The Sovereignty Of God

Temple Baptist Church - 7-28-2013

 

1 Chronicles 29:10-13

 

Introduction:

A. The verses that we read this morning are powerful in that they exalt the person of the Lord and He is worth of our praise.

1. David’s praise is a result of proper perspective of who God is.

2. David’s praise is a result of the knowledge of what God can do.

3. David’s praise is a result of the place God occupied in David’s life.

B. I feel that I need to preach often on the person of our wonderful Lord. These verses say much about God but I want to look at one aspect that encompasses David’s expression of who God is: His sovereignty!

1. The moment I mention the word “sovereignty,” the first thought that comes to the minds of most “Calvinism!” I always feel that I need to explain that I am not nor could ever be a Calvinist. No, I am not a Calvinist. I fervently disagree with his TULIP theology as John Calvin saw only one side of the sovereignty of God.

2. In God’s sovereignty, He chose to give man choice which brings about obligation to choose rightly. I find it amazing that we all know that God has given every man the right to choose the path for his life and, yet, they cannot either choose or refuse Christ! The unsaved as well as the saved make decisions all of the time and those decisions do not seem to interfere with the sovereignty of God one bit.

3. My God is loving, kind, gentle, good, longsuffering, high and holy, and yet touchable! His name is truly wonderful, His works marvelous, His power beyond our imagination, His grace is truly matchless, His wisdom past finding out, His Word both perfect and eternal, and His majesty matchless.

C. The Sovereignty of God!

1. You will not find either of the words “sovereign” or “sovereignty” in the Bible but the truth is set forth from Genesis 1:1—where the bible declares that “In the beginning God”—to Revelation 22:21 where it says “Amen!” As God has said, “Let it be so!”

2. Since the word “sovereignty” is not a bible word, let us look at it’s definition for clarification:

Sovereignty – Free from all external control; reigning or royal authority; the dominion of a monarch, the complete authority to govern a state; exclusive in right to control one’s thoughts and actions; autonomous; greatest in status, authority, and power; supreme; exceptional in quality.

D. The doctrine of the “Sovereignty of God” is one of both the least understood and the most misunderstood.

1. By the sovereignty of God, it is to be understood that—as Creator of all things both visible and invisible—God is both owner or and ruler over all things.

Deuteronomy 32:39 See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.

2. By the sovereignty of God, it is to be understood that all things happen in the providence of God and by chance. The bible does not teach luck. It teaches the providence of an all-knowing, thrice holy God! He knows the end from the beginning; He rules and over-rules in the affairs of man; the child of God is safely and securely in His mighty hand; He loves His children in a way that we will never fully understand until we get to heaven. Because of His sovereignty:

1) God Requires No Counsel - Romans 11:34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?

2) God Seeks No Advice - 1 Corinthians 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

3) God Lacks No Wisdom - James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

4) God Asks No Permission – Job 33:13 Why dost thou strive against him? for he giveth not account of any of his matters.

5) God Answers To No Man - Romans 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

3. By the sovereignty of God, it is to be understood that He does as He wills and what He does is perfect.

1. God Is Sovereign In His Creation – Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

John 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Hebrews 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

Psalms 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. (Everything in nature contains the “finger print” of God. You can believe it or deny it but you cannot stop it or change it! You were not there when the foundations were laid: God was there!)

2. God Is Sovereign In His Counsel – John 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

Proverbs 1:23-30 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. 24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; 25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: 26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. 28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: 29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: 30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. (You can take it or leave it but you cannot alter it! You may reject it and or change it here on earth but it is forever settled in Heaven. You will hear it again!)

3. God Is Sovereign In His Conversion – John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. (Salvation is God’s way or not at all. It is His way or the highway and the highway leads to hell!)

4. God Is Sovereign In His Circumstances – Romans 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

Job 23:10-14 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. 11 My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined. 12 Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. 13 But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth. 14 For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

Hebrews 2:10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. (He controls all that happens! Although tough to accept at times, Romans 8:28 is still in the Book! Proverbs 3:5-6 still apply!)

5. God Is Sovereign In His Consequences – John 3:16-18 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Luke 16:22-23 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; 23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. (It is either Heaven or Hell! In God’s sovereignty, He gave men a choice. Then, man’s choice leaves God no choice!)