God is Sovereign and Man is Responsible

Transcript

GRM 1239
05/17/2020
God’s Sovereignty and Man’s Responsibility
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

We have a great God, we do need Him every hour, and the glorious truth is He is with us every hour. He never leaves us or forsakes us His Spirit dwells within us to enable us to provide all we need so we are greatly blessed. We have a subject today that relates to God’s sovereignty, God’s control, which connects to what we talked about in our previous study on future things, prophetic matters, and just God’s sovereign control over everything. We look at this subject periodically because it’s a good reminder, a necessary reminder, that God is sovereign over all and all His creation, that includes good, that includes evil. That doesn’t mean He causes evil but He is sovereign and nothing frustrates or hinders His purposes and His plans.

We talk about the sovereignty of God we usually have some tension and there is tension in our own thinking on the sovereignty of God and the will of man. We usually talk about it as the free will of man and the sovereignty of God but as you’re aware free will can be misunderstood because Jesus said we’re all slaves. The one who sins is the slave of sin and you’re not free until Christ sets you free when you come to trust in Him and be set free from the domination and slavery of sin. What about the will of man and the sovereignty of God? And I usually put it God is totally sovereign, man is fully responsible, so instead of using the term free will, I prefer to use responsibility… and man is fully responsible. He’s responsible for his decisions, they are acts of His will. Man makes his own decisions and he’s responsible and accountable for those decisions so he can’t say, well, I didn’t have any choice, God’s sovereign and that’s what He made me do. I make my decisions and I’m responsible for them and yet that does not in any way impugn the sovereignty of God because my decisions are made by me and God’s sovereignty is ruling in such a way that my decisions’ always been included in His plan. That doesn’t mean that man makes decisions without being influenced by circumstances and situations. We make decisions but we take other things into account all the time for our decisions but they are our decisions. And the circumstances and situations come up are often out of our control but they influence our decisions and we’re experiencing that now with the virus that goes on. We make decisions but those decisions are impacted by things outside of us, and to that extent, outside of our control.

Since we’ve been talking about prophecy in our previous study turn to Revelation 13, I thought this would be where we’ll start. We’re not going to be delving into prophecy per say but it connects to what we talked about and I had a question that had to do with the coming world empire and I thought, well, this ties to the sovereignty of God, so Revelation chapter 13. And we’ve studied Revelation together, chapters 6 to 19 cover that seven-year period we talked about in our previous study, the seven-year Tribulation. That seven-year period leading up to the second coming of Christ to the earth to establish His kingdom. That final seven years that are left in completing God’s program for the nation Israel so that they can have the kingdom prophesied for them to become a reality.

In Revelation 13 we’re in this context and we’re talking about things going on and one of the major things that go on in that seven-year period is the rise of the revived Roman Empire. First as a ten-nation confederacy for the first half of it, 42 months, and then a one-man dictatorship ruling the world for the last 3½ years, 42 months period, and in Revelation 13 we’re talking about that man who will rule for the last 3½ years. It’s a beast you will see as chapter 13 opens up, coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads and as we’ve noted in previous studies and we’re not going into the detail, the seven heads refer to the seven world empires that have impacted Israel. The ten horns or that last form of world empire preceding the antichrist who will rise out from among those ten horns, displacing three of them as we saw in the book of Daniel. Then the beast is described and it’s a conglomerate, all the different empires that have come along impacting Israel over history and then verse 3, “one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast; they worshiped the dragon.” The dragon is Satan as chapter 12 verse 9 said. This beast is that final form of empire. We call the individual the Antichrist. He has “a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies,” in verse 5. He has power to act for 42 months so that’s a 3½-year period. What I want you to note in connection with sovereignty and will, it’s going to go on, verse 7 says it was given to him and we studied this chapter. We noted the repeated emphases on that emphasis, on God’s sovereignty. This individual and those following him are making their own decisions in light of the circumstances and situations of the time, they are taking advantage of these days, and Satan is working and using and moving them and God is sovereign in it all. “It was also given,” verse 7,”to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him.” You note twice in this verse we’re told it was given to him, even when he is successful in killing God’s people. God’s plan has included that.

Well, we say, wait a minute, is it God deciding or is it man deciding? God is deciding and man is making his decisions and man is making (this beast here)… the antichrist will make the decisions that he wants to do, to take power and remove all adversaries and destroy those who worship the living God. That’s his decision but God is sovereign in that he cannot become God in the sense of ruling all. He can try to make himself God, which he will as we see in a moment, but it was given to him. And the world worships him, verse 8, this is what he explains, this is where we get the idea of a one-world empire. Where does the Bible talk about a one-world empire? Right here, you see all who dwell on the earth will worship him. We have centered in now to a world leader and as world leader it’s connected to world religion.

