Our God is Omnipotent (Part 8)

And so that’s the power of the resurrection of Christ. Now, also saw last week that the power of the resurrection of Christ is not limited to Christ. In fact, it is extended in scripture to every saint of God. And we have seen, we saw in the in the Bible how that the resurrection power of Christ is operative in our lives or it definitely should be in in the life of every believer because remember, we died with Christ, right? We died with Christ, we were buried, Colossians chapter one says, we are buried with Him and then we are raised again in newness of life by the power of His resurrection. So His, if you wanna kinda if you wanna kinda maybe visualize it, you could say or visualize it in your mind that the if if you compare the resurrection of Christ to the wings of of of a bird, it’s extended. Not only is he alive by that power, but he extends that power over us.

And that power, his resurrection power works in us. And this is the reason if you’ll remember that there is supposed to be a remarkable and obvious change in the life of someone who passes from death into life who has that supposedly has that power operating in in his or her life. It is it is not normal for someone to make a profession of Christ without any effect in their actual practical and everyday life. That is not a Bible thing.

Now, I know sometimes it gets a little bit difficult and confusing when you deal with children who have trusted in Christ at a young age. And so even myself, I was saved when I was 17. And so I was almost an adult, and so I have keen memories of before I knew Christ and after I knew Christ, but I’ve been saved now for however long it’s been, twenty seven, twenty eight, whatever years it is, and a lot of those memories have faded. In other words, I’ve been a believer a lot longer than I was an unbeliever and the operation of God’s power in my life has been such a normal part of my life for so long that sometimes as we remember we had the car illustration last week, And when you’re driving the car that has the 5Point45Point0, kind of car you prefer for those of you who are car people, you drive it for five or ten years and you realize how much power you have under the hood because it’s normal. And that’s kind of the way it is for a Christian. And so even for myself, even though I do remember what it was like before I knew Christ, yet I’ve lived with the operating power of the spirit of God and the resurrection power of Christ operating in my life for so long that sometimes I forget about it and and it it’s normal and it should be but imagine a child, someone who trusts in Christ at a young age, an early age and that power has been operating in their life the entire time. Basically, their whole life. That is a good thing. That’s not a bad thing. That is a good thing. That’s a that’s a if you wanna say it kind of an ideal thing, right? That’s what we hope happens with all of our children and is that they don’t know any other way of life than the life as a Christian where the power of the resurrection of Christ is operating in their life but here’s the thing, if the resurrection of the power of the resurrection of Christ is operating in our life, it should have effects in our life. It should have effects on what we do, you know, how we live, what happens when we sin, our power to overcome sin, it doesn’t make us sinless because we still have of course the flesh, but there we have power in us overcome that and that’s what we’ve seen in the scripture that that’s what we’ve seen as far as the way the power of God works in us. Like in Ephesians one nineteen and twenty says this, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places.

And so, as we we will pray in just a minute, but the the kind of summary of where we’re at where where we are at in our study is this, the idea that a person has a profession of Christ without any power of Christ actually day to day in their life is not biblical, that is not a thing. And this is why we see this dichotomy, we see this divide between, and we see it in our study in Matthew, we’ve seen it over and over and over, the divide between those who profess to know Christ and those who do know Christ. There’s we’ve seen that repeatedly and that’s the reason.

It’s because there is a there is a a power at work in us. Alright, let’s pray and then we’ll look at Philippians chapter three. Father, bless our our time in your word today. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for these truths. Lord, help us to live by them and to grow by them and indeed that the power of god we would know it not only in our cells, but we would know it in our prayer life. We would know it in in the way we understand and and give the gospel to people. So, Lord, we we just ask for your blessing in in our our, Sunday school lesson today. Bless the kids as well as they’re downstairs learning the word. I pray that you’d give the teacher their wisdom and understanding and, that those kids would also grow.

We, commit this time to you now in Jesus name, amen. Philippians three verse number 10, if you’ll get go there. Philippians three and verse number 10. Now, we talked about the resurrection of Christ as shown in his actual resurrection which in our study in Matthew, we’re we’re getting closer. We’re going into Matthew 27 today and then we’ll be in 28. 28 is the resurrection and of course, the resurrection, the the power of Christ is shown in his resurrection. The power of Christ is shown in our our our lives now as we live day by day as a believer but this this one here, verse number 10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. So, Paul, if if you can’t, if we back up a little bit further to verse number eight, it says this, yea, doubtless, I count and I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of god by him, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of of his suffering. So, in this case, of course, the power of his resurrection indicates the way that works in Paul’s life. In other words, one way that the power of the resurrection was at work in Paul’s life specifically beyond just the way we understand it as well, is Paul was frequently under the threat or risk of death and the knowledge and power of the resurrection of Christ was at work in his life to enable him to persist despite that, knowing he had a better resurrection.

