There are many things that I wish I could do but
simply do not have the ability. I’ve
always wanted to be able to dunk a basketball, but at 5’9” and white, it is
simply not going to happen on a ten-foot goal.
God knows no such limitations.
There is nothing that “God cannot do” if He so desires to. We are speaking here of God’s omnipotence, which refers to the truth
that God is able to do whatever He
pleases (all His holy will). When we
considered God’s independence, we were emphasizing His freedom to do whatever He pleases.
In God’s omnipotence, we are emphasizing God’s ability to do whatever He pleases.
In Genesis
18:13-14, God Himself affirms His ability to keep His promises to Abraham
and Sarah. In response to Sarah’s
laughter over God’s promise of a son in their old age, God says the following: [13] The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did
Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’
[14] Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will
return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” (Genesis 18:13-14 ESV)
Today, I want us to consider why we should believe
that God is omnipotent from the pages of the Bible and what difference
believing and knowing the omnipotent God should make in our lives.
I.
The Reality of God’s Omnipotence (Genesis 18:14)
The question, “Is
anything too hard for the LORD?” is rhetorical and is meant to be a
declaration that nothing is too hard
for God. This is a declaration of God’s
omnipotence. Again, He is not limited in
any way in His ability, or power, to do what He decides to do. He is all-powerful. He does not grow tired or weary (Is. 40:26-31). He is “able to do all His holy will.” [1] There is no
obstacle that is too great when it comes to what God purposes to do and how
God purposes to do it.
In this passage, the obstacle that appears “too hard for the LORD” to do is causing
Sarah to have a child when she is beyond childbearing years. 18:11
confirms, “the way of women has ceased to
be with Sarah.” We learn in Genesis 17:17 that Abraham is nearly
100 years old (99) at this point and Sarah is 90 years old! This obvious reality is why both Abraham and
Sarah to laugh at the news that they will have a child. But their age and inability to procreate was no
obstacle to the God who is omnipotent.
Nothing is too hard for God. It
is interesting that to this couple that God affirms His omnipotence, God had
revealed Himself as “God Almighty” (Genesis 17:1).
Scripture is full of illustrations and declarations
of God’s omnipotence. Creation is one of the most riveting
examples of God’s omnipotence. That
nothing existed but God was no obstacle to Him speaking everything into
existence out of nothing. Hebrews 11:3: [3] By faith we understand that the universe was created by the
word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
Or think of the awesome power of God displayed in the flood of Genesis 6-9 or the
confounding of languages at the tower of Babel in Genesis 11. Another mighty
display of God’s power is the events of the
Exodus in Exodus 3-18 (burning
bush, signs, plagues, paring of Red Sea, manna, water from the rock,
etc.). Or what about the battles of the Old Testament, where
God’s people were clearly out matched or out numbered? Jonathan summarized the reality of God’s
omnipotence in the battles of His people in 1 Samuel 14:6: [6] Jonathan
said to the young man who carried his armor, “Come, let us go over to the
garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the LORD will work for us, for
nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few.” When God is part of the equation, Goliath is
no match for puny David! When God is
part of the equation, 1,000 Philistines are no match for a man with a donkey’s
jawbone! When God is part of the
equation, 135,000 Midianite soldiers are no match for Gideon and 300 Israelites. No warrior or army of any size is an obstacle
to God.
Not even the sinfulness and rebellion of God’s own
people will be an obstacle to God restoring and redeeming them. When God promises restoration and redemption for His people in Jeremiah 32, He points to His omnipotence as the guarantee that God
will in fact do everything He is promising to do. “[27] “Behold,
I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27 ESV) God then proceeds to promise a day when
God will make an everlasting covenant with His people and restore
them forever. How would He do this? He would do something even more incredible
than causing a 90 year old woman to conceive by her 99 year old husband. He would cause a virgin to conceive and give birth to God the Son. When
Mary asked Gabriel how this could be, Gabriel reminded Mary of God’s
Omnipotence: [35] And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come
upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the
child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. [36] And behold, your
relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the
sixth month with her who was called barren. [37] For nothing will be
impossible with God.” (Luke 1:35-37
ESV) The virgin born Son of God would establish His identity of being God’s
promised Messiah through wielding the omnipotent power of God throughout His
earthly ministry (miracles), and God
the Father would establish His identity by exercising His omnipotence in raising Him from the dead.
Conversion
is also a manifestation of the God’s
omnipotence. In Mark 10:23-27, Jesus described how difficult it is for a rich
person (or any other person for that matter) to enter into God’s kingdom. He said, “It
is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person
to enter the kingdom of God” (25).
His disciples then ask, “Then who
can be saved?” (26), to which Jesus responds: “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are
possible with God.” I believe that what
Jesus is saying is that salvation is impossible with man, but that God can do
the impossible and save sinners, even rich sinners. There is no obstacle that can stop God from
saving the most wicked sinner because with God all things are possible.
