My text this morning is found
in 1 Chronicles. 1 Chronicles. It's right after
2 Kings. If that helps you any. 1 Chronicles
chapter 29. I want to read to you one verse
and then in the course of the message, quote several others
to you. And my subject this morning is
the sovereignty of God. the sovereignty of God. 1 Chronicles 29, look at verse
11. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness,
and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty,
for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord,
and Thou art exalted as head above all. I suppose one of the
most comforting attributes to a child of God is the attribute
of God's sovereignty. to sovereignty of God. It seems
for the most part to be an unfamiliar expression and teaching. But I honestly and truly do not
believe there's any other attribute of God Almighty more precious,
more comforting to the belief than this wonderful attribute
of God's sovereignty. The expression, the sovereignty
of God, is a divine truth that very few preach in our present
day. It's not hard to understand.
We talked about that last week. The gospel is not hard to understand. Men simply refuse to believe
and bow. And this is the same with this
marvelous doctrine in which God's people love. Men and women by
nature hate it. To say that God is sovereign
is simply to say God is God. God is God. That's the simplest
way to define it. The problem with this divine
truth concerning God's sovereignty, as I said, the men and women
by nature hate it. To say that God is sovereign
is to declare that He is the Most High, doing according to
His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, so that none can say his hand or say unto him, what
doest thou? Daniel 4.35, you're very familiar
with that passage of Scripture. And I've heard men who profess
to believe the Gospel say things like, well, when I first heard
the solemnity of God, I rebelled against it. Or I've heard men
say, I fought against the solemnity of God when I first heard it.
And maybe they did. But a child of God does not rebel,
nor does he fight against this precious truth of Scripture.
Matter of fact, he rejoices in it. It's the best news he or
she ever heard. And like Daniel, we rejoice that
our God does according to His will in heaven and earth and
all deep places. And we find great comfort that
nothing or no one can alter His purpose or question Him and His
doing. Now religious and unsaved men
and women may fight and rebel against God's sovereign, against
His sovereign will and against His sovereign purpose, but not
the children of God. It's their comfort. It's their
comfort. Our Lord plainly said that when
the Spirit of truth shall come, He shall guide you into all truth. The Spirit of God guides. It
doesn't fight. The Spirit of God conquers. It doesn't quarrel or debate.
My sheep hear my voice and they follow me, said the Lord Jesus
Christ. They're never drugged against
their will. but God's sheep are made willing to follow. And I confess to you that the
first time I heard the message of sovereign grace by a sovereign
God, a God that has mercy on whom He'll have mercy and has
compassion on whom He'll have compassion, it was a divine revelation. And I remember vividly thinking
and rejoicing when I heard this great God describe And I said
in my heart, finally, finally someone has told me the truth
about God. I never had any fear, nor could
I worship a God who was trying and wanting to and needed the
cooperation of the sinner in order to save them. That was
no God that I feared. And let me tell you, you won't
fear that God either. But the God that I declare to
you this morning, friends, is worthy of worship, fear, and
reverence. And as I said again a moment
ago, sovereignty simply means that God is God. It's to declare
that He is the Most High, the Almighty, the One who possesses
all power, majesty, and glory in heaven and earth. And God
has never wanted, God has never tried, God has never been frustrated. And yet, that seems to be the
God, little g God, that most men preach today. He's never
been resisted. No one has ever resisted His
will. His will has never been altered.
He's never been controlled by anyone or anything. Some men
may still fight and rebel and live like hell, but to repent
means to change. To repent is to mean to change
the opinion that you have of yourself, first and foremost.
You've got to come down. It means to change your opinion
of God. That's natural fallen man's biggest
problem, that we think that God is altogether such a One as ourselves. But in Psalm 50-21, he says,
I will reprove them. God's people are made to know
that God is not likened to man. His ways are higher than the
heavens above our ways. His thoughts are higher than
the heavens above our thoughts. And He's in the heavens and He's
done whatsoever He pleased. He's the governor of nations
according to Psalm 22, 28. He sets up kingdoms. He overthrows
empires. He determines the course of all
things. He's able to overthrow the rebellious
and deceitful, desperately wicked heart of man. I can assure you
that. And He doesn't try to save sinners. He saves them that He
chose before the foundation of the world. Now that's just a
fact. And that's what the Scriptures
teach. And we need to read our Bible.