So, the the resurrection of of Christ, the power of that resurrection worked in his life today in the way he lived and outward and worked out in his life but it also was the thing that reminds us of that we have a future resurrection. This is not all there is and that knowledge and that truth which is a byproduct of the power of the resurrection of Christ is at work in our lives as well.

If it is not true that Christ if it is not true that we have no resurrection, if that’s not a thing, if if the the afterlife which is what that the resurrection is all about, the afterlife, if that is all false, then, the philosophy, the hedonistic philosophy of let us eat and drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die, that makes sense. If there’s no judgment, if there’s no resurrection, there’s no reward, there’s nothing like that, then the only thing we live for is pleasure in the moment, that’s hedonism.

But we know that there is a resurrection and that directly affects how we live our lives. This is the kind of power. This is the power that extended to Paul in verse number 10. So, the power of god is not only a future, it is a present event in the believer at all times but it also also a present a future reality to the believer as well and in this verse, both aspects of that are tied in to one. Last verse I wanna go at want to look at is in Hebrews chapter seven.

If you’ll go there and look at that verse with me, Hebrews chapter seven. Hebrews seven and verse number Verse number 14. For it is evident that our lord sprang out of Judah of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood and it is far it is yet far more evident for for that after the similitude of Melchizedek, there ariseth another priest, notice this is referring to Jesus now, who is made, that is he’s made a priest, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power, there it is, of an endless life.

The power of an endless life. So, not only was the resurrection of Christ a demonstration of his power in in as much as the the pains of death could not hold him, but now, his life is endless. In other words, he he is totally vanquished death. Death never has power over him again. Now, we know that same power is true of the of the believer but also in this case, verse number 16, that fact is the reason that for all of time and eternity, we have a priest who unlike those in the Old Testament who died and there would be another priest, he might be a good guy, he might be a bad guy, but they would be replaced due to death.

Christ ever lives to make intercession for us because he is an a priest with an endless life. In other words, because of that, his priesthood can never change. He’ll never be replaced, never need to be replaced. He ever lives to make intercession for us and so, all of these things all of these things speak to us concerning the power that’s at work in us. And so, you know, to summarize that, the Bible says, the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.

Power. There’s supposed to be power. There is power among us the among the people of god. Alright. So, that wraps up the power of the resurrection. Remember, we have we we we divide it up into into four categories. Number one, we study each attribute as it relates to just theology. We study each attribute as it relates to Jesus Christ. We study each attribute as it relates to practice.

And then lastly, we study each attribute as it relates to the gospel. So, now, we’re gonna go into practice, okay? So, go go with me to first Peter chapter five. You’re near there now. First Peter chapter five, I’m sorry, chapter one, not chapter five, chapter one.

Verse three. First Peter chapter one verse three. Blessed be the the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead. You see that? There’s that power. Notice what it says here, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Kept by the power of god. Alright, one practical way that that a practical relationship of the power of god to us besides what we’ve already covered is the keeping power of God, the keeping power of God. Now the idea of keeping here is like a guard. He guards, he’s a sentinel who you know, keeps his commander or keeps the base or you know is charged with the security of the thing. This is a description of why the believer stays saved.

Okay? Now, can look at when you talk about eternal security, you can look in eternal security in various ways. You can look at it as eternal life, something never ends and that’s a valid way to look at it. You can look at eternal security as the promises of God and there’s definitely that as well. But one way that the Bible presents eternal security is that we are kept by the power of God. We are kept by the power of God through faith, that’s what it says.

Now, the believer does not have strength in himself to keep himself, like that’s not a thing. The believer is weak, the believer has no power like this. As far as on a on a on a day to day basis, you know, in other words, if it were up to us to keep ourselves saved, it would not be possible for us to do it. We would, we would absolutely forfeit our salvation in some way.

And so we are not kept by our own power, this verse says we are kept by God’s power. Now this is an important question, let me describe something to you. How many of you have heard of the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints? You’re familiar with it. The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints as it is described from a Calvinistic perspective, says that through the work of God, God will not allow a believer to do something that will ultimately cause him to perish. Now that creates a little bit of a problem because it implies that there is something a believer can do to cause himself to perish. It just inserts God into that equation. In other words, to prevent that, right?

