A New Confidence for a New Year

            As the father of a toddler, I’ve been hearing the song “Jesus Loves Me” quite a bit lately. In fact, Adrianna wants to hear that song at bedtime every night, so I hear it at least once a day! The first line of that song makes a very important claim, one that many people today would reject. That line says, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” That may seem like just a simple children’s song, but its actually making an astounding claim—that we can know that a statement is true simply because the Bible says it is.

            That is a very significant claim, and its one that most people today would reject. In fact, many Christians are not willing to give whole-hearted approval to the claim that we can know that a statement is true simply because the Bible says it is. It is not popular in the culture at large to place that kind of confidence in the Bible; thus, it can be tempting for us to hesitate to place our full confidence in Scripture.

            So, should we be willing to say, “this I know, for the Bible tells me so?” Do we have good reasons to be so confident about what the Bible says? Today, I hope to convince you that the answer is “yes!” We’re going to look at a few of the most commonly asked questions about the Bible, and in my opinion we will find some very satisfying answers. These answers will take the form of an acronym that spells out the word MAPS, so that this little memory device will help you remember these answers whenever these questions might come up.

Let’s begin with a question that is common to virtually everyone who doubts the reliability of the Bible.

How do we know the Bible hasn’t been changed over the years?

            Virtually everyone who wants to challenge the reliability of the Bible will claim either that the Bible was deliberately changed at some point in the past or that it has simply picked up thousands of errors as it was copied over the years and thus can no longer be trusted. You will hear this claim from atheists on the one hand all the way to Mormons and Muslims on the other! So how do we know the Bible hasn’t been changed over the years? The answer is the word manuscripts. The “m” in that word gives us the first letter of our acronym.

            Manuscripts are the ancient, handwritten copies of the Bible that we have discovered through archaeology. These manuscripts are copies of the original writings that were meticulously copied and handed on from person to person and group to group. For the Old Testament, these manuscripts were copied by a group of Jewish scholars known as the Masoretes. These scholars took their work seriously—they knew how many letters were in each line, how many lines were to be on each page, and if they made a mistake they threw out the whole thing. Their work was so precise that when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered around 1950, they confirmed that the Masoretes work was nearly flawless.

            In the case of the New Testament, archaeologists have uncovered literally thousands upon thousands of manuscripts—far more, in fact, than any other ancient work of literature. The New Testament, as you might know, was originally written in Greek, and if we consider only the Greek manuscripts that we have found, we have over 5,000 manuscripts to work with—which is about 8 times more than the number of manuscripts that have been found of any other ancient book (#2 on the list is the Iliad by the Greek poet Homer). Archaeologists have found some copies of the New Testament that date to within 35 years of when the Book of Revelation was written. If that sounds like a long time, its not! In this field of study, 35 years is like a couple of days.

            But, if we also count the manuscripts that we have found that were copied into other languages, like Latin, we have over 24,000 manuscripts to work with! Manuscripts of the Bible have been found all over the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe, and when we compare them to each other, we find that the text of the Bible has always been consistent—there is no evidence at all of any sort of vast conspiracy to corrupt the Bible.

Now as far as the question of errors and mistakes in copying, it is true that these individual manuscripts have copying mistakes in them—a misspelled word here or there, or a word accidentally left out of a verse (you would make mistakes, too, if you were copying the entire New Testament by hand!). But, when we compare all of these manuscripts together, it is easy to spot these mistakes and ensure that they don’t creep in to our copies of the Bible today. The copy of the Bible that you hold in your hand is the result of painstaking work to compare all of the copies of Scripture we possess in order to root out the copying mistakes that were made. So you can confidently say that your Bible is not filled with mistakes and errors; instead, it contains precisely what the original authors of Scripture wrote with their own hands.

How do we know the events written about in the Bible actually happened?

            The answer to this question is the word “archaeology,” which gives us the letter “a” in our acronym. As archaeologists have done their work over the years, they have repeatedly found that the historical details recorded in the Bible are accurate and true. For example, archaeologists recently discovered coins from ancient Egypt that bore the name and image of the biblical character Joseph from the book of Genesis. One coin apparently also made reference to the dream that he interpreted for Pharaoh.

            We could mention thousands of other discoveries as well. Many cities and towns mentioned in the Bible have been found. Some of them are still being lived in, like Jerusalem, which still contains artifacts like the aqueduct built by King Hezekiah of the Old Testament or portions of the Temple in which Jesus walked and talked (perhaps you’ve heard of “The Wailing Wall”). All of these discoveries reveal that the people and places of the Bible were real people and real places.

