Hymn number 97, we are going
to be looking this morning at a topic that has been on my mind
for a few weeks, actually, basically out of self-conviction a lot, but we're
gonna be looking at, does God's sovereignty matter? or does God's
sovereignty matter to you? I'm not good at titles, but we're
gonna look at, does knowing God's sovereignty make a difference
in your daily life? That's basically what we'll be
looking at today. And so hopefully we'll see what the scripture
says to give us more security, to give us more understanding,
maybe give us more comfort and peace during our life in this
time. So we'll get into that here after
we sing a few hymns. Turn with me in your Gatsby hymn
book to hymn number 97. Hymn number 97, we'll be singing Finished
Redemption, and this is gonna be to the tune of the doxology. Tis finished, the Messiah dies. Cast off for sins but not his
own. Accomplished is the sacrifice. The great redeeming work is done. Finished our vile transgression
is, and purged the guilt of all our sin, and everlasting righteousness
is brought for all His people in. Tis finished all my guilt
and pain. I want no sacrifice beside. For me, for me, the lamp was
slain. And I'm forever justified. Sin, death, and hell are now
subdued. All grace is now to sinners given. And lo, I plead the atoning blood
for pardon, holiness, and heaven. Amen, that's our security, that's
our hope is in what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. Just right
across the page, at least in my book, right across the page,
hymn number 99, Salvation by Christ. We'll sing this to the
tune of Take My Life. Blessed Jesus, thee we sing. Thou of life, eternals free. Thou art worthy, thou alone. Thou the rock and cornerstone. Thou the rock and cornerstone. ? Tis from thee salvation flows
? ? This the ransomed sinner knows ? ? Thou, O Christ, art
all his plea ? ? When he sees his poverty ? ? When he sees
his poverty ? None shall glory in thy sight, Of their labors
e'er so bright. All who are taught by thee shall
know, Living faith from God must flow, Living faith from God must
flow. Grace shall be our lovely theme. Free redemption, glorious scheme. This will be the song above. Praise to Jesus, bleeding love. Praise to Jesus, bleeding love. Turn back, if you would, to hymn
number 77. Hymn number 77. We'll sing this. If there's any requests for songs,
we'll sing that after this one, if we have any from any of the
hymn books. Hymn number 77, we'll sing this to the tune of Jesus,
Lover of My Soul. Brethren, would you know your
state? What it is supports you still. Why, though tempted every day,
yet you stand and stand you will. Long before our birth, nay, before
Jehovah laid, the foundations of the earth, we were chosen
in our head. God's election is the ground
of our hope to persevere. On this rock your building found,
and preserve your title clear. Infidels, they may laugh. Pharisees, gangsters, or rail. Use your tenure, keep it safe. God's elect can never fail. All right, does anybody have,
does anybody have one she'd like to sing? Thirty-two in the Songs of Grace. Sovereign Grace Acknowledged. Sing this as you see there to
a tune if it came upon the midnight clear. The Lord our God is sovereign
and He rules with perfect ease. In heaven above and earth below,
He works His wise decrees. The angels swiftly do His will,
and they with willing minds, but Satan, men, and demons, too,
accomplish God's designs. All things that ever come to
pass, God foreordained to be. And all He rules, or overrules,
to give self-glory. God's even chosen to redeem and
save some of our race. Though we are sinful wretched
worms, to magnify His grace. God's grace comes not by man's
free will, nor by his legal words. God gives His grace to whom He
wills and His salvation works. We all deserve eternal wrath,
and some God does pass by, but some He has decreed to stay,
and they shall never die. Great God, we praise you for
your grace and for your sovereignty. You chose us and redeemed us
too, and You have set us free. Great Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
the Triune God we praise. Why do you have your book out on
that? In that last stanza there, it
says, Great Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. I'll change that
to Word, Great Father, Word, and Holy Ghost. The Bible speaks of the triuneness
of God as Father, Word, and Holy Ghost, and the Son as the unity
of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as He is manifested in
flesh. God manifest His triuneness in
the flesh, it's in the Son. All right, anybody else have
a song they'd like to sing? Page 68 in the
Old School Handbook. I need Thee every hour, most
gracious Lord, no tender voice like Thine. can peace afford. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour. Stay Thou nearby. Temptations lose their power. when Thou art nigh. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour. Enjoy your pain. Come quickly and abide, for life
is vain. I need Thee, O I need Thee, every
hour I need Thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, Most
Holy One. O make me Thine indeed, Thou
blessed Son. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior. I come to Thee. Anybody else have a song they'd
like to sing? Alright. We'll be turning your Bibles
to Proverbs 16. And then whenever you get to
Proverbs 16, I want you to put something in there to mark that
spot, and then turn to Psalms 115. Proverbs 16. Proverbs 16, that's where we're
going to be spending most of the morning. Put a mark there,
but the first thing I want to read this morning is in Psalms
115. Bow and have a word of prayer before
we begin this morning, and I would like to ask you to remember,
if you would, My aunt, Judy Tanquary, in your prayers, she's requested
us to pray for her. Of course, we've been praying
for her for quite some time now. And you know the situation going
on with her. She's dealing with a lot of anxiety
and some medical problems that's going on with her. And she's
having another bad day today, I think. And so if you would,
remember her as we pray. before the Lord. Our gracious
Heavenly Father, we come to you once again on another day that
you've given us to come as the church and to minister to one
another, to encourage one another. Father, we thank you for the
Word of God that we have before us this morning. We also thank
you for the Holy Spirit of God that comes and ministers to our
heart, ministers to our understanding and our mind that reveals the
things of God We pray, Lord, that you might give us that understanding
today. We pray, Christ, that you might
send your spirit to give us a revelation of your word, not a new revelation
of things not given already to us, but that you might reveal
this word that's before us, give us the spiritual understanding
of it. May it encourage us and edify us, build us up in the
most holy faith, and that might prepare us for works of ministry,
as you have promised it would do. Father, I pray that you would
help me today as I minister this word, that you would give me
utterance, bring to recollection the things that you have brought
across my mind and study, Lord, that you would bring to remembrance
the scriptures, Lord, that you might speak freely through me
that The preparations that I've made, the notes that I've taken,
Father, might not be the only thing that is said
