Christ Sanctuary - 31st December 2023
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When Dr J.I. Packer was asked which teaching in the Bible Christians are most prone to neglect, he said: “I don’t think enough Christians believe deeply enough in the sovereignty of God. We say we believe it / but we still live our lives as if everything depended on us rather than on him”
Sproul / “Most Christians salute the sovereignty of God but believe in the sovereignty of man”
In my four decades of preaching / I had one sermon that provoked outrage
Four people walked up to me to say how offended they were. One of those was a man who had lost his brother in a tragic accident. He could not believe that his brother’s death was an act of God’s eternal counsel that it served God’s ultimate purpose
Perhaps living in a world such as ours
* shrouded in a vale of tears and drenched in senseless violence
* plagued with every kinds of unspeakable evil
- we have become ill-confident about God’s sovereignty
Maybe quietly / we ask / “Is God still in control / Does He even care?”
“Is the classical doctrine of the Sovereignty of Almighty God even true?”
So what I want to do this morning / is to ask three questions:
First / what does it mean / when we say God is sovereign?
Secondly / how is God sovereign?
Thirdly / I want to ask / what’s called the “So what” question
If God is sovereign / so what / how does it affect my life?
All right with that cut out for us / let’s go to work
First / What does it mean to say that God is sovereign
Listen to these breathtaking statements!
“I know that you can do all things? No plan of Yours can be thwarted / Job 42:2
“Our God is in heaven / He does whatever pleases Him” / Ps 115:3
“Yes and from ancient days / I am he / no one can deliver
out of my hand / when I act / who can reverse it” / Is 43:13
“I am God and there is no other / I am God and there is none like me
I declare the end from the beginning
and from ancient times / things not yet done
My counsel shall stand / I will accomplish all my purpose
I have spoken / and I will bring it to pass
I have purposed / and I will do it” / Isaiah 46:9-11
“He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven
and the people of the earth / No one can hold back His hand
or say to him / “What have you done?”” / Dan 4:35
“Consider what the Lord has done
Who can straighten what the Lord has made crooked” / Ec 7:13
"We throw the dice but it is the Lord who determines the outcome" / Pr 16:33
“God works all things according to the counsel of his will” / Eph 1:11
“What He opens no man can shut and what He shuts no man can open” / Rev 3:7
And there’s more in scriptures / where those came from / The Word of God
brazenly / unashamedly declares that God is sovereign over all things
* Nothing has ever happened / or will ever happen
that God did not purpose to happen
* He has the authority / the freedom / the wisdom / and the power
to do as He will / to anyone / at any time / without restraint
God plans all things / He governs all things
If God is NOT absolutely sovereign / if there is even a single event
in all of the universe / that can occur
outside of God’s sovereign control
then / we can’t trust Him unreservedly
We can‘t feel totally secure in Him?
Sproul puts it graphically “If there is one single molecule in this universe
running around loose / totally free of God’s sovereignty
then we have no guarantee
that a single promise of God / will ever be fulfilled”
Sometimes / we say of a person “He’s a loose cannon” “He is a law unto himself”
And we usually say that in a negative sense
But in a real positive sense / God is a law unto Himself
He is answerable to no-one / subject to no one / influenced by no one
God does as He pleases / only as He pleases / always as He pleases
He is able to do / as He pleases always / everywhere / for all time
None can hinder Him / or compel Him / or detain Him
But this does not mean that God is therefore whimsical and capricious
No / Every action of God is consonant with all His other divine attributes
His mercy / righteousness justice / love / goodness and holiness
All right that’s what sovereignty means
But unless we unpack all that / it remains one huge general concept
So / let’s now explore our second question / how is God sovereign?
I want to trace six main areas in which God is sovereign
1) God is sovereign over rulers and kings
Whether a leader takes a throne by force of arms
or through a royal inheritance / or through a democratic election
it is ultimately the Lord who places rulers in office
He sets up those in authority / He strips them of their authority
He enthrones rulers / He dethrones them
* Daniel 2:20-21 / “He changes the times and the seasons
He removes kings and raises up kings”
* Proverbs 21:1 / “The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD
Like the rivers of water / He turns it wherever He wishes”
* Romans 13:1 / “There is no authority except from God
and the authorities that exist are appointed by God”
Remember how very arrogant Pilate was that morning
when our Lord stood before Him / He said: “Don’t you realise
I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”
Quick as a flash our Lord said: “You would’ve no power over me
if it were not given to you from above”
So / God stands sovereign over nations and rulers
Without His sovereign decree / no king makes a single move
2) God is sovereign over natural disasters
We watch on TV / earthquakes in China / famine in Somalia
outbreak of malaria in Nigeria / volcanic eruption in Hawaii tsunamis
in Japan / hurricanes in the Caribbean
and many other such calamities
God’s Word tells us unapologetically / that He decrees them all
* “He summoned a famine on the land He broke all supply of bread”
Ps 105:16
About twenty-two years ago / here in Palmy / there was a spate of
unceasing winds / that almost drove everyone insane
with their incessant howling
* “He causes His wind to blow and the waters to flow
Fire and hail /snow and clouds /stormy wind / fulfilling His word”
Psalm 147:18; 148:8
* “Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him” / Mk 4:39, 41
The Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 killed 275,000 people
There is a verse which comes the closest / to affirming the fact
that it is God who shifted the tectonic plates on the ocean floor
“Who shut up the sea behind doors / when it burst forth
from the womb and locked it behind barred gates
limiting its shores and said
‘Thus far shall you come / and no farther / and here
shall your proud waves be stayed”? / Job 38:8-11
3) God is sovereign over the evil and the good
You’ll remember Naomi / Ruth’s mother-in-law
She suffered the loss of her husband and her two sons in Moab
Returning to Bethlehem she said “Do not call me Naomi / call me Mara
for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me” / Ruth 1:20
Naomi may have been dealt a bad hand
but there is not a shred of doubt in her heart
that it was none other than the Almighty Himself
Who has dealt bitterly with her
There’s a verse in the Book of Job that has troubled many
At the very last chapter of the Book / when Job is restored
the writer tells us that all his brothers / sisters and friends came
They ate bread with him / and “they showed him sympathy
and comforted him” for what / “for all the evil
that the Lord had brought upon him” 42:11
If ever there is a verse that comes close to a blasphemy / this is it!
