The Mighty Arm

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 17, 1876,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"You have a mighty arm: strong is Your hand, and high is Your right
hand." Psalm 89:13.

WHEN the soul is perfectly reconciled to God and comes to delight in
Him, it rejoices in all His attributes. At the first, perhaps, it
dwells almost exclusively upon His love and His mercy, but it
afterwards proceeds to find joy in the sterner attributes and
especially delights itself in His holiness and in His power. It is a
mark of the growth of Christian knowledge when we begin to distinguish
the attributes and to rejoice in God in each one of them. It betokens
meditation and thought when we are able to discern the things of God
and to give to the Lord a Psalm of praise for each one of His glories.
And it also indicates a growingly intimate communion with the great
Father when we begin to perceive His adorable Character and to rejoice
so much in all that He is, that we can take the attributes in detail
and bless, praise and magnify Him on account of each one of them.

Under the Jewish Law there were forms of the sacrifices which were of
the simplest kind, such as the offering of turtle doves or young
pigeons, which were simply torn asunder and burned upon the altar. But
there were other and more elaborate rules for the sacrifices which were
taken from the flock and the herd. These were rightly divided and the
parts laid in their places–the head, the fat, the inwards, the legs
and so on–as if to show that although some Believers only know the
atoning sacrifice as a whole and after a superficial manner, there are
others still further instructed who look deeper into Divine mystery and
see the various forms which the great Truths of God assume.

It is a saving thing to know the Lord God with all your heart, but I
would, Beloved, that you knew all the varied rays of His pure light.
That you beheld the many glories of His crown and could rejoice in each
distinct excellence of His infinite perfection. The subject of this
morning is the power of God as the subject of adoration. Here, dear
Brothers and Sisters, we have large scope for thought, for the power of
God is manifested in connection with all His other attributes. It is
the cause of all His works and the basis and working force by which His
kingdom is maintained and Himself revealed.

How clearly is His power beheld in creation. There, indeed, O Lord,
"You have a mighty arm." We injure ourselves and dishonor our Creator
when we pass over His works as if they were beneath the notice of
spiritual minds. It is perverse on our part to forget the exhortation,
"What God has created, call not you common." The Psalmist sang
concerning the creating might of God in verses 11 and 12 of the Psalm
before us–"The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours: as for the
world and the fullness thereof, You have founded them. The north and
the south, You have created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in
Your name."

David did not divide between Revelation and Nature. He loved the Word
of God and meditated therein day and night, but at the same time he
triumphed in the works of God's hands. In the 104th Psalm he found
music in rocks and rills, in fowls and fir trees, and rejoiced that the
Glory of the Lord shall endure forever, the Lord shall rejoice in His
works. In the 8th Psalm he considered the heavens and burst forth with
the exclamation, "O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all
the earth! "With the same feeling I led you to sing this morning that
child's hymn in which the power of God is reverenced–

"I sing the almighty power of God, Which made the mountains rise, Which
spreads the flowing seas abroad, And built the lofty skies."

The Lord made Job and his friends remember his power as seen in
creation. Indeed, it was by revealing that one attribute that Job's
friends were silenced and the Patriarch, himself, was led to cry,
"Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer

You?" We ought not to overlook that which had so salutary an influence
upon others. It is a pity when people become so spiritual that they
have no eyes whatever for the Lord's power in rivers and mountains, in
seas and storms–for God has made them all and as in a glass He is
darkly to be seen in them. "The works of the Lord are great, sought out
of all them that have pleasure therein."

I can understand the feeling of some who say, "I prefer spiritual
preaching and I delight most to read the spiritual parts of the Word of
God rather than the historical records, and to think of His Grace
rather than of His wisdom in Nature." But there is a fault about such a
preference, excellent as it is in one way. It is as though you had a
friend who was a great artist, and a master in statuary, able to make
the marble almost live and speak with his magic chisel. You are
accustomed to call upon this eminent sculptor and it gives you great
pleasure to talk with him and to associate with his children. But you
have never gone into his studio, for his masterpieces do not interest
you.

Now, this is poor fellowship. If ever you get to be in perfect sympathy
with your friend, you will be interested in that which interests him,
and charmed with the various proofs of your friend's powers in design
and execution. You will study his works for his sake and love him all
the more because of those wonders of beauty and joy which his hands
produce. If the Lord thinks fit to display the hand of His power in the
visible universe, it would ill become any of His children to close his
eyes to it. "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." "All
the works praise You, O God; but Your saints shall bless You."

