Summer in the Systematics: Theology Proper (Part 7)

Transcript

JRS 17
Summer in the Systematics Theology Proper (Part 7)
8/14/2022
Selected Verses
Jesse Randolph

Well, we are into our next installment, installment #7 of Summer in the Systematics, our summer-long study of Theology Proper—also known as the doctrine of God. We are sort of past the halfway point in the series. And as you can see, if you got a worksheet as you walked in, I’m sort of ramping things up a bit. Trying to cram it all into the last few weeks here. So, by my count, we have one, two, three, four, five, six, we have nine sub-points on the front of your sheet, and five on the back. So, this is a fourteen-point message. I think a while back, I had a seventeen-point message. I can’t top that. So, we’ll do a fourteen-point study tonight. And hopefully you have these note sheets; they’re just designed to be dule didactic tools to help you learn to grow and soak all this material in.

And as you can see, if you have a worksheet there in front of you, our topic for this evening is The Sovereignty of God. This module is going to build in some ways on what we talked about last time. But it’s going to be a distinct topic in its own right. So, the sovereignty of God, we’re going to start, as we did last time, with Ephesians 1:11 as our starting point. Ephesians 1:11, God “works all things after the counsel of His will.”

Last week, we looked at this text, Ephesians 1:11, from the perspective of God’s knowledge. “What does God know?” was the main question that we asked last Sunday evening. Last Sunday evening, we looked at the concept of God’s eternal decree, and the concept of divine foreknowledge. Specifically, His foreknowledge of people. And we looked at how Scripture teaches that God, through His decree—His overarching, singular, eternal decree—predestines people. But He elects people unto salvation, and He also passes over others, through what theologians for centuries have called reprobation. Much more to be said on that topic. We don’t have time to get into that tonight. Hopefully, what we covered at least gave you a taste of it last Sunday night.

This evening, we’re starting with Ephesians 1:11 to launch into a discussion, a broader discussion, and in some ways a more expansive discussion, of the sovereignty of God. Now, we’re going to start with a quote here. There are going to be many quotes from Scripture and a few quotes from theologians tonight, as we tend to have. We’re going to start with this quote from A.W. Pink. He wrote a book, by the way, called The Sovereignty of God, which is wildly regarded as one of the hallmark books on this subject of God’s sovereignty. He says: “Divine sovereignty means that God is God in fact, as well as in name, that He is on the Throne of the universe, directing all things, working all things”, and here’s Ephesians 1:11 language, “after the counsel of His own will.” Put another way, to say that God is sovereign is to say that God is in control.

Now, here’s how a more modern theologian, Wayne Grudem, in his Systematic Theology puts it. He says: “God’s sovereignty is His exercise of rule (as ‘sovereign’ or ‘king’) over His creation.” And God is in control of everything.

Psalm 103:19 says, “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all.” What we’re going to attempt to do this evening—with an emphasis on that word, “attempt,” considering the nature of our topic—is we’re going attempt to plumb the depths of what “all things” means in Ephesians 1:11. And, attempt to plumb the depths of what Psalm 103:19 here says, that “His sovereignty rules overall.” Meaning, what we’re going to be doing this evening is looking at various realms and categories and areas of life over which God is sovereign. We’re going to, ultimately, try to flesh out scripturally what Paul meant and what the Psalmist meant in Psalm 103:19 when they speak of “all things” where sovereignty is overall. And then what we’re going to do this evening, on the back side of our worksheets, is look at some of the implications that arise from our understanding of the scope of God’s sovereignty.

Before we start though, and similar to what I said last week on the front end of the message, I want to acknowledge to begin with that I do understand that there will be some of you this evening who are going to disagree. Maybe you’re watching online and you’re going to disagree with the case I’m going to make for the absolute, total sovereignty of God. There may be the response that the Scriptures I present to you make God out to be some sort of divine despot. There may be the response that the Scriptures I present to you somehow make God a good and sovereign God the author of evil. All I ask, as with last week, is that you allow me to present to you, and reason with you, from the Scriptures. And if there’s disagreement after, I’m happy to discuss with you tonight, or be it email, or a separate meeting, to hear your scriptural reasons as to why you think I’m wrong.

For now, though, and as we embark on this study, I’d like to draw your attention to this quote from an old Scottish minister, Horatius Bonar, who had this to say about the doctrine of the sovereignty of God a century and a half ago. He said this: “If there be a God, a King, eternal, immortal, and invisible, He cannot but be sovereign – and He cannot but do according to His own will and choose according to His own purpose. You may dislike these doctrines, but you can only get quit of them by denying altogether the existence of an infinitely wise, glorious, and powerful Being. God would not be God were He not thus absolutely sovereign in His present doings and His eternal pre-arrangements.” With that, let’s jump into our study and jump into these blanks here on your worksheets.

Out first major blank, on the face page of your worksheet, under the words The Sovereignty of God, would be scope. Our first major topic for this evening is “The Scope of God’s Sovereignty.” On the backside, later this evening, we’ll talk about “The Implications of God’s Sovereignty,” if you want to jump ahead and fill that blank in. So, we’re going to look at the scope of God’s sovereignty, and then we’ll look at the implications of God’s sovereignty. So, let’s talk about the scope of God’s sovereignty first.

