God Almighty
Genesis xvii. 1. I am the Almighty God.
Matter is powerless; itself moves, and also moves other things, only as it is moved by mind. We do indeed see prodigious agencies in the material world. There is the agency of the mechanical powers; the agency of steam, and of the elements. But they are all to be traced up to the prior agency of thought, of contrivance, of intellectual effort and impulse. Apart from these, every species, every form, and every combination of matter would be perfectly inert and motionless.
The mind of man accomplishes wonders; the mind of the Deity, himself a pure Spirit, — all Mind, is inifinitely powerful; it is almighty, and able to do all things. “He speaks, and it is done; he commands, and it stands fast.” He wills, and the object he wills is produced; his very choice is agency: his mere will is omnipotent. “What his soul desireth, that he doeth.” It costs him no trouble, no effort. To determine is with him to perform. Every thought, every desire, every purpose of this Infinite Mind is pure, omnipotent power, beyond resistance, obstruction, or control.
Let us then contemplate the extent and greatness of God’s almighty power.
I. In the first place, we see it in the works of crea — tion.
There is no higher act of power than that of causing positive existence. No creature has the power to create — no not a worm, nor a pebble on the shore. Creation is God’s work alone. That atom that floats on the breeze, whence was it? Those orbs that light up the azure sky, that sky itself, how came they into being? They were not always. Almighty God made them, and gave them existence, where there was nothing before. He stretched out the heavens by his discretion, and garnished them by his Spirit. He spake and decided the number, the magnitude, the distances, the influence of the unnumbered hosts of stars and planets. He set all the borders of the earth, and fastened its foundations, and laid the measures thereof, and stretched out his line upon it. He stretched out the north over the empty place, and hung the world upon nothing. The fertile plain and the barren desert, the lofty mountain and the humble valley, and the rivers that roll between them, are all his workmanship. And this vast extent of ocean, these deep blue waters, whence were they? who laid them up in store-houses, and made the cloud a garment, and thick darkness a swaddling band for them? Who shut them up with doors, and set bars for them, that they should not break through their decreed place? Well may we say with Job, “I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought is hidden from thee!” Truly “he doeth great things! unsearchable, marvellous things, and that without number!” “Marvellous are thy works. Lord God Almighty; in wisdom hast thou made Ihem all!”
e GOD ALMIGHTY.
“II. In the second place, there are equal exhibitions of God’s almighty power in the works of his providence.
He is not only the Maker, but the upholder of all things, and their director and governor. His providence is a sort of second creation — creation constantly continued. And throughout the whole of it, there is one continued expression of omnipotence. Men speak of the laws by which the natural world is governed, as though they were something apart from God; while they are God himself, working after the counsel of his own will. They do but unfold the way and manner in which he works in order to accomplish his own wise and benevolent designs. When the earth quakes, men attribute the phenomenon to mere natural causes; but the Scriptures attribute it to God. “He toucheth the hills and they smoke, the mountains, and they break in pieces;” the rocks, and “they melt away like wax;” the earth, and “all its foundations are out of place.” Men have their theories to account for storms and tempests; the Scriptures account for them in another way. ‘* His way is in the whirlwind, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.” ‘’ The mountains saw thee, and they trembled; the overflowing of the water passed by; the deep uttered his voice and lifted up his hands on high.” The regular succession of day and night, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest; the rain, the drought, the dew, are familiarly traced by the philosophy of this world to other causes than God. But the Scriptures adopt another and a different philosophy. “Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days, and caused the day-spring from on high to know his place, that it might take hold of the uttermost parts of the earth? Hast thou divided a water-course for the overflowing of the waters; or a way for the lightning of thunder, to cause it to rain on the earth where no man is, and on the wilderness where there is no man? Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of the dew? Out of whose womb came the ice, and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?’* “Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power and judgment,”
And as it is in the natural, so is it in the moral world. God is its governor, and all the affairs of men are controlled by him. ‘* He is the judge; he setteth up one, and he putteth down another.” “There are many devices in a man’s heart; but the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.” When empires are to be founded, he founds them; when they are to be overthrown, he diminishes and brings them low. Assyria, Egypt, Babylon, and all the departed nations, have passed away, because his unseen hand had written their doom. His arm disconcerts the schemes of the wise, breaks the confederacies of the great, and scatters the combinations of all who set themselves to contend with their Maker. We look for them, but they are not to be found. We do but pass by, and they are no more. The only remembrance of them is contained in the history of the past, and that remembrance is pre-eminently the record of the Almighty power that levelled them with the dust. A single look from God, and they were no longer to be found. It is impossible for us to conceive the amazing power with which the Divine administration in the government of this world moves forward. The vast machinery is kept in motion by an invisible, but Almighty hand; “there is a wheel within a wheel; and the living creature is -within the wheels.”