            Let’s compare this for a moment to another religious book—the Book of Mormon. That book makes all kinds of claims about people who supposedly lived in North America many years ago and who became the ancestors of modern-day Native Americans. Archaeologists have never made a single discovery that backs up the story of the Book of Mormon. In fact, you won’t find maps in the back of the Book of Mormon like you do in the Bible because they can’t be produced! Mormons just have to guess about where those people supposedly lived because we haven’t found any proof that they actually existed.

            This observation raises serious doubts about everything that’s found in the Book of Mormon. If it can’t get the facts of history straight, why should we trust anything else it says? Perhaps you can see then how archaeology gives us confidence in the Bible. To paraphrase Jesus, since the Bible is accurate about earthly things that we can confirm through disciplines like archaeology, then we have good reason to trust it when it tells us about heavenly things—like the character of God and salvation.

How do we know that the Bible is more than just the writings of human beings?

            It is certainly true that the Bible didn’t just fall from the sky into our hands. The words of Scripture were actually written down on paper by human beings. But if that’s the case, then how can we claim that the Bible is anything more than just the opinions of human beings? Does it actually bear the mark of a divine origin?

            Yes it does, and we can see this in two ways, which will give us the last two letters of our acronym. The first mark of divine origin is predictive prophecy, which gives us the letter “p.”

            You might be familiar with the fact that the Bible has made certain predictions about future events, but what you may not realize is how specific some of these prophecies are. In general, the Bible’s prophecies are clear enough that their interpretation is obvious, and they could easily be proven wrong if they didn’t come true. Let me give you an example of what I mean—if I said, “We’re going to get an inch of snow tomorrow,” by the end of the day tomorrow it would be easy to prove whether or not my prediction had come true. But if I said, “A wintery sky will arise,” it would be more difficult to tell whether or not my prediction came true. What does a “wintery sky” even mean? Does it mean cold winds? Cold air temperatures? Also, it wouldn’t be particularly noteworthy to predict a wintery sky in December! Such a prediction wouldn’t show any special insight on my part.

            Most so-called “prophets” over the years have given only vague prophecies like my wintery sky prophecy. Nostradamus is a great example of such a prophet. Every so often, you’ll see a supermarket tabloid declaring that Nostradamus predicted some kind of world event, but when you read the so-called “prophecy,” its so vague that you could interpret it in a dozen ways.

            The prophecies of the Bible are very different. Many of them are very specific, and the fact of the matter is that they have come true. Some of the prophecies even give the specific names of kingdoms and people. [READ Daniel 8:20–22] [READ Isaiah 44:24–28]

            We can also look at the numerous prophecies that were fulfilled by the Lord Jesus. By some counts there were hundreds of prophecies that his life fulfilled, with such specific details as the name of his birthplace, the content of his personal character, and the treatment that he would receive in his crucifixion, burial, and resurrection.

            The fact that the Bible has accurately and specifically predicted future events before they took place is a powerful proof that it is supernatural in origin. It could not possibly be a merely human book because human beings do not have the ability to predict the future with such accuracy.

            The second mark of divine origin is statistics, which gives us the letter “s” in our acrostic. The unique circumstances behind the way that the Bible was written simply defy all odds. The probability that we would even have a book like the Bible is all but impossible. Consider this: The Bible was written over a period of more than 1500 years on 3 different continents by 40 different authors from at least 19 different walks of life, yet it contains one continuous storyline and no contradictions. Most of these authors did not know each other and they were not working in collaboration.

            It is not as though the authors of the Bible got together in Jerusalem one day and came up with a plan for their writing. They worked independently of each other, yet their writings show complete agreement with the writings of all of the other authors. If we didn’t have a book like the Bible, I doubt we would believe that such a book could even exist.

           I believe we can see that the Bible is worthy of our utmost confidence. From this information, I believe that we can be confident that when we build our lives upon the Bible, we are building on a solid foundation. We can truly stand tall and proud when we say, “this I know, for the Bible tells me so!”

God Has Remembered!--Christmas 2012 First-Person Sermon

(Note: this sermon is a first-person sermon in which I speak as if I am the character from the Biblical story. In this sermon, I spoke as Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist).

