THE PASTOR’S POINTS
sermon ministry of
CEDAR LODGE BAPTIST CHURCH
Thomasville, NC
A fellowship of faith, family and friendships
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March 16, 2003
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,
And marked off the heavens by the span,
And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,
And weighed the mountains in a balance
And the hills in a pair of scales?
Isaiah 40:12 (NASB)
What represents power to you?
What does it mean to be powerful?
Is it nature’s forces or brute strength?
Is it physical strength?
Is it ability to control other people?
Is it military or political clout?
Is it a mind thing…brains?
We have been looking at the “omni” characteristics of God, and we come now to His omnipotence. The Oxford Dictionary defines “omnipotence as: Strictly said of God (or of a deity) or His attributes: Almighty or infinite in power.
I looked for synonyms of “powerful” and there are so many, influential, commanding, authoritative, prevailing, dominant, mighty, persuasive. I also remember what it is like to be without power! In the 60’s New York City had their blackout….no power. Elevators were stuck…traffic lights dark…lights off in the subways. In the 70’s the crisis with Iran brought a shortage of oil. We all waited in lines at the gas stations to fill our tanks so we’d have power. The ice storms of this past winter informed us just how vulnerable we can be. There is a power struggle going on in the world right now over just how much power Iraq should have. Organizations in business, civic or even churches can have leadership struggles and squabbles over power.
There are powerful people in the world. Naturally we would think of President Bush as holding our country’s top job. Warren Buffet and Donald Trump are the powerful masters of the deal, buying and selling. The Democrats and Republicans have a constant issue of power positioning. A few years ago at homecoming we watched Steve Bell pull Clyde Gardner’s 78,000 lb tractor-trailer with a rope, and flip a car 5 or 6 times. Power!
Now, these are all examples of power, both implicit and applied. One consideration though, is that they don’t necessarily cross lines. Steve Bell’s massive physical strength would not do him much good in politics. President Bush is politically gifted and powerful, but his office mandates that he put his business endeavors on hold while he remains in office. Business owners are not supposed to exert undue influence in politics, and so on. One realm of power doesn’t necessarily presume power in another.
This brings us to the main idea of “omnipotence” – that God crosses all lines with His power. Omni – potent…all power that can do whatever power can do.
Before we go too much down this trail, I want to take one side road to answer two questions that always surface when the subject of God’s all-powerful nature is addressed. The first question comes in many forms, but call it what it is, a statement of unbelief:
If God is good and He is all-powerful,
why does he let bad stuff happen?
This question came when Hitler murdered six million Jews; it came when the World Trade Center towers were reduced to ashes. The question comes from children and those who do not know God. It seems a reasonable question, but it really is not our question to ask.
The Bible makes it quite clear that questioning God in His ways is not the place to begin. A loose translation of Romans 9 would ask the question: Just who does the clay think it is when it demands the Potter explain Himself. Again, God’s answer to Job after he made the mistake of trying to put God on the witness stand: Where were you, little man, when I formed the heavens and earth? You think you have a right to question Me?
Yet, in His graciousness, God has already given us the answer to our question for tragedy – God lets bad stuff happen because He is good. Without the goodness of God there would not be any free choice for you and me. We would be like robots, serving God by His will alone, and not our choice. The fact that a good God has created man with free will also means that we can choose evil. And we do.
Rabbi Kushner in his book, Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People, came to the conclusion that God is not all-powerful. The Rabbi’s young son had died, and the grief was too great. He came to the conclusion that God was either not good, or He could not control everything; some things were out of God’s hands. To his credit, Kushner chose to believe that God is good, but not all-powerful. The problem with the Rabbi’s thinking (and the title of his book) is that there is no such thing as “good” people. The Bible declares it,
There is none righteous, no not one. Romans 3.10
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3.23
If we change the theology of Rabbi Kushner’s book title to agree with Scripture, it becomes, Why Do Bad Things Happen to Bad People; most of us then don’t even bother to pick up the book out of curiosity. We already know the answer to that one.
