Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2978
“As a prince have you power with God.” Genesis 32:28.
MEN think a great deal of anyone who has power with royalty. If it were said, concerning somebody in this place, “That individual has very great power with the Queen,” there are a great many of you who would turn at once to look at that person. He who has great power with an earthly prince is sure to have many flatterers around him who will pay him homage for the sake of the advantage which they hope to gain through his mediation. But, dear Friends, what a far greater honor it is to have power with the King of kings! Power with men may be an evil thing, but what blessing must come from power with God! How it ennobles the soul of the man who possesses it! This man, Jacob, who has power with God, is called Israel, a prince, for so he is—but princes have no such dignity as his unless they, too, have power with God, for he is “a prince of God.”
What a comprehensive blessing it must be to have power with God, for he who has power with God must have power with men! Creatures must submit where the Creator, Himself, has yielded. If you can have your way with the Master, you may depend upon it that you can have your way with His servants. The man who has power with God must be safe. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” No weapon that is formed against such a man can prosper and every tongue that rises against him in judgment, he can condemn, for, having power with God, he shall be able to plant his foot upon the neck of his adversaries and to reign over those who rebel against him. Such a man as that cannot be in need. If he has power with God, he will tell Him about his needs and they shall all be supplied. He will confess his sins and they will be forgiven. God will deal well with the man who has power with Him. There is such a wide range of blessing here that I must not stop to enlarge upon it. If you have power with God, you will see that this is a weapon which, like the flaming sword at the gate of the Garden of Eden, turns every way. Or I may say of it what David said of the sword of Goliath, “There is none like that; give it to me.” Human language can never tell a thousandth part of the value of power with
God!
I. I want you to note, first, WHAT THIS POWER CANNOT BE. “Power with God.”
You scarcely need to be told that it cannot be anything like physical force in opposition to God. It is power with God, not power againstGod, that is mentioned in our text. No creature, however mighty, can have any power to stand in opposition to Omnipotence. Who are we that we should ever stand up to oppose the Most High? Let the twig contend with the fierce flame, or the wax with the burning heat, but let us not contend with God! If we did so, we should be like the moth in the candle—utterly consumed. The strongest and the proudest men must be but as stubble in the day of God’s anger. In fact, to think of man having any power against God is sheer madness, for we have not any power at all apart from God. We only exist because He wills it. The breath in our nostrils is His gift, moment by moment. We should go back to the nothingness from which we sprang if He withdrew, for a single instant, His sustaining hand! Man has no power against God. O you foolish sinners who are resisting Him, give up the unequal battle! I charge you, before God, to count the cost of a contest with your Maker before you begin it! As well might a potsherd strive with him who molds it as for you, a creature, to strive with your Creator! He will break you in pieces, like a potter’s vessels, in the day of His anger. Therefore, be wise and end the fight—and be at peace with Him!
Neither can this “power with God” mean mental power. There are persons who seem to exalt their intellect even above God Himself! It is a fine thing to be gifted with powers of argument and to have a keen reasoning faculty. But, at
the same time, to some people these are very dangerous possessions. I know certain individuals who say that they will never believe what they cannot understand. If they adhere to that determination, they will never believe in their own existence, for they certainly cannot understand that! They seek to overthrow the Word of God and the Doctrines of the Gospel with their subtle wit and profound thought, but it is sheer madness for human folly to contend with Divine Wisdom! It is insanity carried to the very highest point for even the wisest of men to think that their intellects are a match for the Omniscience of God, for, “the foolishness of God is wiser than men.” Even the simplicity of the Gospel— and it is very simple—and “the foolishness of preaching”—which, in some people’s esteem, is utter foolishness, shall win the victory while those who imagine that they are wise shall be proved to be fools! Brothers and Sisters, let us never attempt to argue any case in opposition to God’s will, for we cannot have any power with Him in that way. Let us always surrender our judgment to the teaching of His Word and conform our will to His will. If we ever think that a certain course is best, but it is evident, by the working of God’s Providence, that He does not think so, let us not for a single moment hold a debate with Him, but let us say, as David did, “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth because You did it.” If God does anything, that is enough for us! If God saysanything, that is enough for us! Instead of arguing and reasoning, “It is written,” or “God has said it,” is sufficient to settle any question that concerns a Christian!