and yet it is right here in the Word of God
Job attributes all the afflictions that’s fallen upon him
to have come from the hand of the Almighty
See / There’s one thing Job resolutely will not entertain
He will never have two invincible opposing forces
one Good and the other Evil
one pitted against the other / from all eternity
That’s a pagan cosmology / cosmic dualism / Hindu pantheism
where evil is seen
as an untameable pre-existing independent principle
But If you and I live in a dualistic universe
one / where equally powerful opposing forces of good and evil
have been battling it out / from all eternity past
then God is not sovereign and we have no ultimate hope
Job pulls the rug away / from under such a heresy
He affirms that God and God alone
ordains / upholds / and sustains all things
Often when a tragic event takes place
we try to absolve God from any blame of culpability
we’re afraid to trace God’s fingerprints in those tragic events
So / we say God did not cause it / he simply allowed it
so that some good may come out of it
John Piper / rocked the boat / when he boldly said
“That / is precisely / what I will not say”
And he gives us two reasons / for why he wouldn’t say that
One / it is contrary to what the Bible teaches
Two / it undermines the very hope it wants to offer
But how very much more bracing / to be able to say
like Amos / “Does disaster come to a city
unless the Lord has done it?” / Amos 3:6
Maybe some of you here are grieved / anxious / confused
- there are twists and turns you don’t fully understand
Don’t lose heart / don’t despair
Through the craziness you see all around you
God’s sovereign hand is at work / and you can trust Him
William Cowper the English hymn-writer wrote many great lines
Listen to these lines
“Take fresh courage / The clouds you so much dread
are big with mercy / They shall break / in blessings on your head
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense / But trust Him for His grace
Behind a frowning providence / He hides a smiling face”
What many people do not know is that these words of faith were written
in June of 1773 / on the evening before he was institutionalised
once again for his incurable depression
Cowper suffered from severe dark depression / virtually all of his life
But he knew that only in the light of God’s sovereign providence
will all our seemingly senseless suffering / make sense
that everything God sends is both for His glory and for our good
Only in affirming this can you ride through the dark corridors of our lives
4) God sovereignly orchestrates all things / in the affairs of your life
You know / we often hear people say:
“Through the providence of God I bumped into a stranger in the elevator
who ended up giving me a job” You almost never hear anyone say
“Through the providence of God / a driver ran the red light
and I am paralyzed waist-down”
The doctrine of the sovereignty of God teaches us
that God ordains all things / good and bad
Did the doctor misdiagnose your illness?
Did a manager at work just block your career path?
Has your university professor just given you an “F” spitefully?
We often imagine that we are at the mercy of other people’s actions
But you are never at the mercy of any single human person
All the evil that has fallen on you / through the hands of people
whether intentionally / or accidentally / will first
have to pass through the sieve of God’s sovereign control
Joseph’s brothers acted spitefully / sold him into slavery
and Potiphar’s wife viciously had him thrown into prison
But through all that hardship / God was working out
His sovereign purpose for Joseph
And years later looking at his brothers in the eyes / Joseph said:
“It wasn’t you who sent me here / but God” / Gen 45:8
Then he added these now famous words / “you meant evil
against me / but God meant it for good” / Gen 50:20
Margaret Clarkson writes beautifully:
“The sovereignty of God is the one impregnable rock
to which the suffering human heart must cling
The circumstance surrounding our lives are no accident:
they may be the work of evil / but that evil is held firmly
within the mighty hand of our sovereign God”
5) God is sovereign over diseases and physical defects
Some years back following the Second World War
we had what was called “thalidomide babies”
Babies born without limbs / Mothers took thalidomide
anti-depression drugs the doctors then thought were harmless
See / the immediate cause for such defects
may be careless medical research / but behind them all
stands a sovereign God / whose purposes cannot be frustrated
We often struggle over the question of diseases and physical defects
Children born with speech impediments / born without a nose
born blind / born with some kind of mental defect
* Exodus 4:11 So the LORD said to him / “Who gave man his mouth?