            Baruch Adonai Elohe Yisrael! Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for allowing me to be with you today. My name is Zechariah, which means “God has remembered.” What an appropriate message for the story of my life! Many of you probably don’t know me very well, but you probably know my son John, who became known as John the Baptist because of his ministry. I am so proud of my boy, and I am honored that God chose to preserve the story of his birth in Luke 1. More than anything, that story is a testimony to the faithfulness of God, which teaches us that He will always keep His promises. That is the lesson that I hope you will take with you today.

            As Luke records in his Gospel, my story took place during the days that King Herod reigned over Judea. Our nation was part of the Roman Empire at that time, but with such a vast territory, the emperor needed people to govern for him, so he placed Herod over the land of Israel and gave him the honorary title of “king.” In your language today, you might say that we had a love/hate relationship with Herod. He made some extensive renovations to enhance the beauty of the Temple in Jerusalem. As a priest, I was very happy to see the Temple maintained, but Herod only did these things to take attention away from his atrocities. He was a blood-thirsty man, and if even his own wives or children appeared to be a threat to his power, he did not hesitate to have them executed. It was said at that time that it was better to be Herod’s pig than Herod’s son!

            With such a man in power, you can imagine that we were dying to hear something—anything—from the Lord just to know that He hadn’t forgotten about us. He had not spoken to us for 400 years, since the time of the prophet Malachi. Now, He had clearly been at work to preserve our nation because He did some miraculous things for us during those 400 years. In fact, those events are what Jewish people today celebrate during the holiday of Hanukkah. But we wanted to hear from Him as in the days of old to have that personal contact with Him again. Little did I know that God was planning to speak to us again, and He was planning to start the conversation with me!

            Now, I am rather embarrassed to repeat this, but Luke records that my wife Elizabeth and I “were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statues of the Lord (Luke 1:6).” Please don’t get the idea that we were perfect, because we were far from it. We were simply careful to follow God’s commands, and when we failed, we were careful to make amends as the Law of Moses called us to do. We just loved God for all that He had done for our people and for the promises He had made about things that were still to come.

            We did carry a tremendous sorrow in our hearts, however, because God had never blessed us with a child, and at the time that Luke picks up our story, we were well beyond our child-bearing years. If our barrenness wasn’t bad enough by itself, we also had to deal with the attitudes of our friends and family. Since the Scriptures said that children were a gift from God, our people reasoned that if you had no children, then God must have been punishing you for something. We should have known better from the stories of Abraham and Sarah and Samuel’s mother, Hannah. They were all godly people who were childless for a long time, so we should have known better, but you know how a mindset can become entrenched once it takes root in a culture. It was devastating to deal with other people’s assumptions that we were hiding some kind of terrible sin because we had no children.

            That was the greatest sorrow of my life, but the greatest honor of my life was serving as a priest in God’s Temple. At that time, there were far more priests than were needed in the Temple on a daily basis, so apart from the major festivals like Passover when we were all on duty, we were on a rotation to work in the Temple for two weeks each year. Even with that schedule, there were still more of us on hand than were absolutely necessary, so for some of the tasks that we all wanted to perform, we would decide who got to do them by casting lots, which would be like rolling a pair of dice, or what you do today when you flip a coin or draw straws.

            One of the tasks which every priest longed to perform was entering the Temple to burn incense at the time of the regular morning and evening sacrifices, and on one of the days of my rotation, I was chosen for this task! I could hardly believe it when my name was called. This was literally a once-in-a-lifetime honor for a priest, and now my day had come! I was so excited I could hardly remember the prayer I was supposed to recite in the Temple, so started to rehearse it in my mind. Some of the other priests helped me prepare the spices and put on the proper clothing, and before I knew it, I was opening the door to enter the House of God!

            Normally, this process did not take long. The priest would stoke the fire that was burning under the altar of incense, and then he would cast the spices onto the altar and come back out to speak a blessing over the people who were gathered outside to pray. But in God’s plan, this day would not be an ordinary day.

            I knew I shouldn’t delay once I entered the Temple, but I almost couldn’t help myself. I wanted to take in all the sights of this place where few people would ever set foot, but I did my best to stay focused on the task. As I walked toward the altar, I was looking down at my feet so I wouldn’t trip and drop the spices, so you can imagine my shock when I came to the altar and looked up, and there, just beside the altar, was a magnificent being clothed in white, looking at me. I was so startled I almost dropped the spices after all of my careful walking!

            A dozen thoughts ran through my mind before this man spoke. Who was this? I knew instantly that he was no mere man, but I had never heard other priests speak of angelic visitors in the Temple. More than anything I was just frightened. Perhaps God really was displeased with me for some reason, and He had sent an angel to do something about it.

