The Sovereignty Of God

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Swirling around but remember that God is sovereign is an absolute must. When you get to know me and you say around me, that sure was lucky.
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If I've done it once, I've done it a thousand times since I've been here, I'll say, what? And you think I don't hear you, and you'll say, that was sure lucky.
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And I'll say, pardon me? That was sure lucky. And then all of a sudden you can just see the slow machinations of the mind go, yeah, that was sure,
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I'm sure blessed. And we don't even have pot lucks at this church. We have pot providences.
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Why? Because we want to be very peculiar? No, because if things are left up to chance, fortune, fate, and luck, you rob
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God of all his praise that he's due. Because when you see good things from God's hand, and today see bad things from God's hand, you can keep your mind on the
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Lord. From good and bad and everything indifferent, we don't want to ascribe it to luck. I will allow you to say chance, because Jesus in a parable said, with the parable of the good
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Samaritan, by chance a certain guy was walking. But that's a different kind of chance than luck. This morning, the sovereignty of God.
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Basil the Great said that fortune and chance are pagan terms. I think luck is a pagan term.
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Good luck. You're going to study for a big exam, good luck. I don't need good luck, because I start wanting to think about a hee -haw song.
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If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. This world is corrupt, and it's spiraling down. Laws of entropy are in play, and things go from good to worse.
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So I need something more than luck. I want to know that I have a God, and when he calls himself the King of kings and Lord of lords, he is in fact such.
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Normally, we pick a passage, and we just go through it verse by verse. I said to the lifeguard at the pool this week, he asked me when
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I was swimming, I got done swimming, and he said, well, were you working on your message in the pool? And what he meant was, were you trying to figure out what you were going to say?
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And I said, which passage to preach? And I said, well, I was working on my message, but I already know what I'm going to preach, because it was
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Ephesians 4 the week prior, and it's Ephesians 4 this week until we work our way through. And he looked at me with one of those moments, those
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Kodak moments, and he goes, it's a good way to teach the Bible.
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And where are we these days where we don't learn the whole counsel of God? Verse by verse, systematically. If you're out of town, and you want to find a good
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Bible teaching church, I'll give you one question when you call. There could be many, but this is my favorite one.
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What book of the Bible is your pastor preaching through verse by verse? Because if he is, you'll know he has a high view of God's sufficiency of his word.
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He has the authority of God's word, the inspiration of God's word, and he wants to teach all of it. And so we're not going to be doing that today.
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And if you have a Bible, you're going to need to put some WD -40 or some break -free or some kind of silicone right here, because we're going to look up tons of passages.
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I normally don't do this because I want you to see the context. But today you're going to need to do that. You could listen if you'd like, but I'd just as soon have you get those
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Black Pew Bibles and look at those with me. Arthur Pink once said, from every pulpit in the land, it needs to be thundered forth that God still lives, that God still observes, and that God still reigns.
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And by God's grace today, that's what I want to do is thunder forth from the pulpit. Every atom in this universe is under the control of God, and you can praise
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Him for that. And think about it. The slogan of the American War of Independence. You remember what that was?
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We serve no sovereign here. I mean, this whole Manifest Destiny thing, this whole
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New England deal, Boston Tea Party, you name it, and we just all like individualism.
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And here, if we're not careful, our humility might take a dive because it's hard.
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Listen to what Spurgeon said. Most men quarrel with this. But Mark, the thing that you complain of in God is the very thing that you love in yourselves.
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Each man likes to feel that he has a right to do with his own as he pleases. We all like to act like little sovereigns.
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Isn't that something? So here's what we'll do this morning. Let me give about 11 areas of life that God's sovereign, and then we'll make some practical applications for each.
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Dr. Zimmick came up with the outline, and so I'll just follow along with his outline.
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I'm almost tempted with a crowd like this to do kind of a Sunday night thing, and we'll do that this morning. If you're a visitor, we usually don't do this on Sunday morning, so next week.
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Don't blurt anything out unless you want to get escorted by the actual. What is sovereignty?