So, too, the power of God is to be seen in Providence–in the
overruling hand which controls common events. Our sweet singer writes
in verse 9, "You rule the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof
arise You still them." God's power is seen in the great phenomena of
Nature and even in the lesser matters of everyday life. His hand guides
the fall of every sere leaf and adorns each blade of grass with its own
drop of dew! But chiefly His way is in the whirlwind and the clouds are
the dust of His feet. The mighty hand of the Lord is to be seen in the
events of human history. His power is manifest in courts and armies, in
the rise and fall of empires, in the growth of nations, or in their
overthrow. Behold how He broke Egypt in pieces as one that was slain
and scattered His enemies with His strong arm.

His people did not refuse to sing of His great power when He smote
great kings and slew famous kings because His mercy to His people
endures forever. It ought to be a subject of great joy to all righteous
souls that the world is not left to itself, or to tyrants. The might is
with the right, after all, for power belongs unto God. There is a
Governor and Ruler who is Lord of all and all power is in His hands.
Have you not often wished more power to the arm of the man who attacks
insolence and cruelty? Be glad, then, that all power is in the hand of
the Judge of all the earth, who must and will do right.

He will not leave bloodshed unavenged, nor suffer wanton cruelty and
horrible brutality to go unpunished. And if the great ones of the earth
pass by with indifference, or wink their eye at wicked policy, there is
an eye that sees and a hand that will mete out stern and sure
vengeance! In patience possess your souls, O you people of God, for,
"God reigns over the heathen, He sits upon the Throne of His holiness."
The needy shall not always be forgotten, nor the oppressed forever
trodden down, for verily the Lord reigns and His power shall defend the
cause of right. It is another subject for which we have reason, also,
to adore God, that His power is seen in the ultimate judgement of the
wicked–a terrible subject upon which I will not enlarge–but one which
should prostrate us in the dust before His awful majesty.

There are two flaming jewels of Jehovah's crown which will be terribly
seen in Hell–His wrath and His power. "What if God, willing to show
His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much long-suffering
the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction?" Righteous indignation and
Omnipotence will be glorified together in that last tremendous act of
judgment in which He will separate the righteous from the wicked and
apportion to the unbelievers their due. "Who knows the power of Your
anger?" What must be the strength of an angry God! Who shall stand
against Him when once He stirs up His indignation, when He shall break
the nations with a rod of iron, and shiver them like potters' vessels?

"Beware," He said, "you that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and
there be none to deliver." Who shall stand against this great and
terrible God in the day of His wrath? Who shall endure in that day when
Mercy's day is over and Justice, alone, sits on her burning throne?
Neither of these, however, is the subject of this morning, though we
should not have completed the topic without alluding to them. The
subject is the power displayed in connection with the mercy

of God, for so Ethan begins this noble Covenant Psalm: "I will sing of
the mercies of the Lord forever: with my mouth will I make known Your
faithfulness to all generations."

Power in alliance with Grace is our one theme. First, we shall consider
the mighty power of God in His Grace, as revealed in our experience.
Secondly, Divine power, as displayed in Christ Jesus. And, thirdly, we
shall endeavor to reflect upon the same power and consider how it
should be practically recognized. We must be brief on each point, for
our time is short.

I. First, the mighty arm of God displayed in the way of Grace, as
MANIFESTED IN OUR EXPERIENCE. And, Beloved, remember the Divine
long-suffering. What a mighty arm of Grace it must have been which held
back the anger of God while we were in a state of rebellion and
impenitence! For God to rule the angry sea seems nothing, to me,
compared with the power which He exercises upon Himself when He endures
the provocations of ungodly men, the hardness of their hearts, their
rejection of Christ and, oftentimes, their blasphemous speeches and
their unclean deeds. O Sinner, when you are sinning with a high hand
and with an outstretched arm, is it not a wonder of wonders that God
does not cut you down and end your insolence?

