Encounter the Truth

Jonathan Griffiths: God really is the Almighty one. He is the doctor of the soul for whom no patient is too far gone, no project is too hard. And his power through the gospel is sufficient to bring life and forgiveness and transformation to you.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths, and what a great way to begin our time together today, just thinking about the fact that because we have this all-powerful God, no matter what you've done, no matter where you find yourself in life today, Jonathan, God can still step into that situation and he can bring about true transformation.

Jonathan Griffiths: I think one of the great tests of faith sometimes is to really trust and really believe that God can take the mess of our lives and the mess of our sin, and he can cleanse that sin through the blood of Jesus. He can redeem broken lives.

Sometimes we might believe in God's miraculous power in all kinds of different ways, but when it comes to me and my life, we wonder, is God really able to do something with that? A belief in God's omnipotence means that nothing in my life is beyond his power. What a thought that is, what a reassurance.

Steve Hiller: It really is. And if that is something that you're struggling with today, I hope that you will stay with us as we continue our look at the omnipotent God with our message. Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: When I was a kid, my favorite ride at the theme park was a racing car ride where you got to drive the car yourself. Maybe you've been on one like this. You get into a little sports car. I say sports car, I think it had a lawnmower engine in the back. There's this accelerator and there's a steering wheel. I don't have a recollection of a brake, but for all intents and purposes, you're driving the thing. It's a wonderful, liberating experience.

But what you don't realize when you're five years old and driving this little racing car is that there is a metal ridge running all the way along the track in between your wheels and your wheels cannot cross it. You cannot deviate from your lane. You steer within limits. You get a sense of freedom, you get a sense of power, but you cannot leave your lane.

There's a real sense in which human rulers and human governments are placed in the lane which God has assigned them. They feel powerful to be sure. They wield true power, but they serve only within the limits that God allows. You and I need to know this truth. We need to understand this truth if we're going to sleep at night, if we're going to have any peace about the future in this seemingly chaotic world.

The rise and fall of nations and governments, it only happens within the sovereignty of God. What's going to happen in this next election here in Canada, or the next one in the United States? What about Brexit? What about tensions with China or Russia or Iran or North Korea? The sovereign God knows. He's got it covered. We mustn't be anxious. We need to pray and we need to trust the sovereign God to direct the affairs of human history wisely and in accordance with his will.

God's power is seen in world history, in the rise and fall of governments and nations. It's a very wonderful truth, but it does raise a very big question for us. In a sense, it is the key question related to God's power. Perhaps it's the elephant in the room. Perhaps you've been thinking about it already. What about the forces of evil in the world?

If God is so good and God is so powerful, what about when bad things happen? When evil rulers rise, when cruelty is unleashed, when events unfold which are so clearly not good? What then about the almighty power of God? So far, I don't think any of the things we've thought about this morning will surprise too many of us too much. God's power expressed in creation, God's power expressed in history, these are no great surprise if we believe that there is a God at all.

But this next area where we see God's power at work could come as something of a surprise for us. The Bible shows us that God's power is seen over the forces of evil. In thinking about this together, we do enter into some of the more perplexing and challenging teaching of the scriptures. If we're those who are committed to reading our Bibles, we will encounter incidents from time to time where God clearly exercises his power over the forces of evil, sometimes in situations that seem pretty perplexing to read.

The most familiar incident along these lines is the encounter between Joseph and his brothers, many years after these brothers sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt. Once Joseph has been exalted to a position of leadership within the nation, he's able to save his own people from famine. You may remember the famous words that Joseph spoke in Genesis 50:20. "You intended to harm me," he says to his brothers, "but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."

Those brothers were working evil. They were acting with malice and with cruelty, but God had a bigger plan, a better plan, a good plan. These brothers were unwittingly participating in God's plan. That's a very famous and a familiar incident, but now consider a less familiar and in some ways much stranger incident. In 1 Kings 22, King Ahab of Israel wants to go to war against Ramoth Gilead. He wants the prophets of his court to affirm him in that decision and to tell him that it's going to go really well for him.

He's got a whole crowd of willing false prophets who tell him that it's going to be fine. But he's got this one prophet of the Lord by the name of Micaiah who isn't willing to fall into line. The king is frustrated about this, and so Micaiah delivers this message to him. "Therefore, hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standing around on his right and on his left. And the Lord said, 'Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?' One suggested this and another that. Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the Lord, and said, 'I will entice him.' 'By what means?' the Lord asked. 'I will go and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,' he said. 'You will succeed in enticing him,' said the Lord. 'Go and do it.'"

I don't know what you think about that story, but I think that is more or less the strangest Bible story I have ever read in my life. Here we are in the throne room of heaven. The host of heaven are before God. It seems that a consultation of sorts takes place. Any ideas on how to deal with Ahab, how to entice him into this battle? One idea from the back of the room: No, that's not going to work. Another idea from the angel in the front row: No, I think that's too obvious. We can only imagine how this thing went.

