Chapter 1, Exodus chapter 1. Arthur Pink said, there is no
attribute more comforting to his children than that of God's
sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances,
in the most severe trials, they believe that sovereignty has
ordained their afflictions that sovereignty overrules them and
that sovereignty will sanctify them all. And that is so. I want you to see today that
God is in full control, working everything to glorify His Son
in the salvation of His people. Our title today is Sovereignty
in Purpose, Sin, and Salvation. sovereignty in purpose, sin,
and salvation. We'll look at these three points,
God's sovereignty in purpose, over sin, and in salvation. Now first of all, God's sovereignty
in purpose. We're going to take some bold
or larger blocks of text and just get a general point from
each one of them. We're not going to go in great
detail. But let's begin reading in verse 1 and let's read down
to verse 7. This is God's sovereignty in
purpose. Verse 1. Now these are the names
of the children of Israel which came into Egypt. Every man and
his household came with Jacob. Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah,
Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. And all the souls that came out
of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls, for Joseph was in Egypt
already. And Joseph died, and all his
brethren in all that generation And the children of Israel were
fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding
mighty, and the land was filled with them." Now those names that
are listed there are the children of Israel. You see that throughout
Scripture. They're the 12 tribes of Israel. Those 12 names are the or those
11 names are the names of the patriarchs. Joseph was already
in Egypt and he had a son named Ephraim and he will be the name
of the 12th tribe. And those 12 are the names of
the children of Israel. Now we know from Romans 9, Scripture
tells us not all who are in Israel are of Israel. That is, not everybody
who was in natural Israel are the elect children of God's spiritual
Israel. It is the sons of promise, God's
elect, that are counted for the seed. But natural Israel is a
picture of God's elect spiritual Israel. They're not all God's
elect spiritual Israel, but they're a picture of God's elect spiritual
Israel. And what we see here by him naming
each of these names is God knows the names of every elect child
of God. He knows them all by name. They're precious to God. They're
God's delight. Now, God works everything Everything
that comes to pass in this world, God works it. He rules it. It comes to pass because it's
God's will that it comes to pass. And God works everything only
for His elect. Everything that happens in this
world is only for God's spiritual elect. That's all. We see it
in how God worked everything only for these 12 tribes of Israel. You remember back there at the
Tower of Babel. They were going to build a tower
to heaven, to reach up to heaven. Man's always working, thinking
he can work his way to God. And God confounded the languages. The reason we have different
nations, the reason we have different tongues, the reason we have,
you know, people divided against one another in the world. God
divided their language and so they separated. God scattered
them in all parts of the earth. But when God did that, God set
the bounds of the people, of each nation. He set the... He divided the land of Canaan. to these people and set the bounds
according to how much they could possess north, south, east and
west for their nation. They thought they went in there
and just conquered it and took it out of their wisdom and their
ingenuity. But God divided it to them, every
one of them, according to what they could have. Now listen to
this. When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance,
When God divided to the nations the place they could live in
the earth, in Canaan, when He separated the sons of Adam, He
set the bounds of the people according to the number of the
children of Israel. What does that mean? Way back,
way back before these twelve patriarchs were even born, before
they were even born, before the tribes were formed. God set the
bounds of the nations when He scattered them at the Tower of
Babel and they went into the land of Canaan. He set the bounds
according to the number of the children of Israel. God measured
out land to those nations according to what would be sufficient for
the twelve tribes of Israel to abide in when it came time for
God to deliver them into that land. All those 12 tribes, 12
heathen tribes to maintain the land and care for the land and
take care of the land just until the 12 tribes of Israel were
brought in and took it all over. I was frustrated this week with
all of the codes and all of the things that I'm having to do,
you know, we're having to do for the church building. And
I told Rob, I said, I'm going to quit being frustrated about
that because I want them to take care of this land. It's ours.
They're just paying taxes on it and taking care of it for
us. That's all those heathens were doing in Canaan. Now the
picture there is, is way back in eternity, before the world
was made, before any of God's elect came forth and were formed,
God determined the end from the beginning. for His elect people. God purposed in eternity that
He would save a people for Himself in the person of His Son and
that He would, He set the bounds according to the number of the
children of Israel. People in this earth can do nothing
but what God permits them, which will serve His elect people.
And our Lord told us that He had appointed a portion in heaven
for each and every elect child. That's what Canaan pictured.
Canaan pictured heavenly Canaan. It pictured God's glory. It pictured
heavenly glory with God. And Christ said God has appointed
and set the bounds a determined number of elect people who shall
be in glory with Christ. That's what He meant when He
said in my Father's house are many mansions. It means many
appointed dwelling places. Many dwelling places reserved
exactly for God's elect people. God has a chosen people and He
gave them to Christ. And Christ said, and I go to
prepare that place for you. And when I go to prepare that
place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that
where I am, there you may be also. That's what Christ was
doing on the cross. So brethren, Don't ever fear
when you see all this craziness that's going on in the world.