            But then he spoke to me and said, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.” Now, if you had asked me to guess what an angel might say to me, that would not have been on my list! He said my prayer had been heard and my wife would have a son, but I must confess, I hadn’t prayed that prayer in a long time. Years had passed since we last prayed for a child, but God had heard that prayer, and now, in His perfect time, He was granting us what we had asked.

            But then, the angel went on to tell me that my child would have a very special role to play in God’s plan. He said John would be great before the Lord, and would be filled with the Holy Spirit even while he was still in the womb! And he would go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare people for the Messiah’s arrival. Those were words from the prophet Malachi! The last promise God made to us before 400 years of silence was that He would send Elijah to us to prepare us for the Lord’s coming, and now the angel was telling me that in some way, my son would fulfill that prophecy.

            I could hardly believe what I was hearing, and I hate to say it, but I didn’t believe what I was hearing. How could Elizabeth and I have a son? We were too old; it just seemed impossible. I hope you will not judge me too harshly for my lack of faith, and most of all I hope you will not follow my example and doubt what the Lord has said. I would be happy if my story inspires greater faith in you, even if that means my error will be told over and over.

            After I expressed my doubt, the angel identified himself as Gabriel, the messenger of God. I remembered him from the book of Daniel, and already I began to realize the error of my ways. I had asked for a sign to prove the angel’s word, and I got one alright! He told me I would unable to speak until the day that his message began to come true, and from that moment I lost my ability to speak.

            By that time, I had already been in the Temple longer than normal, which created a stir among the people outside, so imagine their surprise when I came out and couldn’t tell them what took me so long! After numerous attempts at making signs, they finally figured out that something miraculous had happened (I always could imitate wings pretty well, so I think that finally tipped them off that I saw an angel!). It wasn’t until I finally got my hands on a writing tablet that I could explain things in detail.

            Well, since you’ve probably heard of my son, John, you know that everything played out just like the angel said it would. Elizabeth became pregnant, and during her pregnancy we received a visit from her young cousin Mary, who told us about her own miraculous conception. How incredible it was that God had chosen our family to bear not only the Messiah’s forerunner, but the Messiah himself! We were not an important family. We had no wealth, no power. My wife and I had the stigma of being childless, and Mary’s family was from Nazareth in Galilee. I think your term for them today would be “hillbillies.” Yet God chose us for such a special honor. It just goes to show you that God doesn’t look at people through the same kind of prejudice that we are tempted to use.

            When our son was born, we named him John, as the angel had instructed me. With that step of obedience, I regained my ability to speak, and all of our neighbors were amazed by everything that was taking place. As Luke records, they all began to wonder, “What then will this child be?” And who should be empowered to speak up and answer their question but me—the one who had been unable to speak for so long! The Holy Spirit filled me, and allowed me to give God’s commentary on the situation.

            It was only proper to begin with a statement of praise to God, so I said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.” The Old Testament prophets just loved that image of a horn, because for animals who had them, horns were the means of victory over enemies. In the Messiah, this is exactly what God would provide for us. And the Lord was doing this work through a descendent of David, just as He had said.

            The Lord was being true to His word, so I continued: “as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant.” The Lord gave me just the right words, and how I smiled at that word “remember.” That was the meaning of my name, and every time my name was spoken, it was a proclamation that God remembers! He remembers His holy covenant, or His promises to His people.

            And where did His covenant begin? With “the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.” God’s promises to my people began with our ancestor Abraham. He promised Abraham a whole nation of descendants, and He told him that his descendants would be enslaved, but that He would save them. My people had to endure 400 years of slavery before they were delivered, but God remembered His promise.

            Later, He told David that one of his descendants would be the Messiah, but we had to wait 1,000 years before Jesus was born. And remember, when Gabriel spoke to me, his message ended a period of 400 years of silence from God. It is so easy to think that God forgets because He doesn’t work by our timetable, but my name—my very life—is a testimony that God remembers His promises, and He will not fail to fulfill them.

            Finally, the Lord moved me to speak about what my child would become: “and you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways.” I remember thinking about the verse from Isaiah 40 that my son would claim for his own: “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord!’” And here is why he would do it: “to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins.” Everyone who knew the Old Testament understood that our greatest need was to be forgiven of our sins. My people had no enemies but those who were allowed to trouble us because of our own sins against the Lord. That’s why God empowered the Amalekites and the Philistines and the Edomites and the Egyptians and the Assyrians and the Babylonians and the Persians and the Greeks and now the Romans. Above all else we needed a final sacrifice, one which could wipe our slate clean before the Lord forever, and we knew that somehow the Messiah would provide it.