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Can somebody give me a good definition of the sovereignty of God? What does it mean? Anyone, you don't even have to raise your hand.
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He's absolute, absolute what? How about absolute controller?
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Okay, good. Ruler, good. Master, okay, excellent. He answers to no one, that's good.
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He's in control, good. He's his own motivation for doing things, excellent.
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Let me read you what the Westminster Shorter Catechism says. His eternal purpose according to the counsel of his will, whereby for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.
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The independence of God that he does what he pleases, as he pleases, only as he pleases, right?
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God does whatever he pleases. He sits in the heavens, and he's the one that does whatever he wants.
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Moody Handbook of Theology said, with reference to God, it means that God is supreme ruler and authority.
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He ordains whatsoever comes to pass, and his divine purpose is always accomplished. Can you think of some other titles for the sovereignty of God?
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We said some of them. Lord, I've got King, Almighty, Only Sovereign. What does
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God sit on? To give us more pictures of this before we look at these 11 areas. He sits on a throne.
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The times are in his what? Hand, okay, good. Why don't we turn to Isaiah 46 to start, and just to give you an idea of the overarching sovereignty of God.
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Nothing can take him by surprise. There's no greater force than he is, so he has to change his plan, and God brings to pass whatever he wants to bring to pass.
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Now, it's easy to start with when we look at these 11, but it's going to get harder because you're going to draw some implications as you should.
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By the way, I was talking to Dave this morning, and he is just rereading The Sovereignty of God by Pink, and if you want a good book to read, you need to read that book.
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It will change your life because it's so chock full of scripture. The Sovereignty of God by Pink. You will be humbled and under praise.
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It is wonderful to know that there's a God who's big. Who wrote that book a while ago? Your God is too small.
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When you study The Sovereignty of God, first you want to buck against it, and then you go, I can't believe this is so great.
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Isaiah 46, verse 9, Remember the former things long past, for I am God and there is no other.
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I am God and there is no one like me, declaring the end from the beginning. I mean, no one does that, do they?
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From ancient times, things which have not been done. I mean, who does that? There's no one like me, he said earlier, saying,
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My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all my good pleasure. Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of purpose from a far country.
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The man of my purpose from a far country, truly I have spoken, truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely
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I will do it. So let's do number one.
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Number one, the first area of God's sovereignty is that he's sovereign over creation. You ever ask yourself the question, why is the planet two -thirds water and one -third land?
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Well, you might be able to give me the scientific reasons, but the reason is because that's the way God likes it, right? God is sovereign over creation.
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Why does it rain? Why are there different climates? Why are there fields? Why are there minerals? Psalm 135, verse six says,
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Whatever the Lord pleases, he does in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the deeps. Let's just get our
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Bibles and really start looking at some verses. Genesis chapter two, verse five. You know, when it comes to weather,
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I was a Christian and like everyone else before I was saved, I always complained about the weather. That was like my grandma's hobby.
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She quilted and she complained about the weather. You could even buy the weather little station, you know, 20 years ago, a little transistor, weather channel.
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And so you can complain about the weather even more because you're more up to date. Think about the internet now if she was alive. But Genesis chapter two, verse five, it's interesting.
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I can't think of a place. There may be one, but the Bible doesn't say it rained.
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The Bible says what? God sends the rain. The personal pronoun is in there.
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In fact, the name of God himself. Genesis two, five. Now, no shrub of the field was yet in the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprouted for the
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Lord God. Yahweh, the covenant keeping God had not sent rain upon the earth.
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Let's go a few chapters ahead, a few books ahead. Deuteronomy chapter 28, just to give you the idea.
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It is God, the one who makes it snow or rain. God said, I want it to snow today.
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I mean, this whole thing of, oh, it's winter out and we're miserable. You can either buck the system of God or you can say,
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God, you sent snow. Thank you. Genesis chapter 28, verse 12.
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There are many, but I'll just give you these few. The Lord will open for you his good storehouse.
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What neat, picturesque Hebrew language. The heavens, the Lord to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand.