You turn on the television and sometimes you watch the news
and you think, this world has gone crazy. When you turned on
the television in 1970, you saw the same thing. When you turn
it on in 1980, you saw the same thing. When you turn it on in
1990, you saw the same thing. It's been this way since we fell
in Adam. It's just as crazy as it's always
been. But thank God, he's ruling. all the craziness. He rules everything
in this world and He does it exactly for His elect. Paul said,
Therefore let no man glory in men. All things are yours. All God's messengers are yours.
He said the world is yours, life is yours, death is yours, things
present are yours, and things to come are yours. And you are
Christ and Christ is God. That's what He meant when He
said, We know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. God works it for His people. That's His purpose. Now, secondly,
God's sovereign over sin. He's sovereign over sin. Look
at Exodus 1 verse 8. Now there arose up a new king
over Egypt, which knew not Joseph, And he said unto his people,
Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier
than we. He probably thought that just
came into his mind one day because he was so brilliant. We're going
to see later where it came from. And he said, verse 10, Come on,
let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come
to pass, that when there falleth out any war, they join also unto
our enemies, and fight against us. And so get them up out of
the land. Therefore they did set over them
taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens, and they built
for Pharaoh treasure cities, Python and Ramses. But the more
they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew, and
they were grieved because of the children of Israel. And the
Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor. And
they made their lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar and
in brick and in all manner of service in the field. All their
service wherein they made them serve was with rigor. Now this
evil Pharaoh, this is not the Pharaoh that lived during Joseph's
time. This is a new pharaoh, like we
get a new president. This is the new pharaoh. And
this pharaoh was an evil-hearted pharaoh. And this picture of
him being this evil tyrant is a picture of the devil. It's
a picture of the devil. Him bringing the children of
Israel into slavery is a picture of us falling in Adam through
Satan's devices and bringing us into sin, into slavery and
bondage of sin, the captivity. We became the captives of Satan
in the garden and captives in sin. But this fall right here
into slavery, this fall that the children of Israel fell into
into slavery was determined before by God. God said they would do
this. It was declared long before this
day when they began to go into slavery. And God brought it to
pass. Go back to Genesis 15 and verse
13. Genesis 15 verse 13. Now, this came to pass as Abraham
had made a sacrifice This is when God made this covenant with
him in the midst of that sacrifice having been made. That's important
to remember. Now listen to what God said in
His covenant. Genesis 15, 13. He said unto Abraham, Know of
a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that
is not theirs. He said, Thy seed, your children,
shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and they
shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years.
Four hundred and thirty if you count from this time until God
brought them out and gave them the law. But they shall afflict
them four hundred years, and also that nation whom they shall
serve will I judge, and afterwards shall they come out with great
substance. and thou shalt go to thy fathers
in peace, thou shalt be buried in a good old age. God said they
are going to come into bondage. God said it. He determined it
and God brought it to pass. Look at Psalm 105. Psalm 105. Look here in verse 5. Remember the Lord's marvelous
works that He hath done, His wonders, and the judgments of
His mouth. O ye seed of Abraham, His servant,
ye children of Jacob, His chosen, He is the Lord our God. His judgments
are in all the earth." That means He rules everything. He hath
remembered His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to
a thousand generations, which covenant He made with Abraham,
and His oath unto Isaac, and confirmed the same unto Jacob
for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying
unto thee, Will I give the land of Canaan the lot of your inheritance? when they were but a few men
in number, yea, very few, and strangers in it. When they went
from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people,
he suffered no man to do them wrong, yea, he reproved kings
for their sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my
prophets no harm. We saw all that as we looked
at Jacob's life and the various places he went, the things he
did. God was ruling everything. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, God wouldn't
let anybody harm them. Verse 16, Moreover he called
for famine upon the land. He break the whole staff of bread.
God did that. And he sent a man before them,
even Joseph, who was sold for a servant. When they sold Joseph
into slavery, the brothers did it. The brothers were guilty
for doing it. But God determined it before
to be done so that He would send Joseph into Egypt to provide
for His brethren. Whose feet they hurt with fetters,
He was laid in iron until the time that His word came. The
word of the Lord tried him. The king sent and loosed him,
even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. And he made
him lord of his house and ruler of all his substance, to bind
his princes at his pleasure and teach his senators wisdom. And
then Israel also came into Egypt. Remember Jacob then, after Joseph
was established in Egypt, the famine got so bad, he went back
and he got Jacob and he brought Jacob and all his family into
Egypt. And Jacob sojourned in the land
of Ham, and he increased his people greatly and made them
stronger than their enemies. That's how they got to Egypt.
