David says almost the same words
in Psalm 135 when he considers the greatness of God, the glory
of God, and His absolute sovereignty over all things. In Psalm 135,
verses 5 and 6, he said, For I know that the Lord is great,
and that our Lord is above all gods, whatever the Lord pleased. that He did in heaven, and in
earth, and in the seas, and all deep places. The first attribute,
as we looked last week at the existence of God, this week we'll
look at the first attribute, which is really an attribute
that is more than an attribute because it affects and covers
and all other attributes are based and held together in this
one attribute of God. And that is what is called the
sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God. This
is a beloved doctrine to every believer and despised by everyone
who doesn't believe. But this is a beloved doctrine.
I've told this story several times about Brother McKinney
years ago was down in Louisiana somewhere. And he was a pastor
of a huge Church of God. That denomination called Church
of God that Jimmy Swagger is in. And he was pastor down there. And he began, by the grace of
God, to get a hold of some tapes and some reading materials and
began to hear the Gospel. And he began to become enamored
with the concept of the sovereignty of God and he began to study
and he found out what God was sovereign And he decided that
since he was so delighted to find this out that everybody
he told would be delighted to hear it, too That he was a he
was a pastor of a church that had just started a million-dollar
building program. They're gonna be a huge monstrous
edifice and sort of the headquarters central for that area for the
Church of God and And so he got up and started preaching on the
sovereignty of God and salvation and election and predestination.
And it wasn't long until they threw him out. They threw him
out on his ear. And then several months later,
they finished this million-dollar project. And the day the church
building, the area was dedicated, the pastor, who was a Church
of God pastor, stood up and said this. He said, the churches of
God absolutely reject the sovereignty of God. That's how he began his
speech. Absolutely reject the sovereignty
of God. Well, it didn't matter. They
could reject all they want to. God is still sovereign. And I
expect when he faces God in judgment, God just might say, do you remember
that time when I put in your mouth to say that you rejected
the sovereignty of God? I'm pretty sure that's what will
happen in eternity, because nothing happens outside this attribute
of Almighty God. God is sovereign. Last week,
as I said, we looked at the concept of the existence of God, an unprovable
thing, known only as God gives faith to men. And this truth
came down to the words of God as He declared Himself to Moses.
the marvelous description that he gave himself was simply this,
I am that I am. I am because I am. I exist because
I exist. All of it is in him. No human language can decipher
the full meaning of this and no science or human effort can
prove that God exists. It's impossible. What we have
is this simple, beautiful, glorious declaration that he makes which
simply declares that He is existence. He is the existence. What does that mean? He is existence. Anything or anyone that exists
must find itself in existence. It must find itself in God. God is existence. I am that I
am. We know that Plato called him
the being, but not in the sense of a human being and noun, but
the one who is being in the sense of an active verb. He is being. If anything is, it is because
He is being. He is being. He is God. Without
existence, nothing exists. He is therefore existence. And He is, therefore we are. It's that simple. Nothing is
outside of the existence. And God said, I am. Now, the
primary attribute of God is His sovereignty. Now, we know the
primary characteristic of God is His holiness, but the primary
attribute of God is His sovereignty. And this attribute is involved
in all that He does and has done. And when we say that God is sovereign,
we're kind of being redundant. To say that God is sovereign
is to say that God is God. That's all it really is. If He
is God, then He is sovereign. If He is sovereign, then He is
God. When asked what sovereign means, Ralph Barner replied this,
take away the S-O-V and insert the word He and add an S to the
end and you have the meaning of the word sovereign. He reigns. That's what sovereign
means. He reigns. When Paul spoke of
the character of the preacher sent to preach the gospel in
Romans chapter 10 verse 13, he referred to a passage of scripture
back in Isaiah 52 in verse 7. And then in that chapter, the
essential aspect of preaching of the gospel is declared. The
essential aspect, not a supplement to it. As I hear a lot of these
folks who follow some of these so-called grace preachers, they
come up with this idea that believing the gospel of God's sovereign
grace in Jesus Christ, believing that God sovereignly saves his
people, is something that they've arrived at through much study,
and it's an important thing, it's kind of a higher level,
but not an essential thing. Listen, Isaiah chapter 52. Isaiah chapter 52. Now Paul quotes from this when
he says, "...how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of
them that bring good tidings, that publish peace, that publish salvation,"
and so forth, in reference to all men have not obeyed the gospel,
because he said, "...whoever believed, I report." Now in Isaiah
chapter 52, and Isaiah chapter 52 is where this matter of what
ends in chapter 55 in verse 1 where it says, Ho, everyone that thirsts.