Remember the tower of Babel back in Genesis where they wanted to be united as one people on the earth with a city as the center and a worship center at the center of the city. Because remember what the devil wants, he wants worship. He offered Jesus authority over the kingdoms of the earth because God had given that authority to Satan because of the fall into sin. Remember the temptation in the opening chapters of Matthew, I will give it to you if you will fall down and worship me, so that’s key. When they worship the Antichrist, the common figure we use for him, verse 4 of chapter 13 said they worship the dragon, and then in verse 4, they worshiped the beast. Because this beast, this Antichrist, is acting in his rebellion against God in concert with the will of the devil who wants to usurp the place of God but all of this happens within the sovereignty of God.

It was given to him, it was given to him. People worship him, the unbelievers on the earth will worship him. And it’s going to be a difficult time as we have talked about. Then there is a worship leader on the earth at that time, a false prophet who directs the world in its worship of the Antichrist. So verse 12, this second beast, it’s a false prophet, he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. He makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. It seems we may have an imitation of the resurrection of Christ involved here, we’ve talked about those things when we’ve studied more in detail here, they’re signs done. You come down to verse 14, “he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which,” note, “it was given him to perform.” Down in verse 15 it was given to him to give breath to the beast so the sovereignty of God in all this. And believers going through this time will need to be reminded, God is sovereign here, things have not gone all out of control, its not become hopeless. They’re involved in the world at a time when God’s judgments are being poured out on the world and man is given more freedom to pursue his sinful desires than he’s ever had before.

We see manifestations of this in the world all the time, we see it in our day, and men lust for power, they will do what it takes to get it. Well, here now more of the restraints are taken away, 2 Thessalonians 2 talks about that, and the restraint is removed and that’s what enables the Antichrist to come with the fullness of power. That has not been realized at any prior time on the earth by a man and such a kingdom. And this will continue and he will be brought to his end by the return of Christ and that’s in Revelation chapter 19, the book of Daniel also talks about it. I want you to see the sovereignty of God in the decisions that man is making. Those decisions do not frustrate God’s plan. God’s plan includes all, but it is not a fatalism. It is not that man is absolved from responsibility. God planned it, I couldn’t do anything. Its man’s decision just as it is today. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, in order that whosoever believes in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life.

Well, if God’s sovereign, if He wants me to believe I’ll believe, if not I won’t, I’ve had people tell me that. I just say, well, He says if you believe in Him He’ll save you, believe in Him, that’s your decision, you’re responsible, you’re accountable for your decisions. That’s why all the judgments of scripture are based on works, we are accountable for our decisions. You won’t. Oh, I can’t. And you can’t because you won’t and you won’t because you can’t do it. You do a lot of things, you decide to open and read the Bible, you decide not to open and read the Bible; you decide to believe what you’re told, you decide not to believe what you’re told; you decide to believe what God says, you decide not to believe it, so we have this going on. God is totally sovereign, man is fully responsible, we make our decisions and we are accountable and will be judged by God for those decisions and the results of those decisions.

Let’s look through some passages of scripture and these are just reminders of things we’ve looked at before. Come back, we might as well go to the book of Genesis, go to chapter 37, we’ll take it in order. Genesis 37 and this is the account of Joseph and Joseph had brothers. Joseph is young, brothers are older, and he had some dreams, Joseph did. And God revealed to Joseph what His plan was, and what was going to happen, and in his dream, he saw that even his father and his brothers were going to bow down and give honor to him. This did not sit well with his brothers so they get so frustrated they decide they’re going to kill Joseph. And here we are, a family (we talk about family problems today), that’s quite a family, the brothers decide we’ll kill him. Joseph sent out by his father to check on his brothers and so on. So when they see him coming they say let’s kill him and we’ll just tell our father that a wild animal killed him, so when he comes, they capture him, put him in a deep pit so he can’t get out, then they sit down to have dinner. Verse 24 says, of Genesis 37, they “threw him into the pit… then they sat down to eat a meal.”