2g GOD ALMIGHTY.
Sometimes they “move high and dreadful,” and as they move, remind us how impotent is the pride of man, and bid us remember that “power belongeth unto God.”
III. There are impressive exhibitions of the divine power, in the third place, in the government which God exercises over the minds of men themselves,
“Thou know est, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” “We are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.” Other agents there are besides God; but there is no agent independent of him. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord; as the rivers of water he turneth it whithersoever he will.” Such is the power of God, that he exercises entire dominion over every order of minds in the universe, from the seraph to the child. So absolutely does he govern, that not even Sir Isaac Newton could have predicted his next thought. Of all the men now living on the earth, not one knows beforehand what thoughts he shall conceive; what purposes he shall form; what words he shall utter; in what pursuits he shall be engaged; what good he shall enjoy, or what evil he shall endure; or how long he shall live, or when or where he shall die; because all his times and ways are in the hands of God.
The power of man never appears more illustrious than when we witness its effects on the minds of his fellow man. Chains, prisons, and the sword, furnish faint exhibitions of power compared with those which a powerful mind exerts upon the views and conduct, and destiny of mankind. It is a power more to be coveted, than all the mere physical force of the globe. It is a sublime view this, when we contemplate the power of God over the minds of the intelligent creation. It is not the government of a world of passive machinery, but of thinking, moral, accomitable men that he administers. He can do more than wield the elements; he can wield the thoughts of men. He can do more than give laws to the world of matter; he can give them to the world of mind. “The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth; and let the earth rejoice.”
IV. I add, in the fourth place, the dispensations of God’s grace are affecting expressions of his almighty power.
In every stage of its progress, this grace is almighty. There are obstacles in the way of it which nothing but omnipotence can surmount. The first work it has to accomplish is to take away the heart of stone, and give a heart of flesh. And this is a work which no means, and no motives in the universe can perform. The Bible cannot do it by all its instructions. The Sabbath cannot do it by all its solemnity. Parents cannot do it by all their fidelity and tenderness. Ministers cannot do it by all their preaching. Christians cannot do it by all their example and influence. Judgments cannot do it by all their terrors; and mercies cannot do it by all their persuasive attractions. Plague, famine, war, the fearful thunder and the forked lightning cannot do it. The sea saith, it is not in me to do it; and death and the grave say, it is not in me. But God can do it; God alone, by the efficacy of his own almighty power. This must be superadded to the other influences, or the work is never done. It belongs to his Almighty Spirit, to convince men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment: to make them willing in the day of his power. When his right hand is plucked out of his bosom, and his mighty arm revealed, every difficulty bows before it. The blind see, the deaf hear, the dead in sin live. Every instance of conversion is a signal instance of divine power. When these signs and wonders are done in the name of the holy child Jesus, what victories are they, what triumphs of Almighty grace? “It is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” Well did the Psalmist say, when his heart was inditing a good matter, and he spake of the things touching the king, “Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth, and meekness, and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things.”
