next few weeks I'm going to preach
on God's sovereignty in several different ways, several different
ways. Tonight I just want to define God's sovereignty, define
what it means that God is sovereign. Define what it means that God
is sovereign. But look back up here In verse 3, and we're going to
read down to verse 15. God's preacher has a two-fold
message, and they're both right here. The voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight
in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked
shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. And the glory
of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." The boy said, Cry,
and he said, What shall I cry? This is our first message. All
flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the
field. The grass withers, the flower fadeth, because the spirit
of the Lord bloweth on of it, and surely the people is grass.
The grass withers, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God
shall stand forever. O Zion, that bringest good tidings,
get thee up unto the high mountain. O Jerusalem, that bringest good
tidings, lift up thy voice, lift it up, let it be not afraid.
Say unto the cities of Judah his second message, Behold your
God. All flesh is grass, and behold
your God." Grass, flesh, Can look to his God? Behold your
God. Behold, the Lord God will come
with strong hand and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his
reward is with him and his work before him. He shall feed his
flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with him. Who hath measure, this is the
God that is going to come. Behold God who said, Behold him.
who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and
meted out the heaven with a span." Do you know how much water fell
in the last two days, and he measures that in the hollow of
his hand? We think we're going to flood,
and he just measures that in the hollow of his hand. And he
meted out the heaven with a span, comprehended the dust of the
earth in a measure." It takes all the dust of the earth. It's
flying in the air and everywhere else. Puts it in a measure and
weighs it. Weighs the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance. Who hath directed the Spirit
of the Lord, or being his counselor, has ever taught him? With whom
he took counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path
of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of
understanding? Behold, the nations are as a
drop of a bucket, and are counted as a small dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the aisles,
as a very little thing. Behold your God. Who in the world has ever told
him anything, taught him anything, instructed him in anything? And
so I ask this question. Who is controlling the affairs
of what's going on in this earth today? Who's controlling it?
Who's regulating the affairs that's going on in the earth
today? Is God or is it the devil? Which one is it? Everyone just
about agrees that God reigns in the heavens, those who profess
Christianity anyway. But to say that He comes down
here and rules in this world, that's a whole other ballgame.
That's a horse of a different color. They say, no, He doesn't. You know, you take the material
world, the creation that we look around, There's a multitude of
people that deny that He created everything, that He created it,
and that in all that He created, He has no concern in controlling
or ruling in His creation. And everything in this world
is controlled by the laws of nature, or faith, or destiny,
or mother nature, or luck, or chance. And men that believe
this, they say these things so they won't have to answer to
God. If God doesn't have rule in this world, and the laws of
nature, and faith, and love, and chance, and mother nature
rules, then they don't have to answer to God. They just banish
Him from their thoughts. They're left to faith, or love
for chance, or luck of the draw, or whatever happens, whatever
they say. But who really is controlling the affairs of the earth today?
God in the desert? When you look at the world, we
look at this world. I mean, this world right now is full of chaos
and confusion. I mean, there's really chaos
and confusion. Wars and rumors of war. Paul
says that men are deceiving and being deceived. Evil men will
like worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. How many
people in this world are deceived and being deceived? And he said
in Luke 21 that men's hearts would fail them for fear. for
the things that are coming upon this world. Now, in view of these
things, it doesn't look like God's controlling the world.
You know, that evil men wax worse and worse, deceiving, being deceived.
Men's hearts fail them for fear. And then look at the religious
world. The material world, political world, religious world. Look
what all's happening in religion. They build stadiums, they build
restaurants and churches now, so-called churches, they build
restaurants, they have coffee shops, and they have all kinds
of gimmicks to get people in. And they offer them special things
and tell them lies, and they advertise on TV and on the radio
all the things that it takes to get folks to stay in church.
They go to seminars and all that stuff to try to learn how to
market Jesus. Market Jesus, what they say.