God did it. Now watch this. He turned their
heart, the heart of the Egyptians, the heart of Pharaoh, to hate
his people, to deal subtly with his servants. That's how come
Pharaoh decided he would hate God's people and He would bring
them into bondage. Hold your place there in Psalm
105 and turn back to Exodus 1. When sin entered the world in
the garden, it was according to what God determined in eternity. God was in full control over
the devil in the garden. Total absolute control over him,
just like He was over Pharaoh. Remember how God dealt with Satan
concerning Job? He called the devil. He summons
the devil and said, Have you considered my servant Job? And
he sent him forth and he said, You can try him, but you can't
put your hand on him. And then later he gave him permission
and said, Okay, you can touch him, but spare his life. The
devil can't do anything but what God permits him to do. God was
in absolute control when Satan entered the garden and tempted
Eve. God allowed Adam to do what was in Adam's heart to do when
he saw Eve had sinned. And so Adam sinned. And the fault
was all Adam's. It was his fault. He did what
he wanted to do and God let it. Satan, the fault, the sin was
all of him. God let him do what he wanted
to do, what was in his heart to do. And so it is that God
rules over sin and has ruled over sin from the very beginning.
That's the reason we fell in Adam. Now, our sin is all our
own and we're accountable for our sin. But there's no sin that
comes to pass in this world except under God's sovereign control.
That's what it meant when He says, the wrath of man shall
praise God. any wrath, any sin that comes
to pass, God allowed it to come to pass to bring praise to God's
name. And the remainder thereof that
could have come to pass, God restrained it because it didn't
bring honor to Him. But God was in absolute sovereign
control over sin and He still is. And He's increased His people
in the earth just like He did Egypt, I mean the children of
Israel. He's protected us while we were
in our rebellion before we knew Him. just like our fall was determined
before and ruled over by God. Everything, all sin, God ruling
over it. God used the devil the same way
God used this evil Pharaoh. Go to Romans 9 and look at verse 17. For the Scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, that is, God said to Pharaoh, Romans 9, 17, Even for
this same purpose have I raised thee up. You know, people always
think that when they succeed in this life, it means God's
blessing me. Not necessarily. Not necessarily. You reckon Pharaoh thought he
had really succeeded and had it made when he had the throne
and was the most powerful man in the whole world? Probably
so. Look at this. God said, For this purpose have
I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardens. Somebody will argue. They'll
say, Well, God's unjust to find fault with sinners, then, if
God's that much in control over sinners. Look at Romans 9, 19.
I will say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who
hath resisted his will? For who? Nay, but, O man, who
art thou that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say
to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel
unto honor and another unto dishonor? Why then did God allow sin to
enter? What was the purpose of it? Why is He sovereign over
sin? If there had been no sin, there would have been no Savior.
God allowed sin to reign over us unto death in order that grace
might much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Look at verse 22, Romans 9, 22. What if God, willing to show
His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? And let me point
out something to you there. That longsuffering was not towards
the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction. His longsuffering
was for the purpose of His people, not for the purpose of those
vessels of wrath. All God's attributes and everything God does is for
His people, not for the rebel. God's long-suffering was not
to do good to the rebel. It was to do good to His people.
Watch this. And He did it that He might make
known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which
He had aforeprepared unto glory. That means He chose them He set
up a Savior for them. He determined to save them before
the foundation of the world. And He's done everything in this
world to show them His great mercy toward them. Even us whom
He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. You see, this doesn't make sense
to unbelievers. Unbelievers are railed against
what I'm preaching here. and come up with all kinds of
reasons why they think that this is not right. But to believer,
we find great peace knowing God rules over everything. I couldn't find any peace in
a God that is helpless over some things. I couldn't find any peace
in a God who lets some things happen outside of His control
and He has no way of stopping it. Could you? But our God is
in the heavens. He does as He pleases. Now, thirdly, God is sovereign
in salvation. Now, what I've said up to this
point, men don't usually like it. They hate God to be sovereign
in purpose. They hate God to be sovereign
over sin. But they especially hate God
to be sovereign in salvation. I'll read this Exodus chapter
2 and verse 23. Exodus 2, 23. And it came to pass in the process
of time that the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel
sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry
came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their
groaning, And God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with
Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children
of Israel, and God had respect unto them. It means God knew
them. Now, time does not merely pass. Time does not merely pass. Time is a process. Time is a
process. Time is God's process. It happened
in the process of time. Everything that comes to pass
are the wheels that Jeremiah saw. The wheels of the potter
that are turning. That's the time. That's God's
sovereign purpose. God's predestinated purpose.
