Calvary Road Baptist Church
“HIM THAT IS ABLE”
Ephesians 3.20
When was the last time you learned something from God’s Word that you’d never known before? When was the last time, either during your daily devotional time of reading through the Bible or while studying some portion of Scripture to clarify an issue or to understand something better, you learned something you didn’t know before?
It’s a spiritually healthy thing to learn from the Bible what you didn’t know before. Proverbs 14.12 declares that
“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
However, there is a remedy. Psalm 119.130 tells us that
“The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple.”
Then, in the New Testament, Second Timothy 3.16 reminds us that all Scripture is profitable, among other things, for correction.
It’s a good thing to get straightened out about life’s matters, especially when the straightening out comes from the infallible Word of God. But some people would rather, contrary to living a lifetime of heartache from their terrible decisions, continue to trust their instincts. They would rather follow the dictates of their deceitful heart than avoiding folly and catastrophe. This is why Proverbs 28.26 says that
“He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.”
And Proverbs 15.32 reminds us that
“He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul.”
So, a person should read his Bible, should study his Bible, and should always approach God’s Word with a desire to learn, with a craving for correction, and with an eagerness to discover things not known before. If that’s the approach you take to God’s Word, then I think you will be rewarded today.
My text is Ephesians 3.20. I invite you to stand and read that passage of Scripture with me:
“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”
There are several words and concepts contained in this verse which you might find a little surprising. With that little red marker pen you use to highlight things in your Bible, you might consider making a note of some interesting factoids found in this short verse.
First, there is the pronoun “him.” This is a reference to God the Father. The content of the verse demands that God the Father be the One referred to by the word “him,” also remembering that during His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus Christ directed His disciples to pray to God the Father.[1] Prayer is here suggested by the word “ask.”
Now take a look at two different English words, the word “able” and the word “power.” It just so happens that both of these words translate the same Greek word, the word dá½»namis. The only difference being, the word “able” translates the participle form of the word and the word “power” translates the noun form of the word. That these two words translate the same Greek root word will be important to note later.
Next, the phrase is “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” The words “exceeding abundantly” translate a very rare and unusual word, ὑperekperissoῦ. It’s an adverb and it describes what God can do, what God is powerful to do, and refers to “infinitely more than.”[2] Think about it for a moment. Paul has just informed his readers that he asks God to do that which is undoable. But Who does he ask? He asks God. And how does he describe God?
In the mind of Paul (and this may very well explain something of the differences between the kind of life Paul lived and the kinds of lives so many Christians live), God is the One Who can do far and away more than you might ever ask for, more than you might ever even think about. What we have here is a nod to the infinite power of Almighty God.
Paul’s statement is a challenge to every one of us who has that tragically human tendency to minimize God and imagine Him less powerful than He is. Think about this: How many of your personal problems are directly related to the power of your God? Want to know what made David different than all the other Israelites during the terror of Goliath? Only the power of his God. David did what David did because David’s God was believed by him to be more powerful than everyone else’s God.
What kinds of problems do you face in your life? What issues do you encounter? What difficulties must you overcome? Is your God strong enough to deal with them? Is He powerful enough to address the matters and resolve them? I am persuaded that Paul was so persuaded. Aren’t you? And remind yourself, he’s writing from a jail cell.
There’s something else we have in this verse, which may prove to be a real shocker to some of you. The last phrase reads, “according to the power that worketh in us.” You might paraphrase it this way: In proportion to the power that works in us. Paul is telling his readers that God’s ability to answer our prayers extends far beyond our ability to ask, extends far beyond our ability to even think of things to ask for, and is in direct proportion to the power that is right now working in us ... if you are a Christian.
What’s the surprise? The surprise is this: Most Christians don’t think there is any spiritual power at work in their lives right now. Their conduct reflects this. They think they have to plead with God to grant them power they do not possess. Is that not a fair representation of the thinking of most Christians? Sure it is.
This was illustrated to me at a large annual conference I attended years ago in Northern Indiana in which the hosting Church, and the family I stayed with, and everyone else I observed there, were encouraged to pray for power every day, and placed stickers just about everywhere that read “Pray For Power.” They were convinced they did not have power, but that they needed to beg God for power, so the multiplied thousands in that huge and influential Church did that very thing. They prayed for power.