A. God is Sovereign in Name
Well, our first subheading is that God is sovereign in Name, God is sovereign in name. Another way of saying this would be, if Scripture were to say nothing about the ways in which God exercises His sovereignty, we would still understand and know that He is sovereign because of the names and titles that are ascribed to Him in the Bible. One of those names is “Lord”. You know, God is referred to as “Lord” throughout the pages of the Old and New Testaments. In a previous lesson, we saw that the word for “Lord” here in Hebrew in the Old Testament would be Adonai, which is a word that denotes lordship, ownership. The word can refer to a lord of a manor. Or a lord of an estate. Or various other types of earthly “lords.” But whenever this word “lord,” Adonai, in Hebrew, is in the plural form—and Adonai is plural in Hebrew—it’s always in reference to God.

So, here in Psalm 97:5 we see the Lord, Adonai, of the whole earth. That is describing God as God, Lord of the whole earth. What’s being communicated here is that God is the absolute Lord of all things. He has total and complete dominion over everything, and He exercises total and complete dominion over everything. He’s equally Lord over rivers as He is over lakes and seas. He’s equally Lord over deserts as He is over plains and mountains. He’s equally Lord over Kansas City as He is Korea. He truly does “have the whole world in His hands”!

And when we get to the New Testament, God is referred to as “Lord of heaven and earth.” Very similar to Psalm 97:5. The Greek word here for Lord is kurios. This word can refer either to a man of great power or prestige, or it can refer to a supernatural being (like God). And importantly, in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament), whenever that name YHWH originally appeared in Hebrew, when we see it carried over into the Greek, it’s rendered kurios. Which signifies that God is Lord. And as Lord, God is sovereign.

Next, we see God referred to in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, not only as Lord, but “Lord of lords.”
Psalm 136:3 – “Give thanks to the Lord of lords.”
Deuteronomy 10:17 – “For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords…”
And we jump ahead to Revelation 17:14 and it says – “These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings.”
What this means is that while there are human beings on this planet who, whether through democratic voting, or tyrannical takeover, take on titles which ascribe to them some form of earthly sovereignty—King, Queen, Prince, Princess, President, Premier, Duke, Duchess, Prine Minister, Chancellor, Chairman, Supreme Leader—in the case of each of those, God sovereignly rules over all of them!

So, we’ve seen the title “Lord” given to God in Scripture. We also see Him ascribed as “King.” God is referred to as “King” in various points in the Scriptures. By way of example:
Psalm 47:2 – He is “a great King over all the earth.”
Daniel 4:37, the Lord is referred to as “the King of heaven.”
Or consider Psalm 95:3 – “For the Lord is a great God”, that’s YHWH there, “and a great King above all gods.”
1 Timothy 6:15, He is “the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords.”
And one more here, He “is the King eternal,” says 1 Timothy 1:17, “immortal, invisible, the only God.”

See, whether individually or taken together, these passages testify to God’s absolute and sovereign rule. His Kingship over all things. See, these passages teach us that God is expansive in His sovereign kingship. His reign, it says, these texts tell us, extends all over the earth. But not only all over the earth, also up to heaven. These Scriptures teach us that God is supreme in His sovereign kingship. He is the “great King above all gods.” These passages teach us that God is exclusive in His sovereign kingship. He is the “King of kings” and the “blessed and only Sovereign.” And these Scriptures teach us that God is timeless in His sovereign kingship. He is “eternal” and “immortal” we saw. Each of these examples of God being described as “Lord” (Adonai or kurios), or “King”, I’ve given you these so that you can see that God is sovereign in name. Sovereign in name.

Now we’re going to deepen our understanding a little bit about what Scripture has to say about specific areas over which God is sovereign. He’s sovereign in name, but now we see from the Scriptures that there are multiple dimensions of existence that He is sovereign over.

B. God is Sovereign Over Time
First, He’s sovereign over time. That’s your 1B heading, by the way. I hope I’ll mention these each time we get to one, so you’ll kind of be able to fill these in. So, we’ve done, He’s sovereign in name, and here He is sovereign over time. In fact, God is the creator of time. The only reason time exists is that God willed that time would exist. The only reason that we, finite creatures, think in terms of hours and minutes and seconds; or years and months and days; the only reason we have or think about clocks and watches and calendars; or think in terms of young and middle-aged and old; or the abstract concept of beginnings and middles and ends; the only reason we think in those terms is because God has decreed that time would exist. He has decreed that there would be a beginning to all things. He has decreed that one day there will be an end to all things. And He has decreed that we, in our human experience, would fit somewhere between those two temporal poles.

However, God, as the Creator of time, is not Himself bound by time. He’s free from all succession of time, in the way that we think about or we experience time. That’s much different than us and our earthly experience. You know, our whole experience as earth-bound creatures is made up of these constant successions of moments in time. You know, we’re in Sunday evening right now, at 6:45. It’s going to turn into Monday morning at some point. Friday will turn into Saturday. Spring will turn into summer. Summer will turn into fall, and fall into winter, don’t tell my wife. And so on, and so on. Not so with God. Everything that happens inside and outside the Godhead is immediately and consciously experienced by God, as though it is one moment.

