in Psalms 145. Let me read the
first three verses here in Psalms 145 in verses 1 through 3. I will extol thee, I will praise
thee, my God, O King, I will bless thy name for ever
and ever. Every day will I bless thee,
and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord,
and greatly to be praised. His greatness is unsearchable."
He is great, and His greatness is unsearchable. Last week you
and I looked at the subject of the supremacy of God. There is
nobody like Him. I think that is what David is
saying here in verse 3. His greatness is unsearchable. There is none like Him. There
is none besides Him. He is indeed a supreme God, the
only God. He is supreme in all His divine
attributes, His power, His grace, His mercies, His justice, His
love, His wrath, His wisdom. He is supreme in everything. From everlasting to everlasting,
He is God. There is none like Him. But tonight
we want to look at another subject that is very, very much akin
to this subject, and that is the sovereignty of God. And sometimes
we actually, and it is difficult not to do this because these
two subjects, supremacy and sovereignty, is so alike that sometimes it
is difficult to distinguish them. Arthur Pink distinguished them
this way. He said, the sovereignty of God may be defined as the
exercise of His supremacy. It's the exercise of God's wisdom. It's the exercise of His knowledge,
of His power, of His love, of His grace and goodness. It's
the exercise, really, of who He is. It's this supreme God
working. and do it as He pleases, with
whom He pleases, when He pleases. That is what we call the sovereignty
of God. Sovereignty flows from supremacy. And look here in verse 3 again,
and you see that. He mentions these two things
together down in verse 3 and following. Great is the Lord,
and greatly to be praised, His greatness is unsearchable. Now there is the supremacy of
God. But here in verse 4, look at verse 4. This is the sovereignty
of God. One generation shall praise thy
works to another and shall declare thy mighty acts. In verse 3 you
have supremacy. In verse 4 you have the sovereignty
of God. Mighty acts. Mighty acts. That's the sovereignty of God.
And he does it again here in verse 5. Look at this. I will
speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty. There's the supremacy
of God. What follows? The sovereignty
of God. That majesty of work. And of
thy wondrous works. And men shall speak of the might
of thy terrible acts and declare thy greatness. Now here he sort
of reversed them. In verse 6, he has his sovereignty
first. Terrible acts. And then he has
a supremacy. And I will declare thy greatness. So the sovereignty of God can
simply be defined as the working out. Working out of his supremacy. It flows from that. Look down
here in verse 20. Even this. Not only the goodness of God,
but the wrath of God. Look what he said in verse 20.
The Lord preserveth them that love him. Now, there's goodness,
isn't there? He preserves. There's the goodness
of the Lord. There's the power of the Lord,
the sovereignty of Him. But look at His sovereign wrath. But all the wicked will He destroy. So He's not only sovereign in
His justice, sovereign in His mercy, sovereign in His love,
He's sovereign in His wrath. He's sovereign in His wrath.
all the wicked he will destroy. So he tells us here in verse
7 that God is supremely good. Look at it in verse 7. They shall
abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness. Is God supremely good? He is
supremely good, isn't He? He is supremely good. Somebody
is going to talk about His goodness. Somebody is going to praise Him
for His goodness. Because He has manifested that goodness.
He has exercised that supremacy of goodness. And look what He
says in verse 8. Look at this. The Lord is gracious. He is supreme in grace. The Lord is full of compassion. Supreme in compassion. And slow to anger and of great
mercies. And you know people are going
to praise Him for that? Because He's going to exercise that supremacy.
He's going to exercise that supremacy in His sovereign goodness, sovereign
mercy, and His sovereign grace. So you see there just a little
of what I'm talking about, that the supremacy of God is who God
is. That's actually who He is. The
sovereignty of God flows from that supremacy. It exercises. That's the sovereignty of God
is supremacy and exercise. Pink also went ahead to say this.