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Remember the word of the Lord came to Elijah in first Kings chapter 18. He said, I'm going to send what?
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Rain. I'm the one sending rain. It just doesn't say it rained. How about the wind? You think the
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Bible says that God makes the wind blow? Let's turn to Psalm 107.
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And again, we're going to have a lot of Bible turning pages today, but that's okay. Psalm 107, verse 25.
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Not only the rain, but also the wind. For he spoke, Psalm 107, 25, and raised up a stormy wind, which lifted up the ways of the sea.
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Skip a few verses, verse 29. He caused the storm to be still, so that the waves of the sea were hushed.
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God controls the wind. True or false? God controls the hail. True or false?
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God controls mildew. Listen to this verse. Haggai 2 .17.
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I smote you in every work of your hands with blasting wind, mildew, and hail. Amos 4.
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I smote you with scorching wind and mildew. You know, you look at something small and you go, well,
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God's sovereign over the mildew. Next time you're cleaning the kitchen, you can think of that. Or the bathroom shower in between all those cracks in there.
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Listen to what Calvin said. It is certain that not one drop of rain falls without God's sure command.
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What do the insurance people call earthquakes? An act of God, they got it right. That is an act of God.
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When I grew up, it was always those, I think it was the butter commercials.
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No, no, it was a margarine commercial. It's not nice to fool mother nature. That was an effective ad campaign, although theologically aberrant.
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God governs the sun, the moon, the rain, clouds, evaporation, wind, thunder, lightning, earthquakes, landslides, fire, ice, floods, famines, forests, sea.
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Sun doesn't even go up by blind instinct. Joshua 10, 13. So the sun stood still.
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Remember how God made the sun stand still. Second Kings 20, 11. He brought the shadow of the stairway back 10 steps by which it had gone down on the way of the stairway of Ahaz.
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God controls all creation. He's sovereign over creation. Included in that is he's sovereign over children.
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Let's look at this for a second. Psalm chapter 127, verse three.
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Under the same number one, God's sovereign over childbearing. The ability to procreate and the power to have children is not something we can do.
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God's sovereign over that. By the way, this is very good because God has chosen your parents. He's chosen your skin color.
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He's chosen what country you were born in and when God's sovereign over everything about you.
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Psalm 127, verse three. Behold, children are a gift of the Lord. They're from God's hand. The fruit of the womb is his reward.
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And if you say, well, that doesn't really talk about his sovereignty directly. Well, let me give you Genesis 32.
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Then God's anger burned against Rachel. And he said, am I in the place of God who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?
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Jacob understood that God opened the womb and closed the womb. Revelation four, here's a praise song in heaven.
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Verse 11, thou didst create all things and because of thy will, they existed and they were created.
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God's sovereign over animals. God's sovereign over weather. God's sovereign over all creation, the first one. All right, let's do the second one.
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If you're timing, one down, 10 to go. So we need to hurry. But you guys are the hardcores today.
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It's just gonna be like Russia where you preach for three hours, you take a break and preach for three more hours, right? WPI visitors are going, oh.
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We'll have more donuts. They were really nice to you ahead of time, see? And then, so God's sovereign over creation.
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Secondly, God's sovereign over all history. He's sovereign over all history. Turn to Daniel chapter two, if you would.
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I'll never forget the day. It was the day that President Clinton was elected president in 1992, 1992.
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I was in seminary learning how to be a pastor, learning how to be a preacher. And there was a man who was also wanting to be a pastor in class and he basically had a heart attack because President Clinton was elected.
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I mean, he was going apoplectic. I mean, he was just, you know, I thought I was gonna have to get the defibrillator pads out and shock him or something.
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Maybe shock therapy would have been good. I'm not sure, but he could not contain himself. He was so aghast that President Clinton could be elected.
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Now, I want you to vote, of course, and I don't like it when people kill babies in the womb and not saying anything politically per se, but there's only one vote that counts come 2004 for who's gonna be the next president in an ultimate sense, isn't it?