I mean, they’ve got pretty hard hearts toward their brother. Now you note they’re making their own decisions here. They decided what they’re going to do with Joseph, it’s their decision and we’ll see they acknowledge that, that’s what we decided to do. And then one of the brothers comes up with an idea, verse 26 “What profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood?” I’ve got a better idea, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, who are going down into Egypt, as a slave because he is our brother, then we won’t be guilty for killing him, and we’ll be rid of him. He’s our own flesh, you know, flesh and blood. Why, why should we kill him? So the brothers thought that’s a good idea. So some traders come by, hey, we’ve got a man to sell you as a slave, so they sell him, take the money, now we’re rid of him. Then they perpetuate the lie so they can go tell, look, here’s bloody clothes, these are Joseph’s, an animal must have killed him, too bad. Come over to chapter 45, now you know the story, Joseph goes down to Egypt. Things aren’t easy there, he’s sold as a slave, and then things look like they’re improving. He does the right thing and for doing the right thing he’s going to end up in prison. And then in prison the opportunity to maybe have an out, and then the door closes because the guy who was suppose to help forgets about him. And on it goes and in all of this the Lord is sovereign.

Then you come to chapter 45 and his brothers come down into Egypt, and you know the story, there’s a famine in the land of Canaan. Now you see God’s sovereign control over it all, control over the weather, over the ability to have crops. Now they need food but there’s food in Egypt so they could take possessions, go down into Egypt, and use their money to buy food and bring it back home, so they come down. But by now Joseph has been elevated to the second in command in Egypt to Pharaoh, so the brothers have to come and bow down before Joseph because that’s the respect they had to show him as the ruler that had sovereignty over them and their ability. We’re familiar with the story, but when it comes time to reveal himself in chapter 45, he says to his brothers, verse 3 of chapter 45 after, you can read the story if you’re not familiar or haven’t read it for awhile.

“ ‘I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?’ But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence.” Joseph said to his brothers, come closer, it’s me, come closer, ‘I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.’ ” But note here, verse 5, “ ‘Do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me’ ” and in my Bible I underlined, “you sold me,” then underlined “God sent me” and you see the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. They made their decision; you sold me. It doesn’t say God made you sell me. You did it but that was God’s plan to get me in Egypt. Does that take away the seriousness and guilt of their sin? No, and the brothers realized that. Joseph would be right to punish them for it but down in verse 7 Joseph says, “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth,” verse 8 “Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God.”

Now again, this helps and it helps us as believers. Remember I sometimes say someone else’s sin never frustrates God’s plan for you. Anyway, sometimes I think, ah, if they hadn’t done that or this, I could have done this or that, so if they hadn’t told that lie about me, if they hadn’t cheated me, if they hadn’t done this, but I realize what someone else does never frustrates God’s plan for me and Joseph has that clearly in hand. Yes, what you did was sin, it was wrong, but in it all God used your sin to accomplish His purpose. That does not excuse their sin or their guilt. That’s the balance that we have to keep and it helps us as we go through. We have to realize Joseph’s been living in Egypt now for a number of years but he’s a godly man, he’s kept perspective here. I mean, he does some things to put the pressure on his brothers but he doesn’t take vengeance on his brothers. In fact, when it comes time to reveal it down in verse 9, “God has made me lord of all Egypt,” so sometimes talk about God can bring good out of evil.

That never excludes evil, that never makes evil good, so don’t misunderstand, but God can bring good out of evil. It was sin, it was evil, that these brothers would hate their brother, their own flesh and blood as they acknowledge, and sell him into slavery, then lie and deceive their father to bring him grief and sorrow. That was sin, that was their decision, but the sovereignty of God is so great and so complete that in that God was overruling what we might say only bad things can come of that. But God meant it for good and we see that man’s sin cannot frustrate God’s purposes and plan. That doesn’t mean that God brings good out of every sin and some people’s sin will result in an eternal hell. They never come to trust Christ and there are consequences we can’t figure out, can’t measure. I don’t know, why does God do what He does? David sinned terribly, he committed murder, committed adultery, he lied and deceived, and Solomon comes out of that relationship. It wasn’t the child, the baby died, but David and Bathsheba have another child, and it’s Jedidiah we know of as Solomon. God said name him Jedidiah, he’s the one God loves. Well, wait a minute, we say it’s too bad Solomon was born. No, we say God’s going to bless Solomon, He’s going to appear to Solomon, He’s going to use Solomon to build the temple. Does that mean David’s sin wasn’t so bad after all? We don’t want to confuse the two. They are distinct. God is totally sovereign, man is fully responsible, but man in his decisions cannot frustrate God and that’s our confidence and hope.