Nor is this all that is done for the subjects of grace. “They are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation.” And when, after all their conflicts and trials, they at last become fitted for heaven, it will be most truly said of every one of them, “He that hath wrought you for this self-same thing is God.” The longer we live, and the more we know of ourselves, if we are Christians, the more shall we wonder at that excellency of power by which any of the sons or daughters of Adam are brought into the divine kingdom, and kept in it! Wonderful, — most wonderful grace!
Let this view of God’s omnipotence lead us L In the first place, to strong confidence in God. It is a source of great comfort to know that God is omnipotent. On every side we have enemies, and are beset with dangers and snares. But God is above them all. Great peace have they whose minds are stayed on God. The name of the Lord is a strong tower, into which the righteous runneth, and is safe. Their place of defence is the munition of rocks. In the time of trouble, God will hide them in his pavilion, in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide them. God is their refuge and strength. Unutterably precious truth! God is thy refuge, Christian, and underneath thee are the everlasting arms. “He is able to make all grace abound toward you.” “He is able to keep you from falling, and present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.” He is able to “keep that which you have committed to him, and to raise you up at the last day.” Away with trembling and fear! “Who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man that shall be made as grass, and forgettest the Lord thy Maker, that stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth?” Who, O who would not have the Omnipotent God for his friend! Give me this, and let ldio will be my enemy! Come what will, if the Eternal God be my friend. Yes, let it come — be it what it may. Come life, come death, if God Almighty but say to me, “I am thy shield, and thine exceeding great reward!”
2. In the next place, our subject teaches us the eX’ treme folly of those who contend with their Maker, Multitudes there are, who are not God’s friends, but his enemies, and contend with him. They do not love him; they will not obey him; they will not trust in him; they refuse his salvation; and they will live as they please, however much they may displease their Maker.
O ye, who thus trifle with Omnipotence! “Who ever hardened himself against God and prospered?” Before him angels bow, and devils tremble. The King eternal, immortal, and invisible, is not a being to be thus trifled with. His favor is life; his frown is death. Mock not him who is thus able to save and to destroy. Insult not him, at whose bidding you must make your bed in hell. The black face of the tempestuous cloud warns you, no longer to contend with God. Those flames you have seen dart through the sky, bid you beware how you contend with God. What, O what is a frail, dying man in the hands of this angry God!
Turn ye, turn ye at his reproof. Be persuaded to seek his face. Though your sins be as scarlet, he can make them white as snow; though they be red like crimson, he can make them as wool. Humble yourselves before him, and you will find he has no pleasure in your death. Be in earnest in seeking his face through Jesus Christ, and you will find that you have to deal with one whose mercy is as great as his power. Break off* your sins, and you will find that where your sin abounds, his grace much more abounds.
But if you will go on in sin, and thus persevere in contending with God, it is a dark prospect that is before you. It blackens every hour. God’s anger will not sleep. His goodness may bear with you a little while, but will ere long become indignation and wrath. In a little while he will brandish his sword, and the blow will fall the heavier because so long delayed. Sickness will come, and you will tremble. Death will come, and you will be afraid to die. You must go into God’s presence, and you will be afraid to go. You must be dragged from your grave and stand at his bar, only to be condemned and accursed. There will be no pardon there, and no time for repentance.
O, my friends, rush not headlong to this place of torment I It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.
Yet is this mighty power the sinner’s hope. What voice is that, and how seasonable and sweet the words it utters, which says, “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thy help!” This same God Almighty is the sinner’s helper. “Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me, and he shall make peace with me.” This is the way to turn God’s power to good account. That God is omnipotent is the very truth the desponding sinner needs, to raise him at once above all discouragements. O take hold of his everlasting strength. Even Paul could say no more than,” I can do all things, through Christ Jesus that strengtheneth me.’’ Weak and insufficient as you are, there is no room for discouragement so long as your help is in God.
To him be glory, and dominion, and power, and thanksgiving forever. Amen!