what men cannot! All things are possible with Him!
— Mark 9:22-24 When they brought a boy to Jesus who had been possessed by a spirit, the father of the boy said to Jesus, “If You can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” Jesus replied, “’IF You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” And immediately the boy’s father cried out: “I do believe; help my unbelief.” But there was no question “IF” Jesus could do something – He could! — “All things are possible” for Him; He has omnipotent power!
— God’s power is superior to all human powers, and to all of them combined. Psalm 2 says “Why are the nations in an uproar, and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Christ … He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger, and terrify them in His fury …”. The Bible says that God LAUGHS at the combined forces of mankind which would array themselves against Him. Revelation 20 gives us the outcome of this: the armies of the world will be gathered together and surround the camp of the saints and the beloved city – “and fire came down from heaven and devoured them.” Revelation 19 says when Jesus returns He will come with “a rod of iron in His hand, with which to smite the nations.” And He will smash their combined “power” like a man smashes a pot with an iron rod. All of the combined “power” of mankind is NOTHING to Him. He laughs at them; He breathes and they are consumed. He smashes them like a pot.
— Revelation 19:6 closes the story of history in scripture, saying that: “the voice of a great multitude and the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!” From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible teaches us that He is God Almighty: “Our Omnipotent God”!
APPLICATIONS
In Ephesians 1:18-19, the Apostle Paul prays for his readers. His final request was this: “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know … what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” Paul’s request there is significant. He says, I pray that you may know how great God’s power towards you really is! The fact is, although perhaps all of us here would assert that we “know” that God is all-powerful, we really have not applied that truth to our particular circumstances. Let’s look at some of the ways that the truth of God’s omnipotence should affect us:
A. Individual Needs
There are some of you here today who have some specific situations in which your only hope is in the power of God. This week in my Bible reading time I read of the woman in Mark 5 who had had a hemorrhage for 12 years. The Bible says that she “had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse.” This woman had no hope. She had tried everything she could try; she had tried every doctor; she had spent all her money. There was no other hope for her. All the power and wisdom of man had failed her. The only hope she had was that God could do something that mankind could not. And so :27 says that hearing about Jesus, she came up, and touched His cloak, thinking, “If I just touch His garments, I shall get well.” And she did – and the Bible says that immediately she was healed. Jesus had the power to do what no one else could do.
I share that scripture today because some of you are in the very same position that woman was in. You are in desperate straights. You have tried everything else there is to try; every doctor, every solution; every diet; every counselor; everything within the power of man to do for whatever your problem is, you have tried it. But the power of man has failed. The only hope that some of you have for your situation today is in the power of God. And like the woman in Mark 5, you need to fall down before the Lord and say, “God, my only hope is in Your power” – and ask Him to do for you what no one else can do. At the invitation today, you need to be at the altar, seeking God’s power for your physical condition, or for your family member, or that situation you are in where no one else has the power to help. God is omnipotent. Seek Him!
B. Salvation
More importantly than that — what some of us need to understand about a particular situation in your life, is what ALL of us need to realize about our salvation: your only hope for salvation is in the power of God.
Matthew 19 says that Rich Young Ruler came to Jesus and asked “what must I do to obtain eternal life.” Jesus said to him, “Keep the commandments.” He said, “Which ones?” Jesus told him the basic commandments. The young man thought he WAS keeping them, so Jesus told him to do something that pointed out his error. He said, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor, and come, Follow Me.” The Bible says that young man went away sorrowful. He loved his money more than he wanted to be saved. In light of that sad exchange, Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” The disciples were “astonished” – “Then who can be saved?” they asked. Jesus responded: “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible”, Jesus said.
“With men this is impossible.” In other words, mankind can never save himself. And sadly, this is what all the religions of the world are based around: doing good deeds that they might be saved. You see it with the Muslims, who say if you pray 5 times a day, and go on the pilgrimage, and give alms to the poor that will give you “credit” with God; you see it with virtually every religion in the world. It is “what can you do to be saved.” And people are spending their whole lives trying to be good enough to be saved. It’s so sad, because Jesus says “With men this is impossible.” You will never give enough, you will never do enough, you will never be enough. It is impossible. Some of you are here today, coming to church in an attempt to “be good enough” to make yourself right with God and get to heaven. Give it up! “With men it is impossible.” “But with God, all things are possible.” God has the power to save you. God’s power can do what you cannot.
