Our God is Omnipotent (Part 5)

But the fact of God’s sovereignty means that God is supreme. And so what we looked at that, we’re not gonna rehash that this morning, but I do wanna go and look at another, also not a detour, but a subject kind of a sub subject within this idea of the power of God. And this might be, this what we’re gonna look at this morning, also like the sovereignty of God produces some questions that are sometimes difficult to grapple with and deal with concerning God’s power as exercised in the world.

And so you’ll see what I mean as we get there. And so we’re starting Romans 13. Let’s pray once again and then we’ll be in Romans 13 starting in verse number one. Our father, thank you again for the opportunity to study your word and we pray that you would you would guide our study. Lord, help us to do your will. Help us to understand the scripture and that in all things you might be glorified. Help us to, lord, to see the scripture as you’ve written it and and to deal with these implications because lord, we know that your word is deep and the truths of it are deep and so we want to to try to sound those depths and to grow and to be more well rounded and understanding, the word of the Lord. So Lord, we ask for your help and grace in Jesus name. Amen.

Alright, Romans 13 verse number one, the Bible says this, let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of god, the powers that be are ordained of god. So, even if you look at verse one, you see the word powers in the plural and although that’s that’s like the common use, the powers that be. Right? He’s talking about the worldly powers in this chapter in particular and but really in in an absolute sense, there are no powers in the plural. There is only one power and that’s God’s power. That’s what the verse says, every soul be subject under the higher powers for there is no power but of God. So power is actually only singular and it belongs to God.

But yet in observation, we see that there are many people in this in this world who who exercise power. You know, in this this particular instance, we’re talking about civil government let me just say a point about that, since I’m on the subject. I’d say the word civil government, but even the word civil government in phrase is a little misleading because we have developed this idea of civil as opposed to religious power as opposed to some other kind of power as if it’s neat and tidy, but that’s just not the case.

Throughout history, civil power and religious power and other kinds of power have been exercised together and really it’s kind of a unique sort of an Americanism that civil power is a little bit divided. We talk about the separation of church and state which is originally a Thomas Jefferson statement. And he didn’t mean it to say that religion was not allowed in the civil discourse, what he meant is that primarily that the civil government was not allowed to tinker with the religious and that was the whole debate back in that time with the constitution.

But even the term civil kind of indicates that there’s a distinction between the two. We just have to understand when in the middle ages when the Pope held power, he held religious power and spiritual power, right? Maybe not the kind of spiritual we’re thinking of, but he’s held spiritual power and he also held political power and civil power. Although he might not have exercised that directly, he had his imps, the various kings of Europe to exercise it on his behalf.

And like the king of Spain, the king of France for example, as examples. So the reason I’m saying that and I’m getting kind of off base or off my topic here is that the idea of civil power that is neat and tidy and separated from everything else is not exactly something that you always see historically. And when you come to Romans 13, I say we’re looking at civil power and what I mean by that is we’re looking at the power of earthly rulers.

Okay, if I can say that. But we know that sometimes earthly rulers invade other realms, do they not? I mentioned this a couple weeks ago in in Britain, they have passed laws that are making speech, certain religious speech unlawful. And what they’re doing is they’re invading an area that has usually been understood to be at least in our modern time understood to be an area that is ruled by theology, and they’re invading that and they’re wanting to usurp it, but that’s not new.

That’s not new. People have been doing that since time immemorial as they say. It has always been the case that civil rulers have tried to get Christians, have tried to get God’s people to do things that God said not to do. That’s pretty common. But how do we respond to that, that fact, civil or we might say earthly powers like this, we read in chapter 13. That’s what chapter 13 is all about. The key thing I want you to take away from this verse in our first stop here is this, is that there is no power but of God.

Is that all powers that exist because God is omnipotent, he has all power, power is one, it’s his, but yet where do we see all the other powers that exist in the world? All of those powers exist dependent upon God’s power, in fact their power and authority emanates from God’s. Now that’s where it gets a little bit sticky. I just mentioned the Pope who exercised inquisitions in the dark ages by means of the king of Spain in particular to find people and execute them or imprison them in various ways.

How is that power of God? How is that of God? Because that is certainly a power, is it I mean everybody agree, kinda give me a nod? That is a power he he exercised, how can that be of God? It says the powers that be are ordained of God. You see that’s kind of a troubling sort of fact. Right? Right.