It begins here in chapter 52. But verse 7 is what Paul quotes
from. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of them that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth
peace, that bring good tidings of good, that publishes salvation,
that saith unto Zion, thy church, thy God, reigneth. Now where does the gospel start?
Well we know if they're bringing good news, if they're publishing
peace and publishing salvation, this is where the good news starts.
Now it is only good news to those whom God has chosen to save.
It is only good news to those who are awakened sinners to their
own horrible situation that they cannot contribute and have nothing
to contribute to God whatsoever in the matter of salvation. It's
good news to know that God reigns. that Almighty God reigns. And
that's the primary message of the gospel that every other declaration
hangs itself upon. Thy God reigneth. And only upon
that premise can good tidings be brought. If God's not sovereign,
I don't have any good news for you. There is no good news. Only
upon that can peace and salvation be published. I can't tell you
about salvation if God's not sovereign. There's nothing I
have to tell you. Because salvation is of the Lord, fully and completely
of the Lord. If God is not sovereign, there
is no gospel, there is no good news, there is no good tidings.
It's that simple. And for a person to stand up
and say he rejects it, he's just saying, I reject salvation, I
reject the gospel, I reject God. There's no peace, no salvation.
To reject God here is to refuse to acknowledge Him, and to refuse
to acknowledge Him here is believing in God with natural faith, and
it is the first step to the road to reprobation and perdition.
Read Romans 121 through the rest of the chapter. Acknowledging
God as sovereign is not a theological opinion. It's not a higher way
of thinking. It's not arriving at some level
that other people haven't arrived at where you can believe that
but not talk about it. It's not a high opinion, a theological
opinion. The sovereignty of God is acknowledging
God as He is. If He's not sovereign, then we
might as well close this place up and do something else. Because
if there's one thing in this entire universe that is outside
His control, we are of all men most miserable. If one thing
is outside His control, we're in trouble. Because if there's
one thing in that thing, He ceases to be God. Just that simple. God is sovereign. We all must confess that when
we approach the concept of God's sovereignty, we are casting our
tiny bark onto a mighty and tumultuous and unfathomable sea. We, who
in no way are sovereign, are intellectually disabled when
it comes to grasping the two aspects of God's sovereignty.
We believe the fact of it, and rejoice in the blessedness of
it, and rest in the comfort of it most of our lives. Because
most of our lives we find ourselves at the end of our rope. That's
where we are. And there ain't but one place
where there's comfort when you're at the end of your rope. That's
in the sovereign God. That's the only place. Ask those
who've gone through sickness and trial and trouble. They'll
tell you. Where'd you find comfort? Well, I pulled myself up by my
bootstraps and I got along the way. You didn't either. You found
comfort in the quiet moments when nobody could hear you but
God. And you and Him did business. And you broke your heart out
to Him and you cried to Him because you knew here is where the only
place I can find help. The only place there is peace.
in a sovereign, almighty God. We believe the fact that we rejoice
in the blessing of Him and we know the One who is sovereign
only by faith that He, that Sovereign, gives to us. Thus our opinions
and our set explanations of sovereignty are of little value. I know we
may let our imaginations run and we may often get diarrhea
of the mouth and let our mouths run too, you know, about what
we think sovereignty means. And it's alright. I don't believe
God will hold that against you. But that ain't inspiration. That's
just one dumb sinner mouthing off to another dumb sinner what
he thinks about the sovereignty of God. God-given faith rests
and depends wholly upon what this mighty sovereign has revealed
concerning himself. What we know of God's sovereignty,
we really don't know outside the concept of this scripture.
