In his sermon on 'The Omnipotence of God,' John Morganti emphasizes the all-encompassing power of God, highlighting that God can accomplish anything He desires. He uses Jeremiah 32:17-42 as a key scriptural foundation, illustrating God's omnipotence through the creation of the universe, judgment, and redemption of Israel. The sermon explores the metaphor of God's 'outstretched arm' as a symbol of His limitless power and victory. Morganti discusses the greatest manifestation of God's omnipotence as His ability to forgive and do good to those deserving punishment, which is made possible through Jesus Christ's crucifixion. The sermon also explains that God's omnipotence is consistent with His nature, which includes righteousness and holiness. Finally, Morganti encourages believers to experience God's power in their daily lives, emphasizing that faith acts as the conduit for God's power to be experienced, just as the woman with the issue of blood touched Jesus' garment and was healed.

Good afternoon. Scott and I were talking about just how amazing it is how God orchestrates these teachings. I mean, it couldn't have been planned better to have the omnipotence of God following the message that Scott preached today. So I'm just really excited for what the Lord has shared with me and for what I hope that he shares with you also. So when we say that God is omnipotent, We are saying that he's all-powerful.

That is, he has the ability, the strength, the force to do whatever he wants to do. And I think one of the richest minds in scripture where we discover the gold of God's omnipotence is Jeremiah 32, 17 through 42. So Jeremiah 32, 17. Yeah, we'll start there. The context of this passage is that the city of Jerusalem is being besieged by the Babylonians, Nebuchadnezzar and his army, and it's about to be ransacked, destroyed, and all the survivors carried off to Babylon.

And God tells Jeremiah to do an interesting thing. He tells him to buy some property from his uncle. And Jeremiah is obviously very confused. Why would I buy property in a city that's about to be taken? It doesn't really make any sense, but he obeys God anyway.

And he basically tells God that it's not really possible for God to even make this a profitable transaction even while acknowledging God's omnipotence. Okay let's read Jeremiah 32 17. See Jeremiah's response here. Ah Lord God, behold you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for you do you see this statement of God's omnipotence this declaration from Jeremiah of God's omnipotence notice how he supports this this declaration You made heaven and earth with your outstretched arm.

You notice that here and throughout scripture, God's arm is sort of a metaphor for his omnipotence, for his great power, for his limitless power. And his outstretched arm is like a metaphor for God's victory, God's ability to do whatever he wants to do. We see that many times in God's dealing with the Egyptians. God delivers and redeems his people by his outstretched arm. But here he says, God, you made everything.

Yeah, that shows God's omnipotence, creating everything out of nothing just by his word. That's pretty powerful. Alright, let's read some more support that Jeremiah gives for God's omnipotence. Verse 18, you show loving kindness to thousands and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them, the great, the mighty God whose name is the Lord of hosts. You are great in counsel and mighty in work, for your eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings." Basically, you've got the power to reward the righteous and to punish the wicked God.

Yes, that shows omnipotence to be able to judge rightly every time, to be able to ensure justice is carried out. That's pretty powerful. Let's keep reading. You have set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt to this day, and in Israel and among other men. And you have made yourself a name, as it is, to this day.

You have brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt, with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror. God, you redeemed your people out of Egypt. Yes, that shows great omnipotence. Turning the Nile into blood, killing the firstborn, parting the Red Sea, redeeming his people from their slavery. That's a lot of power.

Let's keep reading verse 22. You have given them this land of which you swore to their fathers to give them a land flowing with milk and honey. And they came in and took possession of it, But they have not obeyed your voice or walked in your law. They have done nothing of all that you commanded them to do Therefore you have caused all this calamity to come upon them So again another evidence of God's omnipotence he says he says God you brought them into this land flowing with milk and honey. You slaughtered the people, the Canaanites, and whose sight we were like grasshoppers.

Your omnipotence did that, God. That's powerful. But then he says, but we've been so wicked by breaking all your laws and this judgment seems so final look what he says they have done nothing of all that you commanded them to do therefore you have caused all this calamity to come upon them. Look the siege mounds, they have come to the city to take it, and the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it because of the sword and famine and pestilence. What you have spoken has happened, there you see it.

And you have said to me, O Lord God, buy the field for money and take witnesses, yet the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans. God, yes, you're all-powerful. You can do everything. Nothing is too hard for you, except this. For you to have mercy on these people, even though we've been so wicked, for you to bring us back into the land and to make good this property that I just bought?

That's too much. That's going too far, God. Everything is possible for you except this. Notice God's response. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah saying, behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh.

Is there anything too hard for me? God turns Jeremiah's declaration into a question. Is there anything too hard for me? God asks. Essentially God is saying, well said Jeremiah, nothing is too hard for me.

You've brought up some great demonstrations of my omnipotence, but you haven't gone far enough. When you said that nothing is too hard for me you really meant that nothing is too hard for me except showing mercy but nothing means nothing let's keep reading therefore thus says the Lord behold I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he shall take it. And the Chaldeans who fight against this city shall come and set fire to this city and burn it, with the houses in whose roofs they have offered incense to Baal and poured out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. Because the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only evil before me from their youth, for the children of Israel have provoked me only to anger with the work of their hands, says the Lord. For this city has been to me a provocation of my anger and my fury from the day that they built it, even to this day.