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If God wants somebody president, they're going to be president. And look at Daniel chapter two, verse 20.
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Daniel knew it. Daniel answered and said, let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to him.
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Boy, if I could pray like that. And it is he who changes the times and the epochs. He removes kings and establishes kings.
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He gives wisdom to wise men and the knowledge to men of understanding. So how about in 2004, when somebody gets elected, we just say,
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God, thank you for giving us a governor. Thank you for giving us a president. And it is a lot better than anarchy.
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And it just takes the burden off, doesn't it? Think about what the people were doing in the New Testament times.
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God, Nero's the ordained man. Okay, submit to Nero, first Peter chapter two.
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How about Paul, when he went to that priest, that ordained a government priest, and Paul's like, you whitewashed sepulcher.
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And then he's like, oh, that's the high priest. That's the ordained priest rather. Oh, sorry. God's sovereign over all life.
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How about this, Proverbs 21, one. The king's heart is like channels of water in the hands of the
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Lord. He turns it wherever he wishes. And if God turns the king's heart wherever he wishes, can he turn the serf's hearts wherever he wishes them to go?
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I remember we used to have a big sandbox in the back of our yard. Actually, it was the neighbor's yard, kind of on the border.
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And we would bring in big buckets of water. We would make these kind of forts and ravines.
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And here's the bad guys and here were the good guys. And of course, the good guys always won and everything. But you put the water right in the middle.
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And if we didn't like the ravine there, we would just dig out the side and you could just pour the water right there and make it go wherever you wanted.
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I was my own little sovereign sandbox king. God just does that with people.
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God's sovereign over history, not just past, but present and future. We can vote yes, but I don't have to have a fit of who's going to be elected next.
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I mean, I want righteousness to reign, of course. But if it doesn't, then it doesn't. God's sovereign over all history.
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That's why I like reading history. If you want to study things in college and don't know what to study, study history because you can see
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God's hand in all this. I'm reading the pianist book, the narrative of, it was written in Poland to start off with, called
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The Death of the City and being in the Warsaw ghettos with 600 ,000 other Jews and trying to live.
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And out of 600 ,000 Jews, it got down to 60 ,000 Jews. And then the Germans destroyed them and 20 lived.
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20 out of 600 ,000 in the Warsaw ghetto. And I just read this and I'm saying, just look at God's hand in all this.
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And then I start thinking about Satan and the Jews and spiritual warfare and everything else. Everywhere you go, you study history.
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And it really is, it's maybe trite now, but history is what? His story. You see all of God's hand.
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All right, let's make it a little hotter in here. Number three, God is sovereign over the circumstances of life.
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All the circumstances of life, good and evil. Of course, all the whacked out charismatic TV shows that God wants you healthy and wealthy and wise and everything else.
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And God's a big genie, God. I'm gonna do a sermon on this sometime. Kim gave me the idea. I won't do it now, but since you guys are here,
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I'll let you know. Just imagine taking the bar, the crossbar, sliding it down to the very middle. And some people preach that God is just a
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God of that. The plus sign. Add Jesus to your life and get all the good stuff. And as you do, you just lower the bar.
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That's a sermon in the making someplace. But here we accept good from God and things that aren't so good from God.
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They come from his hand. He is sovereign over those and he has allowed those. He has permitted them. He has ordained them.
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Whatever terminology you'd like. Two weeks ago, I quoted Ecclesiastes 7 .14 that God has made the day of adversity, the day of happiness.
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Let's turn to Isaiah chapter 45, verse 7, just to give you an idea that both good and ill,
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Lamentations 3 .38, come from God. Both good and ill. Fortunately for us, as I say, fortunately,
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I say strike that from my terminology. Thankfully for us, God takes these things and works them together for our good.
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Even though they're ill, they're calamities, God can make those things work for good. So look at Isaiah 45 .7.
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The one, capital O for the personal one God, the one forming light and creating darkness, causing well -being and creating calamity.