That will be true for those believers in the Tribulation who weren’t saved when the Rapture occurred but got saved afterward. They’re going to go through intense persecution as some believers are today. Reading in the news this past week of what it’s like in North Korea, believers, and they have to talk secretly, they’re not allowed to have the Bible or any portion. They said, now think about it, it’s very difficult with our children in our home. If we use the name Jesus or say anything and you know how kids are, they pick it up and go out and say to their friend something about Jesus. The authorities will be at our door, we could get arrested and go to prison or be executed. So what do we teach our children? And these kind of things go on and you have to realize, God, You’re sovereign. I am in this situation here, but the sin of the people around me, the sin of people with authority over me, that does not frustrate Your plan for me, so what I have to be sure, and what Joseph manifests so clearly here, my confidence is in the Lord.

We sing about it, we study about it, yeah, my faith is in God, my full confidence is in Him. But then something happens and we think what has happened? I can’t control what someone else does. All I can control is what I do, so Joseph just could feel this is not the time for me to take vengeance on my brothers. I see the hand of God in it, as sinful as they were in what they did, so that pattern. You come over to chapter 50 of Genesis and look at verse 20. God reminds them here again in verse 18, “his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, ‘Behold, we are your servants’ ” because they’re afraid now, their father died and, you know, you think the worst. Maybe Joseph’s just been putting on an act because, you know, our father would have been terribly grieved if Joseph had killed us or put us into prison and made us do hard labor. So now that their father dies they think, oh, we’ve got to go and ask for mercy from Joseph, so they came, verse 18, “and fell down before him and said, ‘Behold, we are your servants.’ ”

Now he knows that he doesn’t need their approval, he’d just snap his fingers and they’d be gone. Nobody but pharaoh has any greater authority in all of Egypt than Joseph, but Joseph says, “Do not be afraid,” note verse 19, “for I am in God’s place. As for you, you meant evil against me but God meant it for good.” Now if I can keep that in mind when people do things… I get concerned with how wrong what they did, if I feel I’ve been injured by it or hurt by it. Boy, how am I going to recover from this, what do I do? Well, I have to decide what is my responsibility? I can’t change what they do or what they did or what they might do, but I can have the confidence whatever they do cannot frustrate God’s plan for me. What effects God’s plan for me is how I respond to God in this situation. It’s not so complicated and it is very comforting, it’s my hope, it’s my confidence, God is in control. They may mean it for evil but God said what? It’s what we looked at in Romans 8 (verse 28), “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” In fact it even worked out for good that the brothers sold Joseph into Egypt because they’re not going to starve. You know what? Now they come into Egypt and they move to the head of the class so to speak, they’re going to get preferential treatment, even Pharaoh says give them the good of the land. They’re shepherds, you think the brothers could sit around and say boy, I’m glad we sinned, I’m glad we did what was wrong, because we might have died of starvation in Canaan? No, we never can come to say our sin is good, but, you know, I can’t work out all how God works. I can’t come to say their sin was good, but God brought good out of their sin. Here they are in Egypt eating more than they needed, living comfortably, and it will be as long as Joseph is ruling and those who know Joseph rules, so they come out of it good.

David came out of it, I use him because you are familiar. He’s still king, he has the son that God will bless, he can store up the riches so Solomon his son can build the temple. And none of that means that sin wasn’t sin, so I want to be careful I don’t slide. I sometimes have had conversations with people, they have talked about their sin. But, you know, it was good that I did that sin because this came out of it. Now wait a minute, wait a minute, it’s never good you sin. Well, how would good have come out of it, how would Joseph’s family been spared the famine? I don’t have to come up with Plan B for God. I can say sin is never good. Remember Romans chapter 6… when he gets done in chapter 5 talking about God’s grace then he starts chapter 6 asking, what then, shall we sin that grace might abound? ‘Me genoito,’ may it never be! That’s not a possibility! I don’t have to have all the answers, but I am encouraged to know that sin doesn’t frustrate God’s plan. So we think, oh, what our country… look, they’re limiting churches. Well, maybe it reminds churches they didn’t appreciate what they had when they had freedom to meet.