If I could think of an example. Well, yeah, maybe, but that’s Anyway, let’s not go there. We’ll never get finished. So if think it like this, that the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, which is a Calvinistic doctrine and the Arminian equivalent, which is the other side, which is you have to keep yourself saved. You gotta continue some, the most conservative version of that would be you have to continue to believe and if you stop believing, you lose your salvation. That’s the Arminian version.

But what I want you to see is that the Calvinistic version and the Arminian version are essentially the same. The only difference is that in the Calvinistic version of perseverance of the saints, God is the one operating to stop the believer from getting to that point, but both acknowledge that point is a theoretical possibility. You with me? So they’re very similar, they’re very similar. Okay, what I’m proposing to you is that the Scriptures describe something a little different.

Now let me propose a scenario to you because this is where it gets very real, very practical to us. So those of us who believe, like the Scripture says, that once a person has eternal life, once they’re saved, they’re saved forever. The immediate question that comes back is this, so what happens if I stop believing? And that’s where the issues of perseverance of the saints, whether it be the Arminian version or the Calvinistic version, that’s what they’re trying to answer.

How many of you know someone or maybe have heard of someone who profess faith in Christ and later completely turned away from Christ altogether? I’m not talking about they’re not living right, I’m talking about Now here’s the thing, that’s a hard question to deal with, is it not?

Is that person saved or not? Truth is we can’t judge that, there’s no way for us to know that for certainty. Now, I would be willing to go a little farther than that but in all honesty, God is the only one who knows for a certainty where someone is with him but anyway, what do you do about that person who says they’re saved and then says I don’t believe anymore?

What do you do about that fact? Well, this is where this verse comes into play because on its face it appears that that person lost their salvation. In other words, the Armenians were right that they walked away from the Lord Jesus and so therefore they forfeited their salvation.

What this verse is telling us is that that is not possible. Although we might be able to think of it in terms of theory, it is not possible for a believer to stop believing and therefore forfeit his salvation. That is not a real thing. Now here’s why that’s important. And the reason why that is the case is because of the power of God. So just because you can think of a theory doesn’t mean that that’s a valid possibility.

There’s a lot of things we can think of, to think about the movie industry and books that are written, you can think of a lot of things but that doesn’t mean it’s real or could be real.

Well, this is one thing that we see in verse number six or verse number five rather, we are kept by the power of God. God keeps us. That’s why it’s not possible for someone to stop believing. But I know somebody, yeah you know somebody. But what I’m telling you is the scripture says that it is not possible for that person to believe. So the only explanation left for a person who at one time claimed to be a believer and now disclaims all faith in Christ.

The only explanation is that that person was never a believer. That’s the only explanation. And you and I look at that and you might say well, but I knew them. I mean they love God and they were excited and they were at church every time the doors are open. Read second Peter chapter two, read Jude.

Scripture’s full of people like that. That doesn’t mean anything. Bottom line is this, for you and I, we are kept by the power of God, full stop. That’s it. The reason we continue to believe is because of the operation of God’s power in us and that’s it. So it’s not, this is why it’s not possible for me to lose my salvation. Not only do I have eternal life, but in practical terms the reason I can’t is because God is working in me and he’s keeping me.

Now I don’t claim to have my brain fully around that. I just know that it’s His work, not my work. And that’s why it happens. Look at Psalm 3seven 24.

Psalm 3seven And I’ll just say one other thing, you know, to kind of dot this I, which is this. I talked about an Armenian idea that a person can lose their salvation if they stop believing in Christ as if that’s the thing. But a lot of people don’t deal with the question of eternal security in those terms at all. Some people would argue that if you get, I’m just gonna use the terms they would use, if you get saved and then later you sin, I mean something like that, they use that terminology, you sin, you lose your salvation.

Well, that’s way off. Like I would be more likely to believe the idea that if you stop believing you might lose it more than if you sin. What sin? What kind of sin? What category of sin? How many of them? How frequently? And on top of all that, you have the question of what sin did I stop committing to get saved?

Right? My salvation wasn’t dependent upon my God didn’t say, alright, you stop sinning and then if if I show if I see that you’ve stopped sinning, I’ll save you. That’s that’s actually contrary in term to the whole idea of salvation. You come to god dirty, defiled, and hopeless, right? For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. So the idea that we somehow stop sinning and therefore it is a condition upon our eternal security, that is not scriptural.