But does not Paul, in this verse, assume that there is great power that works in each one of his readers? Sure he does. Then what’s going on here? What’s going on is this: God is a God of infinite power. And He is powerfully at work in the lives of every one of His children. And His power to hear and answer prayers is infinitely greater than is any Christian’s ability to ask and greater than is any Christian’s ability to conceive in his mind.
God’s answers to prayers are directly proportional to the power of God that is already at work in the life of each and every blood-bought and blood-washed child of God. But that reality strikes terror in the hearts of those who know, down in the depths of their heart, that God isn’t doing anything in their life. God isn’t powerful in their life in any form or fashion. And why is this? Because they’re not genuinely saved.
So, there are two profound truths dealt with in Ephesians 3.20, two truths that suggest profound implications in the lives of genuinely saved people. First, God is unimaginably powerful. So powerful is our God that He can answer prayers that are beyond our capacity to dream of, much less ask.
And second, God’s power is already working in us, in each one of us who know Christ. Not in the lives of the dynamic Christians only. And not only in the lives of believers who are literate, intellectual, and sophisticated. God’s power is working in the life of every single born-again child of God who has come to salvation through faith in Christ.
How ought that to affect and influence your life? It should shake things up a bit. Amen? I would think it would have a dramatic impact on any Christian’s prayer life. And what about your sense of optimism and hope for the future? Yes, yes. For Christians, life is certainly different than lost people’s lives.
More than 700 years before the birth of Christ, the children of Israel lived in two different kingdoms. To the North was the kingdom of Israel, populated by the ten northern tribes of God’s chosen people and dominated by the tribe of Ephraim.
To the South was the kingdom of Judah, comprised mainly of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, but with a significant number of other Israelites who had migrated South over the years following the civil war and the division of the kingdom. Then came the Assyrians out of the Northeast to overwhelm everyone that lay in their path. A cruel and brutal people, the Assyrians struck fear in the hearts of everyone before them. Never numbering as many as their opponents, what the Assyrians lacked in numbers, they more than made up for in ferocity.
Two of the practices of the Assyrians that were particularly appalling, and effective for propaganda purposes, was the stacking of human skulls at the gates of their capital city of Nineveh, and how they tortured to death anyone who dared to oppose them. Multiplied thousands of human skulls were stacked up in a horrifying pile that stood some 20 feet tall, only to be picked clean by vultures, vermin, and insects. But how those men whose skulls were on those piles met their deaths was even worse. The Assyrians planted a sharpened stake in the ground and impaled enemy soldiers and holdouts on it before taking off the heads of those who died in that cruel fashion.
After overwhelming the kingdom of Israel and taking away all the Israelite men and replacing them with men from other nations, a strategy that practically eliminated the possibility of rebellion and uprising because of the confusion caused by such cultural disruption, the Assyrians turned their eyes south to the kingdom of Judah.[3] After the Assyrians had pushed the Judean army back to the walls of Jerusalem and then surrounded the city, they began to speak to the men defending the walls through an interpreter.[4] It’s interesting to examine the content of what was said to the Jews on the walls protecting Jerusalem. The Assyrians were convinced that the reason they had experienced such victories over other nations was that their gods were stronger and more powerful than the gods of their enemies.[5]
In the minds of heathens, the conflict between God’s people and them boiled down to one essential; “Whose god is more powerful?” And don’t you know that the same question lies at the root of all consideration today? Whose god is more powerful? Are the gods of the Mormons more powerful than the God of the Christians? Is the god of New Evangelicalism more powerful than the God of the Christians? Is the god of Roman Catholicism more powerful? How about the gods of the New Age? How about the god of the Jehovah’s Witnesses? How about the god of nature worshipped by the secular humanists?
And what about the gods of the hedonists? Hedonism is the pursuit of pleasure and self-gratification. Is God more powerful to give fulfillment than the god of booze, or the god of drugs, or the god of fornication and adultery? How about the god of LGBTQ? Notice, I did not ask if God could give greater pleasure or thrills than these other gods, these false gods. That is because God’s goal and purpose for your life and mine is not the enjoyment of pleasure, but your preparation for eternity.