That’s what I mentioned a while back about Louis Berkhof, where he says that with God, He experiences, “one indivisible present.” You know, we can’t really conceive of it. I can barely articulate it! But the main idea is that God is sovereign over time. Isaiah 46:9-10, He says, “For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning.” HE has appointed the day of your birth. He’s appointed the day of your death. He’s appointed the day of your wedding. He’s appointed the day of your baptism. And every event, whether you deem it significant or otherwise, in between. He appointed the day on which Rome fell. He appointed the day on which Napoleon was defeated. He appointed the day on which the Twin Towers collapsed. And He has already appointed the day on which the American Republic will eventually fall. He appointed the day of the inauguration of your favorite President. And He appointed the inauguration day of your least favorite President. He appointed the day of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He appointed the day of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He appointed the day of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. He appointed Donald Trump’s awkward dance moves. He appointed Kamala Harris’ creepy laugh. He appointed the year 2020 to unfold exactly as it would take place, just as He appointed previously tumultuous years, like 1968, or 1941, or 1929. He appointed the six days on which He created the heavens and the earth. He appointed the days of Noah. The days of Abraham. The days of David. The day on which His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He appointed the days of the Son’s earthly ministry. The day on which Jesus was betrayed. The day on which Jesus was crucified. The day on which Jesus rose from the grave. The day on which Jesus ascended into heaven. And the day on which Jesus will, with His victorious Bride the Church, return to earth to rule and reign for 1,000 years before forever and finally ushering all of us into the eternal state.

It's all been sovereignly decreed. It’s all under God’s sovereign control. God is absolutely sovereign over time.

C. God is Sovereign Over the Heavens
Next, we see that God is sovereign over the Heavens. That’s your third subheading there. God is sovereign over the Heavens.

You know, the universe is so vast that it is almost beyond comprehension. I got headaches studying this stuff. I’m going to do my best to communicate it. But according to one researcher, or one research study I found, if you hold a penny in your hand as representing the sun, the nearest star to the sun, represented by the penny you’re holding in your hand, would be about 350 miles away. So that would be like me holding a penny up here in Lincoln, Nebraska, and saying that the closest sun, maybe the closest penny that would represent a star, would be in Minneapolis, or in Tulsa. That’s how close the closest star is to the sun. According to some estimates, the Milky Way galaxy is something like 7.5 million miles across in diameter. Based on a 2021 study performed by NASA, there are over 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe. There are an estimated 100 billion starts in one of those galaxies, the Milky Way galaxy. Across the universe, it’s estimated that there’s something like 200 billion trillion starts. These numbers are so huge that they’re practically incomprehensible. They’re certainly incomprehensible to me. Maybe not so much to somebody smarter than me out there that knows this kind of information and data, but certainly there’s a limit to our understanding of what is being described here. But it’s not incomprehensible to God. God is sovereign over every one of those galaxies. Every one of those stars. Every square inch of the universe, whether or not it’s observable or comprehensible to mere creatures like us.

Psalm 115:3 – “But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.”
Psalm 135:6 – “Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth.”
Daniel 4:35 – “He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”

God is sovereign over the entirety of the cosmos. He calls each one of those 200 billion trillion stars by name. He knows their exact dimensions. He knows the precise gaseous composition of each one of them. He knows the specific date, and hour, and minute, and second, on which each will eventually flicker and fade and flame out. He causes planets to remain in orbit as He hangs them on nothing. He upholds each of the 2 trillion galaxies by the breath of His mouth. This is fascinating. And ultimately, it should be humbling and awe-inducing to any one of us sitting here tonight! To think that God rules and orders the galaxies, the universe, the way He does... But it also ought to cause us to be in awe to know that God, as He rules from highest heaven, as He’s up there directing traffic, if I can say it that way, in all the planetary beings, He still sees fit to trouble Himself with what’s happening here on planet earth! That idea is picked up in Psalm 113: 4-6, where it says “The Lord is high above all nations; His glory is above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, who is enthroned on high, who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth?”

I mean, seriously, isn’t it incredible that God would see fit to bother Himself with the things of this earth? Isn’t it incredible that He would see fit to bother Himself with specks of dust like you and me? That’s exactly what David observed. Those are David’s words in Psalm 8:3-4 – “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of Him, and the son of man that You care of Him?” I mean, isn’t it incredible, as He is doing all of that up there, that He would give us an inhabitable planet to live on? That He would give us life, and breath, and movement? That He would give us oxygen and water and sunshine? That He would give us rain and food and sustenance? That He would be preserving our lives right now? Granting each one of us every single breath we’re taking this evening in this auditorium. Like that one, and that one. I can’t breathe when I’m teaching and preaching, so He’s needing to give me more breath right now so I can get through this.

