Think of the greatest demonstration of God’s power.
Creation of the universe?
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the crushing of Satan?
The final destruction and recreation of the universe?
Job 26:14, “Behold, these are the fringes of His ways.”
Omnipotent
·
Having all power
·
Having infinite power
·
Having all authority
·
God is not as powerful as He needs to be; He is as powerful as
anyone can ever be
The first name for God used in the Bible is in Genesis 1:1
and is Elohim. It is used over 2,570 times in the OT and it comes from a Hebrew
word meaning “strength” or “power.”
Names of God relating to His omnipotence:
·
Almighty
·
Lord of Hosts
·
Lord God Almighty
·
Consuming Fire
·
Arm of the Lord
·
Creator
The third person of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit. Spirit
is not the term used because a spirit is wispy and invisible. But, rather,
spirit denotes power. It is in contrast to the flesh which is weak and
vulnerable. See how spirit is contrasted to the weakness of flesh in this
verse.
Isaiah 31:3, “Now the Egyptians are men and not God,
And their horses are
flesh and not spirit”
Yet as great as God’s power is it is fully controlled by all
that He is. It is governed by His love, mercy, and patience.
Job 36:5, "Behold, God is mighty but does not despise
any.”
Picture this scenario
All of the armies from every nation on the Earth gather
together and surround the one object of their hatred: a small city with unarmed
people. The numbers of these armies are so great that they are like the sand on
the shore: they cannot be counted. Their one goal is total victory and
annihilation. Their rage is so great that there exists no room for compromise,
no room for mercy. They are united together and lead by the greatest force of
evil in all of history: Satan.
Revelation 20:7-9
“7When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released
from his prison,
8and will come
out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and
Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand
of the seashore.
9And they came
up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and
the beloved city, and…”
What happened next?
Did God gather His army of angels…
Did God creat earthquakes and tidal waves and hurled
great hailstones…
“…fire came down from heaven and
devoured them.”
That was it quite plain and
simple. All of the armies of every nation gathered against God. I’m sure that
they numbered in the millions and in one quick action God destroyed them all.
It was like brushing off a gnat.
God does not sit in the Heavens and do whatever He pleases
merely to amuse Himself. Whatever He does He does to His glory.
When the Israelites were trapped at the Red Sea and the
Egyptians were coming to destroy them the Bible says in Psalm 106:8,
“Nevertheless He saved them for the sake of His name,
That He might make His
power known.”
Why did God want to make His power known?
·
So that we might worship and glorify Him.
·
So that we might know the power that is available to us.
·
So that we might look to Him in trust and obedience.
Verse 13, “They quickly forgot His works;
They did not wait for His
counsel”
We think that it is difficult to worship that which we
cannot see, but then we ignore what we do see.
God’s works are plenteous but our eyes are dim and our
memories are short.
How much more able are we able to recall the little good
that we do and then forget the much greater good that God does?
Great Evacuation
An evacuation is when people are moved from a
dangerous place to one that is safer. The largest ancient evacuation was
in 480 BC when 100,000 people left Athens because of the approaching Persian
army. More recent evacuations involved 3.75 million people in British cities
starting in September 1939 due to World War II, 14 million Chinese in July 1998
because of flooding, and 2.5 million residents fleeing the Houston area from
Hurricane Rita. All of these efforts required a huge amount of planning and
resources. These people moved because they desired life over death.
However, there is one evacuation that has involved hundreds
of millions of people and has been ongoing throughout our entire human history.
Its planning was before the foundation of the world and it required the
greatest sacrifice from one person to bring others to safety.
Before we are born-again we are prisoners in a place of
darkness burdened with a yoke of sin. An eternal Hell awaits us. We could never
be in greater danger. But Jesus Christ died so that we could be evacuated from
this domain of misery to a place of supreme joy and abundance. The very instant
that we are saved we are moved from darkness to light, from judgment to
forgiveness, from oppression to true freedom, and from present and eternal
danger to safety. Never has there been an evacuation as great.
Colossians 1:13, “For He delivered us from the domain of darkness,
and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son”
There is nothing that we can do to slice off even the
tiniest sliver of punishment from one of our sins let alone to remove all of
the punishment of every single one of them.
Yet this is what God did. He transformed a child of wrath
burdened with sin and depravity into a child of God able to stand unashamed
before the magnificent presence of God.
Sin is conquered
When dealing with recurring sin in our lives the primary
focus should not be on the frequency or magnitude of that sin. When we view
that sin against our own abilities and motivations it is easy to feel
overwhelmed and hopeless. But when we compare that sin against the power of God
then we are more than conquerors. God promises in Romans 5:20, “where sin
increased, grace abounded all the more.”