Here's what Arthur Pink said. Being infinitely elevated above
the highest creature, he is the most high, the Lord of heaven
and earth, subject to none, influenced by none, absolutely independent. God does as he pleases, only
as he pleases. always as he pleases. None can
thwart him, none can hinder him, so his own word expressly declares,
My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. He doeth
according to his will in the armies of heaven and among the
inhabitants of this earth, and no man can stay his hand. Divine
sovereignty, then, means that God is God in fact. as well as in name, that he is
on the throne of the universe, directing all things and working
all things after the counsel of his own will." Now, that's
sovereignty of God. And you cannot be supreme without
being sovereign. You cannot be supreme without
exercising that supremacy. If you're a king, you rule, don't
you? You cannot be a king and not
rule. The very nature of the name suggests and declares that
you exercise your kingship. That's what supremacy is. It's
the exercise of that supremacy over all things. Now Spurgeon
had a little article, but we don't have time to read it because
I don't want to keep you too long if we do. But some want
to argue against this and say it just creates a bad attitude
when you start talking about this. But did you notice the
attitude of David while he was talking about this? I will praise thy name forever
and ever. Huh? I'll exalt him. That's what
he said, didn't he? Every day will I bless thee.
I will praise thy name. Why? Because great is the Lord
and greatly to be praised. His greatness is unsearchable. It calls for worship. It calls
for praise and adoration. It doesn't create division among
God's children. If it's set forth properly, if
it's misrepresented, yes it will. But it should, if we understand
the sovereignty of our Lord, it should create this attitude
of praise and honor and worship. And some are confused about the
sovereignty of God and man's responsibility. Where does the
sovereignty of God end, and where does man's responsibility begin? Well, that's a silly statement.
The sovereignty of God never ends, and when a man steps into
this world from his mother's womb, he is responsible to God. Divine sovereignty demands responsibility. If God is not sovereign, you
owe Him nothing. Turns don't tell me what to do. I don't go to Terence to find
out what his will is and me conform to him. He doesn't give me commandments. Why? Because me and him are creatures. We don't command each other.
We don't bow to each other. But we are not God. We are not
supreme. But since God is supreme, since
He is sovereign, therefore man owes everything to Him. Absolute
obedience to the Lord who made us. Pharaoh said, who is the
Lord that I should obey Him? He answered his own question,
didn't he? Who is the Lord? That's who He is. That's why
you obey. That's why you bow. That's why
you don't live in rebellion against Him, because He's sovereign.
He's supreme, and He's sovereign. Unto Him every knee shall bow. That's why we bow. That is why
we confess that He is Lord, because He is supreme. He is the sovereign
ruler over everything, everybody, every situation. There are different
ways you and I can consider the sovereignty of God this afternoon. We could consider it, as we sometimes
have in the past, God's sovereignty in creation. We have seen that
before, haven't we? He spake and all things came
into being. We could talk about the sovereignty
of God in providence. He rules all nations. Lord of
all nations. Lord of all nature. He rules.
We could talk about the sovereignty of God and salvation. We could
do that. But I want to look at it this
evening in a different perspective. And for that, I'll have to have
you turn over to a couple of Scriptures with me. I want you
to turn over to 1 Corinthians 15 and then Revelation 11. 1 Corinthians 15. Revelation 11. You and I have an advantage over
our forefathers, especially in the Old Testament. Adam, Seth,
Noah, Abraham, even David, even the apostles and prophets in
the New Testament. You and I have the advantage
over them. And by that I mean this. You
and I are living close to the end of time. There's no doubt
in our minds that we're living in the latter end of this age. We don't know the day of the
hour, but you and I know that we're living close to the end.
And we got the advantage over the Apostle Paul and those prophets
in the early church because now we can look back We got history
to teach us what they didn't have. And when we look back through
history, you and I can prove by historical facts that somebody
has been reigning. Somebody has been ruling over
all nature and over all creatures and all nations. We may argue. We may argue about theories.
We may make some propositions and argue about that or opinions,
but you can't argue with facts, can you? And looking back through
history, we've got historical facts. And I'll show you that
just in a minute, what I'm talking about. But look here in 1 Corinthians
15 and then in Revelation 11. Look in 1 Corinthians 15 and
look in verse 20. Now is Christ risen from the
dead, and became the firstfruits of them that slept. For since
by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the
dead. For in Adam all die, but in Christ shall all be made alive."