Market your church. You've got to have a special
way to get folks to come in. But even though they do that,
the Christ of the Scriptures is still despised and rejected. I went through the channels this
morning for a little while and not one person, I don't care,
get on any religious channel you want, where they have nothing
but religious programming and I'll give you my farm and everything
that's on it and sign it over to you if you find somebody preaching
the gospel of God's free grace in Christ and making Christ to
be all and everything in salvation. If you find one, And are they
multitudes that get them up making decisions for Jesus? And those who occasionally attend
a church service are confronted with a disappointed God. Oh,
God wants to. He's got good intentions. Yet
He has us unable to carry out His intentions. And to the average
person in here, it looks like the devil has the upper hand.
But oh no, not believers. They don't walk by faith. We
don't walk by what we see in this world. We don't walk by
what we see going on. I mean, this world is in a mess.
This United States is in a mess. It's frighteningly in a mess.
But through believers, we don't walk by sight. We walk by faith,
not by sight. And our thoughts concerning this
world and God's relation to this world is not based upon what
we see. No, no, no. But what God's Word
says, that's what our relationship to this world and everything
that happens in it. Men can believe a lie if they want to. Men can
receive damnation if they want to. Men can reject Christ if
they want to. They can lie on Christ if they
want to. Men can trust in the political system if they want
to. But I'm telling you, God's people don't look at this world
that way. They look at it as Christ relates
to it, and they walk by faith and not by sight. They work by
what God says. And that's why faith comes by
hearing, hearing by the Word of God. Again, I ask you another
question. Who's regulating? The affairs,
the things that's going on in this world today. God or the
devil? I don't know if y'all listen to radio very much, but
every once in a while I have it on. They have this commercial
for a church up here in town. And this, the devil starts talking. And somebody mentioned Jesus.
I told you not to mention him. I told you I'd get right out
of here. And they use that to try to get folks in church like
that. Oh, this is ridiculous. But oh, but what does the Scripture
say? You know the Scriptures. You
read the scriptures and it tells you exactly what's going on in
the world today. And it said it thousands of years
ago. You know, I'll show you that.
Look over here in 2 Timothy 3. This is a description of the
world and what's going on in the world right here. And you
could go on and on and on about it. You know, our Lord, you know,
says there'll be wars and rumors of war. Earthquakes and pestilences
in diverse places. And the Scriptures predicted
what's going on today. Look what it said here in 2 Timothy
3.1. This know also that in the last
days perilous times will come. Perilous times. Times that prize
men's souls. For men shall be lovers of their
own selves. covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to their parents, unfaithful, unholy. How many
people you know like that? Is everybody you work with in
that boat? Is our political... count 435 representatives. 95%
of them fit that category right there. Look what he goes on to
say, traitors without natural affection, truth breakers, false accusers,
inconstant, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors,
heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of
God, having a form of godliness, but denying the paradigm from
such turn away. And he says, you know, I was
talking to a dear brother this morning, we were talking about
the only hope for America is a revival, a great, great revival. And those are always, they always
come just regional. Rarely does one come all the
way across the United States. They've always been regional.
Northeast, southeast, certain places in certain countries,
God will send a revival. The only hope we have is for
God to send a revival. But the Scripture says, that
the end shall not come except there come a great falling away
first. And that falling away is not
falling away from religion. It's a falling away from the
revealed truth, falling away from the message of the gospel,
falling away from the truth. That's why, that's what the whole
context of there is. They received not the love of
the truth, so God shall send them a strong delusion that they
might believe a lie and be damned. And this man of sin may harm
him. And look, all beloved, the Scriptures
predicted all these things. It said that they that despise
dominion speak evil of dignities. And you know where lawlessness
starts at? And it abounds. Lawlessness abounds,
but it starts in the home. Our homes just fell apart. You
think about the average home today, it's lawless in the home.
Parents can't control their children. Children control the parents.
Fussing, fighting, arguing. Who in the world ever heard of
the lawless that starts in the home? No husband stands up and
be a husband. A woman won't take her proper
place and the children won't take their proper place. If we're
not at the end time, we never will get there. So who's directing this world
today? God or the devil? What does the
scripture say? Oh, I just read it to you. Oh,
you're God. What does he do? He measures
the waters in the hall of his hand. Meets out the heavens with
a span. Cuts the dust of the earth in
a measure. Counts the nations as just a drop in the bucket.