The scene is absolutely remarkable. Now a mysterious figure over in the corner pipes up. This may well be Satan speaking. "How about I do this? How about I go and be a lying spirit in the mouths of the prophets? How about I tell him that the battle is going to go well for him? How about that idea?" And the Lord says to him, "You know, that's going to work. Go and do it." The Lord sends a lying spirit, possibly Satan himself, to go and put lies into the mouths of the prophets to entice the king to his death.

It's important to see the wider context, to see that the Lord has already sent his true prophet to speak the truth. This is a test for Ahab. Will he listen to the true word of God? Of course, he fails the test miserably. But it is so strange to our eyes. You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried. It raises a whole lot of tricky questions for us, many of which I won't be answering this morning. Many of them, I don't think we're able to answer.

But despite all the questions that this raises for us, it tells us something very fascinating and something very helpful. It tells us that the God of heaven has power over the forces of evil. It tells us that he is willing and able to use those forces to achieve his greater purposes. God had purposed to bring a judgment against this ungodly King Ahab, and ultimately he used these lying spirits to reveal and confirm this king's disdain for his word, to send him into a battle where he was killed.

God's good and his righteous purpose was achieved, but the agency was evil and not good. However odd and perplexing all that is, it is actually a great comfort to us who know the Lord. It's a comfort to us because it tells us that no forces in the universe can go rogue or outwit God or overpower God. He is truly sovereign. He is truly the Almighty one.

The greatest example of this principle is found at the cross of Christ. In the crucifixion of the Son of God at Calvary, we see the most wicked event in the history of the world. Here is the full ugliness of sin and evil and human rebellion unleashed and unmasked. Here is wickedness in all its fury unleashed against the righteous one. Here it would seem is Satan unleashed.

But listen to the way in which the Apostle Peter speaks of the event after the fact. Speaking to the people of Judea in Acts 2:23, one of the most theologically loaded verses in all the Bible as far as I can tell, Peter says this: "This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross."

What a statement. Just let that sink in for a moment. The most wicked event in the history of the world happened by the set purpose and foreknowledge of God. We know that God had a glorious and a righteous purpose for the death of Jesus, a plan for the forgiveness of our sin and for our salvation. But the murder of Jesus, it is itself an evil act, a wicked act committed by evil people. "You with the help of wicked men put him to death." That's what Peter says.

The wicked men, they are fully responsible for what they've done here. What they did was evil, but all of it happened within and under the sovereignty of God. Here we bump up firmly against one of the greatest mysteries of scripture. How can God be truly God Almighty with power extending to the governance of all things, evil people, evil spirits included, and yet at the same time be entirely good and entirely righteous?

I'm not going to pretend to solve all that for you and tidy it all up. There is a mystery here and we shouldn't be surprised if there is some mystery when thinking about the eternal God. But the Bible affirms both things to be true: that God is entirely in charge in his world, and he is entirely good. He never does evil. He is never the author of evil.

In thinking all this through, we need to recognize that God's sovereignty over good and over evil functions in different ways. They are not symmetrical. That is, when it comes to good and to righteous things, God does those things directly. He sends his Spirit, he speaks his word, he blesses his people. He does these things himself.

But when it comes to bad things that happen, evil actions, God doesn't do those things. But he does give limited freedom for evil spirits and evil people to do these things. He's not doing them himself, but he allows and sometimes as we've seen, even sends others to do them. That is an awful lot to process on a Sunday midday. It's a lot to take in.

It's a bit like going to that Mandarin Chinese buffet down the road. You reach that point where you realize you've got more on your plate than you can really manage to deal with in a dignified way. I think we reach that point mentally and spiritually with this concept. But it is very good for us to give it the old college try. It's good to think about this truth, which is actually a wonderful truth for us to hold on to.

It's wonderful because it means that God has the power to set boundaries around evil. Even though we've chosen sin, we've welcomed the destruction of the fall into this world. We're responsible for so much evil, but God has graciously limited our experience of evil in ways we can't even fathom. He's limited it so that we don't feel the full force of evil, the full unleashing of evil, even though we would deserve it.

More than that, we see here that God is at work in all things. God is at work even in bad things to accomplish his good purposes for his people and his world. Many of us will be very familiar with Romans 8:28. It is a verse that we cling to, and rightly so, in times of difficulty. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

Wonderful truth, wonderful verse. But we can only believe that God is at work in all things, evil things, painful things, tragic things included, we can only believe that if we believe that his power extends to all things, that he is truly sovereign over them. That is a challenging truth. It's a mind-stretching truth, but it is a vitally important one too.

Finally, God's power is seen as well through the gospel. A little while ago, we were in Best Buy and we were having a look at some of those new generation of Bluetooth speakers. It was quite an amazing experience. I was quite impressed. I tried out some of those really mini ones, those tiny Bose ones. Pressed play on the test button, and I couldn't believe the wall of sound that came out from this tiny little thing. Minuscule little speaker, but despite its scale, despite its unassuming appearance, it almost produced enough sound to fill this great barn of a warehouse store.