Until a man or a woman understands that, my dear friends, they'll
never understand anything spiritual or scriptural. For such is the
God of the Bible. The Bible declares Him to be
the only potentate. The King, K, capital K-I-N-G,
of little k kings. He's the King of kings, the only
potentate, the Lord, capital L, Lord of little l lords. If you fight and rebel against
that, dear sinner, then you've yet to see or understand anything
concerning Him or spiritual things. God is either God or He's not.
He's either God or He's not. And again, I declare to you that
this is the most precious and comforting thing, attribute and
truth concerning God that there is. You know why? When a sovereign God saves a
man, He's saved. You believe in once saved, always
saved. That was one of the most asked questions in the Southern
Baptist Church when I was growing up. If the God of this Bible
saves you, I do. If you saved yourself, chances
are you'd be lost. Salvations of the Lord. Now, I want to give you three
things that make believing God's sovereignty absolutely vital
to the saving of your soul. First, this is the only place,
the only place that a man or a woman will truly worship. Now
I'm not talking about playing church, going through the motions
of religion. I'm not talking about moral obligations
and trying to escape hell and go to heaven. That's not what
I'm talking about. I'm talking about worship. True worship. And it cannot be done aside the
revelation of a sovereign God. True worship, that word means
devotion, praise, thanksgiving, true reverence, adoration, total
dependence on God, the only God, the sovereign God. I'm talking
about falling at His feet like Thomas did and saying, my Lord
and my God. That's what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about like John on the island of Patmos, falling
at his feet as a dead man. Or like Daniel who said, my comeliness
has turned into corruption and I retain no strength. Oh, when
you see yourself up beside the likes of a holy and sovereign
God, friends, you won't be talking about your comeliness and your
strength. You have none. No strength. When the sovereign God of Scriptures
is revealed to you, you won't retain any strength. True worship
is to cry like Isaiah when he saw the Lord high and lifted
up. What was the first words out of his mouth? Woe is me! Woe is me! I'm a man of unclean
lips and I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips.
We're all in trouble before this sovereign and holy God in our
own standing. He requires perfect righteousness.
We have no righteousness. He requires perfect holiness.
We're unholy. Oh, like Job who lost everything
he had, and yet Job said, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh
away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Oh, my. Job also said another
place, I've heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now
mine eyes see of thee. Friends, do you see the sovereign
God of heaven and earth? When Job did, he said, I abhor
myself. I hate myself. I hate what I
am. I hate what I do. I abhor myself. And repent. Change. and dust and ashes. Is it not
right and lawful for Him to do what He will with His own? Matthew
20, 15. You will never truly worship
the God of the Bible until the Holy Spirit reveals to you that
He's sovereign. And when He does, it will be
the best and most comforting thing you've ever heard or believed. You see, the only place, the
only place where a man or a woman will fall down in the dust in
humility and repentance is at the throne of an Almighty God,
a Sovereign God, One who rules and reigns and does according
to His own will and purpose. That's the only God that you'll
worship. One in whom we live and move and have our being.
That's the God that we worship. Only one place a man or woman
can truly worship God in reverence and in fear. And in Romans 3,
you don't have to turn there. You're very familiar with these
Scriptures. The Apostle Paul makes some very true conclusions
concerning fallen men and women. The first thing he said is that
there's none righteous, no, no one. None. There's none that
understand it. By nature, no man understands. None that seeketh after God.
Absolutely none. They've all gone out of the way.
