God's Sovereignty in Proverbs

Before we go to the Word, as we do and we ought to do, we'll take a few minutes and just approach God in prayer, but if you want, you can open your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 16, and that's where our thoughts will come out of tonight.

Again, I know there's many things that we should and could pray for. If you have specific things you want us to pray for, just, again, mention it to us, and we'll make sure we put it into the bulletin so everybody's aware of it.

Certainly, we're thankful Brother Keith's back with us tonight with a new hairstyle, I might add. And I would also ask you to pray for Brother Mark Sauter, his wife. Brother Mark's over at Set Free, and his wife, Faith, is back in the hospital.

She's got blood clots she's dealing with, so if you would, she had some issues years ago when she was in the hospital, a concern that he almost lost her because of that. So, again, if you would, just remember her in your prayers, as well as the ministry at Set Free, that you would ask God to bless it.

Other things that are, again, we're aware of, and there are many things we're not aware of, but such a privilege we have to not only come and sing and worship, but to pray and to open his word, as Brother Matt said.

So, let's just take a moment and come before our God in prayer, not only to pray and give thanks, but to ask him to bless his word. So, let's pray. Again, our Father and our God, we come in that name, the only name, the name of Jesus, Lord, the name that is above every other name, the one who came to rescue us from the slave market of sin, to pay a debt that he did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay.

We thank you tonight, Father, that you have redeemed us, that you've called us out of darkness into your marvelous light, that you've given us new eyes and new ears because you've put within us, by your spirit, a new heart.

And oh, Lord, may we never lose sight of that, that we who were dead in sin were made alive by your amazing, amazing grace. We thank you, Lord, for Brother Keith being back with us, being able to join us again.

We pray you continually heal his body, be with him and his family, be with Jennifer as she approaches giving birth. We pray, Lord, for all our needs, Lord, the specifics and those things that are hidden only within the depths of our hearts.

We do pray for Mark's wife, Lord, as she is seeking healing from issues with blood clots. Lord, we know that nothing happens apart from you. And so we ask you to bless him and bless her, bless that ministry, and may they find their grace and their comfort in you.

Thank you, Lord, for our ability to gather tonight, to be able to openly open your word, to openly proclaim that Jesus is Lord. Lord, if you be pleased to take that away from us, we shall still praise you.

We shall praise you until you take us to be with you, or you return to take us to be with you, Lord. So bless, Lord, tonight. Open your word to us as only you can. May we never assume, Lord, that in and of ourselves, we can understand anything, for without you, we can do nothing.

So Holy Spirit, we ask you to come now and be the teacher. Keep us close to the truth as it is in Christ, and may even the words and the thoughts tonight be used by you to help us to grow, growing the grace and the knowledge of that one who so loved us that he gave himself for us, and we ask it in his name, for his ultimate glory and for our own eternal good.

Amen. Okay, so I've asked you to turn to Proverbs chapter 16, and again, it's a rather lengthy chapter in the book of Proverbs, and it's not my intent, as has been for the last number of weeks, to look at specific Proverbs one by one and go through it, but rather, I want to again consider what I see as at least a theme in this chapter, and again, knowing that it wasn't written in chapters and verses, I understand that, but I do think there are breaks where it picks up and it might be a little harder in the book of Proverbs, but I want to look at a theme that I believe is within these 33 verses in chapter 16, and what I'm finding out more and more as we go through the book together is that in the book of Proverbs, not only are there repetitive themes presented to us of specific truths that we need to hear over and over again, but it does appear to me at times that the author, the writer, will focus in on a particular theme and he'll deal with it in his laying out of various Proverbs and thoughts, and then it moves on, and so I hope to show you that tonight, that I believe there is within these verses, and we're gonna look at some specific verses, and I'll mention them to you now.

We're gonna look at verse one, and verse four, and verse seven, and verse nine, and verse 33, and if you've already just taken a quick look at it, perhaps you already know the theme, but I want to consider for a few minutes the subject of God's sovereignty, and again, we have, we believe in the sovereign God.