today, Lord, that you might speak and lead me as you desire. Father, I know that the
Bible, as we'll see here, speaks that a man diviseth his steps,
but the Lord directs his paths that it's not of man to know
in himself what he can do. But Father, we know it's all
from you. And so, Lord, I pray that even
though as I've prepared things this morning, I pray that the
Spirit might have his freedom as he does. We look for that. We honor that. We desire that,
Father. And we know that nothing can
stop that. So we pray that the Spirit might
move and teach as he desires. Lord, we just pray that you would
be with each one that's here today. We ask now prayer for
my And Judy, Lord, we ask that even now, that your spirit might
come. And you said that you would,
as you go away, that you would send your spirit as a comforter
to us. And may she be comforted this
morning. Father, may you give her peace as you are the Prince
of Peace, that you might give her understanding and that you
might give her relief, Father, from the things that are ailing
her this morning. We thank you for those who have
been ministering to her In person, Lord, we just pray that you might
continue to use them. We thank you for them and their
love for her. Lord, we just pray that you just
might bless this day together. And we also want to remember
our sister Louetta and the other members of our church who are
not here. Father, we continue to lift them
up to you. We love them. We miss them. We
pray, Lord, that you would bring them back to us as soon as you
can. Lord, we desire to fellowship
with them once again. But Lord, we just pray today
that you would honor and glorify yourself in all that is done
that we do here today. And it's in Jesus' name we pray,
amen. Psalms 115, I'm gonna read, it's
only 18 verses, I'm gonna read these 18 verses here. but we're going to be looking
back in Proverbs whenever I'm done reading here, but I want
to read these verses because it really kind of sets the tone
for what we're going to be seeing today. The Word of God says in
Psalms 115, starting in verse one, it says, not unto us, O
Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name, give glory for thy mercy
and for thy truth's sake. That should be on the hearts
of every one of us today, whenever we gather for worship, that we
are not here to glory in ourselves. So often preachers want to glory
in themselves, at their knowledge, at their education. They want
to glory in the fact that they've built a great church, that they
want to glory that they have huge coffers that have lots of
money in it. They've erected nice buildings
that look great, that they have all kinds of groups within their
church that is ministering in all different facets. And I'm
not saying that there's anything necessarily wrong with those
things in and of themselves, but so often we can be puffed
up and we can glory in what we accomplish and in what we do.
Our focus as the people of God is that God be glorified. That God be glorified. And it
says, not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy name give glory. Worship
is never about glorying in what we are or do. Is it important
what we do? Yes, it is important what we
do, but that is never the place where the glory rests. We are
to magnify Christ. We've mentioned that over the
last few weeks. We were studying about destroying
the wisdom of the wise, and one of the things in that is that
men can be puffed up whenever they have lots of knowledge,
and that knowledge can make them prideful and arrogant, it can
make them It can make them un-suffering towards others,
not long-suffering. It can cause them to not forbear
with their brothers because of their puffed-upness and their
receiving of glory by other men for their great knowledge and
for their understanding, supposedly. And so we see that glory can
sometimes be misdirected. But here it says, not unto us,
O Lord, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and truth's
sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is now their God? Some people are going to say
that to us, you know. Matter of fact, I watched a video
yesterday of a young man who was supposedly a street preacher. He was out on a college campus.
And actually he was doing more harm for the gospel of God than
he was doing good for the gospel of God. Number one, he was misquoting
scripture left and right. And second of all, he was coming
from a legalistic standpoint of law keeping for righteousness.
And it was just a horrible witness for Christ. But many of the accusations
that was coming towards him as he was standing there, on the
corner was that God's not real. God is not God. There is no God. And of course, that's pretty
prominent in today's society, especially among the public school
systems. They want to cut God completely
out and teach there is no God. It says here, but our God is
in the heavens. And now look at the phrase that
comes after that. hath done whatsoever He hath
pleased. Our God is in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. One of the characteristics
we learn from God's word about God, the revelation of who God
is, is God does whatever He wants. God does whatever pleaseth Him. God gets what He desires. God does what He desires. Nothing can stop Him. Nothing
can stay His hand. God can do everything. Why is that? Because He is the
Almighty. He is the King. He is the Creator. In a nutshell, He's God. I am
that I am. You remember we've talked about
that before. He is God and being God, he can do whatever he wants
to do. He does everything that he says
he will do. He's not a liar. And so he does
anything and everything that he wants to do and that he cannot
go against what he has said he will do. Now that should bring
great comfort to most of us, brethren, is because God has
made great and precious promises to God's people. And if we look
to those things and trust those things, they will bring peace
to our heart because of the promises made by God who cannot lie. He
goes on to say, their idols are silver and gold, the work of
men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak
not. Eyes have they, but they see not. They have ears, but
they hear not. Noses have they, but they smell
not. They have hands, but they handle
not. Feet have they, but they walk
not. Neither speak they through their
throat. They that make them are likened
to them. So is everyone that trusteth
in them. What he's saying here is this,
man makes gods out of their own image. God, they make gods to
be like what they want. And these gods are nothing. There
is no other God. The Bible says that I am God,
there is none like me. I am God, there is none beside
me. I am God and there is none like me. There's only one God. And these men, And I should say
men in general, we make idols out of everything. But yet here,
God says these idols aren't living. God is the only living God. Matter
of fact, the Bible calls Him the true and living God. He is
the living God. He is not a silent God. He is
not an inanimate God, okay? He is a God who truly lives,
who truly moves, who does have a mouth and speaks. eyes that
see and ears that hear. He does have hands that handle
and feet that walk, and He speaks through His throat. He is the
everlasting Word. But He says, those that make
them are like unto them, and so is everyone that trusts in
them. But look at verse 9. It says, O Israel, trust thou
in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.