Right. Power is kind of like, you might think of power in terms of like a taser. A taser, police taser has 50,000 volts, but it’s power, there’s power there, right? That can be exercised but it just depends on who you shoot it at and as to how affects the practical world. And so, yeah, power is something that’s expressed. And so some people take power that they have and use it in wrong ways, and they’ll give an account to God for that for sure. All right, so for our first stop, let’s go to Jeremiah chapter 27.

Jeremiah 27. No matter what power exists, in this world, whether we call it civil power, earthly power, whatever power exists, we know that that power because god is omnipotent and because all powers of god, we know that it is subservient to god’s power. That’s the idea of sovereignty that we’re talking about earlier.

And so we come to these one of these kind of uncomfortable and maybe we might say unhappy realities that deals with the omnipotence of god. Jeremiah 27 verse five, the Bible says this, god speaking here, I have made the earth and man the man and the beast that are upon the ground. By my great power and by my outstretched arm and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me. So, yeah, you you we talked about power that you remember the two, the two A’s, right? What’s the two A’s of the definition of power? You have?

Ability and? Authority. Authority. But you can see here, they’re actually blended. He created everything, that’s ability primarily and because he created everything, he owns everything and then he says at the last part of the verse, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me. So, by by the power, by virtue of god’s power in creation, he says, I reserve the right to give it to whoever I I want and he doesn’t consult us. He just does it And he has the authority to do that because he had the ability to create it.

And so that’s what he does. Now that, you might say, well that’s well that’s good, God gives it to whoever he wants, but what do we actually see in this world? We see people having power that we don’t like and who are not using it right. Did God give it to them? Right? Next verse, and now, he gives us a practical example. Have I given thee all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon?

My servant. My servant. He calls the king of Babylon my servant. Now, what’s interesting is when we get back to Romans 13, we’re also going going to see that same idea in Romans 13. Verse number six continues, and the beast of the field have I given him also to serve him, and all nations shall serve him, and his son and his son’s son until the very time of his land come and then, many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. In other words, he’s going to he’s going to serve himself using them and then later, the the tables will be turned and other nations in particular, he’s thinking of of Media, Persia, are going to plunder Babylon and that’s how it’s going to happen. Verse number eight, and it shall come to pass that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the the same Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and that will not put will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the lord, with the sword and with the famine and with the pestilence until I have consumed them by his hand.

Here’s think about what God’s doing here. You think well, God is telling, you know who he’s talking to right now? Jeremiah, who’s he talking to? Jeremiah is the last prophet before the Babylonian captivity, right? He’s talking to the kingdom of Judah. Samaria is gone, this is Judah. God is talking to the kingdom of Judah and he’s saying, you, God’s people, are to serve the king of Babylon and if you don’t, I’m gonna punish you.

And they and they say to themselves, what? That wicked idolatrous king who treats us so so so badly and and commits all kinds of atrocities and injustices all in every place that he goes? God says, yes. You will serve him and if you don’t, I’ll punish you. You see, is that not a little bit of a that’s kind of a horse pill, isn’t it? Not kind of hard to swallow.

And he says this, verse number nine to further the Lord drives home pretty deep. He says this, therefore, hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you saying, you shall not serve the king of Babylon. For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land, and that I should drive you out and you should perish.

Now, about this. How do you think say China invaded our country and there was some guy on the street corner preaching and saying, serve the Chinese. How do you think he would be received? And yet this is exactly the message that Jeremiah had to preach and he did. What a faithful prophet. Now there’s some parts of Jeremiah where his life, he looks like he slipped a little, if you read carefully, I think. I think there’s a little slippage, especially toward the end but man, think of the prophet who is the lone guy who’s saying, no, you don’t need to fight these people, you just need to let them do. Why, what, I’m just saying, that’s a good way to get killed.

That’s a good way to get killed and yet that was Jeremiah’s, you know, that was his task to preach that message. Now, I’m not suggesting that if China invaded The United States, we shouldn’t fight back. What I’m saying is, it helps us understand the kind of difficult spot Jeremiah was in. Alright. Verse number 10, for they prophesy, well, I read that one. Verse number 11, but the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the lord and they shall till it and dwell therein.