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I am the Lord Yahweh who does all these things. God is sovereign over all the good that has ever happened and he's sovereign over all the bad or he's not sovereign at all.
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That's why we need to say like James chapter 4. Well, today I'd like to do this or that according if God will let me.
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Number four, this is a good one. This has helped me so often in my life and I bet you it'll help me in my death.
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God is sovereign over the duration of your life. I love to lift, I love to take vitamins,
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I love to do all that kind of stuff, but I am not going to add one day to my life.
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You are going to live as long as God wants you to live and not a day longer or a day shorter. Let's look up a few of these.
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Job 14 .5, Lewis Brown can be in Iraq and if he is to die at 70 years old, nothing is going to happen to him because God has ordained the day that he will die.
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On the flip side for us, if we'd like to have the presidential secret security team around us and we go to Manhattan for something and we want to live, when it's your day, it's your day.
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There's nothing you can do about it. Look at Job 14 .5. Since his days are determined, the number of his months is with thee and his limits thou has set so that he cannot pass.
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You can't live any longer. I think about my father dying and if I think about it too long, you just kind of break down and weep and cry and you think, but God, I can trust you.
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I can trust you if you slay me or slay my father. That was the day and God, I just have to yield myself to you.
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I just have to say you're God and I'm not. Think about children that we have and you have children are gifts from God and we are stewards.
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Last week we were on the Cape and Maddie couldn't breathe and she's having all the croup stuff and I mean, Gracie and pretty much all had it.
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You know, it just always strikes me, especially after I went to Anne Fleming's daughter who was laying there at two years old, brain dead because she had the croup and she was given a shot of steroids and had allergic reaction and then she died and so I was there with the family.
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This was five, six years ago. And so then you take your own kid into the emergency room and they said, your kid, she's two and she really needs a steroid shot.
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She really needs a steroid shot. Would you give it to your own kid? Yes, and so as you watch the needle go into your child thinking this could cause their death, you have to say,
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God, you gave me this child. This child was given to me for five days, for two years, for 30 days.
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This child may bury me or I may bury this child and God, you are sovereign and I'm going to have to trust in you.
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This isn't pie in the sky stuff. Ron and Cheryl Farrar, as hard as it was two years ago, those kids were a gift from God.
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One day gift and a three day gift and God said, I'm taking those babies. And if you don't believe in the sovereignty of God, you will go crazy and you will be comfortless.
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But you can be comforted knowing this was God's gift to them and God is in charge and even though we can't figure out all the whys,
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I mean, that's a good study in and of itself. Why is the scripture silent on so many areas?
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Because God's even sovereign over the writing of scripture and he wants to be silent in those areas and we are just forced to trust him.
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We don't know the answers, but we know the person of God. Listen to Psalm 3115.
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My times are in thy hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me. David is having all these people trying to kill him and he says, my times are in your hand,
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God. I'm going to bed. I'm going to sleep. You run the universe. Thank you. All right, let's do the flip side of this.
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Number five, God's sovereign over the way you die. Not only how long you live, you could even say how quality of life, but he's also sovereign over the way that you'll die.
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Can you think of anybody in the Bible who God said to them, this is going to be the way you die? So we can prove, okay,
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I can't think of the exact. Okay, that was very good.
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The writing on the wall in Daniel. Okay, your days are numbered. Excellent, I didn't think of that one. Okay, you said, okay.
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How about when Peter was told by the Lord in a certain way he was going to die.
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Let's turn there, John chapter 21. Even the way we're going to die, our health, the sicknesses, the type of death.
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I was over in India a few months ago and I just thought, God, I hope it's not ordained for me to die on one of these trees.
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We had a four hour drive from one big city to a smaller city and we're in this little SUV, which is huge for there.
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And you've got one of those little harnesses that you can hold onto. I'm in the back seat and I thought, oh, four hours.
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We've been teaching all day and I've got bronchitis and I'm just going to lay there. I had to hold onto that thing. I mean, my entire arm was getting sore because you're driving in and out of traffic and there's no lines and it's just, you know, missing each other by that much.