That is something that we need to get into our mind if the Holy
Spirit would be pleased to do so, that we need to get into
our mind that we are to trust in the Lord because He is our
only help and shield. He is our only help and shield. Sometimes the Bible used the
word buckler, but the word is shield. It means that He is our
shield. Look at verse 10, O house of
Aaron, Trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. Again, God is reiterating the
fact that He is the one that should be trusted, that He is
the one who is the help and the shield. Look at verse 11. Ye
that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and
their shield. The Lord hath been mindful of
us. He will bless us. He will bless
our house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron.
Brethren, those who are the elect of God are the spiritual house
of Israel. He is talking about us. He says,
He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great.
The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children.
Ye are blessed of the Lord, which hath made heaven and earth. The
heaven, even the heavens are the Lord's, but the earth hath
He given to the children of men. The dead praise not the Lord,
neither any that go down into silence, but we will bless the
Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord. And so we see that our God is
in the heavens and he does all that he pleases. And being the
fact that he does all that he pleases, we should trust in him
because he is our shield. Now, What does that mean? Well,
that means that God is sovereign over all things. If God can do
whatever He wants to do and nothing can change Him or keep Him from
doing what He wants to do, that means that God is sovereign.
He has all authority, all control. Now, we talk about that a lot
here, right? We talk about God's sovereignty. As a matter of fact,
we just sang some songs about God's sovereignty. We gave praise
to God for His sovereignty. Our church, we've named our church
Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. Why? Because we declare and preach
the gospel, which is the true gospel, which is the gospel of
free and sovereign grace, God saving effectively all those
for whom Christ dies. We believe in God's sovereign
rule. But let me ask you, in light
of what we just Red, do you believe that God is sovereign? I know
we say that He's sovereign, but do you believe that He is sovereign?
Do you believe that God is in control over all the affairs
of men and all things that go on in this earth? Do you believe
that? In Isaiah chapter 40, let me
turn over there quickly. In Isaiah chapter 40, and down in verse 22, Isaiah 40, 22, it says, it is
he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants
thereof are as grasshoppers that stretcheth out the heavens as
a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. That
bringeth the princes to nothing, he maketh the judges of the earth
as vanity. Now here, this says that God
is sitting above the earth He's the one that has stretched out
the heavens like a curtain. He's the one that spreadeth them
out as a tent to dwell in. And it says here, as far as the
inhabitants of the earth is concerned, they are like grasshoppers. They
are considered as nothing. And that even the princes of
this earth, he bringeth the princes to nothing. He maketh the judges
of the earth as vanity. And so if we have these words
of Scripture saying that God does whatever He wants to do,
He can do whatever He wants to do, and nothing stops Him, and
He says that He is sitting above the earth and He's looking down
upon earth, and He has all the control over everything that
happens in the earth, including the rulers that are in place
in the earth, then why should we worry? Why should we fret? Why should we not trust as we
just read in the Psalms? Let me go back once again here.
Let me get my finger back in here. Why should we not trust
thou in the Lord? Because he is our help, our shield. President Trump, although I believe
that he has done a fine job as our president in most areas.
He is not our savior. He is not the answer to our country. The Republican Party is not the
answer to our country. A better president is not the
answer to our country. And definitely a worse president
is not the answer to our country. The Lord is the answer to our
country. Because it's He that sits upon
the circle of the earth. It is He that is ruling over
all things. And so we, as His people, should
find strength and comfort and should find peace within the
fact that our God reigns. Our God reigns. So let me ask
you, do you believe that? Do you see God as far above the
most powerful human beings in this earth? You see him as able
to laugh at all resistance that we try to give to him. You know,
these Democrats, they are hell-bent on pulling God and morality out
of this society. They are hell-bent on turning
upside down every institution. If you'll just look, every institution
of God, they have taken and turned it upside down. God has instituted
marriage. They've turned that upside down.
God has instituted the government, they've turned that upside down.
The government is supposed to be the one who wields the sword
in righteousness. But yet they've turned that upside
down. And then they have turned the
institution of the church upside down. They have taken all three
institutions that God has put in this world, and they have
turned it upside down. Now it's not just the Democrats,
I think that the Republicans are just as guilty in some of
these areas as others, but they more outwardly and overtly, but
guess what? They're still counted as nothing.