Of course, the Muslims who blow themselves up to kill innocent bystanders are convinced that Allah is more powerful than the God of Israel, but I am convinced that the devil (who Allah is) is much weaker than God. God is powerful to save sinners, while Allah is so weak that he can only motivate his followers to kill people. The number of people you can kill is no measure of the power of your god, as the Assyrians would find out.
The Assyrians foolishly thought their gods were more powerful than the God of Israel because they had defeated Israel on the field of battle. What they never imagined was that the God of Israel had far greater purposes to accomplish with His people than the winning of a single battle or the winning of a single war. Their problem, the Assyrians that is, was that they were comparing apples to oranges. And the result was, they drew completely false conclusions about the power and might of the God of Israel.
Friends, my God is an awesome God. There are times when things happen to His people that are difficult to understand. And unless you are acquainted with Scripture, you might draw false conclusions about the power and the might of the God I serve. Therefore, what I propose is to declare to you the power of the God of Israel, the God of the Bible, the Father of my Lord Jesus Christ.
There are four aspects of the power of Almighty God that I want to describe for you:
First, GOD IS POWERFUL TO CREATE
I am about to cross swords with two increasingly popular lines of thinking. First, I am about to cross swords with those who do not believe the Bible provides the only reliable account of creation. Such people as Shirley Maclain and the late Carl Sagan and all those who believe in the unscientific notion of a “Big Bang” or perhaps some New Age view of cyclical history that believes what is has always been. Second, I am about to cross swords with those who claim to believe the Bible is God’s Word but who question its accuracy and reliability on such matters as creation. Keeping in mind that this preacher believes the Bible to be the infallible Word of the living God, listen to what we find out in the Bible about God’s power to create. And by create I refer to creating something out of nothing.
Notice what God created. Genesis 1.1 declares,
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
That is, God brought into existence the stuff this universe is made of; time, space, and matter. And the rest of Genesis chapter 1 shows us exactly what, and in what order, God formed this physical universe in which we live from the building blocks He originally created. Look at the stars twinkling in the sky at night. Listen to the breeze rustling the leaves in the forest. Watch the bee and the butterfly and the hummingbird all feed off the same beautiful flower. Each of these, in turn, did God create. And how can we be so positive that God created all these things? How can we be so sure that He created this vast universe in which we live? Hebrews 11.3:
“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
So, God, our God, created everything.
Notice why He created it. Revelation 4.11, my life verse, sums it up perfectly:
“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
God did not create all things because He was compelled to do so. He did not create all things and everything that in them is because He was constrained to do so. God formed the worlds which are, God scattered the sky with stars, God made the things which do appear, for one reason and one reason only. Because He wanted to. Ponder that for a moment. How much of what you or I have ever done have we done and solely because we wanted to? You have to work or starve (or you should have to). You have to obtain some kind of training or have no future. But when God created this universe, He did not have to do it. He was not compelled. He was not coerced. He was not constrained. He did what He did only because He wanted to. The fact of God’s creation speaks to His power. The reason for God’s creation speaks to His power. But there is an even more amazing voice which attests to the infinite power of God to create.
Notice how He created it.
Genesis 1.3:
“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”
Genesis 1.6:
“And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters....”
Genesis 1.9:
“And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place....”
Genesis 1.11:
“And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass....”
Genesis 1.14:
“And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament....”
Genesis 1.20:
“And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly....”
Genesis 1.24:
“And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature....”
Genesis 1.26:
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness....”
Think about such displays of power as these. What God did to create the universe in which we live and breathe and have our being is speak. He spoke and it was so. He did not strain or use leverage. He did not conjure and contort. He did not exert Himself or give forth any apparent effort. He spoke! What incomprehensible power must God possess to but speak and bring forth all that is. All that is!
Next, GOD IS POWERFUL TO SUSTAIN
It’s one thing to create. It’s another to sustain. And how do we see God’s power in sustaining this universe in which we live? Allow me to mention three ways:
First, the laws of nature. Imagine what would happen in this universe that God has created if He did not provide for things to be upheld by the word of His power?[6] Just one example: What if there was no gravity? Things would just float away. Do you think a weightless environment is wonderful? Ask the astronauts how they would like to live the rest of their lives in a weightless environment. “No, thank you.” Imagine our world without gravity. Spinning as rapidly as this planet does on its axis, without the benefit of gravity, all the water in the oceans and rivers and lakes would go flying off into space. All the air would go floating off into space. All the people would go floating off into space. As a matter of fact, without gravity, there would be no planet earth because nothing would be held together. Pieces of everything wouldn’t just float off in all directions. They would be flung off in all directions.