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And they're playing, you know, they're basically playing chicken there. It was horrible. I just thought,
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God, I'm glad you're sovereign. I just want to go back home and see my kids one more day.
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Oh, man, John 21, 18, truly, truly. I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wish.
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But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go.
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You say, well, that's not about his death. That could be anything. Now, contrary to verse 19. Now this, he said, signifying of what kind of death he would glorify
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God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me. By the way, on a side note, it has nothing to do with sovereignty.
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It's just the sweetness of the goodness of God. God's not the sovereign God like Allah. He's a sovereign
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God who's personal and close. And Peter denies the Lord three times. And then Jesus says to Peter, by the way, you're going to die.
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And as you die, you're going to glorify me. What a good thing that must have been for Peter. I'm going to make it until the end.
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And I'm going to die glorifying you. Can you imagine if that was told you by God? You're going to die and you're going to get killed in a way you don't want to die.
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But as you do, you're going to glorify me and you're going to be faithful to the end. How sweet is that? Okay, this is a little bit easier.
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Number six, God's sovereign over the good acts of men. When somebody does something good, God's sovereign over that.
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I think we would have no problem with that. That's pretty much the way we think of things.
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I'll just read you the verse, Isaiah 44, 28. It is I who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd and he will perform all my desire.
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God is sovereign over the good things that this King Cyrus did when he came to captivity. Ephesians 2 .10,
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where his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. The things that we do, God is sovereign over that. All right, now let's get tougher.
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Number seven, God's sovereign over the evil acts of men. God's sovereign, let's just even push the envelope a little bit,
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God's sovereign over sin. Let's push it even farther with terminology. God ordains sin.
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God foreordains sin. God, we won't use the word predestined because that's talking about a person. But God is sovereign over sin.
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Now, I could give you many examples. Two weeks ago, I gave you the example of Job that the Lord gives and the
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Lord takes away. That necessarily is not sin. How about when Joseph's brothers took him and sold them into slavery?
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That certainly was sin, wasn't it? Let's just go for the one that's straight for the jugular and that's
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Acts chapter four. Let's just make sure we understand that. The worst sin of all time, the crucifixion of God was sovereign over.
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Yes, people were responsible, but God's sovereign over it. Jesus was not a victim. Get that terminology out of your mind that he's up there and he can't do anything about it.
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Jesus was sovereign over all, including sin. And by the way, I love having a
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God that I get to worship who's sovereign over sin. Because when I see sin going on out there, I go, Jesus is king over it.
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If you get this one right, Acts chapter four, the Lord hardening Pharaoh's heart is an easy one.
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If you get this one right, God's saying, I want you to destroy my temple in Jerusalem.
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That makes it easy. If you get this one right, when God calls
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Nebuchadnezzar my servant as he fillets the Jews, you can get it.
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Acts chapter four, verse 23, the worst evil of all. When they had been released, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.
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And when they heard this, they lifted their voice to God with one accord and said, O Lord, it is thou who does make the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, who by the
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Holy Spirit through the mouth of the father David, our father David did say, why did the Gentiles rage and the people devise futile things?
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The kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. For truly in this city, they were gathered together against thy holy servant,
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Jesus, whom thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with Gentiles and the peoples of Israel.
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To do whatever thy hand and thy purpose predestined to occur. I guess we can't use the word predestined.
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Jesus is sovereign over sin. Aren't you glad? And you say, well, this is hard to take.
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It is hard to take because it probably drives you right back to the garden. And God could have stopped Adam and Eve from eating that fruit.
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Could he not have? He could have, but he allowed them to do it. Did he not? For reasons we could get into in another message.
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But God is sovereign over sin. I mean, I could push the envelope even farther Listen to this one.
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First Kings chapter 22, verse 20. God is willing that King Ahab be deceived.
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Using the devil to do it. And the Lord said, who will entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?
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And one said this while another said that. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the
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Lord and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said to him, how? And he said, I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.
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Then God said, you are to entice him. And also prevail. Go and do so. God is sovereign over sin.