But Thomas Watson once said it so well. He said: “Every time you draw your breath, you suck in mercy.”
It’s incredible! It’s truly incredible that as He’s doing all that He’s doing up there, so to say, that He would create us, concern Himself with the details of our lives, and, on top of that, do all these great and gracious things like allowing us to have parents and siblings, and spouses and children. And education and employment. And enjoyable experiences, like vacations. Enjoying the smell of fresh-cut grass. Watching your son end a football game on a pick six. Enjoying the beauty of a pink summertime Nebraska sunset. Culvers on Sunday evening? That He would allow us to have all of that. I mean, seriously, isn’t it incredible that as He’s doing all of that up there that He would be drawing people on this planet, to Himself? Regenerating them and restoring them, saving them based on the already-completed wok on the cross of the Son, Jesus Christ? I mean, really, when we think about the scope of God’s sovereignty, and how He is simultaneously sovereign, and exercising His sovereignty, both in the heaven and on earth, it should lead us to a place where we are bending our knees, closing our mouths, and simply giving Him thanks and praise. Like David, Psalm 139:6, I guess it’s not in here, “such knowledge is too wonderful for me,“ he says.

D. God is Sovereign Over the Earth
So, God is sovereign over the heavens. As we’ve already alluded to, and this will be our next blank, section 1D, God is sovereign over the earth.

God is sovereign over all aspects of the natural, created realm that He has brought into existence here on planet earth. You know, I could, if I wanted to, if I was ambitious enough, try to wax eloquent about the ways that God showcases His sovereignty here on earth, but I’m not going to do that. I think the better way to handle the subject would be to simply allow God to speak for Himself on this topic. Why don’t you turn with your Bibles, if you would, to Psalm 104. I read a section of Psalm 104 this evening, in the evening Scripture reading, but let’s see more from His word about His sovereignty over the earth, meaning nature, the natural realm. I’m going to read an extensive section of this. And just, as you’re listening to this, hear God Himself declaring how He is sovereign over all things in the natural created realm.

Psalm 104:3-24. “He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters; He makes the clouds His chariot; He walks upon the wings of the wind; He makes the winds His messengers, flaming fire His ministers. He established the earth upon its foundations, so that it will not totter forever and ever. You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters were standing above the mountains. At Your rebuke they fled, at the sound of Your thunder they hurried away. The mountains rose; the valleys sank down to the place which You established for them. You set a boundary that they may not pass over, so that they will not return to cover the earth. He sends forth springs in the valleys; they flow between the mountains; they give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they lift up their voices among the branches. He waters the mountains from His upper chambers; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of His works. He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and vegetation for the labor of man, so that he may bring forth food from the earth, and wine which makes man’s heart glad, so that he may make his face glisten with oil, and food which sustains man’s heart. The trees of the Lord drink their fill, the cedars of Lebanon which He planted, where the birds build their nests, and the stork, whose home is the fir trees. The high mountains are for the wild goats; the cliffs are a refuge for the shephanim. He made the moon for the seasons; the sun knows the place of its setting. You appoint darkness and it becomes night, in which all the beasts of the forest prowl about. The young lions roar after their prey and seek their food from God. When the sun rises they withdraw and lie down in their dens. Man goes forth to his work and to his labor until evening. O Lord, how many are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all...” Again, there’s not much more to say beyond what’s said there, under the divine guidance of the Holy Spirit, in Psalm 104, that God is sovereign over all.

Well, while we’re on this topic of God’s sovereign rule over the earth, we’re going to see next that God is sovereign over rulers.

E. God is Sovereign Over Rulers
Now, we’ve already addressed this topic a bit. When we looked at those Scriptures that referred to God as “Lord” and God as “King”, as a name or title for God... But the testimony of Scripture as a whole is even clearer, and even sharper, related to the fact that God is sovereign over the various rulers and human sources of power on this planet, no matter what nation they’re from. No matter what tribe they’re from. No matter what generation they’re from or century they’re from. No matter what political theory they subscribe to, or which political faction or party they belong to. God is absolutely sovereign over kings and presidents, and judges and deputies, and mayors and city councils and school boards. Police chiefs and fire chiefs and dog catchers and meter maids. He’s sovereign over it all! But you don’t need to take my word for it. You can look at Scripture with me:

Proverbs 21:1 – “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord.”
Psalm 33:10 - “The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations; He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever…” He’s sovereign over it all.
Isaiah 40:15 – “Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales.”
Two verses later “All the nations are as nothing before Him, they are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.”
Lastly, “and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitations.”

Did you hear the scope of God’s sovereignty in those verses that I’ve just rattled off? See, He is sovereign over the hearts of kings and rulers, Proverbs 21:1. He is sovereign over the plans that those kings and other rulers make; we saw that in Psalm 33. And He is sovereign over even, Acts 17 says, the boundaries and borders of these nations. God’s sovereignty over these matters of governance and politics is both exhaustive and meticulous. It’s exhaustive in the sense that it covers the entire scope and sweep of history. He is sovereignly, today, ruling over Joe Biden, as He is Leirion Gaylor Baird. I think that’s her name. I’ll get it down at some point. He did sovereignly rule over Barak Obama. He is ruling sovereignly over Ben Sasse. He ruled sovereignly over Pol Pot and Pontius Pilate. But His sovereignty is at the same time meticulous. It’s meticulous in the sense that it covers each and every detail of history that has already played out. And each and every detail of history that will play out. God is sovereign over military decisions and policy decisions. And economic decisions and election outcomes and voting patterns. He’s sovereign over redistricting and gerrymandering and hanging chads and missing ballots. And all the rest. He’s sovereign over red states and blue states. Sovereign over bicameral and unicameral legislatures. Sovereign over both liberal and conservative politicians. Sovereign over both tyrannical and beneficent kings and other rulers. He is sovereign over it all.