            This salvation would come “because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” How lost we were—like travelers wandering in the dark! But the Messiah would bring light to show us the way, to lead us safely through the valley of the shadow of death.

            How I wish I could have seen more of His earthly life with my own eyes, but I passed away before His ministry began. But I know what He did because I’ve seen Him in heaven. He is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! He provided the final sacrifice for sin through His death on the cross, and He rose from the grave to display His victory over sin, to provide forgiveness for all who will acknowledge their sinfulness to God and accept the payment that Jesus has provided.

            I know that as I speak to you today, the world has been waiting almost 2,000 years for Jesus to fulfill His promise to return. But let my story remind you that God remembers! He is not forgetful; He does not drag His feet. He is patient with us to give us time to repent. Do not doubt the Lord’s Word; just think of my name and be reminded that God has remembered!

God's Unrivaled Power--Attributes of God Series

            Dr. Seuss once wrote a book called “Yertle the Turtle.” In this story, Yertle the Turtle is the king of the little pond where he lives. He is the king over everything that he can see, but one day, he decides that he can’t see far enough, and his kingdom really deserves to be much bigger. So he commands other turtles to come and stand on top of each other so that he can stand on top of them and expand his view. After spending the day enjoying his new view and the power that is supposed to come with it, Yertle is enraged when the evening dawns and he realizes that the moon is still higher than he is.

            This story is a good analogy for our position with respect to God. No matter how much power we may think we have or how much power we may actually have in this world, we are all still looking up at God! God’s power is truly unrivaled, and when He decides to act, there is no power anywhere in all of creation that can stop Him.

            This attribute of God is often called “omnipotence,” and today we’re going to discuss what this means and how it should be comforting and inspiring for us to know that God’s power reigns supreme.

How is God’s Power Proclaimed in the Bible?

1. Through titles

            Throughout Scripture, God is referred to as “the Almighty,” which is a pretty easy word to understand. God has ALL the MIGHT He needs to do whatever He wants to do. In Genesis 17:1, God appeared to Abraham and said, “I am God Almighty.” Perhaps you have heard the Hebrew phrase el shaddai—that phrase means “God Almighty.” That title was especially meaningful in a time when most people believed there was a god of the rivers and a god of the lakes and a god of the mountains and a god of the plains and so on. This title proclaimed that Jehovah, the God of Israel, was supreme over all.

            At the opposite end of the Bible, we read in the book of Revelation that the people and angels in heaven refer to God as the Almighty (Rev. 19:6, 21:22). So from the first book of the Bible to the last, that title runs throughout to proclaim God’s unrivaled power.

2. Through direct statements

            Some verses simply state that God is all-powerful. Here are just a few examples:

·         Psalm 115:3—“Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.”

·         Job 42:2—“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”

·         Daniel 4:35—“All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’”

            You can probably think of other verses like these because such verses are very popular because of the comfort and confidence that they bring to us.

3. Through rhetorical questions

            On a number of occasions, people used rhetorical questions to say, in effect, “Isn’t it obvious how powerful God is?” When Sarah laughed at the idea that she would have a baby at the ripe old age of 90, God said, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Gen. 18:14). And when Paul was declaring Christ’s resurrection to a Jewish leader, he said, “Why do you think its incredible that God raises the dead?” (Acts 26:8). Even a humanly impossible act like that was no challenge for God.

4. Through His actions

            The reason that the rhetorical questions we just read can work is that God has put His power on full display through His actions. The greatest example of God’s power was in the creation of the universe back in Genesis 1-2. Remember—when God began to create, He didn’t just take “stuff” that already existed and make planets and stars and air and water out of it. When God began to create, nothing existed but Him, and the Bible tells us that He simply commanded things to exist, and they did! That’s why Paul could say, “Why do you think its incredible that God raises the dead?” We’re talking about God, after all—the one who just speaks things into existence.

            The miracles of Jesus also display His power as God. Let’s just think for a moment about the miracle recorded in John 5. In that story, Jesus encountered a man who had been unable to walk for 38 years. He asked the man if he wanted to be made well, then he simply told him to stand up, pick up his bed, and walk—and he did!

