Psalms 62:11

Two passages scripture for our beginning text. The first is in Psalm 62, verse 11. God has spoken once. Twice have I heard this. That power belongeth unto God. And then if you would, in the book of Revelation, Revelation and chapter 19, I’d like to look at verse 6. Revelation, chapter 19, and verse 6. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, alleluia for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. May God bless to us His sacred and holy word this morning. Some of the names that have been given to us with regard to the Lord God. In the Hebrew, it signifies firmness. stability, strength, and power. For example, El Shadai, the Almighty God, the God who says that nothing is too hard for him to do. In the New Testament, we frankly have the Lord God Almighty, especially in the book of Revelation. And of course, that one passage in chapter 9th, did I just read. We have that phrase, the Lord God, omnipotent. Omnipotence is essential to God. A weak deity is an absurdity. What kind of a God would you have if he couldn’t carry out his will? Couldn’t fulfill his threats, couldn’t fulfill his promises. It’s not a God to be feared. The God of the Bible, however, is not some weak-willed deity. Not like he’s proclaimed today in many churches, but is a God of such power that really we can’t fathom it with our human minds. I want to talk about the power of your God. Now, you can’t have a right concept of God unless you see he’s all powerful. A being who cannot do what he wills and perhaps all his pleasure and perform all his pleasure is not the God of the Bible. That’s not what the scripture tells us about our God. God. God has a sovereign. and will, and he’s resolved to do what he deems right, and he has the power to execute that will. Charnock gives this definition of God’s power. 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. In Psalm 62, we read the scripture tells us God has spoken once. Nothing more is necessary. When you’re Almighty, all you have to do is say it in his word will be fulfilled. Human beings may speak often and yet fail to be heard. God speaks but once. And the thunds. of his power reigns across 10,000 hills. God’s power is not something that’s acquired. It’s not something that’s bestowed upon. It’s something innate. And he does as he pleases. So this is God’s power. Now, God’s power is over all things. You remember when the angel, Gabriel, appeared unto Mary announcing the birth of Christ. She wondered how she could give birth to the Messiah when she had not known a man. How’s that possible? But the angel told her that all things are possible with God. And that the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. And by the Spirit’s power she would give birth. without knowing a man to Jesus. Christ indicates that what is impossible to men is possible with God. What cannot be done, according to the nature of laws and rules and the course of nature may be done by God. God is not tied to these things. Sometimes he contrite. predicts what we might say are the laws of nature, science, biology, physics, so forth. How can a virgin conceive and bear a son? How could pure Mary be impregnated without knowing a man? God’s power! You find Joshua battling the Canaanites and daylight’s running out on him. How is he going to win the battle with the Lord’s armies? why God says he’ll stop the sun. He won’t let it go down when it normally goes down. And more daylight is given to the Israelites to finish the battle. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. There’s a young prophet who’s working to fell trees that are building a new theological center and Elisha is overseeing this project. and this man, this young prophet, has borrowed an axe. And as he’s busy chopping the trees down to build the center, all of a sudden as he chops the way, the axe head flies off and goes and sinks down to the bottom of the river. An iron axe head sinks to the bottom of the muddy Jordan. And the young prophet is very upset. He doesn’t have the money to replace the axed and he tells Elisha what happened. And God works through Elisha. Causes the axed to float to the top and swim over to them. That’s God at work. That’s our God. Doesn’t fire burn you? And yet the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar, he did seven times hotter than normal. fails the harm the three Hebrew children that are thrown into it. All the people that threw him in, the soldiers, they were killed by the heat and the flames. Now the ropes burned off of them so that they were no longer bound. And we find their clothes were not even singed by this fire. Their bodies were not even singed by this fire. Their bodies were not. harmed. They didn’t even smell a smoke, the Bible says. And so they walk around in the midst of the flames and the Son of God is with them. How’s that possible? Well, they said to Nebuchadnezzarer, our God who we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. The power of God did it. They believed he could. And he did. There’s a poor that stands before Christ in the New Testament, pleads for healing from the dreaded disease, which each eats away his flesh. Normally lepers, you know, they get separated from the regular society, and their body just gets eaten up until something vital gets attacked, and then they die. Jesus says, I will be thou clean, and immediately the leprosy’s gone. that’s the power of God. You remember the story of Lazarus. He dies. Four days, he’s