F. God is Sovereign Over Circumstances
Moving down to section 1F, He is sovereign over circumstances. God opens doors and He closes doors. Sometimes He allows doors to swing back and forth, so you don’t know it, He’s opening a door or closing a door. He opens up paths and He closes off paths. The fact that I’m no longer a California lawyer but a Nebraska pastor is about as clear an example of God’s sovereignty as I can think of.

But I’m sure that many of you, if I called you up and gave you a mic and said, tell us a story about how God has sovereignly worked in your life, you could say something too. And we can all, if we believed in Christ, testify and speak of circumstances to the fact that we once were dead and lost in our sin, and now we’ve been redeemed and saved by the blood of the Lamb. We were walking that way, but praise God, He caused us to repent and believe, and now we’re walking that way. That’s sovereignty, is it not? Well, I agree with Jonathan Edwards on this subject. He says that this doctrine, “The doctrine” (of sovereignty) “has very often appeared exceedingly pleasant, bright, and sweet. Absolute sovereignty is what I love to ascribe to God...God’s sovereignty has ever appeared to me, a great part of His glory. It has often been my delight to approach God and adore him as a sovereign God.”

You know, He is sovereign over the big decisions we make. He’s sovereign over the seemingly small or inconsequential decisions we might make as well. Should I take that job? Should I buy that house? Should I marry that person? Should I take on that new role at church? Should I turn left here, or should I turn right here? Should I go to Runza or should I go to Goodcents? Should I introduce myself to that person, or should I not? Should I leave my house at 6:00 tonight, or at 6:15 tonight? God’s sovereignly involved in all of that. He’s sovereignly involved in every aspect of every detail of our lives. Every challenge in our lives, every victory in our lives. Every defeat in our lives. Every season in our lives. Every corner of our lives. It’s all within the exhaustive scope of God’s sovereignty.

Charles Spurgeon says: “I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes – That every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat” here an 1890’s kind of reference, “has its orbit, as well as the sun in the heavens – that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses. The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence – fall leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche. He who believes in God must believe this truth...There is no halfway between an Almighty God, who works all things according to the good pleasure of His will, and no God at all!”

To say that God is sovereign then, to agree with Spurgeon here, is to say that there is no such thing as “luck.” That there is no such thing as “chance.” That’s empty language. That’s empty, worldly, philosophical language, which attempts in futility to what Scripture has already answered for us in Proverbs 16:33, that “the lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” Sorry, Vegas. Sorry, Atlantic City. I’m still waiting, by the way, for Christian casinos to open one of these days and have some kind of name like, “The Sovereignty of God Casino” or “Providence” or something like that. Probably not going to work. I won’t hold my breath.

G. God is Sovereign Over Both Good and Evil
Here's the next one, God is sovereign over both good and evil. I’m going to go ahead and put the big statement up front here. By the way, this is section 1G. Here’s the big statement: God is not only sovereign over the good that happens in this world. He is sovereign over the evil and the wickedness that happens as well. How do I arrive at that conclusion? Well, there are several sweeping statements made in the Scripture—this is not mere philosophizing up here—in what Bruce Ware has called “spectrum texts,” which demonstrate the comprehensive sovereign control that God has over the entire range of events and circumstances experienced by humans. Meaning, God is sovereign over those events and circumstances that we as humans would consider to be good and beneficial. You know, things like marriage or the birth of a child. Or a promotion at work or a tax refund. But He’s also sovereign over those events and circumstances that we as humans would consider to be bad, or even evil. Death, disease and divorce. And maybe not a tax refund, but a tax bill.

Let’s consider a few of what Ware calls these “spectrum texts.” These spectrum texts showcase how broad God’s sovereignty is. Encompassing again those things we would consider to be good, and those we would consider to be bad. There are a few of these.

Deuteronomy 32:39 says, “See now that I,” this is 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.”
1 Samuel 2:6-7 – “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.”
Ecclesiastes 7:13-14 – “Consider the work of God, for who is able to straighten what He has bent? In the day of prosperity be happy, but in the day of adversity consider – God has made the one as well as the other…”
Lamentations 3:37-38 – “Who is there who speaks, and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth?”

And then consider these.
Isaiah 45:6-7 – “I am the Lord, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these.”
Last, Proverbs 16:4 – “The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil.”

Now, God is not the cause of evil. God is not the author of evil. We cannot make the mistake, the crucial mistake, of calling the One in whom there is no darkness the author of evil. James 1:13 teaches that “God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.”