We believe in a God who rules over all the affairs of life, and so I want to look at it again tonight, and I don't think we can get enough of that. We could speak about the sovereignty of God and all its implications for a large period of time, and we will have only begun to reach the riches of that truth, but I want to look at the sovereignty of God in a particular way that God's sovereign rule as it is considered with the responsibility of man.

The sovereignty of God's rule and man's responsibility, and it's a large subject, so again, we cannot be, we will not look at it in that much depth, but I do think that even here a little and there a little, when we can latch on to the truth of God's rule and of how that, if you will, is matched with man's responsibility, and I do believe even considering it here a little, there a little, is profitable, again, because it's a well that will never run dry.

I want to say a couple things before we look at these verses. I thought about this, and here's some thoughts that I had, that the scope and the belief in the subject of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility, it varies by degrees depending on who you're talking to and their conviction or their understanding of the sovereignty of God, and so it's a rather wide spectrum as you talk to people of what they understand to be the boundaries or the limit of this reality of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility, and I just want to mention one or two of them and just to get us to begin to think about it, how this subject is so, in a sense, scattered in people's minds.

There are some that are absolutely content and glad that God is sovereign over all of creation. There are those who are, will bow to the fact that God is sovereign over all his creation, that he places the stars in the sky wherever he wills.

There's no argument about that. There's no pain in men's minds about God putting the stars in the sky, and one star is brighter than another star. There's contentment in many ways that he is the ruler who sets boundaries and principles of nature that do not change, that when a plane goes up, as long as it has power, it won't fall to the ground.

Men are happy that God is sovereign over the creation. Men are content with the fact that God rules over all inanimate things, as well as those principles that he has put into effect. No one really argues about the boundaries of the ocean, unless you live by the ocean and a hurricane comes and blows your house down, but most people will not argue about who is God that he should set a boundary for the oceans, or who is God that he should set the heights of the mountains.

Most will accept that, particularly those who call on God's name, and what I'm talking about right now is among, really, those varying understandings that are held by the people of God, and not so much those that are outside the pale of professing faith in Christ, and so there are those who are wonderfully happy that God is sovereign over creation and that he rules in the inanimate things of life, and they are willing to promote that.

Then there are those who are content, and I use the word content in the sense of thankful and willing to thank God that he's sovereign in ruling over nations, and raising up nations, and raising up kings, and being the one who sets one up and takes another down.

That's a little bit further along than inanimate principles in the creation, but nevertheless, there are those that are thankful that God raises up and takes down nations and rulers according to his will, and they also believe that God is sovereign as far as giving certain people certain skills that other people don't have, that God, in that sense, as the potter, has formed the clay, and that some are given by his grace to this, and some are given by his grace to that, and many will say, well, that's sovereign purpose of God is something to be thankful for, and they even will thank God that he is sovereign as far as how he has created us, and that one looks this way, and one looks another way, and those kinds of things, that he rules over where we would be born, and who our parents would be, and things according to the outflow of life, but here's where it really begins to cut, and it's when the great divide, in many ways, comes on the part of God's professed people, when we begin to consider the will of God and the will of man, that, again, as long as it doesn't affect man, many are thankful that God is the sovereign ruler of the universe, and that he does, as the scriptures say, whatever he pleases to do, and there is no one who can say to him, what are you doing, but it begins to break down when it comes to the human heart, and the will of man.

You know what I find interesting, and just to ask you to think about it, I find it interesting that those very people who begin to have their spiritual hair, or actually their literal hair, stand up on the back of their neck when you begin to infringe on their supposed sovereign will, but I find it interesting that very rarely will you hear a person who will, in that sense, grind against God's sovereignty and man's responsibility, and that God rules over all, but yet you never hear them complain about angels, fallen angels, elect angels.

Not too many will take up a case and say, I don't believe in the sovereignty of God, because it's not fair to the angels that fell, but again, when it comes to the very heart of man, it begins to rub many, and if you think about it, it really is something that the human heart struggles with, and the reason why we struggle with it is because, through sin, because of sin, we want to be our own God.