And he works all things out to the counsel of his own will.
And look over here in Isaiah 14, just a moment. Oh, this stirs me up. This really
stirs me up. I love the sovereignty of God.
I love the fact that God rules and reigns in this world, regardless
of what men say about it. Paul asked the Jews, he said,
just because you don't believe, does that make the faith of God
of none effect? He said, just because you fellas don't believe
Christ, just because you don't believe the scriptures, just
because you don't believe what God said about Him, does that
make the faith of God what God's going to do in the hearts of
His people and not affect it? He said, God forbid! It ain't
going to happen. Look what He said here in Isaiah
14, in verse 24. The Lord of hosts hath sworn,
saying, Surely, as I have thought, so shall it come to pass, and
as I have purposed, so shall it stand." Now back over here, I'll tell
you something. God Almighty, let me tell you something about
Him. His will, He said, all my purpose
shall stand. God's Almighty. His will is irreversible,
and it must be so, because only two alternatives is possible.
God must either rule or he must be ruled. Either God rules or
somebody rules him, one or the other, no middle ground. Either
he's running in this world or somebody else is. He can be swayed or not. And I tell you, beloved, in the
light of present-day conditions in this world and religion, I'd
be good for us to examine again our view of God. How do we view
God? And I tell you what, we must
in our conversation, in our lives, in our thoughts, in our emotions,
in our affections, in our understanding, in our wills, we must see God
as omnipotent. He's got all power. We must see
God and present Him as sufficient and as sovereign. We need, by
God's grace, as the old timers did, thunder, thunder forth that
God still lives, God still observes everything that goes on on this
earth, and that God still reigns high and holy and lifted up. And I tell you, you know, the
only sufficient resting place for a heart in this world, and
I mean you talking about a place to rest your heart in this world,
is This thing right here, to stand on the throne of God, stand
on the sovereignty of God, stand on the will of God, stand on
the purpose of God, and you can lay down at night and go to sleep,
and if you don't wake up in the morning, that's fine and dandy,
because God's purpose shall stand, and nobody will ever dishonor
Him. Ah, oh, bless His name. We must talk about God being
God, because He is God. He does as He pleases, only as
He pleases, always as He pleases. He accomplishes His own pleasure
in everything He does. He does it first, and listen
to this. If you don't get nothing else, I'll say it tonight. He
accomplishes His own pleasure and promotes His own glory. He
does what He does to bring glory to Himself. And if that's His
objective concerning Himself, don't you think that ought to
be our objective too? Whatever he is, what he aims
to do is bring glory to himself. Don't you think us little worms
of the earth ought to do that very thing too? Now let me see
if I can define God's sovereignty for us. Now God's sovereignty,
that's not a new expression. Men have used it for ages and
ages and ages. It's a truth that has brought
comfort to many, many hearts. It's a truth that gave strength
and stability, and it gives strength and stability to Christian character. Christian character. I got a
little book in there by Jerome Sankis, and it's called Absolute
Predestination. You read that little old book
about that thing? Oh, I read that and I just... I said, I say, God... Oh, it
gives strength and stability to Christian character? We don't
fall to pieces when the world's fallen to pieces. But the talk
of God's sovereignty now in most places is to speak in an unknown
tongue. But all this doctrine, the sovereignty
of God, that's the key to history. How are you going to interpret
history without God reigning? How are you going to interpret
history? How can you interpret the Bible without God reigning,
without God being sovereign? How are you going to interpret
God's providence in the past and in the present and in the
future apart from the sovereignty of God? And how do you explain
the foundation of what we believe without the sovereignty of God?