But He does allow evil to exist in this world. We see God’s allowance of evil in various places in the Scriptures. Aaron, this morning, mentioned the calamity that came upon Job. Right in Job chapters 1 and 2, we even see God there telling Satan exactly how far he can go, and how far he can’t go, in tempting His servant Job. Which, by the way, is also showing us that God is sovereign over Satan, which means that Martin Luther was right when he said, “the Devil is God’s devil.” And of course, we see God’s allowance of evil in this world most starkly and most clearly in the account of the crucifixion of our Lord. Acts 2:23 says that Jesus was “delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God,” as He was “nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men [who] put Him to death.”

I agree with Bruce Ware on this matter. He says: “To remove God from His control of evil (along with good) is to deny His being the One and only true and living God.” And He does so to accomplish His purposes. To accomplish the perfect counsel of His will, as set forth in His eternal decree, back in Ephesians 1:11, which we looked at, starting tonight and last week. And that of course leads us to these familiar passages, for many of us… Here’s Joseph saying – “As for you, you meant evil against me,” brothers “but God meant it for good...” Or Romans 8:28 – “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good” according “to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” He’s causing these things, even evil, to work together for good.

Charles Ryrie is helpful here. He says: “God has a plan,” we call that a decree, “which is all inclusive, which He controls, which includes but does not involve Him in evil, and which ultimately is for the praise of His glory.” That sentence, that clause, is right in the middle of what’s so crucial. The plan “includes” God, but does not “involve” Him in evil. That’s an important distinction. That’s a critical distinction to make. And by the way, we’re going to be giving this matter of God in His relationship with evil just slight attention, the attention we’ve given so far this evening, because it’s actually going to be the full focus of our attention next Sunday night. For now, though, it’s important to recognize that God is sovereign over both good and evil.

H. God is Sovereign Over Salvation
Here's the next one, He is sovereign, God is, over salvation. Now, we covered that in greater detail last week where we covered the topics of election and predestination and divine foreknowledge. But it bears repeating here that God is absolutely sovereign in the salvation of man. Man, in his natural state, is dead in his sin. “And you were dead,” Ephesians 2:1 says, ”in your trespasses and sins.” In his unregenerate state, man is a spiritual carcass. He is incapable of pursuing God or seeking God or initiating a relationship with God.

Romans 3:11 says – “There is not who seeks for God.” There aren’t a few that do seek for God. There aren’t the holy types that just inherently know to seek for God. No, there is none who seeks for God.
1 Corinthians 2:14 – “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God,” that’s referring to the unregenerate person, “for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them”
Man cannot save himself. Man cannot even seek salvation. Rather, in his inherent, natural wickedness, man doesn’t and indeed wouldn’t know how to seek God. You know, man is not like a person who’s drowning in the middle of the ocean, treading water, and he just needs to grab on to a life ring. No, man in his natural state is a person who’s dead at the bottom of the sea floor, who needs to be brought to life. And God, then, sovereignly appoints (or elects), as we saw last week, those whom He will for salvation.
Ephesians 1:4 – “He chose us in Him,” in Christ, “before the foundation of the world.”
Acts 13:48 – “as many had been appointed to eternal life believed.”

And then God sovereignly draws those whom He has sovereignly chosen.
John 6:37 – “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me.”
John 6:44 – “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.”

The point is, I’ll give you a couple more, “Salvation is from the Lord”, Jonah 2:9.
Psalm 37:39 – “Salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.”
The point is, that God is totally and absolutely sovereign in salvation. So, if you’re here tonight and you’re a believer, if you’re a believer, it’s not because of you. It’s in spite of you, and it’s because of God.

I. God is Sovereign Over the Future
Last, and this will be a short one on this first side of the sheet: God is sovereign over the future. Now in recent decades, and I know this church has been well taught in these matters, so I won’t belabor this, but there has been this groundswell of activity among supposedly evangelical theologians who claim that the future is “open” to God. Meaning, God somehow adapts to circumstances and changes in response to the people that He has created—somehow adapts and changes in response to His creation as He decides His next move or His next course of action.

According to one of the leading proponents of this movement, which is called “Open Theism,” Gregory Boyd… Here’s what he says about this idea of the future being “open” to God. He says: “Open Theists are confident that God is so smart, he can sovereignly rule the world effectively without needing to have everything pre-settled in his will or mind ahead of time.” That’s just silly. Rather than using irreverent and patronizing language about God being “so smart”, it would behoove men like Gregory Boyd and John Sanders and Dallas Willard and John Goldingay and others who hold to this idea of “Open Theism” to recognize that what Scripture teaches is that we’re not going to use the words “God is so smart.” We use Scriptural words “God is so wise.” And God is so powerful and has such depths of knowledge of things past, present, and future that the appropriate response to His sovereignty is not to attempt to accommodate it to humans and His time-bound creation so that it makes better sense to us, so that it fits with how we think things ought to be. But instead, the appropriate response is to give Him the worship and praise He is due for being such an all-wise, all-powerful, all-sovereign God.

Page 2, you can turn your sheets over.

At the beginning of the lesson, I mentioned that we were going to consider the scope of God’s sovereignty, and we’ve now run through nine aspects of the scope of His sovereignty. But I also mentioned that we were going to talk about the implications of God’s sovereignty.
So, we’re going to run through these real quick.