Second, the cycles of nature. You know, there haven’t always been cycles of nature. Winter and spring and summer and fall have not always come and gone on this earth. From Genesis 8.22 we see that only since Noah’s Flood have the seasons been with us. But ask yourself this question: What would this world be like if God did not maintain the delicate balance that we have come to rely on for the last 40 or 50 centuries? If there was no seedtime and harvest time, what would life on this planet be like? We take so much for granted because we do not see the constant reminders of God’s power being demonstrated in obvious ways. But my Bible reveals to me that God sustains this physical universe. My Bible declares to me that God controls the wind and the rain. God presides over the famine and the pestilence. God superintends the floods and earthquakes.
God is the Master over nature. How else could God bring a worldwide Flood to judge the world for sin? How else could God part the waters of the Red Sea so His chosen people could pass to safety without getting their feet wet and then drown their pursuing enemies?[7] How else could God stop the floodwaters of the Jordan River so His people could cross into the Promised Land without getting their feet wet forty years later, the water resuming when the last person had crossed over?[8] How could God stop the rain and then resume the rainfall when Elijah prayed, if He is not the master over nature? How could God open up the earth to swallow Korah and those who followed him for their rebellion against Moses if He is not the master over nature?[9] How could God stop the sun from setting for Joshua, or move the sun back in the sky for Hezekiah, if He is not the master of nature?[10] How could God’s only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, walk on water, calm the wind and the waves, raise the dead, turn water into wine, feed thousands with a few loaves and fishes, give sight to the blind, give strength to the lame, and rise from the dead on the third day if He is not the master over all that is natural?[11] That God, at times and in places, intervened into the affairs of men and momentarily disrupted the normal and natural processes of His physical laws and His cycles of nature show so much the more His great and awesome power to sustain His creation. There is no Mother Nature. There is God.
Third, GOD IS POWERFUL TO SAVE
Notice how God’s awesome power to save is demonstrated. By save, I refer to the deliverance of sinners from the just punishment for their sins, which just punishment is an eternity in the lake of fire. You see, all have sinned. You have sinned, and I have sinned. But God has demonstrated His great and awesome power to save sinners through the Gospel, Romans 1.16-17:
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
Four ways in which this power of God is seen to save:
First, in Christ’s condescension. Remember that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Second Person of the Trinity. He is God. Illustrating this is Hebrews 1.8, where God the Father addresses the Lord Jesus Christ as God. If the Lord Jesus Christ is God, what was He doing here on earth? He left heaven’s glory and came to this earth to take upon Himself a human nature and a human body. Listen to John 1.1, 14:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
He came to die for your sins and mine, as “the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world,” John 1.29. What great condescension! That God would become a man that He might redeem men.
Second, in Christ’s humiliation. Philippians 2.8 tells us exactly when the Lord Jesus Christ made that dramatic transition from being God Who had condescended to become a man to being the God-Man Who humbled Himself. It was when He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Did it take great power for God to become a man? Amazing power. But what kind of power did it take for that same God, now become a man, to become sin for us who knew no sin? That’s what Second Corinthians 5.21 says happened. And Paul described that same thing as Christ humbling Himself.
Third, in Christ’s propitiation. I know that such words as condescension and humiliation and propitiation may seem to be a bit cumbersome, but they represent in single words some of the most profound things God in Christ has ever done. What about this word propitiation? It refers to satisfaction for some requirements. Your sin is an offense to God. Isaiah 64.6 reads,
“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”
Because God is personally offended by your rebellious spirit and haughty attitude toward Him, He requires satisfaction. He requires punishment. His righteousness requires that violation of His moral law be properly dealt with. When the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, went to Calvary’s cross and suffered and bled and died for your sins and mine, when He (the Righteous) paid the penalty for me (the unrighteous), God accepted that payment and was satisfied by it. So full and so complete and so satisfactory was the Lord Jesus Christ’s shed blood a payment for my sins that First John 2.2 declares,
“And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
If creating the universe requires power, and if sustaining the universe requires power, what kind of unheard-of display of power is required for God to become a man, and then for God the man to humble Himself and go to the cross as payment for my sins, and then to satisfy the righteous demands His holy nature exacted for the hideous crimes committed against Him?