In Jeremiah 13, God asked, “Can … a leopard change his spots?” The answer, of course, is NO! And God says, and neither can you save yourself. You can’t change your life; you can’t amend your own ways. But GOD can! Romans 1 says “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the POWER of God for salvation, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.” In other words, the power of God for salvation is available for anyone. The Bible says, “Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” Call upon God, and ask Him to save you; ask Him to do for you what you can’t do for yourself. His power will wash you from sin, and give you a new heart, and a new life, and a new peace, and a home in heaven, and a new purpose for life. He can do what you can’t do – but you have to realize that only HE can do, and ask Him to do that for you. Cry out to Him today; say with that publican of old, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Make your commitment like that of the old hymn: “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling.” Your only hope of salvation is the power of God through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. But He DOES have power to save, and He WILL save you, if you will call upon Him.
C. Fear of Men
In Matthew 10:28 Jesus said: “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather but fear Him, who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
I Peter 3:13 says: “Do not fear their fear, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your heart.”
God says: don’t be afraid of people. They have little power, and whatever power they have, is on loan to them from God. God is the One who has all power. Fear HIM!
We spoke last week of how King Nebuchadnezzar threw Hannaniah, Mishael and Azariah into the fiery furnace because they would not bow down to his idol. They told the king they believed in the power of God: “Our God is able to save us from the fiery furnace … but if He does not, we will not bow down.” They said, in effect, we don’t fear you; we fear HIM – and we will not bow down to you! They were willing to lose their lives, in order to save their souls.
In 2010, ten Christian aid workers who had trekked deep into Afghanistanto administer eye care were murdered in an ambush by the Taliban. They killed every man in the group, including several Americans – except one Afghan. When the murderers began shooting, this man raised his hands and pledged his allegiance to Allah, and they spared him. That man saved his life – for a brief time – but he lost his soul. He feared the wrong ones. He feared those who had the power to take his life, but not Him who had the power to save his soul.
But listen: it is one thing to say that you will not bow down to a false god when it comes down to a life-and-death choice. But what about the choices you face TODAY: when your peers at school expect you to cheat along with them, and give you the answer to that test, will you fear them, or God? When your boss expects you to compromise on that report, will you fear him, or will you fear God? When people might make fun of you for praying over your meal, or carrying your Bible, or dressing modestly, or not “fitting into their mold”, will you fear THEM, or will you fear HIM?! The Bible says, remember who has omnipotent power, and fear HIM, and not those “grasshoppers” of men you have been afraid of. I believe the day is coming for all of us when we will have to choose between obeying God, or bowing down to the edicts of our government. We are going to have to be Daniels; we are going to have to be like the three Hebrew children, who will say “Our God is able.” Let us “choose this day” what our response is going to be: “We will not bow down” to them. We will fear HIM who alone is Omnipotent!
D. Church
In Acts 1:8 Jesus told His disciples: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you …”. He has all power to give us, and that is what we need to be seeking for our church; we need His almighty power.
That is why we kneel and pray every Sunday in our services. That is why we have a group of men who meet every Sunday in Room 100 at 8:00 to pray before we begin worship. That is why we have called for the men of the church to gather together and pray here in the worship center each Thursday at 6:00 a.m. That is why we encourage everyone to pray for our services, to pray during the invitation. Our greatest need as a church is for the power of God to be poured out among us. Our greatest need is not for a “great speaker” to come in; our greatest need is not for a certain series of meetings; our greatest need is not for “better organization.” Our greatest need is not to get whipped up emotionally or work ourselves to the bone trying to do the best that man can do. What we need more than anything else as a church is the power of GOD to fall upon us!