in the grave. When Jesus tells them to roll away the rock in front of the grave, Martha is thinking, but Lord, he’s going to stink by now. It’s four days. Nevertheless, at his command, they did so. So, and what happens? Jesus says, Lazarus, come forth. And out of that grave hobbles, someone bound with grave clothes, wrapped up. They had to unwind him. And he lives. That’s the power of God. That’s our God at work. Now, when you think about it, God has never had to fully extend his power. Nothing has really been that difficult for. him. He had his own wise ends at times, does not use his power to deliver. For example, we know that Rhonda Baptist said about the Jews, he said, if you’re not going to believe, God can raise up children from these stones and make sons of Abraham on him. He could do that. But he didn’t, in this case. And we find in scripture that Jesus said that my father could send 12 legions of angels and deliver me from Pilate and the Romans and the Jews and so forth. So he wouldn’t have to go to the cross. God didn’t do that because that didn’t fit his purpose. God uses his omnipotence to accomplish his holy will. And so it has never said to be used to the maximum there’s plenty of reserve. Now there’s some things God cannot do. Did you know that? Titus tells us God cannot lie. that would go against his holy will. God cannot deny himself, Paul tells us. Also, in 2. Timothy 2.13. Because that would go against the will too. So the power of our God. Now, secondly, let’s talk a little, talk about the evidence of God’s power. Look with me at Romans 1.20, if you would, this morning. Book of Romans 1 in verse 20. For 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 in Godhead, so that they were without excuse. This tells us here that God’s power is revealed in the creation of our world, our universe. You know, before you and I can accomplish anything, we need tools and materials. But God began with absolutely nothing. Now let that sink in a moment. His word alone brought out of nothing this world in which we live in this universe in which we live. And he made all things. It’s hard for us to wrap our minds around this when we think about it. God simply spoke and it was done. Let there be and it was so. Let there be light and there was light. Let there be a firmament, an expanse. And at once the airy heavens stretched out like a curtain around this earth. God said let the earth bring forth. And immediately the vegetation and fruitfulness was produced on the earth. Now it’s true. God took six days to create the world. That’s only. because he stopped and did things in segmented fashion. And then he would pause and look at what he did and said that it’s good what he has made. And he set the example for us to work six days and on the seventh to rest as the scripture indicates to us. He could have created everything in a moment’s time if you wanted to. But he had their purposes in doing what he did. So we see the power of God in creation. When you look at the world at which we live, we look at all these orbs that are floating around the sun and you see all these planets and stars and everything else. God made these things. And he made them by just speaking. All the angels he made. evidently when he made the heavens, he made the angels to fill it, so forth. And you and I have to admit, you know, that we’re really God’s creation too. I’m fearfully and wonderfully made, David says. God made you. That’s a pretty amazing thing when we think about how different everyone is. And yet God made each one of formed us exactly as he wanted, gave us the personality that he wanted us to have and planned everything about us from the womb. He planned all, he did all these things. Nothing. It’s beyond his power in that. Look at the power of God in the preservation of this world in which we live. Psalm 366 says thou preservest man and beast. Acts 1728. says, for in him we live and move and have our being. And in Colossians 117, by him, all things consist. They’re held together. They’re made by him. There’s no creature that has the power to preserve himself. If God didn’t provide the sunshine and rain, certainly we wouldn’t have any food to eat. but he brings forth the food that springs out of the earth. Every tick of your heart is part of God’s preservation. He could stop the heart at any moment in any of us. He feeds the cattle on a thousand hills. He causes it to rain in desert places where no man’s lives because there are are plants and small creatures perhaps of some sort that live there and so they get the water that they need. Why it is God that holds every atom in place where everything would unravel and become disintegrated. The power of God in preservation. We see the power of God in governing the earth. We read in Daniel 435. He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him what doest we read in the book of 2 Samuel 1714 that all the men of Israel said the council of Hushai, the archite is better than the council of the Hithrafel but the Lord had appointed to defeat the good counsel to the Hithrafel to the intent that the Lord might bring evil on Absalom. It was God’s power that moved these people to take the wrong plant against one of the brightest men that was living at that time and yet it was God it did that. He brought it to pass as he saw fit. We read in the the scriptures in the book of Job in chapter 1 how God curtails the activities of Satan so that he cannot do all that he pleases to do