We want to rule over all that we are and all that we do, and if you think about it, before we go dive deeply or even look at these verses, just think about it. If you don't think that men still consider the sovereignty of God and the will of man, I think you're mistaken, and now it goes even outside the scope of the professed people of God, that it is something that really is considered, but it's considered by many in many different terms that maybe are not the right terms.

In other words, you hear men speak about lady luck. You hear men, men, women, you hear them speak about the winds of fortune, you hear them talk about karma, you hear them talk about serendipity, you hear them talk about payback, you hear them talk about all these different things, and what they're really trying to do is understand how these things work out, and they're struggling to understand that God rules over all, and that man is subject, and I say it without hesitation, man is subject to the rule of God.

I've been reading through a book on American history lately, and it reminded me again of the history of our own country when the Puritans first came, and they settled in New England, and they came, and one of the greatest desires of their heart was to worship the sovereign God, and that God was to be given his place of preeminence not only in the individual heart, but even in the towns and in the society, and ultimately they sought to set up God as the sovereign God even in government, and that was the foundation for which they came, not necessarily just to avoid what they perceived was the mistreatment of England, and it's interesting if you read through American history a little bit, you begin to see that what happened when they first set up that understanding and sought to implement with that thought that God was sovereign in all the affairs of life, that it began to break down, and then you move into the deists of which Jefferson was probably the greatest proponent at that time, and if anyone thinks that Thomas Jefferson was a Christian, I'm sorry, he wasn't.

He was a deist. He did not believe even that Christ was the son of God, but the deists began to dethrone God, and so the sovereignty of God began to be whittled away, and even in government, when they set up the Declaration of Independence, I'm sorry, it's just things on my mind, when they set up the Declaration of Independence, and even though they used the name of God, it wasn't the God of the Bible, and it wasn't the sovereign God that the Puritans had desired to see exalted, and then it further broke down, and if you read through until you get to Darwin, who basically did what?

He threw it all out and said man was God, and that we didn't need God, and that God had no place to rule in this earth, so again, my point in saying all that is if you think that this is not still an issue, it is, and men use many different terms, and many different thoughts.

It's formed nations and societies, governments, everything, and so it's very important for us to understand, and so with that in mind, let me just ask you to look with me at a couple of the verses that I mentioned to you that deal with this whole idea of the sovereignty of God, and as it also relates to the responsibility of man, so the first one is right there in the first verse.

The preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. The preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord, and I suppose you could say it this way, that when it says the preparations of the heart belong to man, that the counsel of a man's heart belongs to him, that man is the one who thinks and perceives and forms thoughts, and those things are within his realm, even as we know it says no man knows the spirit of a man, save the spirit of the man that, what, that is in him, and so when you begin to think about it, the preparations of the heart belong to man, the counsels that he thinks, they are his, but I will suggest, not suggest, I will say if that's all that there is, if man is autonomous, absolutely free to think what he wants, and not only to think what he wants, but to do what he thinks, then you really have to deal with the second part of that verse.

The preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord, because again, if it's solely the preparations, if it's solely a man can think whatever he wants, whenever he wants, however he wants, and then he can go out and seek to do whatever he wants based on the thoughts that he has, then again, man is his own authority, and in large part controls his own destiny, and answers to only self, but if this was the case, let me suggest this to you, and again, there's many ways to respond to that, but I want to respond to it this way tonight.

If that were the case, let me ask you, how could man ever do anything good? And the reason why I say that is if that's all there is, if God is in that sense out of the picture, you have to consider what's in the heart of man, and the scriptures certainly give us a very clear picture of what's in the heart of man.

It says that the heart is what? It's deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. So my answer in part to someone who says that man is his own final authority, my answer is that is tragic if that's the only truth, because men love darkness rather than light, because men are born for trouble as the sparks fly upward, because men drink iniquity like water.