I read about North Korea that they don’t have the freedom to have the Bible. They’re floating portions of scripture from South Korea over in balloons hoping some of those portions… but you have to be very careful. We have Bibles that we haven’t opened all week, they’re scrounging around. They have a radio program that broadcasts the reading of the Bible into North Korea but they read it very slowly so people can write down, but you have to be very careful because you can’t get caught with a copy, even a portion of it. Oh, well, that’d be terrible! That is, but there’s something good about it, those people consider it a treasure and something precious. That’s what Paul told Timothy, we have a treasure, but some of us take it home, put it on the shelf until next Sunday. Well, is it a treasure to us? Maybe God uses the sin of men for good things, maybe it gives us a greater appreciation. We take our freedoms for granite and then when it’s taken away we think, oh, it was good. So how God chooses to use sin and this will be true as we move through.

You’re at Exodus, come over to chapter 4, and chapter 4 of Exodus, now here Moses is being called by God. I just want to see His sovereignty is so complete and we won’t get through all the things I have but it doesn’t matter because we pick it up from time to time, but the point is the same. Here God is saying to Moses, I want you to go and be My speaker and what’s Moses say? I’m not a good speaker, verse 10 chapter 4 of Exodus. Moses said to the LORD, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past.” Now do you really have to fill in God, so that you remind Him, that Lord, maybe You didn’t know, but I never was good at public speaking, not even recently, not even in the past? “I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. The Lord said to him,” now note this, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I?”

A person would say, oh, if I had not been born blind I could have done so much. We appreciate what we have, it’s not that we wish we had these problems, but I realize… Moses had to realize I am the man God has made me to be, to use me as He wants to use me. So we sing the hymns of Franny Crosby who was blinded by a foolish medical decision. Well, wait a minute, oh, you ruined my life, I could have been used of the Lord. It didn’t frustrate God’s plan. Does that mean it was good? When I go to the doctor I don’t want him to make, quote, mistakes, but I realize ultimately my life is in the hands of God. I make wise decisions as best I can. Remember we studied Ecclesiastes. We can’t fix the past and we can’t control the future. God is sovereign so the outworking of that and keeping that tension. Yeah, but man is still fully responsible and one thing Moses has to be reminded of, you don’t tell God. If He says this is what you do, you do it, so Fanny Crosby will write beautiful hymns that we still sing long after she’s gone. If she had sight, she might just have lived another sighted person’s life complaining about the problems she has, like we do. In our prosperity, we complain about it, we ignore it, but God used her in a greater way. How many people are being remembered and what they wrote is being sung to the glory of God long after they’re gone?

Charles Spurgeon had major physical problems, he had to leave and be out of his pulpit for months. Oh, if he had only had a healthy body think of what he could of done. Yeah, what most of us do with healthy bodies, very little. I’m still talking about Spurgeon, reading him, and he’s been dead for over a hundred years, so sometimes the trials, the pressures, and the suffering. You see the sovereignty of God, the difficulties of life that in one way or the other are connected with sin, a result of sin, and even sinful acts of sinful people, and the encouragement in it. There’s restoration even after Joseph’s brothers. Their sin is sin, it’s recorded in scripture as sin, they acknowledge it’s sin, but even there God’s grace brings good out of evil. We want to be careful, we never want to have a light view of sin, but we never want to have a limited view of God’s sovereignty.

Come over to Deuteronomy 32 and then we’ll be done with the opening books, the first five books. Deuteronomy 32 and this is what’s titled in your Bible probably “The Song of Moses.” Remember Moses for his sin was not allowed to go into the Promised Land. Remember we don’t control the consequences of our sin, God does. Some ways we look at sin and we think, well, some people, the consequences weren’t as bad but their sin seemed to be worse. Moses was so faithful to God dealing with the stubborn people so long but he sinned. For that, he’s not going into the Promised Land even when he asked God, the man who could speak to God face to face, couldn’t I go. No. So I realize sin is serious and the consequences, I don’t want to minimize those. There will be consequences for sin, there are, but they’re not always what we would make them be, and it doesn’t mean everything from my life here on is over, is ruined, I can never…

When you get to chapter 32 Moses is going to write scripture. There are consequences for his sin, he’s not going over with the people, but he’s still being used of God. He won’t be used to lead them into the Promised Land and that won’t frustrate God’s plan for Israel. But he’s still being used of God and so these things… That why what I can concentrate on is recognizing who God is and what my responsibility to Him is and things will come. I stumble, I don’t want to make light of that and I want to make it right quickly. But I don’t mean, well, I’ve done that, I know God’s done with me. No, but there may be consequences that are difficult and painful. And I won’t get to make those decisions, God will, and that’s the way we have to look at one another as well. So Moses gives this last word and look at verse 3 where he says. “For I proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God! The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He.” Can you get any greater acclamation of God, who He is, respect of His character?