Time is a process. Time, that process is God working
together all things for the good of His people. That's the process. Now go back to Psalm 105 and
look now at what verse 26 says. When this process of time came
and God remembered His covenant, the time that God appointed right
here, verse 26 says, He sent Moses His servant and Aaron whom
He had chosen. Look now at verse 36. He smote
also all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their
strength. He brought them forth also with
silver and gold, and there was not one feeble person among their
tribes. Exodus 12.41 tells us this. It came to pass at the end of
the 430 years, even the selfsame day, it came to pass that all
the host of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. Now this
is a picture of God making the salvation of His elect come to
pass in the process of time in Christ. This is a picture of
God in the process of time working everything together to that appointed
time when He sent Christ to deliver His people from our sins. He
said in Daniel, 70 weeks are determined. They're set by God. upon His people, upon His holy
city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make
reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness,
to seal up the vision of prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.
The time was determined by God. That's why we read in Galatians
4, 4, when the fullness of time was come. God sent forth His
Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that
were under the law. And Christ walked this earth,
and men tried to kill Him, and they tried to do all kinds of
harm to Him, but they couldn't touch Him, because the hour was
not come. And at last, the Lord Jesus said,
the hour has come. That hour set before the foundation
of the world. He said, the hour has come that
the Son of Man should be glorified. Then in God's predestinated time,
God's going to cause this gospel to cross with each of His select
people, and He's going to regenerate them, and He's going to give
them life and faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in His
time, in the time He's appointed. Romans 8, 28 says, All things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to His purpose. And here's why. For whom He did
foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. And in that predestinated hour,
God's going to bring the Gospel and regenerate His child. Paul
said, when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's
womb, called me by His grace, that's God's set time, when it
pleased God. He said, I'll make them and the
places round about my hill a blessing, and I will cause the shower to
come down in his season, and there shall be showers of blessing. He said in Hosea, remember how
he dealt with Gomer? He said, I will return and take
away my corn in the time thereof, when it's time. And I'll take
away my wine in the season thereof, when it's the right season. And
He said, I will strip her naked, and I'll discover to her her
lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver
her out of My hand. When it's time, if you're God's
elect, God's going to get you. You just bank on that. Nobody's
going to deliver you out of His hand. And He says, When I passed
by you, and I looked upon you, behold, thy time was the time
of love. And I spread my skirt over you,
and I covered your nakedness, and I swore unto you and entered
into a covenant, saith the Lord God, and you became mine." That's
what God will do to each and every one of His elect before
they leave this world. God's in that much of control. That much of control. You talk
about God saving through the gospel, and men always bring
up that argument. What if somebody's on a deserted island somewhere
and they don't hear the gospel? Well, then God will cause a hurricane
to shipwreck one of his preachers on that island like he did Paul
and they'll preach the gospel to him. God's in control. What
if they die before they hear the gospel? God appoints the
hour of death. Nobody's going to die before
God's time. He's ruling the process of time. It's his process. And then God
will continue this work until He has delivered each and every
one of His children into the fold, trust in Christ, believe
in Christ, and not one shall be lost. And then He'll bring
us all into heavenly Canaan just like He did Israel. That the
saying might be fulfilled which He spake, of them which thou
gavest Me, I have lost none. Ephesians 1.10 says, In the fullness
I'm sorry, in the dispensation of the fullness of time. That
is, in the stewardship of the fullness of time. Who is the
steward of time? God is. In the stewardship of
the fullness of time, He shall gather together in one all things
in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth,
even in Him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance,
just like the children of Israel did in Canaan, but a better one,
a heavenly inheritance because we're predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. Now I know you face trials and
troubles and I do too. Don't worry about it. I know
it's hard, it's easy to say, but it's harder to do. But just
know, God's ruling the trial. God's ruling whatever's coming
to pass. He's doing it only for His elect. He's doing it to glorify Christ. And He's doing it to save His
people. And God shall not fail. Nobody can turn Him. Nobody can
resist him, nobody can alter that sovereign purpose, that
rule over sin, and that salvation of his people. Nobody can. God's
that absolutely sovereign. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad? Amen. Let's stand together, brethren,
and we'll be dismissed. Our great God and our Father,
thank you. That you don't let anything happen in your house
outside of your control. That you rule your bride, you
rule your children, your house is pleasant. No matter what's
come in the past, no matter how we see it and how we may think
it's evil and sinful and nations against nations and all these
various things, let us know, Lord, and remember you are in
full control. We don't have the wisdom that
you do. We don't have the ability to
understand how everything's working for good. Lord, we're just little
ants. We can't see the whole landscape.
All we can see is a little blade of grass in front of us. We don't
know what's over the next hill. We don't know what's over the
next little clump of dirt. But you do. You see it all. You're ruling it all, and you're
governing it all. And you're doing it exactly for
your people, exactly according to your purpose, right on time.
Forgive us, Lord, for doubting. Forgive us when the trials come
for not looking to you and sanctifying you and making you our reverence
and our fear and our dread and trusting you to be a sanctuary.
Forgive us that sin. Make us do so, Lord, for your
glory and honor. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.