So what do we mean by the sovereignty of God? Very simple. We mean the supremacy of God. the kingship of God, the Godhood
of God. We just mean that God is God. That God dwells in the life that
no man can approach unto. Look with me in Psalm 22, verse
28. Psalm 22, verse 28. Oh my, that's why Daniel says, you know, All the inhabitants are reputed
as nothing, but he doeth according to his will in the armies of
heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and no man can
stay his hand or say unto him what doeth that. Now listen to
what he said here in Psalm 22, 28. For the kingdoms is the Lord's,
and he is the governor among the nations. We may not like the way he's
governing, but he's governing. He's a governor. He's a governor.
Say, well, we're going to vote in a new governor. Not this governor,
you're not. He's there. He's reigning. He
reigns on his throne. And I tell you, beloved, you
know as well as I do, that the God of today is to be pitied
instead of being reverenced. I don't reverence this God that's
preached today. I have no reverence for Him whatsoever. To say that God the Father, and
this is what everybody's preaching, that God the Father has purposed
to save all men. That's what he teaches, what
he purposed to save all men. And to say that God the Son died
with the intentions of saving the whole human race. And to
say that the Holy Ghost is now trying to bring the world to
Christ, When we know that the majority of people in this world
is going into a Christless hell, to say that is to say that God
the Father is disappointed because everybody hasn't been saved.
That God the Son is dissatisfied because He has the best intentions. And God the Holy Ghost is defeated.
He hasn't got the power to bring men to Christ who died for Him. And everybody wants to know,
well, what about the Africans? What about the Indians? What
about the Hindus? And what about this? Well, listen,
beloved, people use that as a smokescreen to keep from having to face God
for themselves. I don't care what God does with
the Indians. They got little red dots between
their eyes and they worship cows and monkeys and snakes and rats
and get in a river and thinks they get in a nasty river and
washes their sins away and say, oh, I'm going to hell. Anybody
does that? Man sitting, starving to death,
and a cow walking down the street, and you bow down and worship
that cow? And the Scriptures told men not to do that? Romans
chapter 1 said not to worship the creature more than your Creator? Oh, you say, that's not right. Yes,
it is right. It's right, the only reason it
was right for me to go to hell, the only reason I did was God
in sovereign mercy before the foundation of the world set me
apart. And we'll get to that reprobation and election soon,
but oh my God, disappointed? Can God be disappointed in anything
He does? Can Christ be dissatisfied in
anything that He did? If the Holy Ghost, can he be
defeated? You think a man can resist the
power of the Holy Ghost when Christ has died for him? And
to say that men won't let God save them is to make the creature
omnipotent. He's the one that's got all the
power. And God makes him omnipotent because he has no power. And
they'll go on and on. I couldn't tell you how many
preachers I've known over the years and used to have fellowship
with when I began to preach the gospel. They'd say, oh my, I'm
just going to stick with human responsibility. And they make
much of human responsibility. And yet they blame the devil
for everything that happens and to keep men from facing their
responsibility. But now let me tell you something.
To blame Satan. from keeping men from being saved
doesn't change one thing. Doesn't change one thing. You
know why? Because that makes Satan, to
defeat the purpose of God, that makes Satan almighty, and that
God is not the supreme being. To blame it on the devil don't
change one thing. Does it? And I tell you, beloved, we say
that God, God has the right, has the right to govern his universe. It's his. And he's got the right
to govern it as he pleases and for his own glory as he pleases.
He says this, he says, Has not the potter power over the clay
to take out of the same lump? And that's the key right there,
out of the same lump. He's the potter, we're the clay.
Has not the potter power over the clay to take out of the same
lump? and make one a vessel of honor, another a vessel of dishonor,
one a vessel of mercy, another a vessel of wrath. Has he not
got the power to do that with what he has in this world? And
I tell you something, beloved, he's under no rule, he's under
no law, outside of his own will and his own nature. You see,
God is a law unto himself. He's absolutely under no obligation
to give an account of himself to anyone at any time. Ain't
that what he said? Who has directed the Spirit of
the Lord? Who told the Spirit of the Lord where to go? Who's
ever been his counselor and taught God? Who ever said, God said,
I said, teach me something. Whom did he take instruction
from? Who come and taught him the way to go in the path of
judgment? Who taught God knowledge? Who showed him understanding? And you wait, some people think
that they've got, that's what they do, God. God's got to do
this, and God's got to do that, and God's got to do another thing.