So I will remove it from before my face, because of all the evil the children of Israel and the children of Judah which they have done to provoke me to anger they their kings their princes their priests their prophets the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and they have turned they have turned to me the back and not the face, though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction. But they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it. And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I did not command them, nor did it come into my mind that they should do this abomination to cause Judah to sin. So God basically says, Jeremiah, Israel's wickedness is far worse than you've stated. You've only touched on the shoot and not the root.

Yeah, you talked about how they disobeyed my law and disregarded my commands, but I'm telling you that I see their hearts and they've totally gone astray from me. They've gone and prostituted themselves to the other gods. They've turned away from me, they've turned their back to me, and they haven't even sought me who bought them who redeemed them not only that Jeremiah but their situation is far more hopeless than you know this city is going to be totally destroyed so next couple verses here's where I find the payload of gold in this in this mine. So look in verse 37. Behold, I will gather them out of all countries where I have driven them in my anger, in my fury, and in great wrath.

And I will bring them back to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. They shall be my people, and I will be their God. Then I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them and their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from doing them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts so they will not depart from me. Yes, I will rejoice over them and do them good and I will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and with all my soul.

For thus says the Lord, just as I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so will I bring on them all the good that I have promised them." So the greatest demonstration of God's omnipotence is when God does good to those who deserve only punishment. He promises to be their God and to delight in them. This must be understood in the context of the new covenant that he promises to make with them in the previous chapter, chapter 31, and he just kind of hints at it here, but that covenant in which God will write their laws on their, write his laws on their hearts and put them in their minds, bring them into true fellowship with them. The law is no longer going to be on tablets of stone, but written on hearts. But don't we have a problem in saying that the greatest demonstration of God's omnipotence is his ability to forgive, his ability to do good to those who deserve only punishment, then we have a problem.

If God can really just simply forgive sins, then why did Jesus have to die on the cross? The solution of this of this seeming problem is found in the definition of omnipotence. God can do anything that God wants to do and what God wants to do is based on his nature and his character, the kind of being he is. So there are some things that God cannot do because they are not consistent with his nature and his character. For example, we know that God cannot lie.

The author of Hebrews tells us that in Hebrews 6. God cannot lie. Okay, so there's something God can't do. Well, why can't God do that? Because he doesn't try to do that because that's not consistent with his nature.

Anything that God wants to do, anything that God intends to do, he does. That's his omnipotence. Okay, so what about forgiving sins? God cannot just forgive sin as this is not consistent with his nature and his character. God is righteous and holy and we see in Proverbs 17-15 that he who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the just, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord.

So the one who has a guilty person before him and declares him righteous, is an abomination to God. Wow! So, how does God do the seemingly impossible? How does he justify or declare righteousness the guilty without denying his own righteousness and holiness, without denying himself? Here's where the arm of the Lord is most fully revealed.

In Isaiah 52 10 the prophet Isaiah says The Lord has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. But, as Isaiah asks a few verses later, to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? So that's chapter 53 verse 1. In other words, who can believe that the omnipotence of God would take on the weakness and frailty of human flesh? And who can believe that the omnipotence of God would endure being afflicted and oppressed, beaten and mocked?

And who can possibly fathom the omnipotence of God hanging on the cross in all that shame and in all that weakness, bearing the sins of others and taking the punishment they deserve. To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Who can comprehend this mystery? Isaiah says a few verses later, all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. How can this be?

To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? The answer is no one except the one to whom God reveals it. The one to whom God reveals his omnipotence in this way. For while everyone can look at the creation and understand the great power of God. They can understand the eternal power in divine nature, as Paul says in Romans 1.20.

That power should only serve to terrify them because they are in rebellion against him. They know nothing of the greatest manifestation of God's omnipotence that has ever been revealed and that's Jesus Christ. So again you can look at, anyone can look at nature and see something of God's omnipotence, but it should only strike terror into their hearts because they see, wow, the God, the omnipotent, powerful God who made all this, I don't know him, I'm not like him, And that should strike terror into the heart. In 1 Corinthians 1, starting in verse 18, it says, For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, But to us who are being saved it is the power of God. And skip down a few verses of verse 22.

For the Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. So Jesus Christ is made to us the power of God. He's revealed to us as the arm of the Lord, the strong saving arm of God. The gospel as Paul states in Romans 1 16 is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. By salvation he doesn't just mean getting saved as in a single isolated act or event.

He means being just, he means justification first of all, being made righteous in God's sight. He means sanctification, growth in Christ's likeness. He means consecration, being set apart and empowered for his service. He means preservation, being kept in God's hand, as we just sung, upheld by my righteous omnipotent hand. And glorification, being made like Christ and seeing him as he is.