Most of us agree that we are not perfect – we have all sinned. However, it is hard to accept the name “sinner”. Before we begin to make Job’s mistake and begin to question the goodness of God, we need to measure our own “goodness”. The question more becomes, why do WE let bad things happen without doing something?
Boston City Councilman Felix Arroyo, who opposes war in Iraq, announced in January that he was going on a hunger strike to protest U.S. policy. Arroyo said he would begin a liquid-only regimen, but then limited that to daylight hours (thus allowing himself dinner and, theoretically, breakfast), and later qualified that to mean that he would only adhere to this hardship diet on the second and fourth Fridays of each month.(1) That’s not exactly suffering for the cause.
In the same way humans can’t simply put on a show about caring over the bad stuff that happens if we’re not prepared to share in that suffering by helping.
In “The Case for Faith” by Lee Strobel, he quotes Peter Kreeft: On my door there’s a cartoon of two turtles. One says, "Sometimes I’d like to ask why he allows poverty, famine, and injustice when he could do something about it." The other turtle says, "I’m afraid God might ask me the same question." (2)
Bad stuff is our human lot, and our human choice, and people get hurt. God has chosen us to help tend the hurt, and do something about the bad stuff. He will help, but we must be ready to join with Him.
The second question also has many faces; but again, call it by its rightful name, foolish unbelief. It comes from skeptics:
Can God make a rock bigger than He can lift?
This is one of those foolish questions that people like me ask. I really did – back in my college days when I knew everything. I was a backslidden Christian skeptic. The theory goes that if God can make a rock big enough so it is too heavy to lift, then He can’t do everything (omnipotence). And, if He CAN make a rock bigger than He can lift He still can’t lift it, and therefore can’t do everything. What idiocy!
Here is how we answer such idiocy:
There are at least four things the Bible says that God cannot do. He cannot deny himself (2 Timothy 2:13); he cannot lie (Titus 1:2); he cannot be tempted to evil (James 1:13); and he cannot change his basic nature (Numbers 23:19). In short, God will never act contrary to his own righteous, holy, unchanging character. (3)
"There are indeed certain problems with reference to the meaning of Omnipotence which need to be considered. In the first place, omnipotence does not mean that God can do anything, but it means that He can do with power anything that power can do. He has all the power that is or could be."
"Can God make two plus two equal six? This is a question which is frequently asked by skeptics and by children. We reply by asking how much power it would take to bring about this result. The absurdity of the question is not too difficult to see. Would the power of a ton of dynamite make two plus two equal six? or the power of an atom bomb? Or of a hydrogen bomb?
When these questions are asked it is readily seen that the truth of the multiplication tables is not in the realm of power.(4)
And that’s the point; the question about impossibilities applied to omnipotence is a display of foolish unbelief. A psychiatrist was making his normal morning rounds when he entered a patient’s room. He found Fred sitting on the floor, pretending to saw a piece of wood in half. A second patient, Harvey, was hanging from the ceiling by his feet. The doctor asked Fred what he was doing. Fred replied, "Can’t you see I’m sawing this piece of wood in half?" The doctor inquired of what Harvey was up to. Fred replied, "Oh, he’s my friend, but he’s a little crazy. He thinks he’s a light bulb."
The doctor looked up and noticed Harvey’s face was all red from the blood rushing down to his head and says to Fred, "If Harvey is your friend, you should get him down from there before he hurts himself." Fred replies, "What? And work in the dark?"
Fred and Harvey are a picture of what happens theologically when we begin to imagine that what we can see is all there is, and that somehow our little world of sawing and light bulbs constitutes all of wisdom and reality. Rather, there is this leap of faith that says I will trust God for Whom He has said He is – omnipotent. Handel’s Messiah proclaims Heaven’s theme, for the Lord God, omnipotent reigneth. Many men deny it, or ignore it, but God said it would be that way:
For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness,But to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1.18 (NASB)
This brings us to the main thrust of the issue…
What is it like to experience the omnipotent God?