Our God is in the heavens, he still does as he pleases. They
are not getting away with anything that God has ordained. They're not getting away with
anything that God is not overruling. They're not getting away with
anything that God is not in his sovereign rule, Watching over. You know, we take God's sovereignty
really serious here at our church. As I said, we've not only named
it this, but we believe that He foreordains and foreknows
whatsoever comes to pass. That means anything. Every stray
hair, stray atom, Every wind that blows and what direction
it blows and how hard it blows, how bright the sun shines, how
dim the sun shines, how many people are here, how many people
are not here, everything God foreordains, foreknows, and it
comes to pass exactly the way that He has declared. Why? Because He does whatsoever He
pleases. We believe that God upholds,
that He sustains, that He governs all things. That's what sovereign
means. And He does this to bring about
His good. He does this to bring about His
pleasing and perfect will. God does this. If it was fatalism,
if it was just left to chance, then there would be a possibility
that it doesn't do what God intended it for it to do. If it's left
up to man's free will, then that too is also leaving things up
to chance. If God has decreed all things,
but he isn't actively controlling every aspect of everything, whether
it has to do with salvation or whether it has to do with action
within this world, then God's eternal end does not come about. The Bible says that known unto
God is all his works, the end from the beginning. And that
all things were created by him and for him. And that he is controlling
all things. And so we believe that, right?
About God's sovereignty. That's what our church declares.
That's what's been in some of our statements of faith in the
past. We declare it from this pulpit
all the time. We believe that God absolutely
predestinated all things and that God actively, by providence,
controls all things and brings it to pass. And so we say that we believe
that He is sovereign. But let me ask this question
today. Does God's sovereignty make a difference in our day-to-day
life? Does the belief of that doctrine filter down into our everyday
life? Does God's sovereignty have an
impact on the way that we talk, in our attitudes, in our actions,
in our emotions, in our feelings? Does it invade all that we are,
is the knowledge of God's doctrine invading all that we are and
how we act and react in our daily lives. God is telling us that he is
in control of all things. God is telling us that he is
the one to trust because he can do anything that he pleases. So he's telling us, in light
of the fact that I can do whatever I want and I am controlling everything,
trust me. I'm your help. I'm your shield. I'm your help. I'm the one that
is gonna see you through. I'm the one that's gonna get
you through. I'm the one that's gonna make the way for you. And then I'm gonna be your shield.
I'm gonna protect you from the temptations of this world. I'm
gonna protect you from the things that's going on. And brother,
listen, I believe that he can also protect us physically from
the things that's going on in this world. Listen, this COVID-19
thing that's going on here, I believe that if we trust in the Lord,
especially as a church, We trust in the Lord and we come and we
are obedient to him in continuing in our meetings and not listening
to the government, not listening to these scientists that can't
decide from one day to the other what's right and what's wrong.
If we come together and trust in him, not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together, and we believe him and on his word that
he has said that he will keep us from the pestilence, which
he says he has done. Read Psalms 91 if you don't believe
that. He is gonna protect us. I was
talking with my friend JC Fulton just a few days ago. We were
talking about this whole thing about COVID-19 and about people
getting wound up about it and people coming back to churches
and things like that. And he said he's been praying
Psalm 91 for their church ever since this whole thing began.
He just prays every day, Psalm 91. But anyway, we got to talking
about that, and I asked him, I said, well, have you met anybody
or heard of anybody from a true church? I know there's millions
of churches out there, and most of them aren't preaching the
true gospel. I'm talking about true New Testament churches.
I asked him, I said, have you heard of anybody that's got COVID-19?
And he said he couldn't think of any, and I couldn't think
of any. Is that maybe because God's word
is true? We often don't trust God for
what He has said. So does God's sovereignty have
an impact on the way that we think, the way that we act, the
way that we react? See, unfortunately, there are
many today that have a high view of God's sovereignty, but those
doctrines have zero impact in the way that they live. And this
is, like I said, sermon has come about because of personal convictions. You know, I watch the news and
I get angry. I listen to the politicians and I get frustrated
and angry. I think that we need to take
charge and take things over, become militant Christians. That's
not the answer, brethren. The answer is for us to get on
our face before God and begin to pray. that we might trust
Christ and what he's doing as he's unraveling the scroll of
God's decrees. And by providence bringing about
everything that God, did you realize, and this is just a side
note, did you realize that the Bible says in God's decree that
before Christ comes again, men, things are going to wax worse
and worse. Should we be praying that God
changes it from waxing worse and worse, or should we pray
that God keep us during the time that it waxes worse and worse? Because the waxing worse and
worse is a needful thing, according to God's decree, to get to the
end. Otherwise, he wouldn't have decreed
it that way, right? I just said, we believe that
God foreordains and foreknows all things that are gonna take
place, right? So that means not only does he know everything
that's gonna happen, every minute detail, he knows it because he
has foreordained it, okay? He knows it because it was his
plan to begin with. He wrote out the plan. So he
knows every detail. And so if he knows every detail
and he says before his son comes again that things will wax worse
and worse and there'll be a great falling away Do you think that
our praying is gonna change that after God's already declared
that it's going to? No, what do we do? We still pray
for those who are in our leadership, that God would give us good leaders. We still pray for the people
of God, that God would continue to keep them faithful, keep them
strong. But listen, we pray that God
would keep us in this time of evil. But there are many that doesn't
have an impact in their daily lives. And as I said, as I become
frustrated at leaders, as I become discouraged about the way that
our country is right now with all the fractions that are in
there, and especially the wicked who are rising up
and just trying to destroy everything that's good about this country,
if we can call it good, we can sometimes lose sight of the fact
that God is sovereign, and I have often done that. I found a quote
by John Newton this week, and it says this. He says, I'm afraid
there are Calvinists who, while they accounted a proof of their
humility, that they are willing in words to debase the creature
and give all the glory of salvation to the Lord yet not know what
manner of spirit they are of. Self-righteousness can feed upon
doctrines as well as upon works. And a man may have a heart of
a Pharisee while his head is stored up with orthodox notions
of the unworthiness of the creature and the riches of free grace.