We really don't. Now David answered in Psalm 15,
he was answering when he said, Lord don't give us glory, give
glory for yourself, for your truth's sake, for your mercy's
sake. You deserve glory, we don't. And he said the heathen had made
gods, and they do make some pretty gods. I don't know whether you've
seen the statues of these different gods they make, but some of them
are pretty doggone impressive. The work of men's hands, the
artistry is quite impressive. They're pretty. That golden calf,
I bet that was a pretty thing. I bet it was pleasant to look
upon. I bet it was kind of eerie and frightening and special.
But it was made by men's hands. David said, here's the problem.
They say, where's your God? And they say it, saying, look
at our God. Here's our God. We carry Him
on His shoulder everywhere we go. He's like American Express. We don't
leave home without Him. We take our God everywhere. Here's our
God. Where's your God? He said, our
God's in the heavens. Out of your sight. He's in the
heavens and He does exactly as He pleases. What does your God
do? Well, you know, we care. What does your God do? Them eyes
He's got. Does He see? Well, no. How about that mouth? Does He
speak? Those feet you got nailed to that piece of wood you carry
on, do they walk? Do those ears hear? Those hands, do they handle anything? Tell me about your God. And you're
just like your God. You made Him and you're just
like Him. You've got ears they can't hear. You've got eyes that
can't see. You've got hands that can't handle. You've got feet
that can't walk. Our God is in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. In heaven and earth.
And in the seas and under the seas. The fishes and the meadows. The flies and the rats. And the
fleas and the bacteria. All are in His sovereign control.
He is God. Faith, saving faith rests right
here. That's why it's foolishness to
the world. Because we can't say anything we do is evidence of
our salvation, that we're children of God. We can't point to anything
we are. All we can say is, I believe what God said. And the world
says, that's a 35, 100 year old book. What's wrong with you?
Aren't you educated? Well, I've got a little education. A lot
of people have got more education than I do. I got a little bit
of education. Why don't you use that? Because
that's not what this is about. It's not about my education.
It's about His revelation. It's what we believe. We rested
here. Well, I had a heck of an experience preaching. I don't
care. I have them every day. I have some revelations you wouldn't
believe. Sometimes I sit in my chair and kick my feet back,
go off in that half-asleep state, and man, I see things you've
never seen before. I have experience as everybody
does, but we don't count on experience, we don't count on feelings, we
don't count on any of that stuff, because they are fleeting. They
go. They come and they go. There's no basis and foundation.
What do you got, preacher? What do you got on this earth?
I got nothing but Christ. What about in heaven? I got nothing
but Christ. What is described in this book? This is it. And
that's what faith holds on to. And when we talk about sovereignty,
that's what faith looks to. What has been written concerning
Him in His Word. In this book we find the meaning
and explanation of sovereignty by God declaring Himself in a
way that says He's sovereign. By God's saying. And this Bible,
inspired of God, is chucked full and pressed down and run over
with the indisputable fact of God's absolute sovereignty over
all things. Now since every attribute of
God that we'll be addressing in this study is attached to
and empowered by God's sovereignty, today we'll just consider some
of those texts. And if I don't get through all
of them, because I don't want to keep you long, I'm trying to make these studies
no more than 30 minutes, because after you eat and you want to
go to sleep and you start thinking about the football game and the
races and all that stuff, you know, I understand. I'm trying
to keep it to a minimum, a maximum of 30 minutes. So if I give you
the Bible verses, if I can't remember them and quote them
to you, if I give them to you, then you write them down and take
them home and look them up yourself. But at any rate, we're just going
to look at God's sovereignty as He speaks of it Himself in
the language that He speaks. Now sometimes He uses men to
say it. He uses men to say it concerning His will, His Word,
and His purposes. The Bible declares that they
shall all be accomplished without any possibility of failure. His
will, His Word, and His purposes. Nebuchadnezzar said, He doeth
His will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, And none can stay his hand or say unto him, What
doest thou? In Isaiah chapter 14, when God
promised to overthrow Assyria, He said, These are my thoughts.