And yet he’s dealing with a people that are unfaithful and Moses is going to bear the consequences of his sin, he’s not going over, he just got to go up on a mountain and look over. Now he had to be thinking, boy, I would love to be able to go with the people. I mean, I’ve been forty years in the desert with them, wouldn’t it be great to go into the land with them? No, you can’t go, verse 39, “See now that I (God speaking), I am He, and 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.” And a reminder… Verse 35 said, “Vengeance is Mine, and retribution,” He reminds them of that at the end of verse 41. “I will render vengeance on My adversaries, and I will repay those who hate Me” and so on. That balance, those who do not have God as their Father, Christ as their Savior are in a terrible position. God is their enemy, they are without hope in the world, but we as God’s children have the confidence we belong to Him, we are His children. It’s like your physical children, they may do something wrong and there may be some painful discipline, but that’s for their good and to bring them along. The balance that’s there, that must always be there.

Come over to 1 Samuel, we’ll just keep moving along here until I run out of time, 1 Samuel chapter 2, Hannah is praying for a child, she has been barren. God is going to answer her prayer and does and Samuel is born to Hannah, that’s recorded. Then down as chapter 2 opens up you have this record of Hannah, and she suffered and for whatever reason, you see the physical situation she had, not able to have a child, that was God’s hand. Remember He makes the seeing eye, He makes the hearing ear, He makes a person mute, He makes a person deaf, He makes a person blind for His purposes. Why has this man been born blind, who sinned, him or his father, as the disciples asked Jesus. Remember it doesn’t have anything to do with anyone particularly sinning. Now again when we have the kingdom and then we won’t have physical issues like blindness, deafness and all the other, but for now it wasn’t a particular sin in this man’s family or him. It was God chose for His purposes, so he’s born blind so that God could receive glory.

Here she prays in verse 2, she says, “I rejoice in Your salvation. There is no one holy like the Lord, indeed, there is no one besides You, nor is there any rock like our God.” You come to verse 6, “The Lord kills and makes alive; He brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and rich; He brings low, He also exalts” and she goes on. It’s the sovereignty of the Lord at work. That doesn’t mean I just sit in the chair and go back and forth as some have been raised in our generation, the generation that’s come up that everybody owes me something. The book of Proverbs says we work, we labor, we toil, and seek the rewards of that. But God’s sovereign when people have worked diligently and very hard but they just have enough to get by. Some people have been dishonest and for whatever reason they’re very wealthy. Well, that doesn’t mean dishonesty is good, lying is acceptable. I recognize God is working in this world for His purposes. Individuals are making decisions and they’re proud that they’re their own person and I make my own decisions, and you do, but you understand you make them within the framework of a sovereign God who has included your decisions, and your decisions cannot frustrate God’s plan.

Satan still battles with this. He’s lost his position in heaven but he’s still going. When Christ comes to earth, he tries to lure Him. Look, make the decision to worship me and I’ll give You authority over all the earth. You won’t have to go to the cross, You won’t have to suffer, You won’t have to have a delayed kingdom, You can have it all now. Worship me. He’s calling Him to make a decision and His decision as we know of course was you shall worship the Lord your God and Him only. That’s what it comes to. Over in Job chapter 1, you can’t do this without going to Job, Job chapter 1 verse 21, now look what happened here. The series beginning with verse 13 of what’s going to happen to Job. Now these are out of his control but they’re within God’s sovereign control. And Satan’s going to bring these upon Job using human instruments, but remember it’s never out of God’s control. So verse 12, “Then the Lord said to Satan, ‘Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put your hand on him,” so you can’t afflict him, you can’t cause his death. Now there’s going to be an alteration in this as we move along but for this time.

So look what happens. All his sons and daughters, he’s got seven sons and three daughters, and they get together and great all the brothers and sisters get along so well, they’re having a party in their oldest brother’s house. Verse 14, a messenger came to Job and said the oxen and the donkeys were being watched and an enemy, the Sabeans, attacked and took them, they slew the servants, they’re all dead. While he’s still speaking, verse 16, another came, fire came down from heaven, probably lightening, burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped. While he’s still speaking, so they’re not even done talking and the other messenger is coming, waiting his turn. While he’s still speaking another came and said the Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels, slew the servants. So all your servants, all your livestock, all your wealth, they’re gone, and then the worst blow. While he’s still speaking another came and said your sons and daughters were eating and drinking in their oldest brother’s house, a great wind came, struck the house, it collapsed on them, they’re all dead. Now here, how long would it take for each of these to bring their message, piling one on another, and not bad enough you hear all your servants, all your livestock, your wealth, it’s all gone. You know, you think, well, I’ve got to get my kids together we’ve got. You know, they’re the encouragement. They’re gone, not only, they’re dead, and not one or two of them, ten of them, you’re now childless. Job, you know, the grief is overwhelming, so what’s he do? He, verse 20, he rose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped. He said I don’t know I used to think God had control but God would never do this. He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” You see, Job is responsible for one thing, for his decisions, his actions. That’s it, he couldn’t control what the devil was going to do and the devil could control the wind under the sovereign permission of God and these other things. Would God really want all ten of my children to die at once? I mean isn’t this more than a human being can bear? Where does he go?