The answer is that the answer is, the answer to the tongue is from the Lord, that God, that God in his sovereign rule, ready, and I'll say it a number of times, overrules in the affairs of life, and that men do have their own thoughts, and they have their own counsels, and they have their own desires, and they have their own consideration of how to implement those very thoughts, but the answer to tongue comes from the Lord.

I thought of Balaam, remember Balaam? He was hired to do what? Curse Israel, and what did he wind up doing? He blessed Israel, the answer to tongue is from the Lord. I want to show you a neat scripture, I'm sorry for the words I use, cool, neat, I hope you understand what I'm saying, but I want to show you something, I want you to just, one or two, I want you to look at Exodus for a minute, Exodus 11, because I've always remembered this scripture, and to me it kind of addresses what we're thinking about at the moment.

Exodus 11, I'm going to read the first few verses, and you'll see it. Preparations belong to the heart of man, but the answer to tongue is from the Lord. So Exodus 11, the Lord said to Moses, I will yet bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt, and afterward he will let you go from here.

When he'll let you go, he will surely drive you out of here altogether. Speak now in the hearing of the people, and let every man ask his neighbor, and every woman from her neighbor, articles of silver and articles of gold.

The Lord gave people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people. Moses said, thus saith the Lord, after midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in all the land of Egypt shall die.

From the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, to the firstborn of the maidservant who's behind the hand mill, and all the firstborn of the beasts. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as not was like it before, nor shall it be like it again.

But here, I want you to just read verse seven. But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue against man or beast. You know why I think this scripture is so neat? God controls the tongue of the dog.

Man considers his own way, and the answer of the tongue comes from the Lord. Even to the point of beasts and animals and creeping things and everything else. And I could spend a whole night just talking about the very reality of how God controls, moves, directs the creation and even the creatures of all.

But here where it says that not even a dog against the children of Israel, in the midst of all that was going on. I just think that's a great scripture. I just think that speaks so loudly to the truth.

All right, go back to Proverbs chapter 16. And so in verse one, it speaks about the preparations of the heart of man and it belongs to man, but the answer to tongue is from the Lord. And you know that saying of great, I believe truth that the man proposes and God does what?

God disposes. I don't know about you, I'm glad God disposes by the way. I'm glad it's not left up to man, not with the heart that's in man, not with the propensities that are in man, not even for the redeemed, because there's still that propensity to hurt and to harm.

And God in his grace works in us to overcome even what we design in wrong ways. All right, next let's look at verse four. I'm gonna try to get through all of them in just a few minutes. Verse four. And if you read the whole chapter, by the way, you'll see how this theme kind of fits into the rest of the verses.

But verse four, and verse four is a very troubling, very troubling words to many. The Lord has made all things for himself. And again, I'm reading New King James. Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.

You wanna get into an interesting conversation with someone who believes in free will? Open up to this verse. Ask them what they understand about this. Because this again is a word from God that many will malign, and many will kick their heels against.

And it will disturb many a person because if you don't understand it correctly, you might begin to think that God has pleasure in the death and the destruction of the wicked. And that God created them for no other purpose but to destroy them.

And that many have built horrifying false doctrines based on our reprobation and things of that nature. But I would answer this way and I ask you to consider that that is not what it means. Because the reality is God has no pleasure.

What does Ezekiel say? No pleasure in the death of the wicked. But that the wicked would what? Turn and live. So certainly it can't be as some would think that God just created for no other purpose but to destroy.

Remember the word in Ecclesiastes that God made man what? Upright. Many miss the mark because they consider God has created all things in a almost sadistic way. And my answer to that is this friends. God has created all things for his own.

And that he uses even the wicked devices of men to accomplish purposes that glorify him. That's why so many that would, again, consider it an infringement on their sovereign will will choose to ignore the plain truth of Paul in Romans 9.

That he is the potter and we are the clay. And is not the pot a power over the clay to do what he will with his own? And they begin to twist it as if, well God had no other purpose in mind but to destroy and to cause pain and hurt.