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How about this one? Absalom pollutes his father's bed by incest. Second Samuel 16, 22.
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So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof. And Absalom went into his father's concubines in the sight of all
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Israel. Not technically incest, but the concubines. Yeah, what does God say about this?
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Second Samuel 12, 11. Thus says the Lord, behold, I will raise up evil against your house from your own household.
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I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion. And he shall lie with your wives in broad daylight.
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Indeed, you did it secretly, but I will do this before all Israel and under the sun. God is sovereign over sin.
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God is sovereign over evil. Tainted, no. Sullied, no. As one man said, as the as the sun comes down, shining with its rays on a bed of manure, the sun is not sullied because its rays hit the manure, right?
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All right, let's keep going. I thought about having a question and answer tonight to talk about today's message.
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All right, number eight, God's sovereign over the most trivial things.
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Again, so much different than the God of Allah and the Muslim God, where he's just this big kind of fatalistic
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God. God is sovereign and he controls everything, but he's close. He's concerned.
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He's concerned about our minute details. Proverbs 16, 33. Why don't we turn there, please?
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This is not going to be your Foxwoods verse. I don't want you to use this for Mohegan Sun, Foxwoods or any of the other places.
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Proverbs 16, 33. I could take you to Matthew 10, where all the hairs of your head are numbered.
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No sparrows fall apart from the father's goodwill. What's Proverbs 16, 33?
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It says, the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord. Boxcars, God wanted it that way.
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By the way, J. Vernon McGee used to say, when God wants to really judge you, he gives you a lot of money. I guess if someone wins the lotto in Massachusetts, they could say it's
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God's will. But I don't think they would say it in a worshipful way. I think they'd say it in a different way. The most trivial matters.
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Jonah 1, 7. Each man said to his mate, come, let us cast lots, so we may learn on whose account his calamity has struck us.
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So they cast lots and the lots came on. Jonah. You think God wanted it that way?
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Exactly. All right. Number nine. This is the hardest one of all.
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No, maybe not. It does feel like a
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Sunday night crowd. Definitely. God is sovereign over the salvation of sinners. In other words,
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God's sovereign on who goes to heaven and who doesn't. We're fine with the weather. We're fine with circumstances.
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We're fine with duration of life and the way we die and what our financial background is and what our skin color is and what kind of health we have or don't have.
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We're fine with all those and we have to just say, God, you're in charge. But when it comes to the salvation of God over sinners, people start having a panic attack.
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Who goes to heaven and who doesn't? Now, remember this. All deserve what? Hell. So this is not going to be a message about grace, but grace is only grace when
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God rescues some of those that deserve hell and takes them to heaven. Now, let's go through this a little bit.
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It is a stumbling block. Let me read to you what Jonathan Edwards said about this doctrine. From my childhood up, my mind had been full of objections against the doctrine of God's sovereignty and choosing whom he would do eternal life and rejecting whom he pleased, leaving them to eternally perish and everlastingly tormented in hell.
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It used to appear like a horrible doctrine to me. He said, but there's been a wonderful alteration in my mind in respect to the doctrine of God's sovereignty from that day to this, so that I scarce ever have found so much as the rising of an objection against it in the most absolute sense in God showing mercy to whom he will show mercy and hardening whom he will.
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The doctrine has often appeared exceedingly pleasant, bright, and sweet. Absolute sovereignty is what
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I love to ascribe to God. What was the difference? He got saved.
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That was the difference. Before, he just thought this was some kind of capricious God up here, just eeny, meeny, miny, moe, and now he says,
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I love this. Why would you want to love the doctrine of the sovereignty of God over the destiny of sinners? Anyone?
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Why is it something that's good? Why would you be pleased about it? Anyone? You don't have to go to bed at night saying,
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I didn't evangelize 10 ,000 people today and when they died, it's because of me. They went to hell and I should have evangelized more.
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I'll put it on a positive spin, if you will. There is hope for evangelism because God's sovereign over salvation.
