Good morning, everyone. Are you sleepy? Be honest. It's okay, we're all sleepy. This morning we're talking about, as we continue our study of our confession of faith, omnipotence, omnipotence. In our confession, chapter two, paragraph one, in the chain of things that we've been studying, we are in that portion that says who is immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, every way infinite. And so we've talked about immutability, immensity, eternity, incomprehensibility we covered earlier last semester, and so we come to Almighty. Almighty is the attribute in the confession that we are talking about, or Omnipotence. In the confession it's capitalized because it's coming from Genesis 17, I am the Lord God Almighty, El Shaddai. But Omnipotence is the subject of this morning's Sunday School. Now, think about the word itself, omnipotence, omnipotency. That's an important way of understanding this, and of course, I'll explain it as we go. God is omnipotent, omnipotent. Now, this might immediately trigger a question in your mind because previously we've said multiple times in talking about divine simplicity that there is no passive potency in God. We said there's no passive potency in God because Potency refers to the ability of a thing to be actualized, to be brought into a being. Potency means that it can be. And actualizing something means making it to be. If something has potentiality, it can be. If it's actualized, it is, it has been made to be. And we've said that God has no passive potency. There's nothing in God's being that can be moved to be, or to be more, or to be other. Therefore he is simple, therefore he is immutable, therefore he is impassable, and so on and so forth. So there's no passive potency in God. Why then would we say that God is omnipotent? Or omnipotency if he has no passive potency? Well, it's because the doctrine of omnipotence or God's almightiness, if that's a word, is that he has all or infinite active potency. Passive potency means you can be or you can be made to be. Active potency is you can make things to be. You can give them being and cause them to be other than they are. So God's omnipotency is not passive potency, a capacity to be, but it is his capacity to cause things to be all active potency or actualizing. God can do all things or God can make all things to be. So let's develop a chain of assertions here. God knows himself. God has a perfect knowledge of himself. That's why he's incomprehensible to us, because only God can know himself in perfection and fullness. We know him truly as creatures, but God alone knows himself. And because God knows himself, therefore God knows all that can be. God knows all things possible. If God knows himself, then God knows all things that he can cause to be. God knows, therefore, all things possible. And therefore, it's really continuing this chain, God can do all things possible. That doesn't say passable, that says possible. Because God knows all that he can do. God knows himself and he knows all the things that he can make and God can do. This is God's omnipotence. God having all active potency, the ability, the power to do or to make or to cause to be all things that are possible. Therefore, it's really a repetition of these things. God knows all that he can do. because he knows himself. But this assertion right here, this is divine omnipotence. God can do all things possible. And this word possible is very important for understanding the doctrine of divine omnipotence, or just omnipotence, because there are certain things that God cannot do. God cannot do things that are not possible. So all contradictions, or impossibilities are excluded from divine omnipotence. Contradictions and impossibilities, God cannot do them. God knows himself, he knows all things that can be, all things possible, and he can do all things that are possible. So God could make the sky green. He could make the sea red. God can do and can change all of those things. But God can't make a four-sided triangle. Why? Because it's not a thing. It can't be. Now God's inability or cannot, the cannotness that we're talking about, God cannot make a four-sided triangle, where does the inability or what's the impediment, what's the obstacle in this? It's not in God's inability to do something. It's in that thing's impossibility to be. So when we say that God cannot make a four-sided triangle, Where we would locate that impossibility is not in God as a lack of potency. It's actually in the thing itself. It can't be. It's the idea of a contradiction. It's the idea of an impossibility. So God cannot do it, not because he's unable, but because it cannot be. It's not a thing. There is no and there cannot be a four-sided triangle. It is a contradiction in and of itself. So God can make the sky green and the sea red and so on and so forth, but he can't make a four-sided triangle because it can't be. So it has nothing to do with God's knowledge or God's power whatsoever. It has everything to do with the impossibility of the thing itself. So when someone says, can God make a stone so big that he can't move it? you would say that's a dumb question, first off, because it presumes that God and the stone are within the same realm of existence, and that the stone, by increasing its quantity, could somehow exceed God. But God exists outside of creation. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, so no, no created thing could be greater than God, simply, especially by measuring in quantity. But God can do all things possible. It's not possible to create a stone larger than, so big that God could not move it or whatever. That's not a possibility. You're talking about a contradiction. The question itself is flawed. And so when we say that God cannot do or cause to be contradictions or impossibilities, the inability is not in God, the inability is in the thing to be. It cannot be, so he cannot cause it to be. Not only this, but God cannot do that which is deficient or imperfect. So the scriptures say that God cannot sin and God cannot lie. and God cannot deny himself, and God cannot change, and God cannot repent, and God cannot change his mind. God can do nothing deficient or imperfect because God does all things with perfect active potency. He has the capacity to cause all things to be that can be, and he does it with perfect infinite power. So a perfection of knowledge and wisdom that God has, and a perfection of power that God has, he can do nothing deficiently or imperfectly. Now here's the really interesting argument. If God could do things deficiently, or if God could do things imperfectly, then he would not be omnipotent. He would not have a perfect potency, a perfect