And so they ignore that truth. And again, I'll bring up my point again. It's interesting to me that very few will seek to defend the fallen angels. I just don't hear it much. No one writes a book about how unfair God has treated the fallen angels.

And you know what brothers and sisters? This is not an issue of Calvinism against Arminians. This is an issue of the word of God. That's what it is. And we sometimes try to set up these camps because it's easy for us to throw rocks at another camp.

This is the word of God. And my answer to anyone, when they begin to kick their heels and cry foul about God's sovereignty, my answer after a few minutes of trying to walk them through some scriptures, my answer is you take it up with God.

Don't take it up with me. I'm not the sovereign, he is. You remember when Paul speaks of first Timothy to men about how they ought to pray always. And he says that they ought to pray for kings and for those that are in authority.

And he said, this is good and pleasing in the sight of God, our savior, who wants everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but God does use the wicked devices of men to accomplish good things, great things, which ultimately glorify him.

That's why Paul says in Romans nine, that the scripture says to Pharaoh, I raised you up for this very purpose that I might what? Display my power in you. And that my name might be proclaimed throughout all the earth.

Psalm 76, again, I quote it a lot. The wrath of man shall what? Praise you. And the remainder of wrath, you will restrain. My answer to those who say that that forces man to be nothing more than something used by God, my answer again, you take it up with the Lord.

But I will say this. God has no desire that the wicked would perish, but that all would come to the knowledge of the truth. And you might say, well, now you're beginning to sound like a universalist or an Arminian.

I don't care what I sound like. In that sense, I'm just, that's the truth. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that they would come and turn and live. So when you look at this verse, the Lord has made all things for himself, even the wicked for the day of doom, for the day of wrath.

It is not teaching in that sense that the only reason why God created some was to destroy them, as if God would be in some sadistic kind of way satisfied. But God will be glorified. Okay, let's move on.

A couple more I want to consider. And again, you might be able to think further through these verses. And I chose verse seven. And the reason I chose verse seven in this context was to me, it's related.

And I just, to me, it's a gem of truth here. When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

And I do think it fits in the context because the only way that anyone's enemy can be stopped in many situations is by the hand of God. And that God many times does that in his sovereign will and in his sovereign purposes and in his decree, God has overcome the evil intent of man.

And many times he actually turns it to where it becomes a blessing from an enemy rather than a curse. Well, I will say this though. This is not an exclusive promise. Can't say when a man's ways please the Lord, every single time his enemies will be at peace with him because what do you do with the history of the church then?

That certainly doesn't hold up. There have been too many examples of how that is not an absolute promise. We know that Jesus said to us that if they hated him, they will also hate us. And if they persecuted him, they certainly will persecute us.

But I believe the point is that when a man's ways please the Lord, when a man, woman is walking, seeking to walk closer to God, that God many times overcomes the enemies who would seek to stop out a godly walk.

I thought of what it says in Psalm 105 where it says, touch not my anointed and do my servants no harm. The truth is God in his sovereign power many times rescues his own and hides them under the shadow of his wing.

And there is example after example after example in the scriptures as well as I assure you that every one of us could stand up tonight and speak about how there were times in their life when it seemed as if the enemy would overcome them and by God's invisible hand or by God's providential hand, those very enemies became either allies.

And listen, when I say that God makes their enemies to be at peace with them, it doesn't always mean that they'll turn and become your friend. It could be God takes them out of the way. Remember the story and again, I believe it because of the person who talked about it.

He said that there was a church and it was by a field and there was a person who lived in the house on the field that was right next to the church and he so hated Christians and Christ and the word of God and he would mow his lawn every single Sunday when the church met.

And he would just go back and forth in front of the church to disturb their worship service. And the brothers and the sisters got together and they said, we don't know what we're gonna do. And so they said that they began to pray that God would either save them because if he saved them, he wouldn't mow his lawn on Sunday anymore or kill them because if he killed them, he couldn't.