But yet it is promoted very commonly because it’s easy and it becomes an easy billy club that preachers can use to try to get people in line. And that’s definitely something that has happened and it gives people complexes. And I know people in my own family who deal for decades have dealt with a complex over preachers and other family members beating them over the head threatening them that they’re gonna lose their salvation if they don’t follow this certain path.

And it’s a mess now. I mean, it’s a mess. It’s hard to unpack and unwind. Psalm 37 verse number 24, the Bible says this, verse 23, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighted in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down. Why?

For the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. Praise God. The Lord upholdeth all of him with his hand. Look at this. The hand, you remember when we started our study? The hand is a symbol in scripture of the what? The power of God. He stretches forth his hand exercising his ability. So the hand, the Lord upholdeth him with his hand, his ability, his power. Look at Jeremiah 32.

Jeremiah 32. Verse 40, speaking of the everlasting covenant, the new covenant. Verse 40 says this, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, but I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts. That, what does it say? They shall not depart from me. That’s God telling His people that they would not depart. You know, that’s the same thing as first Peter kept by the power of God.

God’s work keeps them. And of course, we know I I won’t cover this for for the sake of time but notice John chapter 10 says, I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My father which gave them me is greater than all and no man, here’s the keyword, is able to pluck them out of my father’s hand, is able, a statement of power, right? Well, what if I jump out of the father’s hand?

You’re a man. No man is able. Okay? Because the truth, here’s the reality. Let’s be honest here. If anybody’s gonna pluck us out of the father’s hand, if it were possible, it would be me. That’s right. Not anybody. I don’t need help.

Alright. The second way that the power of God is related to us in our practical life is by this statement. You know this, all things are possible unto thee. In Mark fourteen thirty six, the Bible says this, in Jesus prayer in the Garden Of Gethsemane, he says, Abba Father, all things are possible unto thee. Take away this cup from me, nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt. Hear the Lord Jesus upon the basis of God’s power, that is his omnipotence, all things are possible. He prayed a prayer.

He says, God, all things are possible And so I’m praying this. Second Chronicles, I know I’m going fast here, but just bear with me. Second Chronicles fourteen eleven, and Asa cried unto the Lord his God and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, Whether with many or with them that have no power. Help us, oh Lord our God, for we rest on thee and in thy name we go against this multitude. Oh Lord, thou art our God. Let not man prevail against thee.

In this case, Asa is about to go into a battle. He has no assurance that the will of God will be with him. He doesn’t know if God is gonna choose to help him or not. So, he makes his plea not upon the will of god but upon the power of god and one writer I read, he says this, he says, as when we have no promise to assure us of his will, we have nothing else to pitch upon but his ability and that not his absolute power but his ordinate in the way of his providence. In other words, sometimes you pray about things and you don’t know if it’s god’s will but you can pray on the basis of god’s power. God, you can do all things.

You know what, that is a scriptural prayer. That is a scriptural basis for prayer, the omnipotence of God. In practical prayer, lord, you can do all things. You can do all things Now, just for time sake because I wanna finish. The last thing I wanna cover is the omnipotence of God as it relates to the gospel and I just wanna show you this. Look at Mark chapter 10 and we’ll be finished. Mark chapter 10.

We’ve already discussed the power of God as it relates to the Gospel in as much as the power of God was shown in the resurrection, which is part of the Gospel, right? But in, we might say in practical terms of salvation of people, in Mark chapter 10, look if you would down at verse number 24 or verse number 23 to get the context. Jesus looked looked around about and said unto his saith unto his disciples, how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God?

And the disciples were astonished at his words, but Jesus answer it again and said unto them, children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God? It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And they were astonished out of measure saying among themselves, who then can be saved? Which is to say, how is that possible?

And Jesus looking upon them saith, with men, it is impossible, but not with God. For with God all things are possible. Now, you might take that verse and kinda pluck it out of its context and use it to encourage yourself and that’s okay because it is used in other ways in the Bible, the truth of it. And that’s fine to put it on your bumper sticker. That’s fine, put it on your calendar. But in its context, do you know what this verse is talking about? The impossibility of someone with wealth coming to Christ.

That’s what we’re talking about here. And not only with men that is not a thing and the only reason the person with wealth comes to Christ is because God has the power He has the power to save them despite all of the things against them that resist the humility needed and the confession, the losing face and all that goes along with riches and wealth and prestige and honor, all of those things that make it impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, yet God so works and does the impossible in them and if God does the impossible in someone who is rich, God can save any person. There is no such thing as an impossible case when it comes to the Gospel.

It’s not possible. It is not possible that there is an impossible case. Amen.