See, we can have great doctrinal knowledge and understanding,
but yet be puffed up in our heart. We have admonitions all through
scripture about that. about knowledge puffing up. We
have all kinds of stuff in the scriptures that tell us that
we need to be careful, take heed how you stand lest you fall.
We can have it all right in our minds, but our deportment of
it may be wrong. And so we want to consider this
link between God's sovereignty and our everyday lives. Should
God's sovereignty make a difference? Well, I believe it should. I
believe that God's sovereignty is a practical thing that we
can understand. Now let's look here at Proverbs chapter
16, if you would. Proverbs chapter 16, I'm going
to start reading in verse 1. It says, the preparations of
the heart, and that word preparations there means disposings or the
disposings of the heart. The preparations of the heart
in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. Now,
if you don't think that God is involved in every detail, the
preparations or the disposings of the heart and the answer of
the tongue are from the Lord. All the ways of man are clean
in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth the spirits. Another
verse in the Bible says, there's a way that seems right unto man,
okay? Man believes that he's clean
in his own eyes, but the Lord, he weigheth the spirits. He knows
the truth of what we are. Verse three, commit thy works
unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established." Now those
are great words, brethren. Commit thy works unto the Lord.
In everything that you do, commit it unto the Lord. And He will guide your thoughts.
You want to know how to do something? What you should do in a situation?
Well, commit your works unto the Lord and He will establish
your thought. I grew up believing, thinking,
as I was preaching and teaching in the past as an Armenian, that
we need to find out God's will. Oh, I need to know God's will.
And we start talking about, well, where do I live? Well, what house
should I choose? What car should I buy? What house should I, or
what job should I take? You know, what shoes should I
buy and wear? You know, I need to seek God
in everything. Well, that's true. I think that
we ought to be mindful of every decision that we make and have
a God reference to that in everything we do. But there are a lot of
people that think that it's like stepping stone, given the illustration
before, that God's will is this like stepping stone path that
God has laid out, and that's his will, and nothing else is
right. And you have to pray and seek
His face to know where those stepping stones are and you might
start walking and all of a sudden you've taken the wrong step and
went the wrong way. That's not how it works. Number
one, there is no two wills in God. There's only one will. Everything
that happens is according to God's will. Nothing happens that's
not according to God's will. We talk about, oh, I'm out of
the will of God. No, you might be disobedient
to God, but there is no such thing as being out of the will
of God. God's will is what it is. If it isn't God's will, it
doesn't happen. Didn't we just read that he does whatever so
he pleases and that all things happen according to his purpose
and his will? OK, well, if that's the case,
then nothing happens outside of his will. If we commit our works unto the
Lord, that little stepping path, we just walk. Just walk. And God will direct your paths.
Verse 4, The Lord hath made all things for Himself, yea, even
the wicked, for the day of evil. That's a hard verse for many
to swallow. But yes, God has even made the
wicked for the day of evil. He's made the wicked, not just
in general, He's made the wicked for the day of evil. So that
means that God has made evil and the wicked. He has made the
wicked to carry out the evil that He has foreordained would
happen for His purposes. And again, not to get off on
the subject, we've talked about it a lot here, and even many
sovereign grace people can't swallow what the Bible teaches
about our God. Is the cross of Jesus Christ
and him being crucified by wicked men, was that not evil? Absolutely
it was. It is evil to take an innocent
man who never sinned and to crucify him as a blasphemer, to crucify
him as a sinner for crimes that he did not do. It is, it is,
that's evil. And that was the greatest evil
that's ever been done. Listen, Hitler and all of what
Hitler did to all those Jews was not a greater evil than the
fact of killing God's innocent son. Crucifying him, torturing him,
beating him, lashing his back until all of his bones were shown,
to rip his beard out with their hands, to spit on him, to shove
a crown of thorn with Big ol' giant thorn to shove it down
into his head. To throw a big ol' log, wood
cross on that bare back that just got beat to death with 39
lashes from bones and steel raking his meat off of his, or the flesh
off of him. Carrying that thing all the way
up to a mountain where they crucified him. Drove nails in his hand.
Listen, that was evil. That was ordained of God. The Lord hath made all things
for Himself, yea, even the wicked." So what do we understand here?
God is in control of all things. Yes, even the wicked. The wicked
have a place in God's purpose and in God's plan and He is controlling
every evil act. Listen, all these riots, all
this Black Lives Matter stuff, all this stuff that's going on,
listen, God is controlling all of that. And listen, is it evil? Yes. Is it horrible? Yes. Is it sin? Yes. Is it going to
go unpunished? Absolutely not. It will not go
unpunished. God will judge every one. Look at verse five. Everyone
that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Though hand joined in hand, he
shall not be punished. The proud in heart is an abomination
to the Lord. God resisted the proud, the Bible
says. Pride cometh before a fall, the
Bible says. Listen, pride is a bad thing
to all of us. The lust of pride is one of those
lusts, three lusts that the Lord talked about, that we find in
every man and every woman. It says, by mercy and truth,
iniquity is purged, and by the fear of the Lord, men depart
from evil. When a man's ways please the
Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. That's
good counsel for you guys. When a man's ways please the
Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Better is a little with righteousness
than great revenues without right. A man's heart diviseth his ways,
but the Lord directeth his steps. Again, more truth about God's
sovereignty. A divine sentence is in the lips
of the king. His mouth transgresseth not in
judgment. A just weight and balance are
the Lord's. All the weights of the bag are His work. Verse 12 is an abomination. to
kings to commit wickedness for the throne is established in
righteousness. Listen, it's an abomination for these men who
are in power to abuse that power. But listen, it's not going to
go unpunished. Righteous lips are the delight
of kings, and they love him that speaketh right. The wrath of
a king is as messengers of death, but a wise man will pacify him.