He said, "Ah, I will ease Me of My adversaries." Is it not a marvel
that He has not eased Himself ofyou and taken you away with a stroke?
You know how it is with some men–a word and a blow–but it has not
been so with God. There have been many words of love and many deeds of
kindness. He has waited long and is waiting now, stretching out His
hands all day to a disobedient and gainsaying people. What power is
this which restrains its own power, the power of God over His own
Omnipotence, so that He does not let His anger flame forth at once and
devour the ungodly, nor suffer the sword of execution to smite down the
rebel in the midst of his provocations? Glory be unto Your loving
kindness and Your long-suffering, O God, for in them we see Your mighty
self-restraining power!

But, next, we saw the power of God so as to recognize it when the Lord
subdued us by His mighty Grace. What Omnipotence is displayed in the
conquest of every rebellious sinner! By nature the sinner stands out
very stoutly against God and will not obey His voice. Often he is
bulwarked round with prejudices and you and I, who seek to convert him,
are quite unable to reach him. Prejudice is an earthwork into which you
may fire with the heaviest cannon, but without use, for the balls are
buried in the earth and no result follows. When men will not see, no
light can help them, for they willfully close their eyes. When they
will not hear, the charms of the Gospel are useless, for they have
resolutely closed their ears.

It is a wonder of wonders, when, at last, God conquers prejudice and
the man finds himself where he would have sworn he never would
be–melted down and penitent at Jesus' feet! If a Prophet had told him
it would ever be so, he would have said, "You are mad! This cannot be!
I abhor the very name of it." You have a mighty arm, O God, when
prejudiced Saul of Tarsus falls down at Your feet and rises to become
your Apostle! Men are surrounded often with a granite wall of
obstinacy–they will not yield to the power of Divine Love. Preach as
you may, they are not to be moved, but remain like an impregnable
fortress, frowning from its own inaccessible rock, defying all
assaults.

You can find no way to get at them. You would be willing, almost, to
die, if you could capture their hearts for Christ, but they are neither
to be taken by threats nor by wooing. They are like leviathan whose
scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal. "Can you
fill his skin with barbed irons, or his head with fish spears?" They
appear to have no joints to their harness through which the arrow of
conviction may penetrate. But You have a mighty arm, O God, and Your
enemies are made to feel Your arrows! Those who were exceedingly stout
against You have, nevertheless, come crouching at Your feet and have
become Your servants! Glory be to God, the northern iron and the steel
become wax at His bidding!

We have seen some, also, who have been rooted in their habits of sin,
altogether severed from their old sins. Wonder of wonders, the
Ethiopian has changed his skin and the leopard has lost his spots, for
he who was accustomed to do evil has learned to do well! Behold a
miracle of mighty Grace! The sinner has grown old in sin–like an old
oak he has become rooted to the earth by a thousand roots. To
transplant him seemed impossible–it were far easier to cut him down.
Yet the giant hand of Grace has taken hold of that ancient tree and
shaken it to and fro by conviction of sin and, at last, it has, by
conversion, been drawn from its place right up by the roots, so that
the place which once knew it knew it no more! The rock and soil in
which it had been imbedded for, perhaps, half a century, were made to
give way before the upheaving, uprooting force and the man, divided
from his former life, has been a proof of what the Lord can do!

The Lord knows how to cleave the mountain and divide the sea and,
therefore, He can separate men from their darling lusts and teach them
to cut off right arms and pluck out right eyes rather than perish in
sin. Truly, Lord, You have a mighty arm! Satan teaches men to defend
themselves against Grace by bulwarks of pride. They say, "Who is the
Lord that we should obey His voice?" They lift up their horn on high
and speak with a stiff neck! They are self-righteous. They are sure
that they have done no ill–the Gospel is powerless upon them because
they are so lofty in their looks and insolent in their thoughts. But
You have a mighty arm, O Lord! You lay proud sinners very low. You make
them hungry and thirsty and then they cry unto You in their trouble.

You have a mighty arm among the proud and You bring down their heart
with labor! They fall down and there is none to help. "He has put down
the mighty from their seats." Nebuchadnezzar, from saying, "Behold this
great Babylon that I have built," learned to confess that those who
walk in pride, the Lord is able to abase. Equally mighty is the Lord to
overcome despair, for this is another one of the fortresses in which
sinners entrench themselves against Divine Grace. "There is no hope,"
they say, "therefore we will give up ourselves to our iniquities." And
it is almost idle to attempt to convert those who are willfully
despairing. They resent the consolations of the Bible and reject the
promises of God.

