Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 674
Delivered on Sunday Morning, February 4, 1866
Psalm 89:13.
WE are, during the coming week humbly but earnestly to beseech of God for days of refreshing and seasons of revival. It is well for us at the outset distinctly to remind ourselves of the source from where all the strength must come. No genuine revival can ever arise from the flesh. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” Human excitement at the utmost, and carnal zeal at its extremity, can do nothing towards the real conversion of souls. Here we are taught the lesson, “not by might nor by power.”
Disappointments ought to have taught the Church of God this lesson long ago. The many revivals which she has had which have proved to be spurious—the puffing up of excitement and not the building up of Divine Grace—all these should have driven her out of the last relic of her self-confidence and have made her feel that it is not of herself to do anything in the Lord’s cause without His help. “Our help comes from the Lord that made Heaven and earth.” It is well to be constantly convinced of this. We must have God’s arm laid to the work or else nothing will be accomplished which will stand the solemn tests of the last great day.
Wood, hay, and stubble we may build alone, but gold, silver and precious stones are from the King’s treasury. “Without Me you can do nothing,” was the Savior’s word to His chosen Apostles! How much more applicable must it be to us who are “less than the least of all saints”! In vain your holy assemblies! In vain your earnest desires! In vain your passionate addresses! In vain your efforts of a thousand shapes! Unless God Himself shall step forth from the hiding place of His power and set Himself, a second time, to His own glorious work, no good can come of all your toils—
“Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.”
Having reminded ourselves, dear Friends, that our great strength lies in the God of Jacob, it is very comforting to notice how great this strength is. There is but one arm for us to rest upon, but blessed is the assurance—“You have a mighty arm.” Oh, if that God upon whom we have entirely to depend were stinted in might and had a limit put to His strength, we might despair! If the answer to the question, “Is the Lord’s arm waxed short?” were the doleful reply, “Yes, He is no longer mighty to save,” then we might give up the work! But stupendous strength is with the Most High! The treasury from which we draw is inexhaustible! We may come to God with the cheering confidence that we cannot possibly ask what it is not in His power to perform!
We have the mighty God of Jacob to be our arm every morning and our salvation every night. I desire to speak of our God as the Almighty Lord so that you and I may be strengthened in the work in which we are engaged for His name’s sake. In speaking upon the Divine power I shall have a few words, this morning, upon the power itself. Then a few words upon its manifestations. And then I will close up with the lessons to be derived from the power and its developments.
First, then, some few words about the POWER OF GOD itself, having as my drift the stirring up of Believers’ minds to ask and to expect a great display of it. In the first place, God’s power is like Himself—self-existent and self-sustained. Power in the creature is like water in the cistern. Power in the Creator is like water in the fountain. The creature is the moon which shines with reflected light—the Creator is the Sun whose light is not derived, springing from within Himself.
Naturally and spiritually this statement holds good. All the power that you and I have to serve God with must first come from Him! But He derives no power whatever from us. All our fresh springs are in God, but the rivers of our grace do not minister to His fullness. “My goodness extends not to you.” The mightiest of men add not so much as a shadow of increased power to the Omnipotent One. His scepter is established by its own Omnipotence. He sits on no buttressed throne, and leans on no assisting arm. His courts are not maintained by His courtiers, nor do they borrow their splendor of power from His creatures.
He is Himself the great central Source and Originator of all power. We must come, then, to His footstool, feeling that all must come from Him. We must bring nothing but our weakness, nothing but our sense of need, and come to Him crying, “O God, You are in Yourself all-sufficient. You do not need us, nor can we contribute anything to You. Now let Your ability flow into us and gird each of us poor weaklings with Your might!”
In the next place, God’s power is comprehensive, including within itself all the power which resides in all the creatures in the universe. “God has spoken once. Twice have I heard this, that power belongs unto God.” When the wheels of a machine revolve there is power in every cog. But all that power originally was in the engine which sets the whole in action, and in a certain sense is still there. In a far higher sense all power dwells in the Lord, “for in Him we live, and move, and have our being.”