24.04.08
Shorter Catechism on God (7) - God is Power
Read: Psalm 115:1-15
At the beginning of this week, the government announced that by 2020, 100% of the domestic power supply of the British Isles will be produced by offshore wind farms – by great wind turbines planted in the sea. Every home in Britain will be powered by the wind – the wind, which is so powerful, will be harnessed to light and heat British homes. The power of God, which is infinite, eternal and unchangeable, is also harnessed for good – God harnesses it so that His people may be kept in their faith and that they may succeed as Christians. God’s infinite power is working in and through you as a Christian believer tonight!
The issue of God being power forms the 7th of our studies into Q&A4 of the Shorter Catechism – “What is God? God is a Spirit – infinite, eternal and unchangeable – in his being wisdom, power, justice, holiness, goodness and truth.” I want to try and answer three questions tonight about God being power: first, what is God’s Power; second, show me God’s Power and lastly, What of God’s Power:
[A] What is God’s Power?
I want to begin this point with a definition taken from a theologian called Robert Reymond – God being power means that “God is able to do whatever he wills in they way in which He wills it.” Now there are three elements to that definition that we need to understand:
1. God is Able – you may have heard God described as ‘omnipotent’ or ‘all-powerful’. He is the Almighty God - way above every kind of earthly or demonic power. His name is “El-Shaddai” – God Almighty. But the fact that He is Almighty does not mean that He can do anything: for example, He cannot lie or do anything which is contrary to His own moral purity; also, He cannot do anything irrational – for example, He cannot make two plus two equal five or to make a square circle – not because He’s not strong enough, but because He cannot be illogical and still be a rational God. We give God thanks that He cannot do these things because if He could, then He could also be fickle in His love for us or in His eternal glory.
2. God is Able to Do Whatever He Wills – now this is not to say that God is not powerful enough to do those things which He chooses not to do, but merely to say that whatever God wants to do, He is able to do. That is so unlike us – we have so little natural power and find ourselves continually setting low targets for ourselves because if we don’t, we know we’ll fail. But God is not limited by low targets – whatever He wants to do, He can do. He wants to create a universe – and He creates it; He wants to save His people from their sins – and He saves them. He is not stopped from doing what He wants to do by any limitation in Himself.
3. God is Able Whatever He wills in the way He wills it – the question here is, what does God use in order to do His will. We all use things – tools or instruments – in order to do what we want. So, if we want to make a table – we use wood, hammers, saws, nails, screws, spirit levels (or we just go to IKEA and get a flatpack). But God isn’t limited in that way. Most often, He chooses to use means to achieve things. He wants the ground to get wet so the crops can grow, so He directs the weather system in a natural manner. But He can also work without obvious means to do His will – for example, it was by the power of His Word alone that the Universe came into being. He can use tools but He is not limited by them.
God is infinitely, eternally and unchangeably powerful – the greatness of the Universe came into being by His power – that same Universe will be transformed again by His power and be filled with people renewed by His power.
[B] Show me God’s Power
There are any number of examples of God’s power we could draw on from the Bible – all the way from the miracles of Jesus to the stopping of the sun in its tracks in the days of Joshua. But the example I want to commend to you is the parting of the Red Sea in the Days of Moses. You find this in Exodus 14:15-31. Here, Moses and the Israelites had just left Egypt after years of slavery. But Pharoah’s army pursued them across the desert until finally the Israelites were caught between Pharoah’s army and the Red Sea. At this point, God calls Moses to Himself and tells him that he is going to divide the Red Sea so that the people of Israel can walk across on dry land and escape from their pursuers. Vs. 21 tells us that “Moses stretched his hand over the sea and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.” God used another force of nature – the strong east wind – to perform this miracle. Of course, more is involved than merely the forces of nature, since it would be difficult to see how nature itself could form two walls of water on either side of a section of dry land. But from this story we see that God was able to do that which is seemingly impossible and able to do it in the way He willed it to be done. But also, from the last few verses of the passage, we find out why God did it: first, He did it to save His people – they escaped from the Egyptians and the work of redemption continued. God’s power is harnessed to the work of salvation – of saving His people – and that is still the way of it today – God works powerfully to save His people. Secondly, God did it to destroy His enemies – the waters came back over the Egyptian army and they were all destroyed – and again, God works powerfully to destroy the devil and His lieutenants; and thirdly, God did it so that His people would trust in Him – this great display of power made the people of God fear the Lord and put their trust in Him – and again, when we see God’s power don’t we have a sense of awe and wonder? And lastly, from vs. 17, God did it to glorify Himself – to gain glory by this miraculous display of His power. Salvation, Victory, Trust and Glory – these four elements form the foundation to why God shows forth His power in our lives and in the life of the world.