So, why did god give Nebuchadnezzar the this power? Was it because Nebuchadnezzar was righteous? No. So, here here’s what I want you to understand and this is one of the takeaways from this. God doesn’t give away his power or I should say delegate his power to people to in this in earthly rulers because they’re good and righteous. So, if we had this idea and I I’ve touched on this before but I’ll say it again. If we have this idea that God is somehow for the people that we think are good and against the people that we think are bad in civil power.

Now he, that’s not, I don’t think you can take the scripture that far. You can say that God hates the evil they do, but He gives the power to whoever He wants. And sometimes He gives the power to evil people, that is just a fact.

Does that make how does that make you feel? Let’s just let’s just have a self awareness session. How does that make you feel as an American? How does that make you feel to know that it might be of God that ungodly rulers get elected. You see these are the uncomfortable truths but many times is it not true in the political arena? Sometimes elections and changes of power in that way are framed in terms of well God’s for this guy because he stands up and he says, I believe God has called me to be the next senator from South Carolina.

And then he doesn’t get elected or maybe he doesn’t You see what I’m saying how that complicates it and how it kinda It’s a little mucky when you compare it with scripture.

The lord chose to give Nebuchadnezzar the things that we’ve read here in this situation before us. So, Nebuchadnezzar had that power from god and it wasn’t because he was righteous. He wasn’t righteous. In fact, god’s going to humble Nebuchadnezzar which we’ll see in just a minute.

But not only that, here’s the the cold truth about it. Not only did he give Nebuchadnezzar that power, god himself then enforced it, that decision. Such that anyone who would not submit to Nebuchadnezzar’s power that had been delegated to him by God, God said, I’m gonna punish that guy. I’m gonna punish them. So because and furthermore, because rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar and his delegated power was tantamount to rebellion against God.

This is how civil, this is how the Lord views civil rulers. It’s just a it’s it’s a cold truth. It’s a cold truth. God enforces his decree of power that he has delegated to Nebuchadnezzar with a warning and a threat of punishment against those that rebel.

And this is the reason God says to the prophets, he says, don’t you dare preach that they ought to fight Nebuchadnezzar. Don’t you preach it. Alright. Let’s go to Daniel chapter four.

Awfully quiet in here. What happened to all the comments that you guys usually have? Well, Sam used to have, you know, he’s otherwise occupied, but what happened to all the comments? You know, all of a sudden, your cat got your tongue because we’re talking about this, right?

We’re going somewhere with this though. Alright, Daniel chapter four Actually, I wanna look at a couple a couple places on the way to Daniel. Okay? Hold your place in Daniel. Go to the book of Habakkuk real quick. That’s to the right of Daniel.

Habakkuk chapter one verse 13 Look at verse 12 to pick up the context Art thou not from everlasting, oh lord, my god, mine holy one, we shall not die. Oh lord, thou hast ordained them for judgement. Oh mighty god, thou hast established them for correction.

Thou art of pure eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. Now notice, now we sometimes quote that verse right, but it’s in a very specific context, although it’s proper to use in other contexts as well.

This is the burden of Habakkuk the prophet regarding Nebuchadnezzar and the captivity of the Chaldeans. Notice what he says, He says, thou art of pure eyes and but then to behold evil, thou canst and canst not look on iniquity. Wherefore, lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he. You know what he’s saying here?

Habakkuk is saying, lord, Nebuchadnezzar is destroying or is coming to destroy our country and he is more wicked than we are. How can you hold your tongue? You see what I’m saying? This tension that has been building in the prophet and probably among a lot of the Hebrew people at that time, why is a wicked man who’s more wicked than we, why is he Why is God allowing him to do this? He’s worse than us and it’s it’s it’s the mistake of thinking God gives power to those who are good.

That’s not true because he didn’t. And sometimes when when the Lord wants to bless his people, that’s exactly what he does, but they’re not in a place of blessing here. They’re in a place, they’re in an opposite place, they’re in a place where they’re under the the judgment of God. Alright? Alright. Now, if you would look at We’re gonna run out of time. Let’s go back to Daniel. Go back to Daniel chapter four, alright? Back to Daniel.