Every single one of them. They've gone out of the way of
righteousness, gone out of the way of holiness. They're all
together unprofitable. Unprofitable. There's none that
does a good thing. Well, I don't much appreciate
that. I didn't say it. God did. A sovereign God did. Their throats
are graves that speak nothing but death. Their tongues are
full of deceit and the poison of asp, which means venom. comes
from their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing
and bitterness, and their feet swift to shed blood. Oh, you
want to see yourself in your natural fallen state? You read
Romans 3 again. God will cause you, if you're
a child of God, to take sides with Him against yourself. And
you'll say, yeah, Lord, it's so. That's what I am. But it
will take the sovereign act of a sovereign Lord, for you ever
see it and believe it. Destruction, misery are in their
ways. Peace they don't know. Why? Paul gives us the answer right
there in Romans 3. He says, For there is no fear
of God before their eyes. Men don't fear God. And I'll be the first to tell
you that the God that I heard preached most of my life, I didn't
fear Him either. He was no threat to me. None
whatsoever. But when I heard about the Sovereign
God, oh, it was different then. Real worship, dear friends, is
bowing before the Sovereign God in fear and trembling, lessen
His holy wrath. He cuts off. He can't. And He will, if you don't bow
to His precious Son. Don't play games with the God
of this Bible, the God with whom we have to answer. I feel some
are doing just that, playing games with God. Don't do it,
friends. Don't do it. Second thing, real
salvation. I'm talking about real salvation. It's found at the throne of a
sovereign God. Men and women can trust a God
who's able to subdue and control all things. Can they not? Paul
said, I'm persuaded. What are you persuaded of, Paul?
I'm persuaded that He's able. He's able to keep that which
I committed unto Him against that day. We commit to Him our
souls. And He's able to keep them, for
He's a sovereign God. They can trust a sovereign God
to fulfill His promise to those who love and trust His Son. They can trust Him who accomplishes
all things, all things, after the counsel of His own will. Let me ask you, friends, the
question from Scripture. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? Oh, not the sovereign God, it's
not. No siree. They can trust Him who has a
powerful spirit that cannot be resisted. You can trust Him who
can subdue all things unto Himself. You can trust Him who has a covenant
that cannot, cannot be broken. You can trust Him who is both
just and requires perfection and yet justifier coming and
perfecting for you the very thing that He required. He's just and
justifier. He's the God of heaven and earth.
You can trust Him who's able to save, keep, glorify those
that He foreknew. predestined, called by sovereign
power. This thing was determined long
before you were ever born. Before there was a sinner, there
was a Savior. You can trust Him. And what does
a child of God say to these things? He says, if God be for me, who
can be against me? And He knows in His heart that
none can be against Him if God be for Him. What difference does
it make who's against us if God is for us? It's a sovereign God
who is for His people who trust in Christ alone. There's nothing
or no one who can separate us from the love of God. Who, what
can separate us from the love of God? Absolutely nothing. Now stay
with me, I'm almost done. Third thing, the sovereignty
of God is the only place that a sinner can find comfort. That's
the only place. When trials and afflictions come,
the believer understands that it's a sovereign God who sent
them. It's the purpose of the sovereign God to work out every
single detail of the believer's life. Somebody said, well, you're
just a puppet. I'm God's puppet. If I'm a puppet,
I'm God's puppet. If He sends a trial, He provides
the comfort. Or He gives the deliverance from
it. And I'm assured from His Word
that He doesn't give me more than I can handle. That what
He gives me is for my good. And it's for His glory. So therefore,
I find comfort in the trial. Because God sent it. He who loves
me and gave Himself for me sends the very trial. Oh, can you see
the safe harbor and the safe ground you stand upon in the
sovereign God? Oh, this is not just a term.
This is not just an expression. This is a way of life. This is
the way of life for the believer. And you can be assured that it
will always be for the child of God's good. That's the reason
after Job, losing everything, and I mean everything. All he
had left was a wife, and no offense ladies, but she was sitting there
just going, won't you just curse God and die? That's right, that's
all he had left. Struck with boils from the top
of his head to the soles of his feet, and he's out on the landfill. Three of his best friends come
to see him, and they start saying, Boy, what did you do to deserve
this? Boy, what a comfort they were.
Well, let me tell you something. Job said, Blessed be the name
of the Lord, for He's the one that gave it. He's the one that
took it away. And I'll bless Him. Yet though He slay me, I
will trust Him. That's where a child of God is
found. So new is for His good. For the
Sovereign God, my friends, does all things well. And that's why Eli could look
upon his sons. Now, you think about that. Knowing
that God would destroy them and say, it's the Lord. It's the
Lord. It's the Sovereign God. Let Him
do what seemeth good. That's how a dear pastor friend
of mine several years ago, upon the loss of his daughter, could
stand up and say on the day of her funeral, we are here today
to kiss the hand of a sovereign God's providence. That's faith. That's faith. And we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are called according to His purpose. Do you know why?