And those people all the time get up here in front of crowds
of people, and they command God to do this and that, and command
God to do this for something else. And let me tell you, sovereignty,
God's sovereignty, it characterizes the whole being of God. His whole
being. And what I mean by that, that
He is sovereign. Sovereign. in all of His attributes. That word sovereign just means
supreme one who absolutely reigns. He's sovereign in all of His
attributes, all of them. He's sovereign in the exercise
of His power. Now, He exercises power. All
power belongs unto Me, says the Lord. I've heard, I've heard
yea once, yea twice, that all power belongs unto God. And I'll
tell you, He exercises His power as He wills, when He wills and
where He wills. And he even does that for his
own children. He only exercises his power even towards them,
as he will, when he wills. It's like Pharaoh. He says, you
know, he said, I raised you up, Pharaoh, for one reason. Just
one reason. You know why I raised you up?
That I might show forth my power in you. I'm going to show you
how to ground the whole army. and destroy a whole army to save
a bunch of slaves. Not only over Pharaoh, but over angels. He has power over angels, the
fallen angels, the elect angels. I want you to see something in
Exodus 17. The Amalekites, they attacked
Israel. In Exodus 17, they attacked Israel.
But God didn't let Israel destroy the Amalekites. Why didn't He?
Why didn't He do that? You know, they came back out,
and here they're coming out. They're going to take the land,
and they was in a battle, and they was going through it. The
Amalekites attacked Israel, but God didn't let Israel destroy
all of them. Why didn't He let them destroy them? Look here
in verse 16. For he said, Because the Lord
hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation
to generation. Now why in the world didn't he
destroy Amalek? He could have destroyed him. But I'll tell
you why he didn't destroy him. You know who Amalek represents?
He represents our old fallen nature. And we're going to have
to fight with it till we leave this world. And God swore sworn
against our flesh, and he's got power over us, and I'll bless
his holy name, that he's going to destroy one of these days.
And then Jericho, talking about his power, the walls of Jericho
fell down without a blow being struck. But God never repeated
that miracle ever again. Every other city had to be conquered
and bought to win. David slew Goliath. Daniel was
put in the lion's den, the three Hebrew children in the fire of
Pertinence, and God sovereignly exercised His power and saved
them in those situations, yet He didn't always deliver His
people. You read through Hebrews 11.36 where some were thrown
asunder, some were burned at the stake, some were burned in
oil, and they had, multitudes of them were slaughtered. And
not only is He sovereign in the exercise of His power, but He's
sovereign in the delegation of His power. Look in Daniel, right
over to your right. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. You know, He delegates His power. And I know we have a hard time
with this in this world and with some of these things that's going
on in this world. We say we get upset with the
powers that be, but yet God delegates His power. We'll look here in
Daniel 4, verse 30. Look what happens now. The king spake and said, Is not
this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom,
by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?
While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from
heaven saying, O king, may To thee it is spoken, the kingdoms
departed from you, they going to drive you from men, your dwelling
shall be with the beast of the field, they shall make you to
eat grasses and oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee until
thou knowest that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men,
and gives it to whomsoever he will." That's what God does. He's going to make men to know
it. And a lot of people ain't going to know it until it's too
late. And why did God, talking about delegation of His power,
why did God cause Methuselah to live longer than anybody else
on the face of the earth? A lot of folks lived over 800
years, live right up to 900 years, but Methuselah lived longer than
anybody else. God doesn't. Why did God give sanction? physical
strength that nobody else ever had and nobody will ever possess
again? And why does God make some men
extremely wealthy and powerful in this world and make others
have to beg for their food? Why does He do that? Why was
the rich man rich and the last was poor sitting at the dead
rich man's gate? Why does the Rothschilds and
the Rockefellers have all the money? Because I'll tell you
why. And I'll show it to you in 1 Samuel, too. I quoted it
this morning. Look over in 1 Samuel. Let's
just look at this. You need to see this. And mark
this in your Bible. You just show this to folks.