There's going to be a resurrection. But every man in his own order,
Christ the firstfruits, he's the first one to raise from the
dead to die no more. Afterwards, they that are Christ,
at his coming, he's coming again. Then comes the end. The end of
the church age, the end of this world, the end is coming. When
He, the Lord Jesus, shall have delivered up the kingdom to God,
even the Father, when He, the Lord Jesus, shall have put down
all rule and all authority and power, for He must reign till
He hath put all enemies under His feet. And the last enemy
that shall be destroyed is death. He must reign. Now this was written
almost 1,000 or 2,000 years ago. And you can be sure that there
was a lot of people living then, when they read this, they didn't
believe it. They didn't believe it. They
said the Apostle Paul is saying this Jesus of Nazareth has risen
from the dead, and he's been exalted to heaven on the right
hand of God, and he's going to reign now. He's there and He's
going to reign. I don't believe that. I don't
believe it. A lot of people didn't believe
that. It was future, you see. He must reign. But you know what? You and I are almost 2,000 years
later, and we've got history to prove He's done it. He's done
it. Now look here in Revelation chapter
11, and look in verse 15. Revelation 11 and verse 15. John
was writing here of the end. Paul predicted the end. Christ
must reign until the end come. Here the Apostle John, in prophecy,
he tells us about the final trumpet, the last trumpet. Revelation
chapter 11 and verse 15. Look at this. And the seventh
angel sounded. That was the last angel. That's
the last trumpet. When the last trumpet shall sound,
the dead in Christ shall rise. And there were great voices in
heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the
kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for
ever and ever." Never going to cease reigning. And the four
twenty elders which sat before God on their seats fell down
upon their faces and worshiped God, saying, We give thanks unto
Thee, O Lord God Almighty, which art and was, and art to come,
because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned."
Here's the end. And he's looking back to Paul's
prophecy to when the Lord Jesus raised from the dead, and he
said, you have reigned. And he says here in verse 18,
the nations were angry. Did that stop his reign? Why,
no. Thy wrath is come, and the time
of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest
give rewards unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints
that feared thy name, small and great, and should destroy them
that destroyed the earth." So here we have a prophecy, two
prophecies. One was saying that the Lord
Jesus shall reign and must reign, and here's the fulfillment of
that prophecy. He has reigned. He has reigned. And you and you and I are standing
almost 2,000 years later, and we can say with John, Lord, you
have reigned. You have reigned. Lord Jesus,
the Son of God, you are sovereign. Your sovereign rule has been
over everything. Let me give you some instances
of what I mean. He must reign until he has made
all his enemies his foot stool. Where are those Jews? Where are those men, the Gentiles
and the Jews, and Herod and Pilate? Where are those enemies of the
Lord that plotted His death and killed Him? Those who said, Let
us cast their cords from us. Let us break their bands asunder.
Where are those fellows? They're not with us today, are
they? They're gone. Where are they?
Where are the enemies of the early church? Where is Alexander
the coppersmith that did the Apostle Paul much wrong? Where
are the enemies of the church in the Middle Ages, and in the
time of the Inquisition, and in the time of the Reformation?
that burnt the dear children of God, the church of Christ,
in the fire, stretched them limb from limb, threw them on the
heads of bulls and fed them to the lions. Where are those enemies
of the Lord Jesus Christ? They bragged and boasted then
while they did much harm to his body upon this earth. Where are
they now? Where are the popes? Where are
the cardinals? Where are the priests who invented
all their damnable heresies? Where are they now? Where are
all the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ? You and I have the advantage
of looking back. We don't have to say, I don't
know what's going to happen to you fellas. We can look back
and we see what happened to them, of course. Here's what Mary said. Here's what Mary said. I'll tell
you what he's done. The mighty has He put down from
their seats. And He's exalted them of low
degree. What's happened to His enemy?
He put them down. He's put them down. I'll tell
you what He's done. He's brought them to His feet
in grace, or He's put them under His feet in judgment. But He's
reigned. He's reigned. They're gone. Where
are those mighty men down through the history, especially since
the New Testament, that had so much authority that men trembled
in their presence? Ananias the high priest and Caiaphas
the high priest, they caused the poor Jewish nation to tremble
at their authority. Tremble because they feared excommunication. Where is most noble Festus? That is what Paul called him.