We have five Implications of God’s Sovereignty.

Implication #1
God’s sovereignty should instill godly fear.
If you’re a Christian here this evening, what this phrase here does not mean is that you ought to have a fear of ultimate condemnation or judgment by God in hell.
1 John 4:18 speaks of perfect love being casting out all fear of such matters. No, by godly fear, what I’m referring to here, is having a right sense of awe and reverence directed toward a majestically sovereign God. We see this type of godly fear and reverence modeled for us in Scripture, and that fear being linked directly to the fact that God is sovereign. Like Psalm 47:2 – “For the Lord Most High is to be feared.” And look at what comes next, “A great king over all the earth.” Or Jeremiah 10:6-7 – “There is none like You, O Lord; You are great, and great is Your name in might. Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? Indeed it is Your due!” So, a right response, or right implication of God’s sovereignty, is that we ought to have godly fear of this God. Revere Him, hold Him in awe.

Implication #2
Here’s the second one: God’s sovereignty ought to lead to obedience.
The fact that God is sovereign ought to lead us to a place of submission to His will. You know, Jesus called out to His disciples in Luke 6:46 – “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” Similarly, if we were to recognize God’s sovereignty as we should, meaning His lordship and His kingship over our lives, it necessarily will lead to increased obedience. Increased sanctification. Increased growth in the Lord. It will lead to a growth in godly desires. To be in God’s word. To commune with this God in prayer. To be around God’s people. To share the message of the gospel, that sinners, unregenerate people, would come to know this very God. And it will lead to the purging of those sinful practices and desires that once marked our former lives. In other words, the reality of God’s sovereign, should be, it ought to be, a truly life-changing truth.

Implication #3
Here's the third one: God sovereignty does not eliminate our own responsibility.
There are a bunch of blanks in that one. Does not eliminate our own responsibility. I hear the question all the time, and I’m sure many of you have too. If God is sovereign, what am I responsible for? What does it matter? Why should I have to do anything?

This comes up, at least in my experience, in conversations related to two disciplines that, frankly, Christians have a hard time maintaining any amount of consistency with. Prayer and evangelism. And often times, because they are playing, you know, theologian, they’ll think this is a trump card. Well, if God is sovereign, I guess I don’t need to bother with praying. If God’s sovereign, I guess I don’t need to share the gospel because God’s got it all lined up and figured out. He knows who’s going to repent and believe. Well, there are good and biblical reasons that I’m going to give you right now for why abandoning prayer and abandoning evangelism ought not to be the response of the person who knows that God is sovereign.

Let’s start with prayer. Why should we pray if God is sovereign? If God has already declared and decreed all things, do our prayers matter? Do our prayers make a difference? Has the bumper sticker “prayer changes things” – been lying to us this whole time? Well, here a few reasons why we should be praying, not only in spite of God’s sovereignty, but rather because of God’s sovereignty.

Here’s number one. We have to remember that when we pray, we’re doing more than simply asking God to do something for us. To bless us. To provide something for us. To act on our behalf in a certain way. That presents a very narrow view of prayer, if that’s how you think prayer functions, or what the main purpose of prayer is. No, we pray to give thanks to God. We pray to praise God. To revere God. To worship God. That form of communion and fellowship with Him... And when we’re thinking of prayer that way, not “what am I getting out of God” first. Well, then praise Him for who He is, and include the fact that He is this all-wise, all sovereign God. So, prayer and sovereignty are not at odds. They are very much connected.

Another reason we pray, knowing that God is sovereign, is because He commands us to pray. You know, we’re called in Scripture to “pray without ceasing.” Jesus Christ Himself said, “Ask, seek, knock.” Prayer is not optional for the Christian. It’s required! And if the sovereign Lord of the universe was to command us to do anything at all, knowing who He is in His sovereignty, in His command over all things, we would be nuts not to do it. Well, He calls us to pray, and so we pray.

The third reason we pray, knowing that God is sovereign, is that prayer works. You know, God not only commands us to pray, He invites us to bring our petitions and requests to Him.

James 4:2 says we have not because we ask not. I mean, let that sink in. There ‘s a real causal connection between asking and God’s giving.
James 5:16 says, the prayer of a righteous person accomplishes much. So, the Bible then tells us that prayer is an effective tool. It works! So again, why wouldn’t we do it?

What about evangelism? If God is sovereign in salvation—and He is—why bother sharing the gospel? Well, there are a few reasons why we would continue to share the gospel faithfully while embracing the truth that God is sovereign.

First, it’s a very logical and loving response to understanding what the Scriptures teach about the terrors of hell that the unbeliever will face if they do not repent and believe in the Son of God. Even if we know that God is sovereign, we would be absolutely unloving and uncharitable to not open up our mouths to talk to the unbeliever who’s headed to hell.

Second, it’s our duty to share the gospel. We do have that thing called the Great Commission, where Jesus tells us the first aspect of the commission is to go. To go where? Out there. To do what? To make disciples. Now, what’s the first step of making a disciple? Sharing the gospel with them so that we know that they know that they know Christ and are brought into the family of God.