When everybody starts thinking they've got something, and they
start bragging about what they've got, what they've accomplished,
you just look at what they say here in 1 Samuel 2 and verse
6. And I'll tell you why some men
are wealthy, extremely wealthy and powerful, and use their power
to Defeat other people and run over other people. I'll tell
you why. Because He is sovereign. He does as He pleases. Look what
He said here in 1 Samuel 2.6. The Lord killeth and maketh alive. He bringeth down to the grave
and He bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor and maketh
rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up. He raises up the poor out of
the dust, lift up the beggar from the dunghill to set them
among princes, to make them inherit the throne of glory, for the
pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and He has set them upon
them. So you see, beloved, if you're
poor, God made you poor. If you've got anything, money,
God gave it to you. If you've got life, if you've
got somebody going to the grave, God's going to take you down
there. If somebody brings up, He's going to bring them up.
And I like it like that. Proverbs 21 verse 4 says, Yes,
the king's hands is in the heart of the Lord like the rivers of
water. He just turns it wherever he wants to. Next time you hear
a politician bragging and blowing and acting like he's going to
make all kinds of promises and do all kinds of things and acting
arrogant and all that, you just remember, his heart's in the
hands of the Lord. God's putting him where he wants
to, saying what he wants to. And listen. He's sovereign, and we're going
to kiss his hand of sovereignty and say, Lord, it's you. And,
oh, listen, I love this here. I've got to hurry. I've only
been 33 minutes. Somebody asked me, I was talking
to a preacher the other day, and a preacher's got a timer
up on his desk. And it ain't a bit uncommon for
him to preach an hour, hour and 10 minutes, 55 to an hour and
10 minutes, and say, why in the world do you have that timer
up around your desk? He said, you never pay any attention to
it. He said, well, I try to every
once in a while, but I do look at that. I don't want to. And
then he thought, oh, he's sovereign in the exercise of his power,
but he's sovereign in the exercise of his mercy. This is what the
Pope's going to tell us. I'm going to say this right here,
and I guarantee you that you'll never find this, but if you look
in the Scriptures, you'll see that this is so. God only gives
mercy. to His people. Anybody that came
seeking His mercy, He gave it to them because they were His. Now that's right. You know, for
somebody to just be out here and getting ready to go into
eternity, and people have used this for years, I couldn't tell
you how many times I've heard it, is that when somebody goes
out into eternity, they may have been drunk, they may have been
living in adultery, they may have just got through fighting
with somebody, they may have been a thief, a liar, But they
say, you don't know if we got to go to heaven and he might
have asked God for mercy before we went out into eternity. Now
you search the scriptures and you look up that word mercy in
your concordance. And mercy is only given to his
people. And you know what his mercy is?
He gives it to us and when we cry out for his mercy, it's most
of the time when we're miserable. Mercy comes to people in misery.
And that's why we say, Lord, be merciful to me. That woman
said, Lord, have mercy on my daughter. And oh, He's sovereign in His
mercy. His mercy is directed by the will of Him that shows
mercy. He said, I'll have mercy upon
whom I will have mercy. And mercy is that blessed attribute
of God by which He pities and relieves the wretched and miserable. And the objects of mercy are
those who are miserable, and misery is the result of sin.
And instead of deserving mercy, if we're miserable and sin is
what makes us miserable, then we deserve punishment and not
mercy. But God exercises His mercy. And oh, He showed mercy to two
of His children in two different ways. Moses. He asked for mercy because he
wanted to go into the promised land. God said, you're not going. Go up on the mountain and look,
and you don't get to go. He asked for life. God said, no, Moses,
I'm going to bury you right here. Hezekiah. God told Isaiah, go
and tell him to get his house in order. He said, he's fixing
to leave this world. He turned his face to the wall and went
to crying like a baby. And God said, I'm going to give
you 15 years. What's the difference? He exercises mercy even to his
own children to suit himself. Huh? Is that all right with you?
Huh? And how about the impotent man
at the Bull of Bethesda I preached on here the other night? All
those people had around there. And who did he show mercy to?