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I see so many contemporary churches with their light shows and fog machines, trying to imitate with the technology of man the glory of God that came upon thetempleofSolomon. I don’t want a man-made glory that we can buy with a $300 fog machine; I want the power and glory of GOD HIMSELF to settle like a fog in this place! There is no substitute for it! What we need more than anything else is the hand of His omnipotent power on our church.
E. Nation
We all know how desperate a shape our nation is in. And it is not just economic. It is moral, and spiritual. The economic troubles of our country pale to our moral and spiritual problems:
— The New York Times just reported that ONE-HALF of the babies born in theUnited Statestoday to women under 30 now occur outside of marriage.
— A few days ago, WashingtonStatebecame the 7th state to legalize the marriage of homosexuals to each other – taking our country another step towardsSodom.
— President Obama has now lined up religious institutions and demanded that they violate their consciences and obey Federal mandates – we are headed down a slippery slope!
— When a political candidate like Rick Santorum can get crucified in the press for saying in a speech to a religious college that Satan is an enemy who is attacking America– and he is laughed at and lambasted because almost nobody in the country even believes in such a thing as a real devil anymore, we are in desperate trouble!
But as bad as things are, just as in the days of Jeremiah, God can revive and restore our nation. Jeremiah’s prayer: “Nothing is too difficult for Thee” needs to be our prayer: morals have gone down the toilet, the media crucifies anyone who dares to uphold biblical standards, people are being persecuted for praying in Jesus’ name – it does not look good. But there is ONE hope, and it is what we are looking at today: NOTHING is too difficult for God. God can take even a nation like this, and pour out His power and Spirit upon it, and it can be changed. That is why our cry needs to be to the Lord. You can do all the political organizing you can – and I am not saying that political organizing is wrong; we should be involved in the process, and vote. But politics only pits “us” against “them”, and if “they” have more votes than “us”, there is nothing we can do about it. But when God’s Spirit sweeps through a nation, people’s hearts are changed, and godly leaders can be elected, and this nation will be spared. But our hope is not in politics; our only hope is in the omnipotent power of God! THAT is why we each need to cry out to God for our nation. That is why our men need to be at the church praying early on Thursday morning! That is why this altar needs to be filled every week with people praying and seeking God. The only hope for our nation is in the omnipotent power of God!
CONCLUSION
There are many areas of our lives that look hopeless. But the encouraging thing is: in all of these areas – and more than we are able to address this morning – God has omnipotent power. Ephesians 3:20 says He “is able to do exceeding, abundantly beyond all that we ask or even think”! We need to truly realize that, and call out to Him to do what only He has the power to do.
Back in the mid-1800’s, A.B. Simpson was a struggling, middle-aged pastor, who about to lay it all down and quit. His health was broken, he was in the depths of depression, and the work was not going well. He was at the end of his rope. But one day, he “just so happened” to hear the simple words of an old spiritual: “Nothing is too hard for Jesus. No man can work like Him.” God used those simple words to touch Simpson’s heart. He remembered that HE could do not what needed to be done, but God in His Almighty power could. He went away for a time with the Lord, who strengthened him with His power, and poured out His blessing on his ministry – and A.B. Simpson led in one of the great missionary movements in history, which ended up becoming the “Christian and Missionary Alliance”, one of the great missionary denominations today.
Some of you here today are in the same boat that A.B. Simpson was all those years ago: whether it is physically, emotionally, spiritually – you need the power of God in a special way in your life. Bring that the Lord today. Remember that He has omnipotent power, and bring that to Him.
I think many of us probably identify with the father of the boy in Mark 9, to whom Jesus said, “All things are possible to him who believes.” The Bible says that man “IMMEDIATELY” cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” I identify with that man SO much. I DO believe in the Lord; I DO believe in His omnipotent power. Yet I know that so many times I don’t act like it. Perhaps there are many of us today who need to cry out, like that man, in the situations we face: “I do believe; help my unbelief.”
Let’s take some time right now to seek the Lord with all our hearts, and ask Him to do what only HE can do for each situation on our heart: to stretch out His almighty arm and show us that He is truly “Our Omnipotent God”!
shawnethomas 