The third reason that we share the gospel, knowing God is sovereign, is that it’s a privilege. It’s a privilege to play some part, have some sort of front row seat, to what God is ultimately doing in the hearts of the people that He is working on as the gospel is proclaimed to them. We know we’re not doing the saving, but we are called to be the mouthpieces, and we sit back and watch God do the work.

The fourth reason we evangelize, we share the gospel knowing God is sovereign, is it works! You know, when we understand the sovereignty of God, in the best sense, we understand that we are not aimlessly shooting at fish in a barrel. Rather, we are shooting, if I can use that phrase, we’re aiming, at fish. We’re throwing our line in the water of those whom we know that God is already working in the hearts of as they come to saving faith.

And last, as is true of any act of obedience, when we faithfully proclaim His gospel to the lost, it’s ultimately bringing glory to God. Because again, we’re doing the proclaiming. We’re not saying it’s about you, sinner, and all the things you need to do to get right with God. No, He is going to get all the glory for turning their heart to Him.

That’s why J.I. Packer here says: “So far from making evangelism pointless, the sovereignty of God in grace is the one thing that prevents evangelism from being pointless. For it creates the possibility – indeed, the certainty – that evangelism will be fruitful. Apart from it,” meaning the sovereignty of God, “there is not even a possibility of evangelism being fruitful. Were it not for the sovereign grace of God, evangelism would be the most futile and useless enterprise that the world has ever seen, and there would be no more complete waste of time under the sun than to preach the Christian gospel.”

Implication #4
Here's our fourth implication of God’s sovereignty. It should bring comfort and trust in God. You know, to know that God is sovereignly ruling over and governing all aspects of His created order ought to bring us great comfort each and every day, and each and every night. To know that we don’t live in a chaotic world (though it might some time feel that way.) To know that we live in a world (and a universe) that is meticulously and thoroughly and sovereignly governed by a good and wise and powerful God. That ought to be like Spurgeon said, “the pillow on which the saint sleeps”. The sovereignty of God helps us to relate to David here in Psalm 4:8, when he says: “In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety.” Or Psalm 121:5-6 says: “The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever” more.

The sovereign God revealed in Scripture watches over His people. He cares for His children. Which ought to give us, as believers, a deep sense of trust in Him. More Spurgeon: “There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God’s sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children ought to more earnestly contend to than the doctrine of their Master over all creation – the Kingship of God over all the works of His own hands – the Throne of God and His right to sit upon that throne…for it is God upon the Throne whom we trust.”
A.W. Pink says: “Divine sovereignty is not the sovereignty of a tyrannical Despot, but the exercised pleasure of One who is infinitely wise and good! Because God is infinitely wise He cannot err, and because He is infinitely righteous He will not do wrong. Here then is the preciousness of this truth. The mere fact itself that God’s will is irresistible and irreversible fills me with fear, but once I realize that God wills only that which is good, my heart is made to rejoice.”

Implication #5
Finally, God’s sovereignty should lead to worship. Our response to God’s sovereignty ought to lead to reverential worship and praise. Like Psalm 99:1-5 says: “The Lord reigns, let the peoples tremble; He is enthroned above the cherubim, let the earth shake! The Lord is great in Zion, and He is exalted above all the peoples. Let them praise Your great and awesome name; Holy is He. The strength of the King loves justice; You have established equity; You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His footstool; Holy is He.” As in all things, as in studying and aspect of God, His attributes, His works, His purposes, His word... This study tonight of the sovereignty of God should not be an intellectual cul-de-sac where we store up a bunch of information and it just sits there, never impacting us, never impacting others, never flowing through us. Instead, when we study God, and for our purposes here tonight, the sovereignty of God, it ought to do something in us. It ought to stir up and increase our zeal for the Lord. It ought to heighten us in our awe of Him. It ought to, as the Psalmist says in Psalm 99, lead to overflowing worship of Him.

We worship an almighty God. An all-wise God. And a truly sovereign God. I pray this lesson has given much to consider, to reflect on, and to pray about as you grow in your knowledge of and worship our “blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords.”

Let’s pray. Lord, You are Almighty and You are Sovereign, and we say thank You this evening. Again, this has been like drinking from a firehose, but we know that when we study Your word, it will not return void. It’s always profitable. It always shapes our view of You, in a right way, in a good way, if we are submitted to the Scripture and walking in the Spirit. God, I pray that we would come away from this place in awe of who You are. That this would simply increase our gratitude that a God like this, a sovereign and all-wise God, would see fit to reach out to sinners like us and save us. Appoint us to eternal life. And save us based on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Thank You, God. Thank You that in Your sovereignty, in Your wisdom, You caused that event to occur at Calvary 2,000 years ago so that we sinners would have a hope to be restored to a relationship with You. Now God, as I just said, I ask that You would help us now to take this information and do something with it. Whether it be in our prayer life, our devotional time, in our homes, in our marriages, in our parenting, in our engagement with the community and the workforce, as we witness to unbelievers who randomly come into our paths... Even that word “randomly” is undermining Your sovereignty. We know nothing is random or by chance. God, we ask that You would help us to honor and glorify You this week, with all that we’ve learned. That You’d be pleased. In Jesus name. Amen.