Isaiah 14, 24. These are my thoughts. They shall
come to pass. They're going to come to pass.
He said, I've thought it. It's going to happen. And He
says, I have purposed this. I have purposed this. And therefore,
I will do this. what our purpose must come to
pass. He said that in Isaiah chapter 46, 9 and 10. He declares the end from the
beginning and things that are not as though they were. He'll
call a ravenous bird, a bird that eats meat, to carry meat
in its mouth to feed his prophet Elijah because he's hungry. Why won't that bird eat that
meat? That bird ain't going to eat that meat. That ravenous raven, that's where
the word ravenous comes from, the raven. That raven, which
is a meat-eater and a carrion-eater, they used to call them carrion
crows, will take that piece of meat in his mouth, and you know
he likes meat, but he'll fly that piece of meat all the way
over to that prophet and lay it in his hand. Why? Because
that's what God... He said, I purpose it. He said, I'll call a man
from the east to proclaim my gospel. I'll do as I please.
And when I speak it, it shall come to pass. I have purposed
it, it's going to stand. That's God's own Word. Now if
you don't believe that, you're making Him a liar. Because He
said, it's going to come to pass. So concerning His Word, concerning
His purpose, concerning His will, they shall all be accomplished
without failure. What kind of comfort and confidence
that ought to give a child of God? No worries, like that old
song, don't worry, be happy. Not that old, but good song. Don't worry, be happy. Concerning
what He's created and made. which is everything, what He's
created and made. He sovereignly rules all and
is the first cause of all things. He sovereignly rules all and
is the first cause. We get mad at circumstances.
We get mad at God. It's that simple. Because it
don't happen otherwise. Something slip up on Him? Something
sneak by while He wasn't looking? If it happens in this world,
The first cause of it all is God Himself. God Himself. Look at a few passages of Scripture
with me. Start with Job chapter 12. Now Job, he found this out. Job, the oldest book in the Bible,
is about suffering. It's about God's sovereignty.
It's about men finding out that God is sovereign. It's about
men under no case being able to justify themselves. They can
only bow to God. In Job chapter 12, verse 10 says this, In whose
hand is the soul of every living creature, every living thing,
and the breath of all mankind. Are you breathing? He owns your breath. Going to
have another one? That's up to Him. He's sovereign. One of these
days, you'll breathe, exhale, and you won't be able to inhale
again. Because your breaths will be over. Because you see, He
holds them in your hand. They're numbered. One of these
days, and for the child of God, that's going to be a glorious
day, because I don't see us needing to be breathing in glory. Christ
is the son of the place, the light of the place. One of these days we'll lay down,
or we'll be standing up, or maybe driving a car. I don't know,
I hope we're not driving a car, but we may be. And we will exhale. And that'll be it. Why? Because
that's what God's given us. That's sovereignty. Next time
you breathe, God gave me another one. God gave me another one. Because
that's how it is. The very hairs of your head are
numbered. They're numbered. That's the
language. Job 14.5. And God is teaching
Job these things. Job 14.5. Seeing his days are
numbered, speaking of men, his days are determined, the number
of his months are with thee. Thou hast appointed his bounds
that he cannot pass. Your days are numbered. How long
are you going to live? As long as God has given you. And no
devil from hell or man on the face of the earth or angel from
heaven can take one second away from you that God has given you.
You're going to live until you're done. Why? Because God's controlling
that. Well, I'm going to take a gun
and shoot myself. Well, go ahead. You know what you'll find out
when you get to glory? God said, that's my instrument. I used
to get rid of you. Your last breath has been drawn.
That's how it's going to be. God is in charge of all things.
You say, well that makes me uncomfortable. That makes everybody uncomfortable.
Because we're not sovereign. Everything about this, to some
degree, when we address God's sovereignty, makes us uncomfortable.
It certainly makes our nature and our carnality uncomfortable.
But it makes us uncomfortable because we can't really enter
into the realm of it. We're not sovereign. He is. So
far beyond the concept of humanity to even begin to understand it.
So when He declares these things, He just throws us for a loop.