active potency that causes things to be exactly as he wills them to be. To do things deficiently or imperfectly implies a lack of power. I want to jump all the way to the back of the church in one leap. I may will that, but I do not have the physical strength, I do not have the power to make that jump. I would only go so far so my jump would be deficient and imperfect if measured against jumping all the way to the back of the church. I don't have the power to do that. But if God wills to do something, he does it. And if he does something deficiently or imperfectly, there's a lack of power in him. And this is very important because it is, When we say that God cannot lie, or that God cannot deny himself, or God cannot sin, these are all deficiencies and imperfections. God's not capable of doing those things, and if he could, he would not be omnipotent. He would be weak, like we are. So God cannot do these things, deficiencies and imperfections, God cannot do them, not because he is weak, but because he's so strong and so perfect, he can't do weak and imperfect things like we do. In this case, God cannot do them because they cannot be. In this case, God cannot do them because he cannot do things deficiently or imperfectly. That would be, this doesn't even apply to omnipotence in the sense that you can't actualize what cannot be, and this applies to omnipotence in the sense that God would not be perfectly potent or have perfect infinite active potency if he could do those things deficiently or imperfectly. And this connects us, as we web our knowledge together, this connects us to immutability and impassibility. In mutation, I'm going to move up to this part of the board, when it comes to mutation, A thing needs to have passive potency, needs to have the capacity to be other than it is, and then there needs to be an act that actualizes the thing, that moves it from passive potency into a new state of being. So in the case of mutation or change, the thing has passive potency and something actualizes it. And so we can think about action and passion, an actor, an agent, one who is doing, and passion, the one who is receiving the action of another, or a patient, agent and patient, action and passion, these things are required for mutation as well as for passibility. If God has no passive potency, then he cannot be changed. If God has all active potency, then he causes all other things to change. But what would be, if God could be changed, if God were passable and mutable, then it would mean that at some point, someone or something is acting upon God and actualizing Him, and some power is greater than God that is changing God and causing God to be. If there is passion in God or passive potency in God, if there is an actor, an agent acting upon God and actualizing God, Do these things fit with the understanding of God Almighty who is omnipotent, that he would be the subject and the recipient of another person's potency and action as they act upon him? We'd say no, if God can be overpowered, because that's what would be happening, God would be overpowered if other things or persons or beings can change him and act upon him then he wouldn't have omnipotency, he wouldn't have omnipotence, he would have passive potency and he would have not all active potency as something else is stronger than him, as something else is affecting and changing him. Let me read a quote to you from Girolamo Zanchius. He says, God is omnipotent, and because he is omnipotent, he cannot die, he cannot be deceived, he cannot lie, nay, as the apostle says, he cannot deny himself. How many things can he not do, and yet is omnipotent? Yea, therefore is he omnipotent because he cannot do these things. For if he could, he were not omnipotent. For if he be omnipotent, he must be free from passion. And if he have passions, he is not omnipotent. For they belong only to creatures, which because of them cannot be omnipotent. If then we read in scripture that God was sorry, penitent, rejoiced, et cetera, we must not think such speeches proper to God, but borrowed from men who have such affection that by them we might be instructed of the nature of God. He's pointing out that to have passions, to have movable, mutable, changeable states of being is a creaturely thing. And although God describes himself in that language, we should not deduce therefrom that he himself is passable or mutable or like us. Rather, he is omnipotent with infinite active potency having no passive potency whatsoever. Let me take a drink. As I said before, if I tried to jump to the back of the church in one leap, it would be because of my inability, my impotence to do so, that I would not achieve my objective. For God, if he has passions, movable, changeable states of being, then what he purposes to do can be frustrated and thwarted. As he exerts his power to accomplish his purposes, there are things and actors and agents in this world that can get in his way, that can change his mind, or can frustrate his purposes, and so on and so forth. But rather, we find that and rejoice in the fact that God is omnipotent and he is able to do all that he wills to do. And nothing can stop his hand or say to him, what are you doing, as the scriptures say. Now, the last thing to discuss and to make a distinction between is, here, I'll flip the board real quick. I don't remember how to do this. Push it down. There we go. We need to make a distinction between God's absolute power and God's ordained power. We always need to remember that in technical writings, especially theological writings, but not only theological writings, absolute means without relation. Without relation. So God's absolute power is going back to on the other side of the board what we talked about when we said that God knows all things possible and God can do all things possible. So without relation to anything else, just considering God's omnipotence, he can do all things possible. That would be God's absolute power, the ability to do all things possible without relation to anything at all whatsoever. God's ordained power is his power to do all that he has willed to do. There's a progression from God's knowledge. He knows himself and he knows all that he can do. He knows all that is possible. To God's wisdom, he knows what is best to do. To God's will, he knows what he will do. To God's power, he will do what he has willed to do in his wisdom and knowledge. And that's where we get to God's ordained power, at knowing all things possible, knowing what is best according to his wisdom, having the power to do all of that. He wills to do not all things possible. God's not omnivalent, willing all things. God is omnipotent, but not omnivalent. He