Lesson 10
The Sovereignty of God
August 26, 2007
Bro. Gary Johnson
Adult Sunday School
Psalm 121:3
Certainly no Bible believing Christian has any difficulty believing that God can and has worked miracles yet we do not always recognize them when we are involved such as either of the just mentioned circumstances.
I believe we are all on the same page about though not the same type of miracles that are recorded and we read about in His Word that God is still performing miracles today. But to believe in the sovereignty of God when we do not see His direct intervention, when God is so to speak, working entirely behind the scenes through ordinary circumstances and the ordinary actions of people. Especially, when the message is directed to us. Then we do not want to believe it and that is too bad, because that is the way God usually works.
A nineteenth-century writer, Alexander Carson (and I am not aware of any facts about this author except this quote seemed to fit here to help me say what I wanted to say.) in his book Confidence in God in Times of Danger (Which again I have not read) said “For the wisdom of man cannot see how the providence of God can arrange human actions to fulfill his purpose without any miracle.” None of us knows of such events in our lives (perhaps hundreds) when we have been unknowingly spared from adversity or even tragedy by the unseen sovereign hand of God. When we were in a hurry and got caught by a stop light that prevented us from being in a collision at the next intersection or some other small “inconvenience” or so we thought that spared us from who knows what.
As the psalmist said in Psalms 121: Vs 3 “He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.” And Vs 4 “Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” Every event we read about in the book of Esther seem to be just ordinary circumstances. But we know (since we finished the book) that all of those events like Esther being chosen Queen, to the King not being able to sleep and what was read to him that night, where as we read in Esther 4:14b “and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Yes God, sovereigntly orchestrated the events of this story to “save His people”. Don’t we claim that title now?
Are now justified in concluding that God always orchestrates the events of our lives to fulfill His purpose?. Does God always orchestrate the events in my life for my good?
The answer is a resounding YES!! The answer is (you should have known it) is given to us in Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Yes the answer is yes but it does not say every thing is good, it works together for good. Sometimes we just have a hard time learning what He is trying to teach us.
So what have we got to worry about if no one can act and no circumstances can occur outside the bounds of God’s sovereign will? That is only half of the facts one side of the story to His sovereignty. The rest of the story which is just as important and more than half of the battle to stop worrying is we must Trust in Him, believe and live like we believe that this is true.
Another fact that we need to know and believe is that NO plan of God can be thwarted. God does as He pleases, and only as He pleases, and no one can frustrate His plans or hinder His purposes.
Since this is also a difficult concept to accept and one which is frequently disputed it would be wise for us to consider a few Scripture passages on this subject:
Job 42:2 I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withheld from thee.
Psa 115:3 But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.
Isa 14:27 For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
Isa 43:13 Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?
Isa 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
Dan 4:35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?
Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
No plan of God’s can be thwarted: when He acts no one can reverse it: no one can hold back His hand or bring Him to account for His actions. God does as He pleases, only as He pleases, and works out every event to bring about the accomplishment of His will
Frankly such a statement as that totally unqualified would terrify us to death, IF that were all we knew about God. But we also know God is not only sovereign, He is perfect in love and infinite in wisdom.
God, cares, He exercises His sovereignty for His glory and the good of His people.
God has a purpose and a plan for us, and God has the power to carry out that plan. It is one thing to know that no person or circumstance can touch us outside of God’s sovereign control; it is still another to realize that no person or circumstances can frustrate God’s purpose for our lives.
Furthermore God has a specific purpose for each of us that is His unique tailor made plan for our individual life. And God will fulfill that purpose because, He says so in Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” And Psalms 138:8 also says He will, “The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth forever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.:
Because we know God is directing our lives to an ultimate end, and because we know He is sovereignly able to orchestrate the events in our lives toward that end, we can trust Him. We can commit to Him not only the ultimate outcome of our lives, but also the intermediate events (that seem to cause us to worry) and circumstances that will bring us to that outcome.
The reason we worry about daily events in our lives (especially those that may happen tomorrow) is it is difficult for us to appreciate the reality of God soverereignly doing as He pleases in our lives, because, we do not see God doing anything. Instead we (in our view) ourselves or maybe other people acting and events occurring, and we evaluate those actions and events according to our own preferences and plans. We therefore see ourselves influencing or perhaps even controlling or maybe being controlled by the actions of other people, but we do not see God at work. But we need to realize that over all of the actions and events of our lives, God is in control doing as He pleases and He does not need our help nor for us to be worried about it getting accomplished. Not apart from those events, or in spite of them, but through them.
All we need to do is as Paul tells us in 2nd Corinthians 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) And to remember Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the thoughts (plans) that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Because God does have a plan for us, and because no one can thwart that plan, we can have hope and courage, and can trust God instead of worrying.
We need to when we are forced to change our plans because of some unexpected event to remember there are no unexpected events in God’s plans and that our forced change of plans is now a part of His plan for us. God is never surprised, never caught off guard, never frustrated by unexpected developments. God does as He pleases and that which pleases Him is always for His glory and our good.