Because He is the only one who is in control of all things. Do we believe that? Oh, God help
my unbelief. I'm going to tell you something.
I heard Brother Mahan say one time, there's not a speck of
dust that is revealed in the sunbeam that is not guided and
chartered in its flight by the divine purpose and sovereignty
of God. I heard another old preacher
say one time, Satan himself can't bat an eyelash without God's
sovereign permission. Is this not a comforting thing
to know? It's so according to Scripture.
It's so according to history. It's so according to experience
in the lives of believers. Yet unregenerate, unsaved mankind
will hate this wondrous fact. They'll hate it. They'll hate
it with a passion. Men desire and want God anywhere but on
the throne. Now, it's okay for Him to be
on the cross. It's okay for Him to be on the
cross dying for their sins, putting away their guilt. That's okay.
Oh yeah, I believe Jesus died on the cross to save me from
my sin. I don't have a problem with that. But they won't have
Him on His throne. Doing what He wills, when He
wills, how He wills, to whom He wills. No, that's a different
story. When God Almighty sits on His
throne and disposes of His creatures as He wills without consulting
any man, giving mercy to whom He will and hardening the hearts
of others. Men rise up, shake their fists
and they shout, that ain't fair. That ain't fair. They turn a
deaf ear and they rant and they rave. Men better take a stroll
again down to the potter's house. And once again, look at how the
potter does things. He has power over the clay, Scripture
says. He can mold that clay into whatsoever
he chooses and pleases to do. Fashioning out of the same lump
one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. The Apostle Paul
said, am I your enemy because I tell you the truth? Friends,
I'm not your enemy this morning. I'm telling you the truth. according
to this book. That's what this book teaches
from front to back. There was a young pastor who
one time came to a seasoned elderly pastor who knew God, and he confessed
to the elder pastor that he was impatient. He said, I'm just
so impatient. I'm in need of patience. And he asked the mature elder
to pray with him for patience. And the elder pastor said, sure,
I'll be glad to pray with you. And as they began to pray, the
elderly gentleman said, Lord, send this young man a hard time. Send him a hard conflict. And the young man jumped up and
he said, whoa, pastor, that's not what I asked for. I asked
for patience, not a hard trial and conflict and affliction.
And the elder pastor said, son, that's how you get patience.
That's how you get it. And I said that to say this,
you'll never truly understand the things of God, dear friends,
until you see that it's a sovereign God behind everything. When you
see and understand that which comes only by divine revelation,
then you'll find comfort in this life as a child of God, just
as you find patience from trials and suffering. 2 Samuel 2, the
Lord killeth and maketh alive. Who does? The Lord does. He bringeth
down to the grave and He bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor and
maketh rich. The Lord bringeth low and lifteth
up. He's the one that raises the
poor out of the dust, and He's the one that lifts up the beggar
out of the dunghill and sets him among princes. Who does?
God does. Oh, He's the one that makes men
inherit the throne of glory, for the pillars of the earth
are His, and He has set the world upon them. Everything in space
rotates according to the hand of God Almighty. Not a star falls
from the sky that God didn't ordain, just as He does the sparrows
that fall to the ground. Oh dear friends, what about God's
sovereignty and salvation? Hath not the potter power over
the clay? of the same love to make one
vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? Speaking of two
twin boys that had never been born in Romans 9, the Apostle
Paul says, these children weren't born yet. They're still in their
mother's womb. Neither of them hadn't done any
good or any evil. That the purpose of God according
to election might stand not of works, but of Him that calleth. Salvation of a sovereign God. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. And men are going to say, that's
not fair. That's not fair. And it doesn't say anywhere in
this book that God is fair. It says that He's holy, just,
and righteous. And you better get ready to deal
with a just and holy and righteous sovereign. Only one way? Trust His Son. He that hath the
Son hath life. What shall we say then? Paul
asked. Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. He even said to Moses, I'll have
mercy on whom I'll have mercy and I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. So it's not of him that will
it. Throw your free will out the
door, friends. It has nothing to do with that. It's not of
him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Salvations
of the Lord. And that Lord is a sovereign
God.