Now of course we know that justification is often referred to as salvation because anyone who has been truly justified will ultimately be glorified. But there's, it's very clear that salvation is this comprehensive work that God does in us. Paul says in that verse in Corinthians I just read, for those of us who are being saved, the same omnipotence that created the world out of nothing, that spoke light into existence, that turned the Nile River into blood, that divided the Red Sea, that slaughtered the strong men of Canaan is the same power that saves us. But these previous manifestations of God's power were only shadows or foretastes of what was to come. What do I mean by that?

Well, the creation in which God formed everything out of nothing was a foretaste of the new creation, in which God formed something beautiful out of that which was ugly and rotten. When God spoke and caused light to shine out of darkness, that was a foretaste of God speaking and causing to shine into our darkened hearts the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ. God's deliverance of his people out of bondage in Egypt by Moses was a foretaste of the deliverance of his people from bondage to sin by Jesus Christ. The slaughter of the Canaanites was a foretaste of the victory that God gives us over the world and the flesh and the devil. And the bringing in of God's people into the promised land by Joshua was a foretaste of our final entrance into the true promised land, led by our Joshua, Jesus Christ.

God's omnipotence is not simply something for us to look at and marvel at while we should do those things. It's something for us to experience daily. The Father longs for us to know what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe. According to the mighty power which he wrought in Jesus Christ when he raised him from the dead, and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, in every name which is named both in this age and in the age to come. As Paul says in Ephesians 1.

This is not abstract formal knowledge, but experiential, life-changing knowledge that enables us to overcome. In our study of Revelation we see over and over again, to him who overcomes, I will give to eat of the tree of life or whatever it may be in that particular passage. Satan is real and his power is great. Martin Luther saying so many years ago, For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe, on earth is not his equal. Human power will not defeat Satan.

Human power will not even phase Satan. If we try to engage them at the human level, we'll wind up like the seven sons of Siva that we read about in Acts 19. It says, then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, We exorcise you by the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches. Also, there were seven sons of Siva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?

And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. That's what trying to engage Satan at the human level leads to. Rather, we're called in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10 to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. That's where our strength comes from. Our power is tapping into God's omnipotence.

It's not in ourselves. Which brings up a final point. God's omnipotence is not a communicable attribute. It's not one that God shares with man per se. But it is one that we can and must draw from.

Just like the woman with the issue of blood in Luke 8. You know, she had spent all her money on doctors, and then she hears about Jesus, and brings herself into the path where he's going to be walking, and she just reaches out, just in the desperate hope and trust that just touching the edge of his garment will heal her. And we're told that as soon as that happens, virtue in the in the old King James, the Greek word is literally power. Power flowed from Jesus into that woman and she was instantly made whole, she was instantly healed. Wow, I mean that's really remarkable.

Think about all the people that Jesus brushed up against and that Jesus touched as he was walking down that down that crowded street And yet power never flowed out of him to any of those other people that he touched. Why is that? Well, this woman had faith. Jesus's power was transmitted to this woman through the conduit of faith. She trusted in Him and was made whole.

Just so beautiful how it's contrasted the smallest point of faith contact with Jesus even just touching the hem of his garment that smallest point of faith contact and the fullness of the healing the completeness of the healing and In Matthew's Gospel we're told that as many as touched the hem of his garment were made whole through and through. That's what it literally says. They were made thoroughly whole. Just the smallest point of faith contact is enough to make a thousand universes whole through and through. Not just physically, spiritually.

That's the reality of this. The woman touching his garment and being healed physically is just a it's a pointer to what happens when when you have just faith the size of a mustard seed placed in Jesus Christ and made whole by his great power, as his power is transmitted to us. So the omnipotence of God, which is clearly woven throughout Scripture, is kind of like the statement in Genesis 2 where it tells us that God rested on the seventh day. When you read Hebrews 3 and 4 it becomes very clear that the statement in Genesis is not just a statement of sheer fact. It's not just a propositional statement like, yeah, it might be good for you to know that God rested on the seventh day.

Hebrews 4 makes it clear that that statement that God rested on the seventh day is actually an invitation to enter into God's rest. Because no one else in Israel did not enter into it when God called them, he said he gave them the invitation he said enter into my rest and they disobeyed him they disregarded him and they didn't get to enter into his rest. And the author of Hebrews says, therefore there still remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. The invitation still goes out. What does that have to do with the omnipotence of God?

Well, God's omnipotence is not just a propositional fact throughout Scripture, it's an invitation. God invites us to take part in His limitless power, to taste of his great power by which he made the world, by which he delivered Israel out of Egypt, by which he brought them into the promised land, that very same power by which he raised Jesus Christ from the dead. He invites us to participate in that. Even now, he says, trust in me, lean on me, look to me. Don't do anything.

Don't try to do anything in your own power because it will just be worthless. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, thank you for this this great truth and reality and teaching throughout your word, O Lord, that your power is limitless, Lord, and that there is none like you. Father, nothing, truly nothing, is too difficult for you. Not even having mercy on the wicked, not even justifying the wicked, Lord, Your great power has even done this.

Lord, I pray that you would help us, that you would give us grace to receive your invitation, to taste of your power, Lord, and to experience your power through faith in your arm, Jesus Christ. Amen.