And yet the Lord can break the bars of iron and cut the gates of brass
in pieces! He can bring up the captives from the dungeons of despair
and set them on a rock! He can put a new song into their mouths and
make them praise His name forevermore. From the iron cage, the Holy
Spirit, the Comforter, can set the captives free! All glory be unto His
name! When God resolves to save the sinner, He will have His will
without violating the will of man! In a sweet, soft, gentle manner, in
which the power lies in the gentleness and the force lies in the
tenderness, the Lord can conquer the most obstinate! He makes the lion
to lie down with the lamb, so that a little child shall lead it. Thus
the power of God is seen in the conquest of sinners.

That power is equally seen in their transformation, for is it not a
marvel that God should be able to make old and corrupt rebels into new
creatures in Christ Jesus? Every conversion is a display of
Omnipotence. To create the world was but half a wonder compared with
the creation of a right spirit, for there was nothing to hinder when
God spoke and the world began. But when God speaks to ungodly men there
is a resisting force which impedes the work and even defies the great
Worker. There is a darkness and a death. There is a force of evil and
an inability towards good which must be overcome, yet the Lord makes
all things new, and causes the new creation to arise in the hearts of
His people! Verily He has a mighty arm! Glory be to the Lord who only
does great wonders with a high hand and an outstretched arm!

Conversion is also called a resurrection. It will be a great feat of
power when dead carcasses shall live at the sound of the last trumpet,
but it is an equal wonder when the dry bones of dead sinners come to
life–when those who were scattered at the grave's mouth, the hopeless,
graceless, Christless–are, nevertheless, made to live at the sound of
God's Word by the power of His Spirit. Oh, you that have been new
created and quickened into newness of life, adore His power today! Who
but a God could have made you what you are? Consider what you were and
reflect upon the glorious position to which the Lord has brought you by
the blood of the Cross!

Think what rebels you were and how set on mischief your nature was–and
now, subdued by Sovereign Grace, your spirit longs for His embrace–you
follow after holiness and seek to have it perfected in the fear of God.
What a revolution is this! What a turning of things upside down! To
turn the wilderness into springs of water and the desert into a flowing
stream is nothing compared with turning the dead, cold, dry heart of
man into a mighty wellspring of love springing up unto eternal life!
Glory be to Your power, oh You infinitely mighty Jehovah, You have a
mighty arm!

That same power is seen, dear Friends, in the various deliverances
which the Lord gives to His people at the outset, when their enemies
come against them so fiercely. Behold, my Brothers and Sisters, how
strong was the hand of God which delivered us from the bondage of our
first doubts and fears when conscience accused and the Law condemned!
When we thought ourselves only waiting for the death guarantee and the
execution. Behold the Lord has routed our despair, He has set us free
from fear and brought us into the liberty with which Christ makes men
free! We were slaves to sin, too, and oh how sin marshaled all its
armies against us at the first, hoping it might cut off our earliest
hopes.

But mighty was that Christ of God who put all our sins to the rout and
drowned them in the Red Sea of His blood! "There broke He the arrows of
the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle." Then Satan came
forth with the most horrible temptations and roared upon us like a
lion, for he will not willingly lose his subjects. He sought to cast
about us all his nets, that he might hold us captive and prevent our
flying to the Divine refuge. But, behold, the prey has been

taken from the mighty and the lawful captive has been delivered! And we
are, this day, rescued from the power of sin and Satan. Even the Law,
itself, has no power over us to condemn us, for Christ has satisfied it
and we are free.

Mighty is Your arm, O God! Your own right hand and Your holy arm have
gotten You the victory! And since then, Beloved, in the continual
upholding of the saints, in their final perseverance which is
guaranteed, how much of the power of God is seen! You have passed
through many troubles, some of you, troubles most heavy and sore, but
they have not prevailed against you nor overthrown you. "Many are the
afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord deliverers him out of them
all." Fierce were the foes that gathered against us, many a time, and
had not the Lord been on our side they had swallowed us up! But You, O
Lord, have a mighty arm, and in Your name have we found a refuge.