Where's he at now? Where's King Agrippa? And where's
his wife Bernice and all their pomp and eloquence? Where is
the great Caesars? Where are they? Where is Napoleon
Bonaparte, one of the proudest rulers in our history? Charles
Spurgeon said Napoleon one time took his lawn chair and went
down and sat on the edge of the sea, and sat there in his chair
and spoke to the ocean and said, Here the two shall you come,
and no further. He thought he could defy the
tide, and Spurgeon said if he hadn't moved his chair, the water
would have washed him and his chair away. Where is he? Where
is he? He is no more, is he? The Lord
has put him down from his seat. Who? The Lord Jesus Christ. Where are your Stalins? Where
are your Hitlers? Wanted to rule this world and
everybody in it. Where are they now, brothers
and sisters? We can look back and see where they are. They
are no more. But where is Jesus? Where is the blessed Son of God?
He is still reigning. He outlives His enemies. He outreigns
His enemies. He outsmarts His enemies. And
He either brings them to His feet in grace and mercy, or He
puts them under His feet. But He rules. Jesus Christ rules. He is the Sovereign Lord. And think of this. Where are
those heresies? Those hellish, damnable heresies
that has been promoted for the last 2,000 years. Started in
the days of the Lord Jesus himself. All the heresies. The resurrection
has passed already. That Jesus Christ is not God
in the flesh. All the heresies from the apostles'
days up to now. We are all a man's traditions
and superstitions and those God dishonoring doctrines. Justification
by the works of the law. Where are all of these damnable
heresies? You know where they are? They've
been exposed. They've been repelled. They've
been defeated. Who by? The reigning Christ. And how has He done it? By folks
just like you. By a weak, poor church just like
us opening our Bibles and finding the truth in the Word of God
and defeating these heresies. You know why the world is not
a dark place today, brothers and sisters? You know why you
and I are here tonight worshipping the Lord in truth? You know why
we are not in darkness? You know why the world is not
engulfed in satanic darkness? Because Jesus is reigning. He
is reigning. He is exposing the Harris's.
He is beating them down. He is reigning over them. The
devil is not reigning. Harris is not reigning. Christ
is reigning. And we can witness that, can't
we? You go back through the ages
and you see some times when the world seems so dark. And I imagine
the devil thought, boy, we've got it now. We're going to plunge
the world in utter darkness. We're going to defeat the truth.
We're going to quench the light. And about the time he gets to
thinking that, the Lord Jesus raises up and He sends the Gospel
into the world, and there's light. Who's reigning? He's reigning.
It's evident when I look at you tonight. You're here worshiping
God in spirit and in truth because Jesus is on His throne. He's reigning. You think the
truth would have lasted this long? In the face of hell? In the face of heresy? No. I tell you why it's lasted this
long. Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against me. He's raining, isn't he? He's
raining. Paul says he shall rain, and you and I look back on it
today and say, Paul, you're right. Your predictions have come true.
It's a fact. And you can't argue with facts.
You can't argue with facts. There's people saying today,
well, the church has seen it today. The church is over with.
The church is defeated. I beg your pardon. That's what
they've said that before, haven't they? And just about the time
they say that, the Lord shows them, no, I'm still reigning.
I'm reigning. But consider this also, brothers
and sisters, you and I could be surprised, we are surprised
in a way, that this earth is still standing with all the natural
catastrophes that it has suffered in the last 2,000 years. and
how man is still in existence in spite of all the plagues and
the diseases that he's experienced in the last 2,000 years. Listen
to this. See if this ain't so. What would
happen if the solar system got out of order in the least degree? You know what science tells us.
If the earth drifted just a few degrees away from the sun, you
know what would happen to us? We'd freeze to death. But if
the earth drifted just a few degrees closer to the sun, we'd
be scorched. What has kept this in perfect
rotation? And consider this. Consider the
molten lava that they tell us is deep under the crust of this
earth. If all of this began at one time,
with one giant opening spewed from the earth, we'd be overwhelmed
with molten lava. What holds that in? What keeps
it? And the shelves that's already
broke, that slide on top of each other, if those things begin
to move, this earth would come to part. It would just come apart
with earthquakes. What holds all this together?