We sing the song, “Where Could I Go But to the Lord,” but then I forget, the last place I think of going to is to the Lord, but He’s sovereign. How did I get all these blessings? I got them from the Lord. Why did He give them to me? In His grace He decided to do it. Why don’t I have them today? Well, if they hadn’t all gathered in that one house, that was stupid, I should have built a bunker for them where the wind wouldn’t blow like that, and I should have had more men guarding the camels and the oxen. Wait a minute, we start trying to think of the past and how we would have fixed all that. If I’ve done something wrong, if I’ve sinned, I want to make note of that but I don’t have control. Remember I can’t control tomorrow, Ecclesiastes, and tomorrow will be the past in two days so I want to be careful that I realize there is One in control and it’s not me.

That’s a good thing that may come out of times like we’re living in now. We see how quickly we thought the freedom we had controlled, it all changes. Now we’re told what we can do and not; I’m sitting looking at basically an empty auditorium with five people in the seats. The other, I don’t know how many seats, 1800 seats, 1600 seats, whatever, they’re empty Sunday morning 11:15. I used to think, well, maybe I’ll be preaching to a smaller congregation but if I’m going to just who I see, nothing wrong with the five of you, six, I’m glad to have you here, but who would have thought. If you had told me six months ago, you know you’re going to be preaching on Sunday morning with nobody in the auditorium I’d say, no, that won’t happen. Well, it happened, so see God is in control. If one thing I know that, but I think all the decisions being made are decisions I would make.

No, but they’re not my decisions that’s why we do the best we can, submit to governing authorities. Now if they say like they have in a place like North Korea that you can no longer have a Bible, you can no longer read the Bible, you can no longer talk to anybody about the Bible then we’ll have to say we have to obey God rather than men. As it is now within the constraints we have we still have the freedom to give out the Word. There seems to be reasonable reasons, whether we agree with them or not, they’re not our decisions to make, so to the best of our ability we follow them because that’s part of my responsibility. But I want to be careful, if they were saying everybody in the city can meet together, no restrictions, but churches can’t. Well, then that becomes something that I have to say, now wait a minute, we as the church have the same rights and so on. But I see God’s sovereignty in it. Lord, what do you have us to learn from this? Maybe I’ll think it’s more important for me to get together with God’s people, you say don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together as some have and they have their reasons, possible persecution, ostracization and all this, but Lord I obey You.

Now that doesn’t mean at this time everybody ought to come because we say there may be reasons for a time but do I take advantage of it when I could? Yeah, North Korea they would love to get… When I was in China they couldn’t meet together, evangelical churches, only registered churches so that the government could control it. So they would meet in a home privately, they called them house churches and they had to be very careful because you got arrested for doing that and I see that’s being promoted again in China. They want to do away with any kind of organized religion because you worship the leader as in North Korea. Some of you read the news article. The children are taught at school to pray to the ruler of North Korea and thank him for the food they have. We have created a god. We as Christians can’t go there, so persecution may be the result. We think we can control it, we have rights, we vote, we do that.

Come over to the other forty verses I have we’re not going to do. Come over to Romans 13 because we will get here in Romans, and I often come here and we will have to leave it here as far as governing authorities. Chapter 13, we started out with this, the Antichrist will come to power, there will be believers, people who are saved and Jews that were saved during those first 3½ years, and they will be able to function. Israel will be in the land, they will have a rebuilt temple. It looks like the first 3½ years are great. It will change in the middle and we looked in Matthew 24 where were told that persecution will break out just like that! You see how rapidly it can break out, things can change all of a sudden, your constitutional rights are not your rights any more, they have been overruled, they are not operative any longer. Well, when you get to the Tribulation… maybe we just get a preview of how quickly things can change. We think, well, boy, that’s going to take a long time until you get to that point, I don’t know how people will accept that. You think, you put fear into it people will do a lot of things and there’s going to be real fear when the Antichrist speaks. So you come to Romans 13, “Every person,” he’s writing to believers in the church at Rome, “is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God.” I keep a copy of the Roman emperors during New Testament times with their dates on my back desk. It reminds me when I have doubts about how bad I think we’re governed or we disagree with something, what someone like Paul was living under and what the character of that person was. Peter… both will die at the hands of Nero but you know it doesn’t matter.