It was another Isaiah, if you wanted to note this if you’re taking notes, you wanted to to note one other passage that covers this, Isaiah chapter 10 verses five to 15 has a very similar situation there. Alright, Daniel chapter four verse number 17.

This matter is by the decree of the watchers and the demand by the word of the holy ones to the intent that the living may know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will. Here it is. Now, we already know that, we we learned that from Jeremiah, but here’s here’s an additional thing here, and setteth up over it the basest of men.

See it? Very plainly. The lord sometimes chooses to put the basis of men to delegate his power to them because remember, there’s no power but of god. Look at verse 25. This is speaking of Nebuchadnezzar that they shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be with the beast of the field and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen and they shall wet wet thee with the dew of heaven and seven times shall pass over thee till thou know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will.

Look at verse 32. And they shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be with the beast of the field. They shall make thee to eat grass as oxen and seven times shall pass over thee until thou know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will. Chapter five. So, god is judging and humbling Nebuchadnezzar. Remember, Nebuchadnezzar was the tool that we’ve just been reading about in Jeremiah. Now, god is going to humble him.

Remember, in in Nebuchadnezzar, you know, even though the lord says plainly, he’s he delegated his power to Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Judah. Everybody see that? But let me ask you this question. To Nebuchadnezzar’s mind, is that what happened?

From Nebuchadnezzar’s perspective, no way. From Nebuchadnezzar’s perspective, he conquered all these things by his power. In other words, these his victories were by the skill of his hand, by the power of his army. He didn’t recognize God at all. Even though behind the scenes it was God the whole time.

Now Nebuchadnezzar is gonna be corrected by the Lord for good and the Lord is going to turn Nebuchadnezzar essentially into a beast for seven years. And then after he comes back to himself, he’s going to realize something about God. Now look at chapter five verse number 21.

Take a peek. Look at chapter four once again verse 37. Now, this is after Nebuchadnezzar comes back to himself. He says this, now I, Nebuchadnezzar, prays and extolled and honored the king of heaven. All whose works are truth and his ways judgment and those that walk in pride, he is able to abase. Who’s he referring to in this in this verse? Himself, obviously. He’s referring to himself but note, Nebuchadnezzar has had a complete change of mind. Took seven years, quite a bit of trial, but he learned something. God humbled the man, so now he understands that the power that he had, he had that had been delegated to him by God, it wasn’t by his own power, that’s the lesson Nebuchadnezzar learned, but it’s a lesson that his son did not learn. Chapter five, look at verse 21.

Now, this is this is Daniel speaking to Nebuchadnezzar’s son. Verse 20 says, but when his heart was lifted up and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne and they took his glory from him. And he was driven from the sons of men, and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses. They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.

And thou his son, Obelshazzar, has not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this. So here, Belshazzar is being is giving is being given a warning by god that essentially, you have too much pride, you did, you have not learned the lesson that you knew very well your father learned and so god’s about to take by an act of his will. He’s about to take his delegated power from from you and give it to the Medes, right? He’s gonna give it to the Persians.

And so that’s exactly what happens when he judges King Belshazzar. Now, even though and so here’s here’s the point I want I want you to see. Even though god delegates his power, his his omnipotence, he he delegates some of that to an earthly ruler and even if that earthly ruler is wicked, that does not mean that god is in any way lost his power. That does not mean that god has any way lost his power. So, how does this truth, how should it affect us?

How should it affect us? Well, I can tell you one way that that the lack of this truth can affect people. Jude Jude verse eight says this, likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. So those this is a description of the wicked and it says, they despise dominion and speak evil of dignities. One of the effects of not understanding this truth about God’s power and how he gives it to sometimes wicked or unsavory people is that it causes you to have misunderstanding and therefore a wrong response to that power.

To the way we view government. Now, I’m glad and I know you are too, that we live in a representative form of government, right? We live in a representative democracy, that’s what we have. And we have a say so from the human perspective, we have the say so about who our officials are and we have a say so about the laws that are made by means of those representatives, right? And how many of you are thankful for that fact, right? I’m thankful that we don’t live in a a country and in a a system of laws where we have no power at all, no say at all whatsoever. I’m thankful for that.

But at the same And so with that comes a certain level of criticism, right? When a when a civil leader says things that are bad or does things that are bad or has bad policies, in this kind of government, you’re expected to criticize, you’re expected to run against him, campaign it, whatever, vote him out of office. And that’s a good thing, that’s part of the system. But there are limits to that.