Throws us for a loop. Isaiah chapter 45. We'll first
turn to Psalm 24. Psalm 24. Psalm 24, verses 1 and 2. Well, just verse
1. The earth is the Lord's, and
the fullness thereof, the world, and they that dwell therein.
You know how stupid man he is? He's actually come to believe
that the earth is his mother. or that he's responsible for
the earth because the earth is his. The earth ain't yours. And you ain't a product of the
earth. The earth belongs to the Lord.
And all the fullness thereof. Everything gets there. It's the
Lord's. It's not ours. Well, shouldn't
we be responsible citizens? Of course. But let me tell you
this. If the world goes green, and we save every animal and
nobody wears fur, and everybody stops eating meat, and we clean
up the highways and the byways and our rivers, and we get our
air ever so clean, when it comes time for this thing to wind up,
God's going to burn it up with a fervent heat. That's how it's
going to end up. Sure, be a responsible citizen,
but don't get in our audacious brains that we somehow control
any of this mess. The weatherman can't predict
tomorrow's weather. With all our computers and all
our science, when they say 30% chance of rain, you know what
they're saying? On the days that they've recorded
that had the same temperature and the same atmospheric conditions,
same humidity throughout the last 100 years they've recorded,
it rained 30% of the time. That's how they say you get 30%
chance of rain. They can say we got 30% chance of rain, you'll
be standing in a thunderstorm, drenched and wet, and it's still
30% chance of rain. Because they're going on all
the past, not what's going on now, not what they can predict.
Just what's happened in the past when the same conditions were
exactly the same. And we ain't. We can't control nothing. Well,
we're going to make the earth better. You can't do nothing
with the earth, you little piss ant. You can't do anything with
the earth. That's what you are. Now that word's in the Bible.
But I get so vexed when men think that they're something they're
not. And I'm the same way. I think I can control something.
And then God shuts me down and throws it in my face. I can't
control nothing. What's my hope? He's in control. That's my hope. And He loves
me. Ain't nothing bad going to come
my way. Ain't nothing bad. Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45, verse 7, I form the
light, and I create darkness. I make peace, and I create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. Now that's Him talking. That's Him talking. What does
it mean when it says it creates evil? It means that when things
that are hard and difficult to bear come our way or come anybody's
way, they're more than likely to call it evil, so God does
too. It's the hard things. He does
that too. Everybody likes the good things
He does, but it's the hard things. He can make a cloud park on Round
Bottom, like he did in 93, and dump out five or six inches of
rain in one hour. And me, who sits here and looks
across the street at that peaceful, beautiful Raven Forks River,
love the sound of it, the trickle and brook, this pretty little
thing, it got up and it came in my house. He says to the oceans, to the
seas, to the floods, here is where thou shalt come, and no
further And that day he said, come a little further. And that's
what happened. And I went fishing under my house
and under this church with my nose in mud, six, eight inches
deep. Best day I ever had. Called eight
under the church and six under the house. It's all dead. What happened? That beautiful
brook, that's so safe. God may turn it into a torrent
one day, because that's what He does. He does that. He's sovereign. He's sovereign over all things. Proverbs 16, 4, our Lord said,
I create all things, even the wicked, for the day of evil. I create the wicked for the day
of evil. What does that mean? He'll make
one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. What if God, willing
to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels
He made to destroy? The vessels fated to destruction.
Read the marginal reading or go and find your Greek New Testament
interpretation and look at it. The vessels He made to destroy. Out of that same lump of adamic
clay, He did a karate chop right down the middle of it. And these
over here are going to be trophies of His grace. And He made them
beautiful, made them everlasting, made them eternal, signed His
name to them, put them on His mantle, show forth His glory
and His honor. And these He made to be used
for a time and cast along with the other potsherds. Because
He can. Because He's God. I'm the Lord. I create all things, even the
wicked, for the day of evil. Shall there be trouble in the
city? It says in Amos chapter 6 and
verse 3, shall there be trouble in the city? And the Lord not
do it? I never forget September the
12th, after those two planes flew into the towers. And another
plane flew into to the Pentagon and another crashed in Pennsylvania
and it was a sad day for America and I cried. It broke my heart
to see that. I was astonished. I was astonished,
you know. And I was listening to all these
cruel, these cruel old Islamic people, these cruel old radical
mob. Yeah, they are just about as cruel as Baptists. Just about. But that verse came to my mind.