One man. That's why I say He only shows
it to His people. If you don't believe me, you
look that up. You say, He gives mercy. If I ask for mercy, He'll
give it to me. If you sincerely ask for mercy, it's because you
already want to answer. I mean, you really, really desire
mercy because you know you don't deserve anything else. If you've
got misery in your mind, misery in your heart, and you fear,
and you know you're sinfulness, and you know you have no power,
you know that that's when you're going to say, Lord, have mercy
on me. That's what that Publican says, Motius Preston said, Oh,
Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. And then God is sovereign in
the exercise of His love. Oh, my, man can receive nothing
except it be given him from heaven. You know, this is a hard saying,
God extra sovereign in the exercise of His love. Not many people
can hear that. Here's what it is, the truth of the matter.
God loves whom He chooses to love. Most of you swear up and
down, God loves everybody. If He would, He'd even love the
devil. And is there anything in the devil to love? Anything
in the fallen sons of Adam to love? He said we were children
of wrath, even as others. But if God loves some, The cause
of loving Him must be in Himself. He exercises His love according
to His own good pleasure. And if God loved you or me, the
only way in the world we can trace it back is not to anything
found in ourselves. We must trace it back to God's
sovereignty. Because if He would trace it
back to His sovereignty, then He'd have to love by rule. If
He loved the way people say He loves, then his love would amount
to nothing in this world. And if he doesn't love according
to his sovereignty, then he'd have to be loved by rule. And
he'd have to love by rule, then he's under a law of love. Then
he has to love somebody, instead of choosing to love. And what did Paul say to them? When he wrote the Romans, he
says, He said, Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau. He said, I'm going to tell you
what I think about both of them boys before there's ever more. I'm
going to tell you how I looked at them, how I treated them,
how I regarded them, before they was ever in their mother's womb.
I'm going to tell you how I treated them. I'm going to show you how
I am. And I don't want nobody to question
me about this. Jacob had a loved. Esau had a
hated. What do you say about that? That's what he said. And for
anybody to sit back and twiddle their thumbs and say, well, God
loves me, I don't know what about your God, but I know He loves
me, and I know He loves everybody else. Well, I've got news for
you. He didn't have to love me, and if He loved me, it was because
He pleased to love me. There was nothing, and there's
still. There's still. Isn't anything in me worth loving? Is there in you, Grant? There's
not a thing in me worth loving. Now, I love my son, but as far
as God's concerned, there's not a thing in him worth loving.
I love little Riley Hope Rash, but there's not a thing in little
Riley Hope Rash that calls God to love her. And if God's going to love somebody,
you're going to have to trace it back to His sovereignty. And
folks, I tell you, That's wonderful. If He loved us, when there's
nothing to love in us now, that means that there'll never be
a time that He won't love us. If there wasn't nothing that's
in us to love, then we can't do anything to cause Him to stop
loving us if there's nothing there to love anyway. Oh, God exercises His love according
to His own pleasure. He chose us in Christ, made us
accepted in the beloved. I got to hear it. God's sovereign,
not on the exercise of His mercy, but in His grace. And grace has
to be sovereign if it's grace. If it's not, it's justice. And
all grace is the unmerited favor of God. And if it's unmerited,
it can't be claimed as a right. If grace is unearned, if grace
is undeserved, then no one is entitled to it. If grace is a
gift, then nobody can demand it. And because salvation is
by grace, and grace reigns through righteousness, justice has been
satisfied. Because grace reigns, And because salvation is by grace,
boasting is excluded. God didst all the glory. Who
made Judah different? If salvation is not by grace,
and God ain't sovereign in the exercise of that grace, then what in the world could
we boast in? The sovereignty of God's grace
is seen almost every page in the Holy Scriptures. Abel was
chosen. Cain was passed by. Noah was
chosen. The whole world sent to him.
Enoch walked with God. Abraham, out of all the people
on the face of the earth, got his satisfaction on him. Abraham
had Isaac. Out of the two, he chose Jacob.
Out of Jacob, he had twelve sons. Out of Jacob, he chose one, Judah,
the tribes he'd come through. on and on and on and on and on.
