If you were to ask the average
person who claims to believe in the true and living God who
is manifested in the Bible to describe Him in one word, I would
venture to say that the majority of them would respond with the
word love. Now to be sure, the Bible does
indeed say that God is love. We would in no way seek to deny
that fact, nor do we have any desire to diminish the import
of it. Yet the fact that God is love,
that He is full of mercy unto all who call upon Him, or that
He is the glorious Savior of sinners could not in fact be
of any value at all apart from the revelation that the true
and living God is primarily and foundationally absolute. There
is no equivocation in the Bible as to the supreme and immutable
nature of that one whose will shall be done in the earth as
it is in the heavens. God's purpose and will cannot
in any wise be overturned, altered, or even brought into question
by any of his creation. He is in direct control of all
things which come to pass, and there is no power in heaven,
earth, or hell which is not arisen as a result of his own power.
and none which can continue, increase, or diminish apart from
his decreed purpose for their existence. The prevalent view,
which has no basis in scripture, is that evil exists in the world
in opposition to God. The concept of dual forces, one
of good and one of evil, which are continually at one another's
throats, is part and parcel of man's carnal mind and reason,
and his ignorance of spiritual truth. The scripture is quite
plain in declaring that all things, even the wickedness of men, serve
the very purpose of God in accomplishing His desire. Modern theology,
if it can be called that, presents God as a somewhat apologetic
and tepid figure who is just trying to do what is best for
his creation, but who is constantly thwarted in those efforts by
mean old men and a character known as Satan. He is presented
as one whose hands are tied by the free will of men and who
reluctantly observes evil. No man who has ever had one glimmer
of light concerning the character and power of God who has described
himself in the pages of Holy Writ could perceive him as anything
less than an absolute sovereign. I grow so weary of hearing men
who claim to be preachers of the gospel of the glory of the
blessed God, timidly speak of His sovereign glory and predestined
purpose, as if they are fearful to intimidate men or give them
the wrong impression of who the God of heaven and earth is. In
so doing, they do in fact do exactly that. A man is a fool
who is not intimidated as he considers standing before the
face of a holy God who will not clear the guilty nor at all acquit
the wicked. And he is equally a fool who
believes that God's will and purpose can be altered by anything
which the creature might perform or even propose. It is amazing
that the Lord was pleased to set forth one of the most glorious
descriptions of His absolute sovereignty by the lips of the
very King which He ordained to destroy the temple and bring
the nation of Israel into captivity. His hand is not shortened to
save by many or by few, and He will accomplish His purpose in
the earth in the exact order which He designs as well as by
the hands which He is pleased to ordain, whether they be the
hand of the wicked, or the feet of the righteous. The preaching
of the gospel is not primarily for the purpose of saving souls,
as is so widely taught in the current day. Rather, the primary
purpose of the declaration of that message which the Lord has
been pleased to send into the earth is to bring glory to His
name as the Most High God. The fashion in which he would
make that glory known is by sending Jesus Christ into the world,
born of a woman and made in the likeness of sinful flesh. This
is first declared in the New Testament, when the angel appeared
to Joseph and declared his name, which heretofore was not fully
known. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name. that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven
and things in earth and things under the earth to the glory
of God the Father.