And they said it wasn't six months later, that man was dead. God made those enemies to be at peace. So again, don't misunderstand me. It's not like everybody's gonna turn around and love us but the reality is God is sovereign.

God rules. God was pleased, was he not, to put a pillar of fire between the children of Israel and the Egyptians. God was pleased to open the Red Sea to let his people cross over dry shod. And God was pleased to close the Red Sea to drown their enemies.

I'm not so sure we believe that still happens today. I'm not so sure we still believe that God is intimately involved and that God cares for us and that his sovereign power many times overrules the evil desires of men.

You know, God repeated to Israel many times in the Psalms to say this, let Israel now say if the Lord had not been on our side, where would we be? Brothers and sisters, where would we be without a sovereign God?

Where would we be against the roaring lion? Where would we be against principalities and powers? Where would we be against the rulers of darkness? Where would we be against those that hate the name of Christ?

Were it not that God has interfered, God has ruined many a plan, the enemies of Christ, that you and I cannot hold it as an absolute but you and I can in hope trust in the Lord that he will preserve us until the day he's prepared to take us to be his own.

Look at verse nine for a moment. Verse nine, a man's heart plans his way but the Lord directs his steps. Still in line with what we're saying, right? A man's heart plans his way but the Lord directs his steps.

In Proverbs 20, it says a man's steps are from the Lord. So how can anyone understand his own way? And you know what? Some will kick their heels about this and cry foul because they'll say, well, this is true.

A man is just a puppet on God's string or he's just a robot. And my answer to that, besides taking up a guard, my answer to that is man does indeed plan his ways but the overpowering of God causes the effect that God desires to have.

One commentator said this about this verse and I just thought it was good so let me read to you very short. He said, a man's heart devises his way. He considers and proposes to himself what he will do.

Designs an end, contrives by what means he may attain it. But the Lord directs his steps, rules and disposes all his intentions and actions as he pleases determining what the event shall be, ordering his motions to such an issue as never came into his own thoughts.

God directs the steps, doesn't he? Very quick. And maybe I've said this to you, maybe I haven't, I don't know. I so wanted to be a New York State trooper. That was my desire to be a New York State trooper.

And I went to school for it and I applied for it and I took the written test and I aced it which surprised me to no end. And then it came and I had gone through all the prerequisites to become a New York State trooper and then I had to take the physical test.

And I was in good shape at that point and I guess it was the night before, the day before I had to go to take that test, I came down with the worst cough, flu, I don't know what I had. The devil just jumped on me and I couldn't even breathe.

And I said, you know what? I've come this far, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna go through that test no matter what. And you know what? I flunked. I couldn't run, I couldn't box, I couldn't do this, I couldn't do the obstacle course and I was heartbroken.

Now I say I'm so thankful that God directed my steps. Never would have met my wife, never would have had those kids that I have with my wife, never would have been here tonight with you. I'm so thankful that a man devises his way and God in his sovereign rule directs his steps.

You see, there's a reality that we not only believe in a sovereign God, we believe that the sovereign God is good. He's for us, not against us. He cares for us, why don't we care for him? Why don't we care for our own self?

Why would you cry foul against such a merciful God? Remember what Jeremiah said? He said, oh Lord, I know that a man's way is not in his own, is not his own. It's not in him who walks and directs his steps.

I'm so thankful that God overrules. Aren't you? Because I guarantee you, you have planned some terrible things for yourself. Were it not for God who directed your steps, changed your whole course of life.

How great, how glorious. All right, last verse, we're out of time. Verse 33, the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord. Every decision, that's the key word, right? Every, not some, not many, not most, every decision is from the Lord.

There's no such thing as chance. Now I understand that there's the laws of statistics and probabilities and that we often use them to try to understand results and how things will turn out. And in one sense, I do understand it, and in another way, that's a bunch of hogwash.

It's determined by the sovereign God. I thought about, you know when the apostles had to replace Judas? And it was Bostobus and Matthias, and they cast lots, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the 12th.