They compassed us about like bees, yes, they compassed us about, but in
the name of the Lord have we destroyed them. Out of what sins and
temptations have we come forth victorious! With some of you, your path
has been through the wilderness and through one continuous scene of
warfare. Snares and traps have been thickly strewn all along your
path–trials and discouragements have fallen like a storm of hail
perpetually beating–and yet you are not overthrown! He keeps the feet
of His saints. The life of any Christian is a world of wonders, but in
some Believers their experience consists of a series of great miracles.
"O my Soul, you have trodden down strength." How has our soul escaped
as a bird from the fowler's snare! The mighty adversaries have been
overcome by Him who is mightier than all!

The Divine strength has been manifested in our weakness. My Brothers
and Sisters, is it not a wonder that being such a poor worm as you are,
yet you have never been crushed? Is it not a marvel that though your
faith has been as a bruised reed it has not been broken–and though
your piety has been like smoking flax it has never been quenched? Kept
alive with death so near, preserved when enemies have been so fierce,
will you not say, indeed, "You have a mighty arm, strong is Your right
hand"? Brethren, the end comes, but it will all be right at last, for
unless the Lord shall come, we have yet to meet the last grim
adversary, but we are not afraid! Our Brethren who have gone before us
have set us an example of how to die triumphantly!

How gloriously have they triumphed in their last hours! We have stood
by their side, seen the brightness of their eyes when all around was
death, and heard their exulting songs when all that looked upon them
wept at the thought of their departure. Their cheek blanched? Far from
it! They have been as jubilant in their dying hour as the warrior when
he divides the spoil. As the bride rejoices on her wedding day, they
have looked forward to the coming of their great Lord and to their
being blessed forever in His embrace! We have been ready to cry out
with them, "O death, where is your sting! O grave, where is your
victory! "Truly, Lord, when Your poor, weak, suffering people die
triumphantly, we see that You have a mighty arm!

When flesh and heart are failing, when friends cannot help, when every
earthly comfort vanishes–for the heart to still rejoice and
triumph–this is to see the arm of the Lord made bare and this causes
us to bless and magnify His holy name! I would to God that I had more
ability to set forth this majestic subject, but I have done my best. I
ask your meditations in the quiet of this afternoon to assist me, that
you may really adore and bless the power which is so conspicuous in
every vessel of mercy, so revealed in yourself if you are, indeed, a
child of God! O Holy Spirit, make known to us who believe, the
exceeding greatness of Your mighty power!

II. Secondly, let us behold the mighty arm of God as specially
DISPLAYED IN THE PERSON OF CHRST JESUS. And here will you kindly follow
me in the Psalm, itself? There you will see that the power of God
displayed in Jesus Christ, in the choice of Him and the exaltation of
Him, to be a Prince and a Savior. See verse 19–"I have laid help upon
One that is mighty; I have exalted One chosen out of the people."
Christ is the Incarnation of the power of Divine Grace. In Him dwells
the power of God to save the sons of men and yet in what weakness it
dwelt! He was a man despised and rejected, lowly and meek, poor and
without worldly honor. His was the weakness of shame and suffering,
poverty and dishonor.

But the power of God was upon Him and is upon Him now. It is a grand
thing to know that God, by the weakness of man, taking it into
connection with His own Nature, has routed sin, Satan, death and Hell!
The battle in the wilderness was between Satan and a Man, tempted as we
are, but oh, how gloriously that matchless Man overthrew the tempter
and prevailed! The agony in the Garden of Gethsemane was that of a
Man–it was a Man, though God, who sweat great drops of blood and
uttered strong cries and tears, and won the victory by which evil is
dethroned–and He that met the powers of evil on the Cross and stood
alone and trod the wine-press till there remained not an uncrushed
cluster, was a

Man. It is by His power, even the power of the Man of Nazareth, that
all the powers of evil have been forever blasted and withered so that,
though they rebel, it is but a struggling gasp for life.

As surely as God sits on His Throne, the foot of the Seed of the woman
shall be upon the serpent's head, to crush it forever. Mighty as were
the hosts of evil, God has exalted One chosen out of the people and
laid help upon Him, that He may eternally vanquish all the hosts of
darkness. Strong is Your right hand, O Savior, for by weakness and
suffering and death You have overthrown all Your people's foes! His
power was seen, next, in our Lord's anointing. "I have found David My
servant, with My holy oil have I anointed him." You know how in His
preaching there went out of His mouth a sharp two-edged sword with
which He smote sin because the Spirit of God was upon Him. On the day
of Pentecost the Spirit bore witness in the entire body of Christ,
making all His servants speak with tongues of fire the Word of the
Gospel.