In the light of the king's countenance, his life and his favor is as
a cloud of the latter rain. How much better is it to get
wisdom than gold, and to get understanding rather than to
be chosen than silver?" Now remember, Solomon is right in this thing.
He's the one that God said, you ask anything that you want and
I'll give it to you. And Solomon asked for wisdom above everything
else. Instead of gold, instead of silver,
he asked for wisdom. Why? Because if you have the
wisdom of God, if you have wisdom to rightly discern things, then you have a handle on every
situation. You know how every situation
should be handled. The highway of the upright is
to depart from evil. He that keepeth his way preserveth
his soul. Pride goeth before destruction
and the haughty spirit before a fall. Better it be to be of
a humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with
the proud. He that handled with the matter
wisely shall find good, and whosoever trusteth in the Lord, happy is
he. The wise in heart shall be called prudent, and the sweetness
of the lips increases learning." Now, there's a lot of good teachings
here, brethren, that I don't have time to expound upon. And
it's part of the reading here that we want to see about the
sovereignty of God. But there's a lot of great instruction
here for us to take to heart for us and for our learning.
Verse 22, understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it,
but the instruction of fools is folly. The heart of the wise
teacheth his mouth and addeth learning to his lips. What does
that mean? The heart of the wise teacheth
his mouth. A person who is wise teaches his mouth to say right
things. When to speak and when not to
speak. The Bible says that there's a time to speak and there's a
time not to speak. The Bible says that it's to be
quick to listen but slow to speak. That out of the abundance of
the heart, the mouth speaketh. And if we have wisdom, then we
should teach our lips to speak wisdom and not folly, not stupid
stuff, okay? The heart of the wise teacheth
the mouth and addeth learning to his lips. Pleasant words are
as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones. There is a way that seemeth right
unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. He that
laboureth laboureth for himself, for his mouth craveth it of him.
An ungodly man diggeth up evil, and in his lips there is a burning
fire. A froward man So with strife
and a whisperer separate as chief friends. Oh man, how true that
is. A forward man, so with strife
and a whisperer, that's someone who talks about somebody else
behind their backs, separate as chief friends. I don't know
how many times I've seen that happen before. is men who are
great friends because somebody talked about that brother or
that sister behind their back, put a vision, put a thought into
someone else's mind that they weren't even thinking about,
and now has caused their friendship to cease because of the way that
they are now portrayed or understood to be because someone has whispered
about them, or even if it's something bad that they've done. And I
know we're all guilty of this. Every one of us has probably
done this at some point in our life, and we're talking about
something bad that somebody has done, and now that has projected
that thought or that character of that person, and it has made
it look bad in somebody else's eyes who may not have even known
that that was the case. That's why the Bible tells us
that we should be careful in how we talk. and not to be saying
stuff like that behind people's back. Verse 29, a violent man
entices a neighbor and leadeth him into the way that is not
good. He shutteth his eyes to devise forward things, moving
his lips, he bringeth evil to pass. The hoary head is a crown
of glory. What is a hoary head? Does anybody
know what a hoary head is? Huh? Yeah, Brother Ed's got one. He's got a hoary head. I'm starting
to get one, at least in my beard. I'm starting to get a hoary beard. It's gray-haired, okay? The gray head is a crown of glory
if it be found in the way of righteousness. He that is slow
to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit
than he that taketh the city. Now, listen, guys. Now, this
is good especially for you young kids to understand, and especially
you boys. to understand because we sometimes
are prideful and we think that we have to show our macho-ness
in front of other men. God's viewpoint is this. He that is slow to anger is better
than the guy that just jumps up and boom! I take victory over
whatever it is I'm doing. He that's slow to anger. Be slow
to anger. Not fast to get mad and upright. Again, I said this comes out
of great conviction of myself, right? I know myself, and I know
that I'm not slow to anger, but I'm strong to just jump up and
be mad about something. And he that ruleth his spirit
is mightier than he that taketh a city. He that can control his
emotions, he that can control his anger, his frustrations,
He that can control those things is mightier than the greatest
hero that can go and take a whole entire city cap. See how different we look at
people today? We look at just the opposite, right? We look
at the mighty. We look at the strong, the brave. We look at the ones who have
accomplished great feats of strength and power. and control over things. But yet the Bible is just the
opposite, the one who's slow to anger and the one that rules
with His Spirit. And then look here in verse 33,
the last one we'll read. The lot is cast into the lap,
but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. It's kind of
funny that the Holy Spirit had this written down at the very
end of that whole passage in all these things that should
be how we are to act and react, but at the end it says, the lot
is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of
the Lord. That means even in the minute
things, God is in control and is bringing it about. The first
thing I want us to look at, and I usually say first thing, it's
been an hour, preacher. The first thing that we need
to understand in does God's sovereignty matter, or is God's sovereignty
enough for you in this day and age, is what is God's sovereignty? Is God sovereign? We need to
understand that God is sovereign. There in verse 33 it says, the
lot is cast into the lap. But the disposing thereof, the
whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. So basically what we're
saying there is the lot, that'd be like a dice. Boom, we're throwing
some dice. You kids have played games where
you toss the dice and you're trying to get six, right? Trying
to get six. Every time you throw that dice,
the disposing of it or the outcome of that comes from the Lord. The outcome comes from the Lord. God's got more important things
to worry about than what number comes up on the dice that's rolled.