The issue is not what resources we can summon up to fight
that sin but, rather, the infinitely greater power of God available to us.
Doubt is crushed by the burden of sin; faith sees the
victory at the cross and clings to it.
2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of
timidity, but of power and love and discipline.”
How do we obtain this power?
·
Prayer
·
Transforming our minds (Romans 12:2) from defeatism and
justification to victory and righteousness
·
Stepping out of the boat to do what is right
God glories in doing the impossible in our lives because
then it is obvious that it was Him and not us.
Jeremiah 32:17, “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”
Ephesians
3:20-21, “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we
ask or think, according to the power that works within us,
21to
Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever
and ever. Amen.”
Our salvation is protected by the power of God
1 Peter 1:3-5
Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy
has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead,
4to
obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade
away, reserved in heaven for you,
5who
are protected by the power of God through faith
for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
That word “protected” has the same meaning as guarded. To
guard something has two meanings: 1) You guard someone from escaping. So in
this case, we cannot, even if we wanted to, escape from our eternal salvation.
2) You guard someone from harm and danger. What is the danger here?—of
something or someone else taking away our salvation.
Romans
8:38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39nor
height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The same power that created from nothing 300 sextillion
stars in the universe is what is also guaranteeing that you will make it into
Heaven. Can there be any doubt?
Our ultimate response to God’s power
Psalm 21:13, “Be exalted, O LORD, in Your strength;
We will sing and praise
Your power.”
There has always been great discussion about why good people
have terrible things happen to them. The two attributes that come into play in
this discussion is that God is all loving and He is all powerful. It is
generally accepted that God is love and wants to see us happy. Therefore it
does not seem to make sense that He would want to see us suffer. So if He is
all powerful then why does He not do something about it? Why does He not
prevent these crises from occurring to begin with? If He truly loves us and is
all powerful but tragedies still happen then something must be wrong so the
thinking goes.
One theory about this is that God wants us to always be
happy, but He is frustrated in His attempts to accomplish this because certain
circumstances are too big for God. He can try His best but sometimes that is
not enough. This is rubbish. God created the Universe with a word; He can
change any circumstance in any way that He wants. So then why does He not do so?
If God loves us enough to want to give us an abundant life overflowing with joy
and if He is omnipotent then why do we oftentimes seem to stubble from one
crisis to another? There are two important considerations.
The first is that God has allowed sin and rebellion to often
override His choices and desires. This is what is known as free-will. Genesis
19:17-22 is right before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. God wanted Lot to
escape into the mountains but Lot preferred going to a town instead, so God let
him. Of course, Lot then got into trouble so he should have listened to God in
the first place.
God will allow us to do what we truly want to do. If we want
to be bitter then God will let us. If we want to be self-centered then God will
let us be the center of our own universe. If we want to be ungracious and allow
petty disagreements to ruin friendships then God will let that happen.
Just as there are laws of physics and chemistry and biology
so also are there spiritual laws. If you throw a baseball straight up into the
air, no matter how hard you may wish for it to keep going, it will stubbornly
reach its peak and then come back down. In the same way there are spiritual
laws that cannot be broken without dire consequences. We can read a number of
these spiritual laws in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs 10:12, “Hatred stirs up
strife, But love covers all transgressions.” Proverbs 11:17, “The merciful man
does himself good, But the cruel man does himself harm.” Proverbs 12:28, “He
who trusts in his riches will fall, But the righteous will flourish like the
green leaf.”
Sometimes bad things happen to us because, even though we
may be genuinely sincere in wanting to do good we still sin and that sin
carries with it bad consequences. If God prevented us from experiencing bad
things no matter what we do then the result would be a lot of happy but evil
people.
Also, because our lives intertwine with so many other
people’s lives their sins will affect us also.
Secondly, we are usually more interested in our own
happiness than in God. We tend to ignore God when things are going well because
we have what we want—our happiness. But we are down on our knees when trouble
hits because we do not have what we want—namely, our happiness. Only God can
deeply fill our emptiness and only as we become more and more like the
character of God will we experience the true fruit of the Holy Spirit such as
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control. Trials bring us to the point where we draw closer to God. So if
God prevented us from experiencing bad things the result would be a lot of
happy but shallow people.
There are also a number of other reasons as to why trials
are not eliminated by God. As we experience hurt and then comfort we are able to
comfort those who are currently experiencing the same hurt. Trials allow us to
feel God’s grace in a fuller and richer way. And because coming out of trials
redeemed rather than rescued is usually a far better thing.
