Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church,
located at 905 Yadkin Street in Kingsport, Tennessee, would
like to invite you to listen to a message of sovereign grace
by their pastor, Gabe Stoniker. And now, Pastor Gabe Stoniker. Our text is going to come from
one verse of scripture this morning out of Revelation chapter 19.
If you would like to turn with me to Revelation chapter 19,
the verse we will be considering is verse 6. It says, And I heard,
as it were, the voice of a great multitude. And as the voice of
many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying,
Alleluia, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. The Lord God Omnipotent
reigneth. I want to bring a message to
you. on our Lord being in absolute
control of all things at all times. All things at all times. He is sovereign. He is sovereign. Now I want to tell you that this
may be an eye-opening thing for some people. I pray that it will
be. If you have never seen the absolute
sovereignty of God, I pray he might reveal this to both you
and me this morning, because if we ever come to see his absolute
sovereignty over all things, it will bring such peace and
such comfort to our hearts. So may he truly open our eyes
to this. Now let's begin with this question,
what does sovereign mean? What does the word sovereign
mean? It means what the end of verse
six says, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. The Lord God omnipotent
reigneth. Omnipotent means the ruler of
all. It means almighty. That's what omnipotent means.
Almighty. The Lord God almighty reigns. He reigns. That word means controls. Sovereign. Sovereign. Sovereign. He is sovereign. Now,
if you'd like to look with me at 1 Timothy chapter 6, it says
in 1 Timothy 6 verse 13, I give thee charge in the sight of God
who quickeneth all things and before Christ Jesus, who before
Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession. that thou keep this
commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord
Jesus Christ, which in his times he shall show who is the blessed
and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who
only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can
approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, to whom be
honor and power everlasting. Amen. To Jesus Christ, the only
potentate, King of kings and Lord of lords. If Jesus Christ
is absolute sovereign, if He is the only absolute sovereign,
then it means he is the king of every king. And he is the
Lord of every Lord. He is the only potentate. That word means authority. Jesus
Christ is the only authority. He is the only authority that
there is. No other man can do what he wants
to do. No other man, no man can do what
he wants to do in the purpose of his heart. But Jesus Christ,
he is the only one, no other man, no other spiritual being,
no other physical man, no other spiritual being, not even the
adversary, not even the devil. The adversary can execute the
desire of his heart. This is critical. Not even the
adversary can execute the desire of his heart without permission
from the throne of the Lord God omnipotent. He cannot do it without
permission. Authority had to be given for
Job to be touched. If you know the story of Job
and how everything happened, The adversary had to present
himself to the Lord and get permission. Permission had to be granted
before he can touch Job. That's what sovereign means.
That's what sovereign means. He is the all controlling ruler. Sovereign. Now, if you'd like
to turn with me to Romans chapter eight. It says in Romans 8 verse
28, and we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God. And I want to point out, first
of all, all things. Remember that as we go through
this message and look at some of these scriptures, all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to his Purpose. Purpose. Everything is according
to His purpose. Everything is on purpose. If the Lord would ever let that
sink into the heart. Everything is on purpose. Everything. Everything. Everything that happens happens
according to his purpose. It all happens according to his
purpose. People make statements like this.
Well, God has a wonderful plan for your life. That's not so. That is not so. Everything that
God has purposed is purposed. It is ordered and it's sure.
A plan insinuates he's hoping it works out. He's the sovereign. He is the ruler. He is the controller. And it's all going according
to purpose. God has declared words like predestinated,
predetermined, foreordained. Every predetermined predestinated
for ordained thing that God purposed to happen. Every one of them
happens. Not one thing that he has purposed
to happen has not happened, not come to pass. That's sovereignty. And nothing that he does not
purpose to happen happens. Nothing happens outside of his
control. That is sovereignty. That's what
sovereignty is. All right. Now, what is God sovereign
over? What is he sovereign over? We
could say anything right now. We could just go on and on and
on filling that blank in with anything. What's God sovereign
over? We could say anything, anything and everything. But
for the sake of time, we're going to summarize everything down
into three things. We're going to summarize everything
that is down into three things. The first one is this, God is
sovereign over all creation. anything that has been created,
whether the creation is in heaven or whether the creation is here
on this earth. It makes no difference. God is
sovereign over all creation. Everything and everyone is subject
to him. Over in the book of Daniel, chapter
4, there's a king. His name was Nebuchadnezzar. And this king was lifted up in
pride before God, saying, look at everything I have created.