[C] What of God’s Power?
There are literally thousands of practical applications of this teaching about God’s power. However, I want to limit myself to just three applications of God’s power in our day to day lives:
1. Victory is Certain! – in the New Testament, the power of God is seen pre-eminently in the miracles of Jesus. And these miracles show us the power of God over human disease – in Jesus’ healing of paralytics, the deaf, dumb and blind; the power of God over nature – in Jesus’ calming of the storm the miracles like the feeding of the five thousand; the power of God over demons – in Jesus’ exorcisms; and the power of God over human death – in the resurrections Jesus’ performed and in the resurrection of Jesus Himself. The message is clear – the Lord God of heaven is victorious! Our God is King of Kings and Lord of Lords with dominion over everything. The Book of Revelation, with its mysterious figures and its complex pictures has really a very simple message – “God wins!” And so, from day to day, when you are faced with your enemies: the world which tries to drag you down and squeeze you into its mould; your own sinful nature which fills you with fear, guilt and apprehension; the devil who will stop at nothing to bring you down – when you watch the news and see the darkness of this world – remember, God wins! His power is infinite, eternal and unchangeable and His victory is assured.
2. Our Salvation is Certain! – in 1 Peter 1:5 we are told that we are ‘shielded by God’s power until the coming of salvation’. In other words, as Christians, we are kept by God’s power. Sometimes we worry that we won’t have the ability or power to keep going as Christians – we see all our enemies and we are worried because they seem so strong and we seem so weak; we look in at ourselves and see so little reserves of strength and we feel our faith to be weak. But the promise of God is that His strength will empower us all the way through. We are shielded, guarded, protected and kept by God’s power. His commitment to us is such that His infinite, eternal and unchangeable power – that same power which divided the Red Sea – is harnessed so that we shall win through to the end – however weak we feel. The flip side of this coin is that we need to depend upon His power day by day – we need to make sure that we are living not by our own strength, but relying upon the infinite, eternal and unchangeable strength of God – a strength He promises us through the Holy Spirit.
3. Gospel Success is Certain! – the greatest display of the power of God is in the conversion of sinners to Christ. God created the world by the power of His Word – but God faced no opposition in the world’s creation. But He does face formidable opposition in converting a soul to Christ – He faces the power of the devil and the power of a corrupt heart. But God, with just a word, destroys His enemies – the power of the devil is, after all, a power derived from God Himself. And so, when God speaks into a human heart, that person must listen. God’s power is unspeakable and irresistible. He will not be thwarted and when He begins a work in someone’s heart, Gospel success is absolutely certain! But this is not just at an individual level, but also at a church level – Jesus tells us that the church is His and that the gates of hell, the armies of hell, shall not prevail against it. The power of God will overcome and overrule. Go preach the Gospel, for it is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe. The Gospel – that living Word, that living truth – preached by individuals and the church will destroy every stronghold set up against it. So go preach, go gossip the Gospel to your friends.
God’s power is infinite, eternal and unchangeable. Go then into the rest of the week, confident of His powerful victory; resting in His power harnessed for you and preaching the Gospel of His power. AMEN