doesn't will all things to be. Rather, God wills this world to be. And he wills to do certain things and not other things. Because if the infinite God, the omnipotent God, willed to do all that he can do, then the infinite power of God would cause all possible worlds to be created. But he has not done that. And so God's absolute power would create all possible worlds, but God has not done that. He has created the world that he has willed to create, and he is guiding that world that he has willed to create according to his decree, according to his will. So when we talk about God's ordained power to do all that he wills to do, this then means that God cannot That's a horrible double N. Just forget I wrote that. I'm not gonna erase it. God cannot do what he has promised not to do. And I'm gonna put this inelegantly but on purpose. God cannot do Or no, here's, God cannot not do what he has promised to do. Putting it that way just to make the point. God cannot. God's absolute power is that he can, he can do all things possible. God's ordained power is that there's certain things he cannot do, not because they're impossible, but because he has not willed to do them, Rather, he has ordained, he has chosen that he will not do certain things. And so, if he has willed not to do certain things, he cannot do them. And if he has promised to do certain things, he cannot not do them. So, for example, if God says, I will not destroy the earth with a flood, God cannot destroy the earth with a flood. Why, is it because God lacks the ability to actualize a flood once more in this world? No, it's because God cannot deny himself. He cannot lie. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. It's because God is omnipotent and immutable that when God ordains to do something, he cannot not do it, he cannot not do it. not because of an inability, but because of his faithfulness and his steadfastness, and no one can thwart or change or deter or distract or deny him. So God's ordained power means there's certain things that he cannot do, not because of a lack of ability or a lack of active potency, but because he is ordained not to do them, and he is faithful and perfect. So if he has promised to remember our sins no more, He can't remember them. Now what he means by remember is they are everlastingly, forever and ever, forgiven in the blood of Jesus Christ. It's not that God has a memory like ours and it's deleted from his memory. He knows that his son has offered himself and has risen from the dead and so on, but that promise, I will remember your sins no more, means he's not going to bring them back to us. He's not going to accuse us of them again. He cannot. He's promised not to. And God has made many promises to us to bring us to glory, to bring us to where his son is. His son has made promises to us, his son who is God. And so all of these promises of God to us are guaranteed by his ordained power that he can do and will do all that he wills to do unstoppably. And this is not a limitation of God's absolute power, I should write this down. Not a limitation of power, but of purpose. It's not that God, I guess I have to contradict myself a little bit, it's not that God cannot do these things so much as that God will not do these things. From our perspective, we can say God cannot do this, but can has connotations of ability, will, will not has connotations of volition, which is the more proper category, because this is not a limit, the absolute power to ordained power is not God limiting his power or restraining his power in some way. God can't be changed, he's infinite. It's not a limitation of God's power, of what he can or cannot do, but of his purpose, So he will not do what he has promised not to do, and he will not not do what he has promised to do. You understand the points, but bear with my expressions. If God were not omnipotent, then he would make promises, and we would not necessarily be able to trust them. Because if I say, I'll have lunch with you tomorrow, I might get hit by a car on the way to church tonight going to Long Beach, and I won't be there for lunch tomorrow, not because I'm weak, and there are things that can stop me. I might get sick. I might forget. Ooh, that would be embarrassing, but I might forget. All kinds of things could happen to me that would get in the way of my best intentions. For God, when he makes a promise, He can do all things, and he will do all that he promises, and he cannot deny himself, he cannot lie, he cannot change his mind, and so therefore we say from our perspective he cannot do what he has promised not to do, and he cannot not do what he has promised to do, which is not a limitation of his power, but of his purpose. And so note here, let me just reinforce the language, absolute power means without relation to anything. But ordained power is with relation to his decree, with relation to his will, his wisdom and his will. So ordained power is God's power in relation to what he has willed to do. Absolute power is considering God in himself without relation to anything. He has the potency, the active potency to do and cause to be all things that are possible. So this is a helpful way of, it's the right way, it's also a helpful way of understanding God's omnipotence so that we don't think of God's power on our level just bigger. God can do everything just at a higher quantity than me. He's just stronger than me. He's super strong. It's not that. It is that, but it's so much bigger than that. He's not a superhero who just has powers like we don't. God has active potency. What can we, we have active potency, but only within the realm of our limitations. So I am able to move myself around. I am able to talk to you and even change you. I'm currently actualizing your knowledge, depending on how awake you are to receive it. But I'm actualizing you by speaking to you. If I shake your hand, we're actualizing each other. So we have active potency. But there are so many things we cannot actualize and cannot do because our power only goes as far as our being and the way that God has made us. So if I say, let there be eggs and bacon, unfortunately, There aren't. I had to cook them this morning. I couldn't summon them with my will. I cannot do all that. In a sense, I can do all that I will to do, but I can only will what I'm able to do. So God's absolute power and ordained power are infinitely beyond our conceptions of power, and we struggle to comprehend it, but it's Genesis 1-1, in the beginning, God created, let there be, and there was. And he does nothing deficient or imperfect, and it was very good, the scriptures say. All right, well, that concludes our lesson for this morning on omnipotence.