God has established the authority, now we have the balance here. God is totally sovereign, but in His totally sovereign plan He has put into place men by using the free choice, the responsible choice, if you will, of people. In our country we vote, in Roman times it was a different kind of approach with family connections, with palace intrigue, with poisoning the existing ruler, with wars, whatever. He doesn’t get into what kind of government, He doesn’t get into good or bad government, God has established authority and we can appreciate that. We don’t appreciate all the decisions made but we appreciate that the government, we’re giving them the benefit of the doubt, are making decisions to try to protect us as a country and sometimes it seems like they went too far, sometimes not far enough. One thing I have to realize it’s not my decision, so as much as I can I want to be in subjection to it. And it needs to be clear that it is in conflict with scripture. That’s why as much as we can we can continue to give out the Word and disseminate it to people where they are. Right now we’re not, it seems temporary, we keep our eye out, it’s temporary for many other kinds of meetings, stores, places where people get together so there’s no foundational reason for me to disregard authority. God’s established it so when you disobey you’re opposing the ordinance of God.

This was the problem for the Jews with Moses. Sometimes they didn’t agree with his decisions. Korah, Numbers 16 the outstanding example but God appointed him. I sometimes have shared I have people come from other churches and want to tell me why they disagree with it. I say, well, is it contrary to scripture? No, but I don’t agree, I don’t think it’s best. Well, are you one of the ones responsible to make the decision? Well, no. How does this impact you? We keep coming back to these things. That’s what I have to decide. For those things, I have governing authority and I’m part of the governing body of this church. We have to decide in light of the governing authorities. Well, to the best of our ability, we have a responsibility to obey those in authority. Well, I don’t think they’re taking God into consideration. I’m sure they’re not. I don’t think Nero was open at all to what God had to say, Paul says God appointed him, there, you see the sovereignty of God. It doesn’t matter how he got there and he’s going to get removed by a rebellion. Then the next authority will be the authority God established. Well, what are we going to do if this group gets in power, what are we going to do if they vote these people out and these people in? I guess we’ll learn to appreciate how sovereign God is and how He uses things that seem to be contrary to what we would do to accomplish His purposes. And you know what, we started out in the last chapter, we know how it ends, God wins. Nothing can frustrate His purposes, every detail is under His control, but man is responsible for his decisions. That’s our comfort, that’s an encouragement. Why should I worry, why should I fret, what do I have to fear? My God is just as much in charge today as He was six months ago and I have no doubt that He’s going to be in charge through eternity so my future is secure.

That doesn’t mean I won’t use the rights that I have and God uses that, He uses whatever. He uses wars to put men in place in power. He uses elections to put people in place and in power. The thing is He’s sovereign but we are responsible for our decisions. so the one decision that overrules all else, have you ever placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior, ever agreed with God about your sin, recognized God provided His Son to be the Savior by His death on the cross? Only when you place your faith in Christ will He declare you forgiven, righteous and cause you to be born again. That’s the most important decision, the one that most people ignore but the one that you will be responsible and accountable for.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the riches of Your word, these are basic foundational truths but, Lord, if we don’t keep them before us we easily forget, we become frustrated with the circumstances, the situations, the problems that confront us, difficulties, unpleasantness. We fail to appreciate the blessings. Lord we need to have our focus on You, we need to worship You the living God in good times and in difficult times, when we see reasons for something and when we don’t see reasons. We understand You are our heavenly Father, You are sovereign, You direct our steps, but we are responsible to be grounded in Your word, to be submissive to Your truth. To be careful that we obey it, that we are passionate about our worship of You, our service of You, that we never allow our perspective to become clouded, to allow ourselves to be disoriented. That You are our God, You are our Sovereign, and we want to make decisions that are in accord with Your will, in obedience to Your word, that we might honor You and experience Your blessings in good times and in hard times. Pray You’ll bless this day, the days ahead of us as we look forward to the coming of Christ in whose name we pray. Amen.


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