            Think about the extreme makeover that this man’s body experienced. His muscles would have been severely atrophied after 38 years, so he probably instantly received new muscle mass. His bones would have been frail from not supporting any weight for all that time, but they instantly became strong. His circulatory system was immediately capable of sustaining him in a standing position. Think about that—have you ever stood up quickly after you’ve been lying down? You get light-headed because your circulation has to catch up. Imagine standing up after lying down and only sitting up on occasion for 38 years!

Miracles like that are an amazing display of power, and they show us that God truly is almighty—He can do anything He chooses to do!

What Does it Mean that God is Almighty?

            We need to spend a little time discussing what it means that God is almighty, because some people have enjoyed challenging this idea with questions like, “Can God make a rock so big that even He can’t pick it up?” or “Can God make 2+2=6?” or “Can God make an elder board so stubborn that even He can’t make it act?” (A little joke among pastors!). So what does it mean that God is almighty? I think we can clarify this idea in two ways.

1. God can do whatever is possible to do

            If something can possibly be done, God can do it if He chooses. Keep in mind that the idea of possibility extends beyond what is merely possible for humans. Even though something may be impossible for us, it is possible for God as long as it is a real, logical possibility.

            Some things are not real possibilities, like making 2+2=6, and so God cannot do something like that. This really isn’t a limit on God’s power, however—its actually just a limit on what is real. I like what Charles Ryrie said about questions like this. He said, “We might as well ask if a nuclear explosion could make 2+2=6.” A question like this isn’t really about how much power something has—its about what sort of actions are real possibilities. So just remember—if something can possibly be done, God can do it if He chooses.

2. God cannot do something that is outside of His nature

            Your nature simply refers to what you are. For example, I am a human being, so I have a human nature, and if you think about it, my nature puts limits on what I can do. I can’t fly like a bird because its not in my nature to do that; I can’t see through a wall because its not in my nature to do that; or, as a male, I can’t give birth to a child because its not in my nature to do that. These things aren’t really limits on my power or strength; they’re just the boundaries of what I am.

            Likewise, God cannot do something that is outside of His nature. So for example, Hebrews 6:18 says that it is impossible for God to lie. Lying is outside the boundary of who God is, and so its not in His nature to do that.

These are some helpful clarifications to keep in mind when you think about God being “almighty.” They may seem a little abstract or philosophical right now, but I know that with just a little bit of thought time, you can understand these ideas. Just bring them to mind again and let them sink in. For now, let’s spend the remainder of our time talking about some implications of God’s unrivaled power

Implications of God’s Unrivaled Power

1. God has no true rival

            By “rival” I mean someone who is on an equal footing and could actually keep God from achieving something that He chooses to do. God certainly has enemies—such as Satan and his demons—but they cannot match His power. In fact, in the book of Job and in the temptation of Peter we discover that Satan has to ask for permission before he can act. Now, the reason that God gives him permission is another sermon for another day, but we can see clearly through this observation that even God’s greatest enemy is no match for His power.

2. God has power over everything that happens to me

            Nothing happens in our lives because God was somehow unable to stop it. We will never hear God say in Heaven, “By the way, sorry about that car accident. I tried my best to stop it, but I just couldn’t do anything about it.” We will never hear anything like that!

            While this doesn’t answer all of our questions about why God allows things to happen, it is comforting to know that we’re not simply at the mercy of fate or chance or karma or anything like that. Everything that happens to us is under God’s control, so there is a purpose behind everything that we face. One part of that purpose is to give us opportunities to express faith in God so that we might earn a greater reward from Him someday. There are likely other purposes as well, but we should be encouraged just to know that everything that happens to us has already passed through the hands of a loving God, so there is a reason for it.

3. God is able to keep His promises

            God is fully capable of doing whatever He chooses to do, so nothing can keep Him from fulfilling His promises. As humans, we sometimes have to deal with broken promises from other humans because we don’t have that kind of power over our circumstances. Perhaps you promise your child that you’ll make it to their ball game, but car problems keep you from getting there, or a broken fence allows the cattle to get out and you have to round them up.

            When we receive promises from each other, we have to allow for things like that, but with God, we don’t have to entertain any doubts about whether He will keep His promises. And so, His promises become a tremendous source of comfort and a solid foundation on which to act in our lives. They are a bedrock on which to build, and that is because of God’s unrivaled power.

            When we consider the ability that God has to do whatever He chooses to do, it is all the more amazing to think that He chose to send His Son to die for us. God has provided us with forgiveness of our sins because He chose to do so, which tells us of His tremendous love, mercy, and grace. God has exercised His unrivaled power for our undeserved benefit, and we praise Him for this today.