Look at all that I have done. What he was saying is, I'm the
God over these things. Look at everything that's subject
to me. God said, nothing is subject to you, Nebuchadnezzar, and you're
going to pay for this sin of pride against me. He said, everything's
going to be taken away from you, and you're going to be driven
out into the field. You're going to live like a beast. Your mind's
going to be taken. And all of that happened. And
at the end of God's appointed days for that to happen to him,
after it was over, it says in Daniel 4, verse 34, At the end
of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven,
and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most
High." He said, now I saw who God was, who the Most High was. And I praised and honored him
that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and
his kingdom is from generation to generation, and all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing." Nebuchadnezzar saw, and I've
seen it too. I pray you've seen it too. We
all need to see that all the inhabitants of the earth are
reputed as nothing to him, nothing. He went on to say, And he doeth
according to his will in the army of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say
unto him, what doest thou? No one and nothing can stop his
hand from working or even question him. Men are also constantly
telling people that the adversary is always ruining what God's
trying to do. He gets in there and he just
ruins. That is not so. Nothing and no one can stay his
hand or say unto him, what doest thou? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The adversary and those angels
that followed him, they were inhabitants of heaven. Now they
are the inhabitants of earth. God cast them out as a bolt of
lightning to the earth, but it doesn't matter where they are
either way. Heaven or earth, they could not stop His hand
then, they cannot stop His hand now. They are completely subject
to His authority and His will. All of the adversary's wicked
works, all of His evil wicked works, not one time has He ever
taken one step outside of the purpose of God. Not one time. Not one time. Not one time has
anything taken a step outside of the purpose of God. Joseph
said, you meant it for evil. Joseph. He said, the thing you
did was evil. You had evil in your heart. You
meant it for evil. It was evil, earthly speaking.
And he said, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.
God allowed it to happen for the purpose of good. All things
work together for good. Romans 9 says, hath not the potter
power over the clay? He formed all things. Everything
has been made with his hands. Can he not mold it into whatever
he wants to? Solomon said all the kings of
the earth, the king's hearts, all these wicked kings, all these
kings, the king's hearts are in his hands. He turns them however
he wants to, however he wants to. There is no such thing as
a freak accident. There is only God's purpose. That's all there is. It does
not matter how unstable a situation appears to be. There is no such
thing as an unstable situation. There is only God's purpose. That's all there is. Now, are
people unstable in and of themselves? We'd better believe it. Absolutely,
but every single one of us unstable people, we are all under the
control of the sovereign God. All of us, everything around
us is under the absolute control of the sovereign God. We say
the weather's unstable. Well, it's unstable, you know,
it's causing all these natural disasters. That is not so. That
is not so. The weather is not doing anything
other than what God purposed for it to do. Psalm 107 says,
he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind and then he maketh
the storm a calm. He's the one who does that. He
asked Job, God asked Job, can you send the snow? Can you do that? He said, can
you tell the lightning where to go? Tell the lightning where
to strike. People hear this and they say,
how can that be? How can that be when so many
people are dying from it? How can that be? You have drought
over here and you have flooding over there and people are dying
from it. How can that be under the control
of God's hand? How can that be? And people hear
this and naturally wonder, what about crime? What about the pain and the hurt
and the death that it causes? How can that be within the realms
of God's authority and permission? How can that be? Well, turn with
me to Deuteronomy 32. I would encourage you to either
look at it with me if you have a Bible or write this down and
go back and look at it later. Deuteronomy 32, verse 39 says,
and this is God speaking, He said, See now that I, even I,
am He. And there is no God with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. Neither is there any that can
deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven
and say, I live forever. If I wet my glittering sword,
if I pull out my sword, And if I wet my glittering sword and
mine hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine
enemies and will reward them that hate me. I will make mine
arrows drunk with blood and my sword shall devour flesh. And
that with the blood of the slain and of the captives from the
beginning of revenge is upon the enemy. But he said in verse
43, rejoice O ye nations with his people for he will avenge
the blood of his servants and will render vengeance to his
adversaries and will be merciful unto his land and to his people. God is not the author. or the performer of sinful, wicked
crime. This is critical that we know
this. God is not the author or the
performer of sinful, wicked crime, but no crime takes place outside
of His authority, His permission, and His purpose. He said in Isaiah
45, verse 7, I form the light and create darkness. And the way he does that, God
is light. The scripture says God is light. The way he creates
darkness is he removes himself and darkness appears. He said,
I formed the light and I create darkness. I make peace and create
evil. I the Lord do all these things.