God is all powerful but He knows that oftentimes it is
better for us to experience terrible things then to always be quickly and
easily rescued from them. That bad things can happen to good people does not at
all mean that God is not omnipotent.
God can transform us. There is no sin so terrible that God
cannot forgive. There is no habit so deeply engrained that God cannot give us
triumph over it. There is no pain so wrenching that God cannot heal completely.
God has the power to transform a child of wrath, oppressed with sin and
depravity into a child of God able to stand unashamed before His magnificent
presence.
God’s omnipotence means that numerous people who are
enslaved to sins such as alcohol or drugs are able to quit and never return.
God’s omnipotence means that people who were terribly hurt
by someone are able to forgive and move on with their lives.
God’s omnipotence means that people who are depressed or
have terrible self-worth are able to walk in confidence and victory.
Because God is omnipotent we can echo Paul from Philippians
4:13, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
“The basic difference between physical and spiritual power
is that men use physical power but spiritual power uses men.’ Justin Nixon
(Congregationalist)
When God says in Isaiah 41:10, “Do not fear, for I am with
you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you,
surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand”
we can believe that because we know that God is able.
When God says in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient
for you, for power is perfected in weakness” we are confident because God is
all-powerful.
When David says in Psalm 18:2, “The LORD is my rock and my
fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield
and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold” we can stand firm on that because
we know that God is omnipotent.
God’s promises are not “hope fors,” they are just what they
are called—promises.
There will be a new heavens and a new earth. Satan will be
cast into the Lake of Fire. We will go to Heaven if we are saved. We will be
healed of all of our aliments, freed from all of our sorrows, and delivered
from all of life’s anguish. We will walk on streets of gold. And we will see
our Savior Jesus Christ face to face. These are not pipe dreams or fairy tales.
They will happen one day for each of us if we have been born-again. God’s omnipotence
will make sure that it happens.
Summary
Since prisons were costly to maintain in ancient times they
were usually cramped, filthy and ridden with disease and starvation. They were
places of terrible misery and passersby could hear the groans of great
suffering. The end of most of these prisoners was usually death, disfigurement,
or slavery.
Our sins also make us prisoners but our prison consists of
bitterness, anger, greed, selfishness, and many other spiritual diseases. These
sins can destroy our relationships, jobs, and joy. We, too, groan. But God in
His mercy did not turn away. Psalm 102:19-20 says that God looked down from
Heaven “To hear the groaning of the prisoner, to set free those who were doomed
to death.” He “led captives” from prison and brought us into His family, the
church. But the church is not simply released prisoners, but with people who
are much more than that. He elevated us to teachers, pastors, and evangelists.
He gave us gifts of wisdom, knowledge, and mercy. To each one of us was given a
special gift (1 Peter 4:10) so that every member might fit into the church in a
God selected way so that we might build each other up.
The church does not recruit heroes and turn them into
leaders. It frees prisoners of sin and equips us to be vital parts in the
living and dynamic body of Christ.
Find your place in the church and serve to the building up
of others.
1) In
addition to the ones discussed above, what are some other assurances that God’s
omnipotence means to us?
2) If
God is so powerful then why does He appear so helpless during some of history’s
greatest tragedies such as the Holocaust, World Wars, and a number of
genocides?
3) What
does it mean to make God our foundation? That sounds good, but how do we do
that? How do we in a practical way build upon God’s foundation and not on sand?
4) Why
is it important to learn more about God’s attributes? Isn’t it enough just to
know that God loves us?
5) If
God can do anything that He wants to then why can we read in the Bible about
people doing the opposite of what God wants them to do? Why does not He just
force them to do what He wants?
6) If
God can do anything then why did He have to become a man and die for our sins?
Why could He not just decide to forgive anyone that He wants to without having
to have gone through all of that in the Gospels?
7) Does
not God and Satan do constant battle with God winning sometimes and Satan
winning other times?
8) Why
do we not see more of God’s miraculous power today?
Kathy had a rough childhood. She was raised solely by her
mother who was verbally abusive. There was always just barely enough food
available and oftentimes in the winter the heat was turned off because of
non-payment. At an early age Kathy would get drunk a lot to help her cope with
this misery. When she was 20 years old Kathy got saved and threw herself
wholeheartedly into knowing and serving God. But overcoming her dependence on
alcohol has proven to be difficult and she often relapses. What counsel might
you give to Kathy to help her out particularly regarding God’s omnipotence?