The Spirit of God is still with Christ on earth in His Church, so that,
feeble though the speech of His ministers may be, a secret power
attends it, irresistibly subduing the forces of evil. Rejoice this day,
Beloved, for the anointing still rests in the Church of God and the
anointed Redeemer must be victorious in every place. Thanks be unto God
which causes His Word to triumph in every place by the power of the
eternal Spirit! We ought, therefore, to adore Jesus Christ as having
the power of God, because the Holly Spirit is always with Him and with
His Word and He is, therefore, mighty to save!

We must equally magnify the power of God because of the continuance of
the empire of Christ in the world. As said the Psalmist–"with whom My
hand shall be established, My arm, also, shall strengthen Him. The
enemy shall not exact upon Him; nor the son of wickedness afflict Him
and I will beat down His foes before His face and plague them that hate
Him." These 1,800 years every effort has been put forth to root up the
Church of Christ. The devil and all his servants on earth have
conspired to overthrow the growing kingdom of our Lord–but they have
never succeeded.

Think, my Brothers and Sisters, what the power of God must be which has
kept the Church alive under fiery persecutions, rescued it from the
fangs of the Inquisition, preserved it from the poison of heresy and
the pestilence of infidelity! And, what is more amazing, enabled it to
survive the horrible dragon of Popery which has altogether threatened
to carry away the Church with the blasphemies which it pours out of its
mouth! Yet the chosen seed live on and are multiplied in the land, even
as it is promised in the 36th verse of the Psalm before us: "His seed
shall endure forever, and His Throne as the sun before Me." The
establishment and continuation of the Church is an extraordinary proof
of Divine power!

So are all the conquests of Christ, some of which we have seen and more
of which are to come. "I will beat down His foes before His face, and
plague them that hate Him," is the Divine promise. "I will make Him My
First-Born, higher than the kings of the earth. I will set His hand,
also, in the sea and His right hand in the rivers." Glory be to God,
Christ is still triumphant! Still in the preaching of His Truth He
rides forth conquering and to conquer! The Gospel has not lost its old
force, but whenever it is preached in faith it wins the day.

See what power it has in drawing together the multitudes and holding
them in breathless attention. A man has nothing to do but to preach
Christ simply, and with all his might, and the people will hear it! We
need no endowment of the State! We seek no acts of Parliament to help
us. Give us a clear stage and no favor! An open Bible and an earnest
tongue–and the people shall yet be awakened and the multitude shall
bow before the people's King. Jesus Christ is still the mightiest name
which can be pronounced by mortal tongue! Its all-subduing power shall
yet be felt in the remotest regions of the earth!

Beloved, I have not time to do more than say that the great power of
God's Grace is embodied in Christ's mighty intercession. See verse
26–"He shall cry unto Me, You are My father, My God, and the rock of
My salvation." This makes Him mighty to save–"He is able to save them
to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to
make intercession for them." I should like to have an hour to expound
upon the gracious power of God as seen in the intercession of Christ!
Omnipotence dwells in every plea that falls from those dear lips, as
the eternal Son pleads His own merits with the everlasting Father!

Beloved, the power of Christ is well-known to many of you. Did it not
call you from the dead? Has not it kept you from going down into the
Pit? Is there not such power in His name that it makes your heart to
leap? If we speak of anything else, you listen to it and glide into
sleep. But if you hear about Him, does it not stir the very deeps of
your soul? Have you not often, when you felt faint and weary, sprung to
your feet with exultation at the very thought of Him? Has

not His Presence made your sick bed soft and, what you thought your
dying couch to be, a throne whereon you sat and reigned as in the
heavenly places?–

"Jesus, the very thought of You With transport fills my breast." You
know it is so! The power of Jesus' name, who can measure it?

And what will be your sense of His power when you reach another
world–when He shall have brought you into His rest, even you who were
so unworthy? When He shall reveal in you all the majesty of His
goodness? When Heaven shall be yours and all its boundless plains and
golden streets–and when, looking around, you shall find all your
Christian Brethren there, without exception, as many as loved the Lord
below, all safely gathered into the fold at last? What a shout shall
sound throughout Heaven when the armies of the living God shall
assemble and find not a soldier missing! They shall read the
muster-roll and Little Faith shall be found there, and Ready-to-Halt
shall be there without his crutches, and Miss Much-Afraid shall be
there, and Mistress Despondency shall be there–each able to answer to
his or her own name and say, "Here I am."