you’ve put a hedge about him I can’t get at Job we read in Genesis chapter 20 when Abraham went to Garar that he said to his wife, say you’re my sister so they don’t kill me. So she says that she’s Abraham’s sister and the king takes her for his wife, or at least that’s the plan. And God brings judgment upon him. And in a dream, God speaks to it. He says, well, but I didn’t know that it was Abraham’s wife. you know, I did this in my innocence. I didn’t know. God says, I know you didn’t know. And I kept you from sinning. He kept him from an adulterous relationship with her. That was the Lord’s to do it. And the power that he shows over men. You know, Satan is an evil being. He goes about as a roaring lying, seeking whom he may devire. And he’s filled with hatred toward God and certainly a fiendish hostility against man, especially the people of God. And yet, we know that if he had his will, he would like to treat us all like Job and bring upon us the boils or destruction of all that we have. Send fire from heaven and burn up the fields and destroy the cattle and the livestock and cause of wind to overthrow our houses and cover our bodies with sickness and disease and so forth. But he’s restrained, at least to some extent, by God, so that he cannot do exactly what he wants to do. God also restrains the natural corruption in man. God withholds men from sinning, prevents them from doing so at times. It’s true at times he allows an outbreak of sin just to show us how perverse and evil man is and what sin can do in a society. But he’s often curtailing the sin in man and keeping it to where we can live in this world. And also we’d be like in the days of Noah when it was just evil and violence and everything. everyone killing one another and so forth. Who would know what terrible lengths man may go to if God didn’t restrain him? We could talk this morning about God’s control over those in power, those who have political power. You know, the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, and as the water brooks, he turneth it whatsoever way he pleases. The Bible says. He establishes kings and rulers, and he removes them. he does as he pleases among the inhabitants of the earth and no one is powerful enough to restrain him or say unto him, what are you doing? Has no ability to do that. The power of God in governing the earth. We could talk about the power of God in judgment. How terrible was the judgment that God brought in the flood. When he destroyed the whole earth and all the people in it except for the eight, the Noah’s family. that’s it. We read in scripture about a shower of fire and brimstone that came down on the cities of the plains. Solomon Gimorne burned them up and left them destroyed. We see Pharaoh and all his armies and all his chariots and so forth helpless when God unleashes the waters of the Red Sea and drowns them. The Syrians want to sleep, confident of victory against the people of God at Jerusalem who are huddled and scared within the city walls. God sends the death angel and they’re all dead by morning. They ever woke up. God is going to display his mighty power upon the reprobate all through eternity. Think about this. He’s going to supernaturally keep their souls and their new bodies alive in hell. Throw out all eternity. The power of God in judgment. Let’s talk about the power of God in salvation. In Ephesians 119, we read this. We read about what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe according to the working of his mighty power. How is it you came to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ? The power of God was at work. Changing your heart, changing your will, opening your eyes, giving you life, and that’s why you believed. That was God’s power at work. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not man. How is it that those who are accustomed to do evil can do good. Not by resolve on your part. God has the power to change you into a new creature, to regenerate you, to give you the new birth, to change you from a sinner into a saint. He can take the villess person and make them clean. Give them spiritual life. When they are dead, lifeless spiritually, dead in trespasses and sins. He makes them. people willing in the day of his power, the Bible says. That’s the change that God makes. The power of God in salvation. We could spend the whole time talking about this this morning. But let us realize nobody gets saved without the power of God at work. Let me conclude with a couple of thoughts. The first is this. We should tremble before such a powerful God. I read in scripture in Luke 12.5, but I forewarn you whom you shall fear. Fear him which after he hath killed hath the power to cast into hell. If you would treat such a God with disrespect, who can easily crush you like an ant if he wishes. If you can openly defy him when he is clothed with omnipotence, who can cast you in it how at any moment, that’s sheer insanity. That’s sheer insanity. Look with me at Psalm 2 this morning in verses 1 to 5. Psalm chapter 2 verses 1 to 5. Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, We won’t have these restrictions that God gives us in his law and so forth. Is God worried? He laughs. Who do you think you are? And then he vexes them and his sore displeasure with him. We should keep that in mind. And as that Psalm ends, we should keep in mind, God says, kiss the son, that anointed one that you’re rebelling against, lest he be angry and you perish from the way. When his rat, wrath is kindled but a little. It doesn’t have to be hot with wrath. Just kindle it a little bit, and that’s enough power. That’s enough to take care of the situation. Secondly, you should adore such a powerful God. You know, the wonderful, infinite perfections of his being, call for our most fervent worship. As we learn more about our God, it should move us to praise him more. I like what the song of Moses in Exodus 15 says, who is like unto the Lord among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious and holiness, fearful and praises, doing wonders? There’s nobody like thy Lord. This is the true God. Let all the earth bow bow before him. Let us recognize his right to be worshipped with our fervent praise. Thirdly, you should trust such a powerful God. Nothing’s too hard for him. If God had a limit to what he could do, you might be in some despair. But he’s omnipotent. What does that mean? There’s no prayer too hard, for him to answer. Think about that. No matter what we ask, nothing is too hard for him. There’s no need too great that he can’t supply it. We read this morning from Psalm 78 about Israel like, well, can he provide food for us? Can he, you know, give us something bread to eat? Can he give us meat to eat? God did it all, didn’t he? It was nothing too hard. for him. There’s no temptation too strong for him to overcome that he can’t strengthen you to overcome the temptation. For God works in us both the will and the do of his good pleasure. There’s no misery that’s too deep for him to relieve as if it’s beyond his capacity to help us. I like what the psalmist says in Psalm 27 one. The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid. He’s the strength of our life. And I like this passage in Ephesians 3. Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. And to him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ through all ages. without it. Exceedingly,, abundantly, above all that we ask or think. In other words, God gives us bonuses when we pray. He many times gives us more that we’re asking for. And it’s better. Sometimes he gives us something better than we’re asking for. And we just have to trust in him. Lastly, God’s omnipotence should give you confidence when you wouldn’t. isn’t the gospel of Jesus Christ the power of God under salvation to everyone that please? God’s power is unleashed when the gospel is preached. Now the problem we have today is people aren’t preaching the gospel. But it’s through the gospel that God’s power works. Now it might seem helpless to us to witness. The witness to dead and depraved sinners who have no ability on their own to repent and believe. It’s sort of like Ezekiel when God says, I want you to preach to the bones, the dry bones. Can they live? I don’t know, Lord. You know. They’ll live when God’s power works. And his spirit brings them to life. And that’s the same way with dead sinners. God’s power can work in the sinner, resurrecting him from the dead. We don’t say that salvation is a matter of me persuading this person to believe, to, you know, bending his will. We say that we proclaim the truth about God’s way of salvation and God works in the sinner and changes them and grants them a spiritual birth. And the sinner and the sinner is made alive from his dead state. The Holy Spirit omnipinately works. Who can resist when he decides he’s working in somebody’s heart? And he awakens these people from a dead state. And this is why we should witness with confidence. Because God has a people that he has ordained to eternal life. Now we don’t know who they are. So we give the gospel to everybody. But there’s an assurance in scripture. As Paul says, I do everything for the elect’s sake that they might come to salvation. We do everything for the elect’s sake, ultimately, because as the gospel goes forth, God works in the heart of his elect, who are ordained to eternal life, and brings them to salvation. It’s as simple as that. So when you witness, you’re assured that there is going to be some people that are going to be some people that are going to believe. It’s not a matter of, well, it’s up to man. No, it’s up to God who changes the heart. And that’s what we see. So these are the kinds of things we and I have to be brief today this morning, but those are the kinds of things we ought to be thinking about. We think about the power of God. Your prayer life, your witness, the struggles that we have, overcoming sin, all these things. boil down to God’s power of work, whether within us or within someone else. So let us trust in the Lord and believe that he can bless us and help us. Let’s close with the word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word this morning and it’s but a just a glimpse that we took a look at at your omnipotence. Who can do justice to this? And yet, Father, as we read your word, we are constantly reminded that nothing’s too hard for you. What’s impossible to man is not impossible to you. Encourage us, Father, that we may pray with that in mind. That we may go through the Christian life with that in front of us. And let us love you more for it. And love you more full because of it. We ask these things in Jesus’ precious name. Amen. Let’s stand for the benediction. Thank God’s blessing. Rest upon his people. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, in God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort, your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. Amen.