Think about it. Because the power is held by means, you think, don’t wanna get too in the weeds, but the power is held through the constitution which is supposed to be the law, the power is held by the representatives that we have supposedly chosen, right? We believe for the most part that we’ve chosen them. That’s where the power is held.

But what do you do when you still can’t, like you can’t affect the change that you want to see, what is the Christian’s responsibility? Well the reality is that that power is held by those people. Like for instance, when a person that you don’t care for is elected into the White House because that’s just the biggest office, what do you do?

The part you have to be careful of is just to rail and despise dominion, right? That’s the part or take up arms against that power. You do, listen, you better have very good cause to do that. And we could go, Sam and I have had discussions about the American Revolution and how this all plays together, you probably thought about that as well. And that’s a deep discussion, there’s a lot that goes on there. But here’s the point is that that is where the power is and so the response you know for the wicked is they rail and this is this is one feature you see of the wicked in our society, you see a tendency for them they’re unwilling to accept loss.

When they lose, they rail. When they lose, they want to resort to things like violence, they want to resort to things like, they don’t want to yield to the fact, the reality that the power has been delegated to someone that they don’t care for. Yes sir?

Nation, you know, by the way. But as a nation that you’ve turned your back on God, and as violence has increased, we’ve always seen God break low these muddy nations, very quick with Egypt, battleground, and that helps the world. And so as a result, it almost seems like we’re kind of at that point where the servant, like in Proverbs, talks about, like, it it’s a shame when its servant rules. And it’s like that’s what’s going on is our servants are ruling over us now that we are the ones with the power telling you ought to be doing this, I think there’s also, in our society, reality is that there are a lot of people that want them to be doing those very evil things.

I mean we’re kinda getting what we choose, now we might not. So the idea of a representative democracy does make it a little bit more complicated, but let me get to Romans 13 and kind of wrap it up and then I think we’ll come away with something maybe we can use. Romans 13 verse number one.

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God and the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same.

For he is the minister, that’s like the word servant. Nebuchadnezzar is my servant from Jeremiah. Here’s the word minister to thee for good, but if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain. For he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore, you must need to be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake.

For this cause, pay you tribute also for they are god’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues. Tribute to whom tribute is due. Custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. So, this chapter 13 verses one through seven is built upon this scriptural truth that all powers delegated. It comes from God. And the practical response to that reality is this, submit.

That’s what it says. That’s the primary takeaway. But they want my money, give it. We might not like it and we might be able in our system of government at least, we might be able to even have a voice as to how much they take and you know, we hope we do. But ultimately when it comes down, we have to give a certain amount, right? As the CPAs among us will tell you, that you just got to give it, you got to render it. That is a part of the truth of delegated power.

Submission, the Bible says, first Peter two thirteen, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether it be to the king as supreme, and then it goes on. But the idea, the laws they make were to submit to them, were to follow them and yield them, why? Because we know that power is not just their power, they’re willing independently, but it is ultimately power from God.

And that’s why we do it. That’s why we pay our taxes. We don’t pay our taxes because we’re afraid of the IRS or we shouldn’t, We prob, truth is we probably do. Yeah.

Right. That’s true. Right? And there is but while we seek if if we wanna be right with the Lord, remember, it’s his power he’s delegated, so it’s a matter of our relationship to him ultimately. If If we we wanna be right with the Lord, we have to submit to the powers, ordinances of man, that’s required, all right? But are there limitations? Absolutely. We don’t have time to go into it now, but think of Daniel.

The ruler, that same ruler Nebuchadnezzar passed a law, an ordinance that required Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to worship the image that he had made. That was the limit. You see, when a when an earthly ruler exercises his god given and delegated power in a way that forces a person to disobey god’s word and conflicts with god’s revealed will such that the only way we could obey the king is by disobeying our God, then we have to say like Peter, we’ve hit the limit.

We ought to obey God rather than men. That’s the limit. That’s the limit. And so, it helps us get hopefully helps us get a greater understanding, a greater view and maybe calm our hearts a little bit with all the political upheaval we constantly see that God hasn’t lost control, it always was in his control because all all powers in his control. Let’s pray.