In fact, the next Wednesday night, which I think may have been the
next night or not long after, I preached from Amos 6, shall
there be trouble in the city? And the Lord didn't do it. Those
were guided missiles. They hit the mark. Why? I'm afraid
to ask God why, to be honest with you. I'll just leave it
with Him. Because I think I might know the answer. So I don't want
to know really. But you know what that was? You
know what those boys did? They flew them planes into those
buildings. It was an act of faith. Wrong God. It was an act of faith. Faith outside
of faith in God is useless faith. Concerning His creatures, You and I, we have neither right
nor warrant to question what He has done or judge Him on our
perception of circumstance. Because that's generally how
we judge God. That's how people judge Him. I remember when that
woman killed her five kids, drowned them in a bathtub. I heard a
news report say, I don't see how a loving God can allow that
to happen. God didn't allow that to happen. He took those children
to glory in a way that was ordained. Took them on home. got to him
in his bosom. That's how they got there. Say,
how do you know? I just believe that's the way
it happened. You can't prove it, I know. But
I like it the way it sounds. Sue me. We judge God by perception of
circumstance. We look at a circumstance happening
to somebody and then we might say, well, God's judging that
person when he might not be. When something bad happens to
us, we automatically begin to say we have doubts and lose our
faith and silliness like that. God's not going to be judged
according to circumstance. You read the book of Job. When Job
finally got to the point where he had heard enough from those
three stupid preachers that came, called his friends, those physicians
of no value and forgers of lies that told him, you know, if you
was right with God, none of this would be happening to you. And
finally they got to him. It'd probably get to be after
a while. I would have probably started swinging pretty soon, but he
didn't. He was a good man and he didn't. But he began to think,
well, maybe there's something to this. not defending himself
before God. He began to defend himself before
these men. He said, Look, I ain't done nothing wrong. I ain't done
nothing wrong. And God said, Wait a minute.
Wait a minute. Don't go establishing yourself.
Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Where were you? What did you
have to do with anything? Where were you when the morning stars
sung together? Where were you when I said to
the seas, you can't go any further? Where were you? Who are you to
reply that things happened to you and you couldn't be the cause
of it? God's in charge. And His children
have no answer. after God declared His sovereignty
in Romans chapter 9 and verses 19 through 23. He declared His
sovereignty, having mercy on whom He will have mercy, raising
up Pharaoh and casting him down, saving the children of Israel,
loving Jacob, hating Esau. The elder shall serve the younger.
All that is of Israel is not Israel. All those things that
declared him to be in charge of all things. One little pipsqueak
opens his mouth and says, well, if he's sovereign, and this is
the sophomoric, idiotic argument of fools. If he is sovereign
and controls all things, how can he have a problem with me
the way I am? And what he said in Romans chapter
9, read it. Why does he have fault? Why does
he find fault? If he's the one that made me
this way, why does he find fault? And what's the answer? Well,
I think theologically we must go with the superlapisarian or
the infralapsarian theory. What does God say? Shut your
stupid mouth. You have neither right nor warrant
under any circumstance to reply against God. You are a creature,
and you have neither right nor warrant. Who art thou, O man,
that replies against God? Shall the thing made say to him
that made it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter
the power over the clay to make one vessel of honor and another
of dishonor? Of course he does. The clay has no say. It simply
has no say. God will not give account of
His matters to anyone. Do you know that? I think somebody
ought to answer for this. You ain't going to get no answer
from God. He's not going to give you account. Now why do you do
that? It's none of your business. If you knew, you'd probably shoot
yourself in the head, so I ain't going to let you know. It's by
my mercy that you don't know what I'm doing. He's God. Absolute. completely, gloriously,
wonderfully. And I'm thankful that He is sovereign. Bless us for our understanding.
We pray in Christ's name. Amen. God bless you. Good day.