He is peace. He is the prince of peace. And
the way he allows that to happen is by removing himself. He said,
I am in control of all these things. Now, believe me, I know
that's hard to understand. I know, I know that's hard to
understand, but let God be true and every man a liar. May God
be true. This is what he himself has declared
in his word. I do not understand his direct
purpose in the things that happen. I see things happen all the time
and I do not understand his direct purpose in it. I do not understand
directly why He allows certain things to happen and what His
purpose is in that thing. I don't understand it. Usually,
I never see His purpose in the moment. But by His grace, I will not, and by His grace,
only by His grace, you will not deny His purpose in everything. By his grace, we will bow to
his sovereignty and we will remember that all things, whether they
seem to be good things or bad things, whether we consider it
to be a good thing or a bad thing, all things are for the good of
his people. Even in everything we just read
there in Deuteronomy 32, he said, rejoice O ye nations, his people. He'll bring good out of all of
it. So God is sovereign over all
creation. The second thing is God is sovereign
over all salvation. In John chapter 3, it says in
John 3 verse 27, a man can receive nothing except it be given him
from heaven. A man can receive nothing. Sinners
are saved by grace. Saved by grace. Grace is a gift
given. John said that gift that is given,
it comes from heaven. We can receive nothing except
it's given us from heaven. We're saved by grace. Jonah said
salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord. It only comes
from And it is distributed by Him to whoever He wants to. It all comes from and is distributed
by Him. All grace that is given is sovereignly
given. All grace. Romans 9 verse 15
says, For He saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. I will die. This is what the
Lord Jesus Christ said. I will die for whom I want to
die. I will pour my blood on whom
I want to pour my blood on. Grace, salvation. is sovereign. It is sovereign. Who did he say he wanted to pour
his blood on? Sinners. Sinners, not the self-righteous
who like what they see in themselves. He said sinners who hate what
they see in themselves, not those who are proud of what they are. Those who are ashamed of what
they are, those who are crying out for mercy. Oh Lord, I need
mercy. I need forgiveness in your blood. I need you to forgive me. He
said, I have sovereignly determined. to pour my life-giving blood,
my soul-cleansing, debt-paying blood on sinners. Sinners who really need it. Think
about this. He cast aside Pharisees and Sadducees
and he drew harlots and publicans to himself. That's amazing. He
has sovereignly declared, I'm the friend of sinners. I receive
sinners gladly." Are you a sinner? He says to sinners, come and
dine. God is sovereign over all creation. God is sovereign over all salvation. And here's the third thing. He
is sovereign over you. He is sovereign over me. Everything
about me. In Psalm 33, it says in verse
16, there is no king saved by the multitude of an host. A mighty
man is not delivered by much strength. A horse is a vain thing
for safety. Neither shall he deliver any
by his great strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is
upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy. The eye of the Lord is on them.
He said you can get a bigger horse if you want to, but it
won't do you any good. God is sovereignly protecting
His people. God is sovereignly taking care
of His people. Everything concerning us, everything
concerning our health, everything concerning our safety, everything
concerning our well-being is in the hands of our sovereign
God. It's all under the hands of our
sovereign God. He said in Psalm 91, He that
dwelleth under the secret place of the Most High, he's going
to dwell in safety. He said don't worry about the
arrow that flies by day, the pestilence, the darkness, don't
worry about any of it. God is sovereignly in control
of all of those things. Don't fear the things that are
in God's hand. Trust Him. You just trust Him. God's purpose cannot be escaped. God's purpose cannot be undone. If God has not purposed for a
thing to happen, it cannot happen. It absolutely cannot happen. God is sovereign over all things. So this is our response to it.
This is a believer's response. When God sends faith and causes
a sinner to see all these things, see who God is and see who he
is. This is our response to it all. Our text, Revelation 19
verse 6, the end of it said, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. The next verse said, verse seven,
let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him. That's a believer's
response. Lord, I'm so glad. Thank you
so much. Oh, that gives me so much peace.
That gives me so much comfort. That gives me so much rest. Every
time I remember you're in control. This world seems to me like it's
spinning out of control. I feel like I'm spinning out
of control, but you are sovereignly over every bit of it. This is
all in your hands. I'm in your hands. And that gives
me great peace and comfort. I look to you. Let us be glad
and rejoice and give honor to him. Let us continually thank
God for his absolute control over all things, his sovereignty. Until next week, I pray the Lord
will bless this word to your hearts. You have been listening
to a message by Gabe Stoniker, pastor of Kingsport Sovereign
Grace Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. If you would like a copy of this
message, or to hear other messages of sovereign grace, log on to
our website at ksgctn.org. If you would like to come and
worship with us, our service times are Sunday morning Bible
study at 10 o'clock a.m., worship at 1045 a.m., and 6 o'clock p.m.,
Wednesday evening at 730 p.m. Please tune in next week for
another message of God's free and sovereign grace.