There are many Scriptures which refer to God’s infinite power. I would like to take David’s description of what is like to know and experience the touch of the Almighty hand as omnipotent Creator and created being are pictured:
I will give thanks to Thee,
For I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Thy works,
And my soul knows it very well.
Psalms 139.14
It is Fearful
The highest and lowest points of our lives bring thoughts of God. The birth of a child, marriage, tragedies and death…these things cause most people to ponder our own mortality – they are times to be fearful, or reverent. How are we to be fearful and reverent? One of the hymns of our faith is expresses it well:
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
…Perfect in pow’r, in love, and purity.(5)
Knowing that we worship the awesome God who holds creation, eternity, time and space in the hollow of his hand (6) evokes in me reverence – even fear. If you have never stood in the presence of God and trembled with fear, you have no sense of Who it is you stand before – or else you’ve never recognized that you always stand in His presence. We are fearfully made, and…
It is Wonderful
The “fearful” and “wonderful” go together with our God. A preacher shared this illustration: Let’s suppose that one day as you are walking down the street, you see a huge man coming toward you. Let’s suppose he’s really big-say 35 feet tall. Let’s say he weighs in at about 1500 pounds, all muscle. And he’s bearing down on you. As you consider the situation, only one question comes into your mind: Do I know this man? If you don’t, it’s time to start running in the opposite direction.
But if you know him, you wait till he comes up to you, you smile, he smiles and greets you, and together you walk side by side down the street. If you know that man, you’re going to stay close by his side and fear nothing at all. That’s why Psalm 23:4 says, "I will fear no evil … for you are with me." If God is walking by your side, you have nothing to fear.
The omnipotence of God is thus a doctrine of wonderful comfort to the believer. The all-powerful God is with me. He exercises his power on my behalf. Whenever I need him, and even when I think I don’t, he is there. He never fails. All his plans for me will come to pass. I can trust him completely.(7)
I can trust Him like Jeremiah when I am fearful of what life brings:
Ah Lord God! Behold, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thy great power and by Thine outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for Thee,
Jeremiah 32.17 (NASB)
I can trust Him like Habakkuk when I am weak and feel about to give in:
The Lord God is my strength…
Habakkuk 3.19a (NASB)
I can trust Him like Mary when I am confused over the things that happen, and I wonder if God understands that life is going to swallow me up if He doesn’t show up to take care of things:
For nothing will be impossible with God.
Luke 1.37 (NASB)
The Psalmist said I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and…
My Soul Knows It VERY WELL
There are many things in life I do not know. But this one thing I cannot deny, my Creator is the Lord of the universe, and this my soul knows – He is the Lord God, Omnipotent Who Reigneth for ever and ever! There is nothing too hard, nothing too impossible for Him.
My mentor, Pat Giffen is home with the Lord now. He used to have a favorite sermon he liked to preach, Three Things God Doesn’t Know. The points were simple:
God doesn’t know a sinner He can’t love.
God doesn’t know a sin He can’t forgive.
God doesn’t know a single thing that repenting can’t solve.
That’s the truth about the All-Powerful One, and the Less-than powerful ones seated around this building tonight. The universe can make us feel rather small. God, says Isaiah, has it all in the hollow of his hand. That’s power!
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FOOTNOTES
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(1) Chuck Shepherd’s News of the Weird, 3/9/03, [quoting the Boston Globe, 1/30/03]
(2) Peter John Kreeft, quoted in Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith (Zondervan, 2001), p. 50
(3) Ray Prichard, Is Anything Too Hard For God?, SermonCentral.com
(4) James Oliver Buswell, Jr., Ph. D.; A Systematic Theology of the Christian Religion, Vol I
(5) Holy, Holy, Holy, Words Reginald Heber, 1783-1826, Music John B.Dykes, 1823-1876
(6) Isaiah 40.12
(7) Ray Prichard, Is Anything Too Hard For God?, Jeremiah 32:17, SermonCentral.com