The end of history will also witness the
omnipotence of God displayed as He reins judgment upon the earth once again in
a time of great tribulation (Rev. 6-19),
concluding with the final judgment (Rev.
20). His power will then further be
displayed in bringing about a new
creation (Rev. 21-22) where His
redeemed people will dwell with Him and enjoy Him forever. Simply put, the story of the Bible presents
us with a God for whom no obstacle can
stand in the way of what He wants to do.
II.
The Rewards of Knowing the Omnipotent God (Genesis 18:13-14)
In our base text, we also see that there are
certain rewards to knowing and embracing the truth of God’s omnipotence. In Genesis
18:13, God asks Abraham “Why did
Sarah laugh…?” and the implication seems to be that she would not have
laughed if she had truly believed that nothing was too hard for
God. Both Abraham and Sarah laugh,
apparently in disbelief that God could give them a child at their age.
Now, there is both an appropriate way to question
God and an inappropriate way to question God.
Admittedly, we are taken back at miracles like this because, outside of
God’s intervention, situations like this are
impossible. It was not possible, outside of the work of
God, for Sarah to have a child at her age.
The text makes that plain (18:11). So it is not inappropriate to question how God is going to do something that is
impossible. Mary does this in Luke 1:34. What is inappropriate is to question if God can do the impossible in
disbelief. Our questioning becomes
inappropriate when we begin to think that any task is too great for Him to accomplish.
God has already revealed Himself as “God
Almighty” to Abraham and Sarah and their laughing implied that He wasn’t
“All-mighty.”
God’s question here implies that truly believing
that God is omnipotent will produce a different
inner disposition in God’s
people. This inner disposition is what I
mean by reward. Belief in this attribute
should cause senior citizens not to laugh at the prospect of having a
child. Belief in this attribute will
cause puny shepherd boys to take on giants.
Belief in this attribute will cause God’s people to live in ways that
will cause an outside world to shake their head and question their sanity! The rewards of embracing the reality of God’s
omnipotence are radical faith, hope, and confidence in God’s people. There is no obstacle I will ever face that
can stop God from accomplishing His purposes and promises in my life!
Consider the application this truth has for
missions. Jesus commissioned the church
to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, and Jesus Himself guaranteed the success of the mission due to His own
omnipotence (Matthew 16:18, 28:18). It is because all power and authority belong
to Him that He can say with certainty that He will build His church and nothing
will prevail against it! So believing
this should erupt in fearlessness in sharing my faith and even going to hostile
mission fields.
I think the most obvious way that this fleshes out
is in our prayer lives. How grand should
our prayer requests before such an omnipotent God? Ephesians
3:20 calls God, “him who is able to
do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.” This attribute should revolutionize our
prayer lives.
“Nothing
is too hard for Him. If God were stinted in might and had a limit to His
strength we might well despair. But seeing that He is clothed with omnipotence,
no prayer is too hard for Him to answer, no need too great for Him to supply,
no passion too strong for Him to subdue; no temptation too powerful for Him to
deliver from, no misery too deep for Him to relieve. “The LORD is the strength
of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psa 27:1).”[2]
Speaking of the power and majesty (greatness) of
God, J. I. Packer says, “But this is
knowledge which Christians today largely lack: and that is one reason why our
faith is so feeble and our worship so flabby.
We are modern people, and modern people, though they cherish great
thoughts of themselves, have as a rule small thoughts of God. When the person in the church, let alone the
person in the street, uses the word God,
the thought is rarely of divine majesty.
A well
known book is called Your God is
Too Small; it is a timely title. We are poles apart from our evangelical
forefathers at this point, even when we confess our faith in their words. When you start reading Luther, or Edwards, or
Whitefield, though your doctrine may be theirs, you find yourself wondering
whether you have any acquaintance at all with the mighty God whom they knew so
intimately.”[3]
Christians who really wrap their heart around this
truth that without God they can do nothing and that with God nothing is
impossible would shake the world with their prayers and would live with the
kind of radical confidence that Paul speaks with in Romans 8:28-39:
[31] What then shall we say to these
things? If God is for us, who can be against us? [32] He who did not spare
his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him
graciously give us all things? [33] Who shall bring any charge against
God's elect? It is God who justifies. [34] Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus
is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of
God, who indeed is interceding for us. [35] Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or danger, or sword? [36] As it is written, “For your sake we
are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
[37] No,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
[38] For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor
things present nor things to come, nor powers, [39] nor height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of
God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This
is the God who is before you today. Stand
in wonder of Him! Come and surrender to
the One who has and is exercising His omnipotent power today in overcoming your
sin and rebellion by bringing you here to hear about the good news of His Son
Jesus Christ.
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