Jesus is reigning. Jesus is reigning. We have an
earthquake here. We have an earthquake there.
We have a volcano here. We have a volcano there. We have
a hurricane here and a hurricane there. But what if all of this
suddenly came together? The earth would be destroyed.
And what about all the diseases? All the plagues? We don't even
have all of them recorded. You ever heard of the Black Plague?
Wasn't that the bubonic plague? The Black Plague? One quarter
of the world's population was wiped out in the Black Plague.
Can you imagine that? The last report I had of Africa,
there was 28 million men, women, and kids with AIDS. With AIDS. Dying of AIDS. Look,
they tell us today that one in four people has some kind of
cancer. What if four in four had it? And why not? What if all of these plagues,
what if all these diseases, what if they all came together at
one time upon poor humanity? What would happen to it? Isn't
it amazing then, as we look back through history, the earth has
stood, the solar system is still in order, Man is still here. Look what a beautiful month that
you and I are enjoying. It's so nice outside in our short
sleeves. He's given us rain from heaven.
Hearts filled with gladness. We'll have another fruitful spring.
And it's been this way all along. But why? Why? He must reign. Looking back through history,
and you know something, how confident it is? This earth will never
be wiped out by plagues and diseases. We're never going to have global
warming where the water comes up and covers the earth. We're
never going to have it. We're going to have sickness
and disease and sorrow, but the Lord Jesus reigns in all of it. He must reign. And looking back
now, that's the only reason this earth is standing. That's the
only reason the solar system is still rotating. That's the
only reason you and I as humanity have not been wiped out by diseases
and plagues. Jesus is reigning. He must be
sovereign then, isn't He? He must be absolutely sovereign. Let's look at this in one more
way and look at it in our own personal history. And I think
you can prove the sovereignty of the Son of God that He is
reigning in your own personal experience. Psalm 110 verse 3,
listen to this, Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy
sovereignty, thy power. Now you say, Bruce, what do you
mean? Well, isn't that your experience? Can't you prove by your own experience
that Jesus Christ is reigning? Why? Because He subdued you.
There was a time when you had no will to come to Him. You will
not to come to Him. You didn't want to be saved His
way. You had no will to be saved His way. He said, come now and
let us reason together. If you'd be willing and obedient.
But you weren't willing and obedient, were you? No, you weren't. Then why did you become willing? Thy people shall be willing."
When? In the day of Thy power. Didn't it take the sovereign
reign of Jesus Christ, His sovereign power to make you willing? Don't
you attribute your coming and your being willing to come to
that? Doesn't that prove then that He's reigning? He's reigning. And think of this, in Romans
5, verse 20 and 21, where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound. Where sin abounded. Who did sin
abound? It abounded in you, didn't it? It enslaved you. It had you in
change. You were the servant of sin.
But what happened? Grace reigned. That as sin hath
reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness. I often told you this, but your
experience is just like mine. I had no desire to quit sinning.
I couldn't quit sinning, but I had no desire to quit sinning.
And even to this very day, even to this very time and this very
hour, sin is my worst burden. And I've noticed sometimes, especially
if the Lord doesn't manifest His grace, sin is a powerful
force in my life. Is that your experience? Did
a temptation ever get a hold of you and scare you to death?
You thought, I'd never dreamed I would even thought of doing
that. But boy, you will. Sin is so powerful. It's so deceptive. But here you
are. And you love righteousness. And
you're not going after your sin. You're not bound by it. You're
not under its power and authority. Sin is not reigning in you anymore. What is? Grace. The Savior is
reigning. Can't you prove then by your
own experience that Jesus Christ is a sovereign Lord? He's a reigning
Lord because you know if He's not, then you're in all kinds
of trouble. I love that verse the prophet
said, He shall turn again. He shall subdue their iniquities. He shall subdue their iniquities. And listen to this, 1 Peter 1,
verse 5, You are kept, for you are kept, you are kept. It takes power, sovereign power,
to make us willing. It takes grace to subdue the
sin that's in us, that righteousness may reign. But I tell you, if
He just leaves us alone and don't keep us, we're in trouble, aren't
we? So Peter says in 1 Peter 1, verse
5, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last day. So you're kept. Thirty-nine
years I've been kept. How long have you been kept,
friends? A long time. You've been kept all your life.