Satan has not devoured a single lamb of all the flock, nor slain a
single man of all the host! All along the line Jesus has been
victorious! When you shall see the whole host assembled and remember
the struggles through which each one of them came, the tribulation
through which they waded to their crowns, you will exclaim with
rapture, "You have a mighty arm, strong is Your hand, and high is Your
right hand!" All glory be to Jehovah Jesus, our almighty Savior!

III. Now this brings me to my conclusion and here we have to answer the
question–HOW IS THIS POWER TO BE PRACTICALLY RECOGNIZED? If you will
practically carry out what I say, a few words will suffice. First, if
the power of God is so great, yield to it. Man, do you hope to resist
God? Have you an arm like God's and can you thunder with a voice like
His? Throw down those weapons and cease to wage a hopeless war!
Capitulate at once, surrender at discretion. Oh, if there is a man here
who is the enemy of God, I beseech him to count the cost before he
continues the war, and see whether he is able to brave it out with God!
Shall wax fight with fire, or twigs contend with the flame? He would go
through a host of such as you are, O man, as fire burns up the stubble,
and before you have time to think of it, you shall be utterly
destroyed!

"Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you perish from the way when His
wrath is kindled but a little." The next practical use is this–is God
so strong? Then trust Him to save you. Never say that He cannot snatch
you from perdition! Never doubt His power to save, even in extremity. I
have shown you that He has treasured up His gracious power in the
Person of His Son Jesus Christ, therefore look unto Jesus Christ and be
saved! All power lies with Him. He can forgive all sin and He can also
subdue all iniquity, change the most depraved heart and implant every
Grace in the soul. "Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah
is everlasting strength."

Next, if He is so strong, then trust Him in everything. Oh, you that
are His people, never dare to distrust Him! Is His arm shortened?
Cannot the Lord deliver you? Bring your burdens, your troubles, your
needs, your griefs! Pour them out like water before Him. Let them flow
forth at the foot of the Almighty and they shall pass away and you
shall sing, "The Lord is my strength and my song; He also is become my
salvation." Is God so strong, then shake off all fear of man. Who are
you that you should be afraid of a man that shall die? Man is but
grass, withered in an hour–why should you tremble at his frown? He is
crushed before the moth–why, then, fear him? Let not the faces of
proud men confuse you. Trust in God and fear not, for the mighty God of
Jacob is with us and greater is He that is for us than all they that
can be against us.

And now as to your service, to which you are called by the Lord. If He
is so strong, do not think of your own weakness any longer, except as
being a platform for His strength! Have you only one talent? God's Holy
Spirit is not limited in power. He can make your one talent as fruitful
as another man's ten! Are you weak as water? Then rejoice this day and
glory in infirmity, because the power of God shall rest upon you. Think
not of what you can do–that is a very small affair–but consider what
He can do by you! He can strengthen the feeble against the strong!
Behold, this day, He said unto you, "Behold I will make you a new sharp
threshing instrument, having teeth: you shall thresh the mountains and
beat them small, and shall make the hills as chaff. You shall fan them,
and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter
them."

Last of all, with regard to all the future which lies before you–is
God so strong? Then commit it to His hands. You have a great trouble to
face tomorrow–you are expecting a greater trouble, still, at the end
of the week. Now, be not afraid, for the Lord lives to deliver you.
What? Do you fear? Has your Counselor perished? Has your Helper failed
you? How can you sink in the deep waters when underneath you are the
everlasting arms? The mighty God is your refuge, how can you be in
danger? Why do you look into the future at all? Sufficient unto the day
is the evil thereof. God is the God of tomorrow as well as the God of
today!

Cease from your troubling, for it weakens you and cannot help you! It
dishonors your God, your Savior–and thus it is evil! In patience and
quietness wait for the fulfillment of His promise. Rest in Him and be
at peace. Stand still and see the salvation of God! O Lord, glorify
Yourself this morning in both saint and sinner, by manifesting the
greatness of Your power, for You have a mighty arm. Strong is Your
hand, and high is Your right hand!

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Psalm 89. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN
HYMN BOOK"–205, 89 (PART II), 679, 680.
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