Finally, in Christ’s justification. Back to Romans 1.16-17, that I read to you just a few moments ago. Verse 16 declares the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Verse 17 declares the just shall live by faith. And Romans 5.1 reads,
“Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Wait just a second. Hold on there. These three verses together reveal to us that the power of God is focused and channeled through the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the fact that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again on the third day, in such a way that a sinner is justified who believes in the Christ of the Gospel. Want to know why the heathen called the preaching of the cross foolishness? They could not imagine God having such power and being able to apply such power to the saving of sinful souls so that people who responded to preaching by faith were saved. The power of Almighty God is so great and awesome that the human mind simply cannot comprehend the application of such power through faith to the saving of souls. Imagine. This same God Who spoke the universe into existence, Who threw the stars into the nighttime sky, and Who painted the sunset, saves sinners Who by simple faith trust His Son Jesus. How can anyone question the ability of God to save the murderer, the drunkard, the whore, the drug addict, the fornicator, the religious hypocrite, the deceitful and lying child, or anyone else, He Who is this mighty is also mighty to save?
Finally, GOD IS POWERFUL TO SECURE
Can you imagine a God powerful enough to create the universe, powerful enough to sustain the universe, powerful enough to save the vilest of sinners, not being able also to keep those He has saved? Yet there are actually people running around loose who think that someone who is genuinely saved can do something that will cause them to lose their salvation. I close by pointing out three reasons why God is powerful enough to secure forever anyone who is saved by trusting Jesus Christ.
First, saved people are eternally secure because to lose your salvation, you would have to be more powerful than God the Father, John 10.27-30. Jesus said,
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
30 I and my Father are one.
Do you get the distinct impression that no one and no thing is powerful enough to defeat God the Father in a vain attempt to deprive you of your salvation? I do. See the word “able” in verse 29? That’s our Greek word for power. No one has the power to defeat God and ruin your salvation.
Second, saved people are eternally secure because to lose your salvation, you would have to be more powerful than the Lord Jesus Christ, John 10.27-30:
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
30 I and my Father are one.
Isn’t the Lord Jesus Christ always truthful? Didn’t He also say no one could pluck His sheep from His hand? Sure did. That’s because no one is more powerful than He is.
Finally, saved people are eternally secure because to lose your salvation, you would have to be stronger than the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 1.13-14:
13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
Sealed refers to securing and guaranteeing contents. For a saved person to be lost, someone would have to break the seal, defeat the Holy Spirit, if you will. And that’s simply not going to happen.
Not a very heart-rending sermon. Not particularly moving. But I trust that my goal of establishing that God is powerful, more powerful than anyone can possibly imagine, is accomplished.
Perhaps you are here today without hope. Not without hope that God loves you. Not without hope that God cares. But without hope that God is able to save you and keep you.
Doubt no more, friend. God is able. He is able to save to the uttermost. And He is able to keep whomsoever He saves.
Has that been your concern? That God could save you? That God could keep you? Be concerned no more about God’s ability. Be no more concerned about God’s power. Be concerned only for your own soul.
__________
[1] Matthew 6.9; Luke 11.2
[2] Bauer, Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2000), page 1033.
[3] 2 Kings 18.11
[4] 2 Kings 18.26-30
[5] 2 Kings 18.30-35
[6] Jeremiah 10.12; 51.15; Colossians 1.17
[7] Exodus 14
[8] Joshua 3
[9] Numbers 16.32
[10] Joshua 10.12-13; Isaiah 38.1-8
[11] Matthew 12.10-13; 14.14-21, 26; Mark 5.35-42; 10.46-52; 16.9; Luke 18.24; John 2.1-11
Would you like to contact Dr. Waldrip about this sermon? Please contact him by clicking on the link below. Please do not change the subject within your email message. Thank you.
Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church