Who makes him deaf or mute? / Who gives him sight
or makes him blind? / Is it not I / the LORD?”
Right here / God openly assumes responsibility
for deafness / muteness / and blindness
As Donald Grey Barnhouse once said
“No person in this world was ever blind
that God had not planned / for him to be blind
No person was ever deaf in this world
that God had not planned / for him to be deaf
If you do not believe that / you have a strange God
who has a universe / which has gone out of gear
and He cannot control it”
Behind all diseases and disabilities / we trace the supreme will of God
This does not mean that Satan is uninvolved
Satan is often involved in our sickness
But he does not have the last word on the matter
God has
6) God is sovereign over life and death
He has absolute control over the length of our lives
The Word of God is abundantly clear on this:
* Psalm 104:29 / “When you hide your face / they are dismayed
when you take away their breath / they die
and return to their dust”
* Deuteronomy 32:39 / “There is no god besides Me
It is I / who put to death / and give life
I have wounded / and it is I who heal
And there is no one who can deliver from My hand”
It is God alone / Who apportions to each of us / our life-span
and He is not beholden to anyone / for when He takes it away
He will take about 155,000 lives away before this day is over
56 million people die each year
7,000 or 8,000 people will have died during this worship service
3,000 from the time I began this sermon to when I finish
And when God takes away a life / He does absolutely no wrong
whether He takes it at three or eighty-three
God is totally sovereign over life and death
All right / we’ve caught a glimpse of what it means to say “God is sovereign”
It means God is unsurpassed in majesty / inexhaustible in power
unbounded by time / infinite in knowledge / unhampered by anyone
completely free to do whatever He pleases to do
anywhere / at any time / in whatever way without interference
That is what it means when we say “God is sovereign”
All right / let’s now consider the “So what!” question:
If God is sovereign, so what? / what difference will it make in my life?
First / There is no such thing as luck / coincidences / chance / fate
And even the rolling of a dice / the Word of God says
“We may throw the dice / but the LORD determines how they fall”
Prov 16:33
Secondly / God’s sovereignty will give you fortitude to face your days
It will help you face all the evil / tragedy / uncertainty all around you
You know atheists routinely argue / that the presence of evil
disproves God / But really / it is the other way around
But for the sovereignty of God / evil is totally inexplicable
If God is not sovereign / evil is ultimately unaccountable
Only if God is sovereign can you be assured / that ultimately
good will triumph over evil / You will have the confidence
that in the end God will triumph over Satan
There is much in life that will grieve you / and unnerve you
But because God is sovereign / then come wind come weather
you will stand secure
* whatever the lab results will reveal
* however the retrenchment exercise will pan you
you will have the poise because you know your God
Life can throw the kitchen sink at you / you will not be afraid
because only that which God decrees for you / will touch you
and for that you may rest secure / knowing that
He is working out / all things / for your good
Can you not see / how understanding and believing this
will brace you / rivet you / and embolden you
When you’re gripped by the teaching of God’s sovereignty
then / come wind come weather
it’ll embolden and invigorate you / No doubt about it
Be fortified by Lam 3:37
"Who can speak and let it happen unless the Lord has decreed it”
Be galvanised by Ps 139:16 / ”All the days ordained for me
were written in your book before one of them came to be”
When fear grips you / when you receive bad news / then
knowing that it is God Who has ordained your path
will give you comfort
When you know assuredly that it is God
Who has brought you to such a place
for your ultimate sanctification and holiness
you will experience deep consolation
You need to know that God is sovereign / and
you are not in the hands of chance / or fate / or Satan
Only a robust understanding of God’s sovereignty
will be able to fortify you / in times of distress
Thirdly / Believing in God’s sovereignty
will help you face your own impending death
You will know that even if Satan afflict you with a serious illness
He cannot take away your life
You will know assuredly / that
unless God decrees / no one dies
unless God decrees / no one lives
Some godly people have understood this:
Henry Martyn said: “If God has work for me / I cannot die”
George Whitefield said: “I am immortal until my work is done”
Put it the other way around / will embolden you:
“Until my work is done / I am immortal”
As I close / let me remind you / that it is God’s sovereignty over Satan
that ultimately guarantees the victory of good over evil
Please never think of the crucifixion of Jesus as an afterthought
as if God was surprised by the eating of the fruit in the garden
and He went into damage-control
No / the crucifixion of Jesus was sovereignly planned
NOT after the fall / but before / Eph 1:4; Rev 13:8
Even before the world was created / God sovereignly planned
the crucifixion of his Son / to save all those
whose name have been written in the book
So let me encourage you here
Let us all build our lives / grounded on the sovereignty of God
Let us not buy into a God Who is tiny / mushy / and wimpish
Let us stop buying into all the froth and bubble
that give us no comfort / neither give God the glory
The sovereignty of God
Don't lose it / Dwell on it! / Meditate on it!
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