Ishmael's cast out. Isaac is the child of promise.
Esau's denied the blessing, while the deceiver Jacob receives the
inheritance, made a vessel of honor. And look with me in Matthew
11, and then I'm done. Matthew 11, verse 25. You know, In the New Testament, in the
New Testament, here's God's sovereignty. I've preached on this several
times over the years. At that time, Matthew 11, 25,
Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise
and prudent. There's God's sovereignty in
exercise. It has revealed among the gays. Hide them and reveal
them. And why did He do it that way?
Even so, Father, for it seemed good in Thy sight. That's the
reason. Why did He hide it from some
and reveal it to others? He said, It seemed good in Your
sight. It seemed good in Your sight. If that's the way our
Lord Jesus looked at the way God does things in this world.
You hear them from the Pharisees and Sadducees? And there's a
woman who had seven devils. And there's Mary Magdalene. There's
the dead area maniac, running naked, living among the dead.
You pass by them Sadducees and them Pharisees, and you took
that heart, revealed Christ to her. You took that dead area
maniac, cast out all them devils, made him sit at your feet. Oh, my. Hear it from them wise
fellows over there. People didn't have nothing, didn't
have to suspect nothing. That's what we gave it to. And
all beloved, and our Lord was sovereignly, grace was sovereignly
exercised in the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. His birth
is the greatest event in history. And yet He was born in a little
old bitty place called Bethlehem. And His actual occurrence was
not made known to the whole world. Just a few shepherds out there
on the hillside that night and some men that were coming from
the east. That's the only people that God made known before His
Son was born and when He was born. In fact, today, our Lord
has not made known to all men. And it wouldn't have been hard
for God to send angels to every nation, have them stand on the
highest mountain, blow a great trumpet, and say, My Son was
born this day in Bethlehem. But he didn't. Why? Why was he
born in Greece? That was the intellectual capital
of the world, where all the philosophers were in Italy, where all the
artists in the kingdoms were. But he was born in Bethlehem,
little among the thousands. And beloved, he passed by the
religious leaders as they were looking to see where he was born,
and made it known to illiterate shepherds and heathens from the
farthest And bless God for His sovereign grace and His mercy.
And I bless God that He, He measures the waters in the palm of His
hand, measures out the heavens with the span. Consummations is a drop in the
bucket, and I ain't fixin' to tell Him how to run His world,
or how to run my life, or anything in it. I'm in Your hands. Have thine own way, Lord, have
thine own way. Amen? Oh, Father, Father, oh, blessed
Savior, gracious, eternal God, Lord, nothing we delight in more,
nothing we rejoice in more, nothing gives us more comfort, more assurance,
more boldness and fearlessness. than to know from your precious
word, taught by the Holy Spirit, that you rule and reign among
men, that you give the nations to whom you give them, that you
show mercy, grace, and love whom you please. That God, though
the world may look like it's in chaos, men's hearts may fail
them for fear, but Lord, we Whatever goes on
in this world, we can sit on our porch, lay in our beds, and
sit in the services of the Lord, and say, it is the Lord. Let
Him do what seemeth good in His sight. And we bless you that
you taught us this. That you hid it from the wise
and prudent. And you took babes, just babes,
like us, didn't know nothing. Didn't know nothing about you.
Didn't know nothing about your Word. Didn't know nothing about
ourselves. Didn't know nothing. And you
took a little bathe like us. And you revealed yourself. Made
us to know who you are. And what you do. And how you
save sinners. Oh, God, thank you. And we say
with our Lord Jesus Christ, even so, Father, for it seemed good
in thy sight. May we live on these glorious
truths. May they be our stay in the storm,
our comfort in the night. And Lord, as these dear saints
go to their homes, get up tomorrow and go to work, we pray for every
home represented here, every family, the saints that we love
and the people who are not here, pray for their homes and their
children and their families. Have mercy and strengthen them,
encourage them, and keep them. In Christ our Lord's name, amen. Amen. Yes, have thy own way. Well,
God willing, I'll