The Omnipotent God

Doctrine I
November 3, 2015
The Omnipotent God
Introduction/ Definitions “Is anything too hard for the LORD?" (Gen. 18:14). NO! God can do all His holy will. He has all the power that He could ever want. He never runs out of strength. God is Omnipotent. As I used the dictionary to look up the word “Omnipotent,” I found the first definition to be good “1. Almighty; possessing unlimited power; all powerful” (Webster's).
The second under the definition of omnipotence was particularly enlightening, “2. Having unlimited power of a particular kind; as omnipotent love" (Webster's). So, God's Omnipotence applies to all of His attributes. God is One (Deut. 6:4). There is no separation of His attributes, as in he uses one attribute at one time, to the exclusion of the others. In His Omnipotence, He is Holy. In His Omnipotence, He is Glorious. In His Omnipotence, He is our Loving Gracious Father. In His Power, God is not clumsy. He does not make mistakes. He has a plan for everything (Proverbs 19:21 ). In His power, He does not do things for evil, only for good (Romans 8:28).
A. God is All-Powerful
     I was going to put here that God “has” all power, but that is wrong. God does not have power, as a thing that belongs to Him. God IS omnipotent. It is an inseparable part of His Being. Only God has the power to do the total sum of particular deeds that He wishes to do.
It is important to note that God's holiness comes into play here. God cannot sin. We see that in Jesus, who never sinned even when He was tempted by the most evil being in the universe, Satan (Matt. 4:1-11). Omnipotence is "that doctrine [truth about God] that God is able to do all His holy will" (Grudem p. 1250). God, at no time, past, present, or the future, desires evil, wickedness. He never has evil thoughts, evil deeds, or speaks evil. God is Pure and Holy in his Power. He only wills good, because He is Good. There is no other Being that has power that is even close to God's.
B. God is never in a state that requires supply or relief.
     This attribute of Omnipotence, like all attributes, is connected to all of God's other attributes, the other things that we know to be true of Him. His Omnipotence is closely related to His Self-Existence, “God does not need us or the rest of creation for anything”(Grudem p. 160). But it goes deeper than that, Not only does not He need anything to stay alive, He “upholds the universe" (Heb. 1:3). "God's power is infinite,..therefore..God is able to do far more than He actually does" (Grudem p217) God has the competent power and strength sufficient, both "bodily" and mentally; to do wholly, completely, and entirely, that which He wishes or inclines Himself to do, with no apprehension or dread of weakening, of becoming feeble, or of reducing in strength or vigor of any kind (quality adjectives!).
C. God is All Powerful over All Powers
      1. He is Powerful over Creation. “For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm" (Psalm 33:9).
            a. His omnipotence in Creation. God created everything ex nihilo, out of nothing (Gen 1-2). “Before Man can work, he must have both tools and materials, God began with nothing, and by His word alone out of nothing made all things” (Pink 62) His rest on the Sabbath was not out of a need to rest. Even in what he calls “rest,” He was upholding the universe. If He had “truly rested,” taken a break from upholding the all things, all that He would have created would have instantly turned into nothingness. Even air would have disappeared.
      b. His Omnipotence in Preservation. "You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them" (Neh 9:6 ), “He upholds the universe by the word of his power.(Heb 1:3), “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:27-28). Think about it, the breath that sinners use to curse God was given to them by God Himself. The bullet that rips through a soldiers body is not dissolved in the air, because God is holding the Laws of Physics in place. The reason that a smelt is smelled is because God makes the smeller smell the smell. Cake bakes because the baker puts it in the oven, but Who is making the oven warm? The hair on your head grows the way that it does because your DNA tells your body what to do, but Who holds your DNA together? The eye only sees light rays, Who tells your brain to organize the information into a cohesive picture that refreshes constantly? GOD! The LORD is in control of everything at all times.
      c. His Omnipotence in governing Nature. The sun (Matthew 5:45), and the growing of grass (Ps. 104:14) are all sustained by His Power. Who do you know that, without the sun, could grow grass? “Oh,” you say, “ I'll just make a light that will sustain it.” But where will you get materials needed to make such a thing? Ultimately, every thing that you could use was once in the dirt. Various metals were found in the earth and purified to make what you would use to make a filament for your bulb. Why is that important? Who made the earth? Who sustains all things? Who, by simply speaking, made a blazing fire-ball, more than a million kilometers around? Who made the sun so perfectly that astronomers who have tried to find another star like it say that their search is still inconclusive (Faulkner) The ice, the rain, the lightning, "They turn around and around by his guidance, to accomplish all that he commands them" (Job 37:10-12).
      2. God is All Powerful over Spiritual Beings, even those against Him. The devil had to get permission from God to do all that he did to Job (Job 1:6-12). “He wriggles about like a serpent, but he cannot rule like a sovereign" (Spurgeon, 211) The devil is under God's control, we do not have to fear him. In fact, God has given us power over the devil! If we submit ourselves to God, we can resist the devil, and he will flee from us (James 4:7 )

Application/ Conclusions
-Worship God. It is always the right thing to do in response to His particular revelation.
-Trust and Rest God. If you really believe that God is eternally in unwavering control, why don't you rest? Are you at peace with the circumstances that you are in, not because of the situation being peaceful, but because you know that God is in control of them?
-Fight the Devil. Because you are in Christ, he has no power over you. You were not bought with a price so that you would keep sinning. God has freed you from the bondage of Sin, you can be pure.

“God, the omnipotent! King who ordainest
Great winds Thy clarions, lightnings Thy sword;
Show forth Thy pity on high where Thou reignest,
Give to us peace in our time, O Lord.”
(Henry F. Chorley, 1842)

Works Cited
     Accessed 10/31/2015
Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994. Print
Packer, J.I. Concise Theology, Carol Stream: Tyndale House Publishers, 1993. Print
Pink, A.W. Attributes of God, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House Publishers, 2006. Print
Spurgeon, C.H. The Chequebook Of The Bank Of Faith -Accessed 10/31/ 15        http://www.spurgeon.us/mind_and_heart/quotes/s.htm#satan
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, New York: Good News Publishers, 2001. Print
Webster's 1828 Dictionary, e-Sword Bible Program.






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