Our lives are cluttered with a lot of “if onlys”. “If only I had done this” or “if only that had happened”. But God has no “if only’s,” God never makes a mistake: God has no regrets. As Psalms 18:30 reports to us : “As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him.” Therefore instead of worrying we can trust God for He is trustworthy.
We have been saying repeatedly that God’s sovereignty is always for our good. Does that mean every story has a happy ending? You do not have to think about that question very long to know that the answer is no. We will look at some of those in a few minutes but first let’s look at His word to see why that is the answer.
The Bible teaches us that God is sovereign over both the “good” and the “bad”
Ecclesiastes 7:14 tell us: “In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.”
And from Isaiah 45:7 we learn: “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.”
And then Lamentations 3:38 sums it up with: “Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?”
These three passages clearly state what is taught in principle throughout the rest of the Bible. God controls both the good and the bad. God has not looked the other way or been caught by surprise when adversity strikes us. He is in control of that adversity directing it to His glory and good. Nothing in Scripture tell us that we are expected to understand it or why it happened but we are to believe that it will work together for good maybe even hand in hand with another adversity but in the end for good.
It took Joseph years to find out what the good “God” meant it for, but he did. Not every case of turmoil is revealed to the recipient of the activity.
Whither, or not the reason is revealed to us this side of Heaven we must have the faith to believe that it was for His purpose and our good that we went through that trial. We must learn to trust God one circumstance at a time. Trusting God is not a matter of our feelings but of our will. No one feels like trusting God when adversity strikes, but we can choose to do so even when we do not feel like it. In order to do that the act of the will must be based on our belief and our belief must be based on truth.
Our first priority in times of adversity is to honor and glorify God by trusting Him. Our natural trend is to make our first priority the gaining of relief from our feelings of heartaches or disappointments or frustration. As I said this is our natural desire but not the one God wants us to turn to, because He has promised us in 2nd Corinthians 12:9 My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
And Philippians 4:6 & 7 “Vs 6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
”Vs 7 “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” And Matthew 26:39 where Jesus Himself is demonstrating the how to of these instructions by doing what He tells us to do: “And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt”.
We honor God by obeying Him by choosing to trust Him when we do not understand what He is doing in our life nor why, He has allowed some adverse circumstance to occur. As we seek God’s glory, we may be sure that He has purposed our good and that He will not be frustrated in fulfilling that purpose.
I told you last week, that no one can do any thing to you if it is not God’s soverign will. I said that you did not need to worry if your boss was on a tirade and you were afraid of losing your job. I said God is in control, not your boss.
So in case you are worrying about that happening in spite of what I said let us see some examples from scripture of cases where God has restrained people. I just don’t want you worried about your loosing your job because you boss has been or even still is on a tirade. We have seen if we think about it and if not we will review cases where we have seen God can and does move in the hearts of people to show favor to us when that favor will accomplish His purpose. And there is still another important dimension to His sovereignty in the hearts of people: when necessary, (even though our actions have been wrong and one could say “you asked for it”). He has restrained people from decisions or actions that would harm us.
One such example of God’s protection by restraining others that occurred early in Scripture is the incident in Abraham’s life. In fear of his own life and not trusting God to do it for him, Abraham lied about his wife, Sarah, saying she was his sister. As a result Abimelech moved to take Sarah as his wife. God however , kept Abimelech from carrying out his plan. He said to Abimelech In Genesis 20:6 “And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.” God restrained Abimelech through his mind. Abimelech himself prpbably did not understand why he did not do as he planned. We however know from our perspective that God sovereignly intervened and protected the moral purity of Sarah who was to be the mother of the promised son of Abraham. God could have intervened circumstantially to preserve Sarah’s purity, but in this incident He chose to do so through moving upon Abimelech’s mind. He restrained Abimelech through moving upon his will.
We have no reason to think that Abimelech was conscious that it was God restraining him. The Scripture simply says that he did not go near her. God did not excuse Abraham’s sin caused by his unbelief and sin which put Sarah into this difficult position but He still intervened protect Sarah from the serious consequences of his sin.
Another case of God’s intervention for protection involves Abraham’s grandson Jacob to move from Shechem to Bethel. Two of Jacob’s son had just committed a heinous act against the people of the land. After it was done Jacob said in Genesis 35:30 “And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house.” But God intervened and caused terror in their minds in Genesis 34:30 they were spared because of that terror; “And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.” There was no reason why the Canaanites should not have swooped down upon Jacob and his family to avenge the crime of Jacob’s sons except that God restrained them through a fear that could not be rationally explained.
One of the strongest illustrations of God’s restraint of people is given to us in Exodus 34:23 & 24 Vs 23 “Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel.” And Vs 24 “ For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year.” Here God is promising restraint by fear on any one that was (thinking about) coveting their land.