God is making a point saying that even that very minute, insignificant,
that you don't even think about, I'm controlling that just as
much as anything else. I control the throw of the dice
just as much as I do in nations rising and nations falling. That
even the most minute thing that you think is insignificant is
under my control as much as even the greatest thing, like the
salvation of every person that was given to Christ. See, that's why we shouldn't
take God's sovereignty lightly, because God literally is controlling
all things. The Bible says that by Christ,
all things consist. It's held together. It moves
and has their being because of Christ. Now think about it right
here, all of us that's in this room. How many of you here has
actually mentally thought, I need to breathe in and I need to breathe
out right now? I need to blink my eyes. Four
of you, right when I said that, blinked your eyes. Didn't even
have any thought about it. You blinked your eyes. Do you
think mentally in your mind all day long, blink, blink, blink,
blink, breathe in, breathe out? No. But you know what? God is
controlling every one of those. Now, some people think that God
has just created all things, spun it all up and just let nature
take its course. That breathing is just the natural
reaction of a body that's alive because God has put it into play
and has wound it up like a toy. And then it just does its natural
function until it finally winds down. But no, the Bible says
that he is in control of all that stuff. Me and you boys, we got haircuts
about a month ago. Guess what? Our hairs are back
to where we need haircuts again. Did you think about hair you
need to grow, hair you need to grow, hair you need to grow?
No. But you know that every one of your hairs that grew or fell
out, brother, God disposed of those things. everything God is in control
of. If God is sovereign over all
things as we say and believe He is, then why does that not
trickle down into our everyday life when things don't go our
way, when things aren't like what we think they should be,
when things are going in a direction we think it should go in another
direction? Do you not believe that God is in control of everything
and if it's going that direction, is it not God who is disposing
it into that direction? And if He's disposing it in that
direction, then why are we to complain about what is going
on? Now that doesn't mean that we
are not to come against what's evil and call evil evil. And that isn't that we should
not pray for those who are doing evil, that God might save them
from out of that. But brethren, listen. God is
taking things in the direction that He sees fit. Natural disasters. God was in
control of it. This tornado that took out a
third of Joplin, God was in control of that. It hit the houses that
he designed to hit. It took out the businesses he
designed to take out. The path that that tornado took,
where it skipped down a couple of times and then finally landed,
and then went for a full, what, three miles, I mean? And then
a mile wide? God designed that. Why did this
house get demolished on this side of the road, but just on
the other side of the road, this house didn't get demolished?
God designed that. He was in control of all that.
Natural disasters. We've seen floods, we've seen
earthquakes, we've seen tornadoes, we've seen volcanoes. God's in control of that disease.
God's in control of diseases. COVID-19 isn't something that
just escaped out of Wuhan. God is in control of all those
diseases. Not one disease is on the face of the earth that
God has not, in his sovereignty, ordained, and by providence,
disposed. All of your inherited characteristics. The color of your eyes. The color
of your hair. How tall you are. How short you
are. Some more than others. How big your feet are. How big your nose is. How big
your belly is. These things God controls. My
new things. But listen, God controls the
country you were born in. Doesn't the Bible say that He
has established our habitation? That He has set the habitation
of where we live? The weather, harvest, the economy,
all these things are controlled by God. Now listen, if that's
the case, if God is sovereign over all those minute things,
and God controls every seemingly random event, Shouldn't we trust Him in our
daily lives? If He is God and He tells us
as His people, House of Israel, trust in Him. He is your shield. He is your helper. He's going
to help you get through it all. He is going to shield you. Look
at verse 9. A man's heart devises his ways,
but the Lord directs his steps. Listen, most of our plans to
bring about our security, we go out and work. You know, the
Bible tells me that I'm to work to provide for my family. And
I take that seriously. I go out and I work and I provide
for my family. That's what we ought to do. The
Bible tells us that we are to be prudent in all of our dealings
and wise in our department of things. And we should do that. But listen to me. If we make
our plans to be for our security, saving money, uh, trying to,
uh, uh, make sure that everything is
done and by our wise saving, by our wise working, by our figuring
out which insurance to buy, which house to buy, which car to buy.
Whenever we do all these things, make all of our plans, and we
think that that in and of itself is going to bring us security,
the Bible says, you see it, you've built it, you think you've got
security, and do you not know that it's going to be destroyed?
Do you remember the parable that Jesus gave of the man who stored
up all that grain? He said, you think you're going
to live now in security the rest of your life? Do you not know
that the Lord's going to take your life right now? See, our life isn't meant to
just live to make sure that we are secure, and that through
that security that we build for ourselves, We know we're going
to be secure. Christ is our security. The Lord
is the one that gives us the security. That's why in verse
3 he says this, Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts
shall be established. If you want security for your
family, then commit your works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.
Look to the Lord to give you security and not in your outworking
to be your security. Trusting His path for security
and not your plans and efforts. Let me give you a few illustrations
here. Let me ask you something. Which
one of these is safer? If somebody does everything in
their life that they absolutely, positively can without any obstruction,
if somebody does everything within their own power, within their
own reason, within their own wisdom and efforts, that can
be possibly done within this world to bring them security
on one hand, and then another person just follows God to wherever
it is that God leads them, which one is safer? Who's the one that's safer? the
one who has taken in everything that's in this world, given to
them to make good of. You know, God's given us a brain
to think and a body to work, and He's given us finances He's
given us a country in where we can build a business, we can
have security by stocks and bonds and buying gold and buying silver,
making investments in things like houses and have assets that
build our wealth and our portfolios to the place where we can have
financial freedom. You ever listen to financial
guys on the radio? They tell you. how to build financial
freedom so that at a certain point in your life you don't
have to worry anymore. You're secure because you've
laid up for yourself all this wealth. What if you're the person
who has every tool available to you and every opportunity
open to you and every ability you are able to do to establish
everything for security? Are you any more safer than the
person who God leads to do the most dangerous and unknowing
things of life. But yeah, you're just walking
with Him no matter what you can see or foresee down the road.