You've been kept in the faith a long time, too, haven't you? And we
all can say that by experience. We've been kept. We've been kept. And you look yonder to end of
the world, look yonder to judgment, you want to see the sovereignty
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you hear Him say, Come ye
blessed of My Father. And you hear Him say, Depart
from Me ye cursed. And out in eternity, while His
people, His children, are basking in His presence, rejoicing at
His footstool, giving Him glory and honor, worshiping Him, loving
Him, while they're there in that holy and happy place, you'll
say, how did they get there? Why them? The sovereignty of
Jesus Christ. That's how. Cast your eyes down
yonder in the lake of fire. You hear the screams of the damned.
You hear them groaning. You hear them in their misery
and know that as they are now, they shall forever be. There's
no redemption. There's no escape. And you say
Christ has reigned. He reigned in His mercy. There
His people are. He reigned in His justice. There's
the wicked. But He's reigning. He's reigning.
Jesus Christ must reign until He has put all His enemies Let's
do it. Here's what Arthur Pink said
about the sovereignty of God. It was in our bulletin Sunday.
Divine sovereignty is not the sovereignty of a tyrannical despot,
but the exercised pleasure of one who is infinitely wise and
good. Because God is infinitely wise,
He cannot err. And because he is infinitely
righteous, he will not do wrong. Here, then, is the preciousness
of this truth. The mere fact itself that God's
will is irresistible and irreversible fills me with fear. But once
I realize that God's will only is that which is good, my heart
is made to rejoice. that God wills only that which
is good. My heart is made to rejoice. One thing that you and I are
accused of, that we are accused of God being the author of sin,
we are accused of making man just to damn him. We don't believe
such things, but God will justify Himself. Sometimes we don't know
how to defend God's sovereignty, but He'll defend itself. But
one thing you and I can know about the sovereignty of God,
God in His sovereignty does what He wills with whom He wills. But that will is good. He wills
what is good. And when we see that, He reigns. You say, what about these people
living in sin? That's man. We're talking about
God, aren't we? Why did that fellow do this,
and why did God let him do that? We're talking about two different
subjects. What man does, what God lets him do, and what God
wills is two different things. Man is a sinner, and his will
is perverted, and his ways are crooked, and his heart is black.
He'll answer for that. But we're talking about the sovereignty
of our Lord, the sovereignty of God. And it's amazing And
it's so difficult sometimes to understand that He is ruling
in the hearts, He is ruling in society, a fallen, wicked society. And He's ruling there, and that
reign is right, and it's good, and it's sovereign. And those
who try to make Him the author of sin and hate Him because of
His sovereign rule, He'll plead His own cause someday. Don't
be concerned because you can't bring all of these things together.
Just know this, that the Lord Himself is reigning. And that
reign is right, and it's wise, and it's good. And in that reign,
He wills what is only good. And when you see that, you'll
love His sovereignty. You'll love His sovereignty.
His sovereign reign. And then when you get sick, Lord, Your will be done. Reign,
Lord. Reign. Your will is right. When
you lose a dear mate, when you lose your closest friend and
loved one, when you have problems in your family, and you're hurt
in your heart, and you're grieving, you're burdened, Lord, Your will
be done. Lord, I'm thanking You that You're reigning. You're
reigning. Brother Barnett told me about
an old preacher friend who was out somewhere and he had a wreck
in his old A-model. He was thrown out of it and almost
killed. Somebody went over to help him
up off the ground to see if he was still alive. He opened his
eyes and said, God be sovereign and we be thankful. God be sovereign
and we be thankful. And we are, aren't we? We may
not understand it all, and we don't. And we can't even explain
it all. But we be thankful. We be thankful. Any questions? That's a little bit different
way to look at the sovereignty of our God. But I wanted to look
at it that way. Any questions or comments? Thank
you, big man. Thank you. Anybody got a comment
on the sovereignty of God?