At the opening of his great letter to the Romans, Paul sets out his confidence in the gospel, in the gospel which so often seems a weak and a limited thing, a small thing, but which he knows contains extraordinary power. Romans 1:16: "I am not ashamed of the gospel," says Paul, "because it is the power of God. It is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes."

The gospel message, the gospel proclaimed, it is the power of the Almighty one to save a lost and a dying people, to bring the spiritually dead to spiritual life. In Ephesians 1, Paul speaks of God's incomparably great power for us who believe. That power, says Paul, is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.

God powerfully raised Jesus from the dead and exalted him on high. That was the miracle of all miracles. Paul tells us that that very same power of God is at work in the people of God, in gospel people, in us. That same power is at work by the Holy Spirit to transform us, to grow us in godliness, to enable us to serve him.

God is able to do all things. That's the truth we've been thinking about all morning. Sometimes what you and I need to be convinced of most is not that he will work out his wider purposes in the world in accordance with his will. It's not that he's going to continue to uphold the creation tomorrow morning or bring about the ultimate consummation of his kingdom. We're actually more ready to believe that stuff.

Sometimes what you and I need most is to believe simply that God's power is going to be enough for us. Enough to sustain us, enough to enable us, enough to energize us for godliness and ministry and for service. The point at which practical atheism can so often set in is right here. We may believe the big headline truths about God. We may believe that he is eternal and holy and just and omniscient and omnipotent. We'll believe those things, at least when it comes to the really big things in the world.

But it may be today that you believe that you personally, you yourself, you're beyond the salvation of God. You may believe God is all-powerful in theory, but I am unsavable in practice. I wonder if anyone feels like that. Your sin is too great. You've wandered too far. Your life is just too messy. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were a number here even this morning who felt that way.

But if that's you, if that is how you feel, take this truth to heart. God really is the Almighty one. He is the doctor of the soul for whom no patient is too far gone, no project is too hard. His power through the gospel is sufficient to bring life and forgiveness and transformation to you. It's sufficient if you will but respond to him in repentance and faith.

Others of us, most of us here, we've been saved. We belong to Christ. But we struggle to believe in the power of God when it comes to living the Christian life, when it comes to battling sin, when it comes to finding the strength to serve and to keep on serving, when it comes to discouragement and the temptation just to give up following Jesus. Flinging stars into space by the word of his mouth? No problem. Getting me through this time of temptation, this family conflict, this difficulty at church, this next round of medical treatment, getting me through this week? I'm not so sure.

Ever feel like that? I expect we all know something of that feeling and something of those doubts. We feel worn down, we feel discouraged, we feel overwhelmed. We are aware of our failure and our sin. We wonder if we can actually keep going. The Apostle Paul himself had that kind of experience, and he writes about it very movingly at the end of 2 Corinthians.

In chapter 12, verse 7, he writes this: "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh," some kind of affliction, we don't know what it was, "a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Paul knows the power of God. We may not struggle to believe that God made the universe by the word of his mouth, but many of us will struggle to believe that he will sustain me from here until Friday with all the difficulties and the trials that may lie before me this week. That's our challenge, and what we need to believe is simply this: that the omnipotent God is powerfully at work through his spirit. We need to know and we need to believe that his strength is more than sufficient for weak people like us. God is the all-powerful one, powerful over creation, over history, over evil, and gloriously powerful through the gospel by his Spirit in his people.

Steve Hiller: Jonathan Griffiths here on Encounter the Truth wrapping up our message, The Omnipotent God. If you missed any part of today's broadcast or you want to go back and listen again, you can do that through the Encounter the Truth app, which you're going to find for free at your App Store, or you can come to our website and you can listen there. You can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. The website address is encounterthetruth.org.

Encounter the Truth is a listener-supported ministry. It is your generosity that sustains this program and this ministry. As you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to send you Jonathan's brand new book. It's called Wisdom and Knowledge. Jonathan, what is this book about?

Jonathan Griffiths: Steve, this book is a study of the life of Solomon from the book of 1 Kings in the Old Testament. But it's more than just a study of a particular life of an Old Testament figure. This is a study of the grace of God shown to someone who trusted him, followed him, received tremendous gifts from him, but stumbled and fell as well. And we learn here huge lessons about faith, about sin, about redemption, about the grace of God. Lessons that are very contemporary for you and for me. I found this to be such a rich study personally, and I'm so thrilled we're able to make it available this month.

Steve Hiller: We'd love to send you a copy of this book as our way of saying thank you for your financial support. You can give online at encounterthetruth.org or when you call 1-833-99-TRUTH. That's 1-833-998-7884 or encounterthetruth.org.

You can also write us at Encounter the Truth, 2176 Prince of Wales Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K2E 0A1. Or in the US, at Encounter the Truth, 215 North Arlington Heights Road, number 102, Arlington Heights, Illinois, 60004. For Jonathan Griffiths and our producer Mark Broadus, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time.