Who's more safer? Well, it's not this guy over
here. It's the one that walks and is committed his works unto
the Lord. Matter of fact, let me ask you,
where in the world does danger even come from? You ever thought
of that? Where does danger come from?
There's usually two places that danger comes from. Danger comes
from some seemingly random event that happens. I'm leaving out of here and I
pull out on 32nd Street and some guy has run the red light and
blasted through and nails the side of the car and kills me
instantly. Seemingly random event, just
boom, came out of nowhere. Well, that's one way that danger
comes from, is just random events. But there's another way that
danger comes, right? It's by devised plans of men. Devised plans of men. It can
come from a random event, seemingly random event of life, or it comes
by a deliberate act by somebody else. Brother Eddie could get up from
his chair back there and come up here and just punch me right
in the nose for no reason, just because he wants to. Why? Because he's been sitting back
there saying, you know, I really don't like that guy, and I don't like
his nose, and I'm going to go up and just punch him right in
the nose. Danger came from a planned out event by a person. So danger
comes from two places, a seemingly random event or by a predisposed
plan of somebody else, right? Doesn't God control both of those? As we've read here in Proverbs?
God controls both of those. He controls the random events
like a throw of the dice. And He controls the concerted
efforts of men and what they do. Look at verse 25. There is a way that seems right
unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. We can consider this way in two
different ways. The first way that seems to be
most likely to lead to happiness. Men are pursuing happiness. I'll
be honest, that's what I pursue. I want to be happy, don't you? But how do we pursue that happiness?
A lot of people pursue it through their careers. They pursue it
through family. They pursue it through entertainment.
They think that through entertainment they are happy. Some through
money, through sex, through prestige. These are all things that men
think will give them happiness. But listen, brother, we fool
ourselves whenever we see these things. Verse 25 is very true. The way that seemeth right unto
man ends in the way of death. See, our pursuit, our desire,
our whole thing should be to find sustenance, to find our satisfaction,
to find our sufficiency in God alone. To know that we are His, to know
the hope that we have in Him, The Bible says that His grace
is sufficient for us, right? If His grace is sufficient for
us, then that means it's sufficient in everything. Is His grace sufficient
for you in your security for the future? Is His grace sufficient
for you in the way that the United States is headed? Is His grace
sufficient for you in your family, in your job situation, in your
money situation? in your church situation. Is
His grace sufficient for you? Is the way God is providentially
bringing about His eternal decree, is His grace sufficient for you? And is His plan trustworthy? See, that's what I'm talking
about. How does God's sovereignty affect you on your everyday lives? If you believe that He is sovereign,
if you believe He is sovereign in the big things as well as
the small things, then whenever this life is going about its
business of what's happening and transpiring, then we should
be trusting Him, for He is our Helper and our Shield. I think we will stop right there,
brother, and we'll pick up with this. Lord willing, next week
it's 1130 and we will hope what has been said has been an encouragement
and a blessing to you. But we're going to pick up next
week and look how this ought to humble us before God. Knowing
the sovereignty of God, we ought to humble ourselves before God
so that we listen to whatever he says. That I am your helper,
and I am your shield. But we'll stop there, and we'll
pick up where we're going next week. Does anybody have any comments
or have anything that you'd like to add, any prayer requests or
anything like that? All right, this part. Jesus, we come now and we thank
you so much for all that you've given us, for all that we are. We thank you, Father, for the
way that you control all things according to your will. Father,
we ask that you would forgive us for how oftentimes we neglect
to acknowledge your sovereignty, even in the minute things of
life. how our eyes often get shifted off of You and Your promises,
Your sovereign work in Your creation, and give it upon the works of
men. Father, forgive us for placing our trust in the things of this
world and not upon You. Father Lord, I pray that You
would help us to learn these things, that You would help us
that even in these times, that we might, as you have instructed
us, trust in you as our helper and our shield. Lord, we need
protection. We need protection from this
corrupt world. We need protection from the acts of sinful men.
We need protection, Father, from even our own minds that think
we can control things ourselves or do things better than you
have determined that they be done. But, Father, may you help
us acknowledge your kingship acknowledge your work amongst
your creation. Father, may we proclaim your
sovereignty loudly by mouth, but Father, may we humbly of
heart accept that sovereignty for ourselves in our daily lives
as you see fit to work it out. Lord, we pray that you would
help us. We pray Lord now again for this
church and we ask Lord that you would continue to bless it. Father,
if you see fit to grow it, to grow it, that Lord that you would
just preserve us in the truth, that you would help me to be
a good pastor, be a good preacher of this word that you continue
to teach us, Lord. Father, I pray that Joplin might
find constantly a light and a witness of the true gospel of Jesus Christ
here. Lord, I just pray now for Sister
Loretta again and Sister Judy. We ask, Lord, that you just be
with them and that you would minister to them. Father, we
know that you're in control and we look to you for all things.
And what you do and what you bring about, Father, is right
and good and just. So help us, Lord, to understand
it and to give You glory in it. We thank You again for Christ
who died for us, for the salvation we have in Him through Him, the
forgiveness of sins, for the reconciliation to God. We thank
You for justification. We thank You for the hope that
we have within and the soon coming return of our King, our Savior.
Lord, may You keep us now as we leave this place, be with
us as we go this week, till you gather us again, whether here
or whether with you. In Christ's name we pray, amen.