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When you knock on the door, God's working in their hearts. They're going to get saved in spite of you not quoting the
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Bible. King James, perfect. New American's perfect. Now, I don't know why it is, but think about it this way.
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Did God choose Israel and not choose the other nations? Did he choose the Canaanites, the
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Hittites, the Perisites, the Cellulites, the Electrolytes? No, he didn't choose any of those, did he?
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Just want to see if you're paying attention. He only chose the Israelites. And why don't we have a problem with that?
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People will have a, you know, people can't sleep at night because they think, well, God chooses certain people individually, yet they're fine with Israel as my chosen people.
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God is sovereign. We don't know why he does things, but we know he does.
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And I praise God that he chooses people because you know what? We all, as Ezekiel says, we have a heart of stone and we are to pray.
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And if God looks down the corridors of time and sees who's going to choose him and then decides to pick those, he's not going to have anybody saved because he's going to look down the corridor of time and see a bunch of people doing what?
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Sinning, loving themselves, not seeking themselves. They're not doing good. They're not seeking God. Their mouths are corrupt.
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Their speech is corrupt. Everything about them is corrupt. And God says, I see down the corridors of time, there's no one there. So I'm going to have to choose a remnant out.
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And we all, before we were saved, joined the choir that said, we will not have this man reign.
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We all joined in with Job chapter 20. Who is the almighty that we should serve him?
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But God's grace comes. Let's go to John chapter 1, verse 12 and 13.
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You know these verses, but I just want to make sure you realize that God is sovereign over who goes to heaven and who doesn't.
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And I'm glad. I'm glad he's sovereign. Well, think about it this way.
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When you get to heaven, will you ever say this? This is my, this is taken from my brother. He always says this, so I'll use it as well.
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It's from an Avenger off the list. When you get to heaven, you will not look God in the eyes and say, we did it.
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We did it. But doesn't that really boil it down? It's an act of grace.
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First Corinthians chapter 15, verse 10 says, but by God's grace. When you evangelize, everybody quotes to verse 12 in chapter 1 of John, but they never say verse 13.
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But as many as received him to him, they gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name. And it is true. If you believe in the
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Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved. But I'll tell you, it's not in you. Bad tree doesn't produce good fruit.
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Verse 13, who were born, not of blood. I don't care who your parents are. If Abraham was your dad, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
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It's God's boat that wins. Here's a, here's a wrong way to teach it. God votes for your salvation.
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Satan votes against and you cast the dividing boat. Praise God.
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That's not true because all your votes are this God. I vote. No, I vote.
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Yes. Cause I want the cross kind of made into a plus sign, all the gimme stuff that you're going to give me, but that's not the real God. So God votes.
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Yes. God, Satan votes. No. And you cast a dividing vote. No. If God votes.
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Yes. And you vote. No. And sin votes. No. And Satan votes. No. And the world votes. No. Who wins?
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Just like with political election. It's God's vote. That's what the end of the text says, doesn't it?
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Doesn't it? Romans, John chapter one, verse 13, but of God's it's God's will.
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How about James one 18? You can just write that down in the reference. In the exercise of his will, he brought us forth by the word of truth.
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It's God's will that saves not man's will. And if you think, well, it's my will that saves, you don't understand that your will and your mind and your emotions have been tainted by the fall.
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You've been corrupted by the fall and you can't offer anything good to God. People say, well,
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I've got free will. You may have free will, but I want you to define it. I'll tell you what free will isn't.
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It isn't free from the sin that dwells in you as an unbeliever, because sin is rage.
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Sin is reigning and raging. It is not free from the world's influences that say, gratify self.
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It is not free from Satan's influences because second Timothy chapter two, verses 24 and following says, all unbelievers do
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Satan's will. Can you imagine doing Satan's will? And fourthly, it is not free from God who can regenerate you without your permission.
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So what do you mean by free? Do you mean free to make decisions within your nature, free to go to this store or that store or free to sin this way or free to sin that way?
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I'm fine with that kind of free will, but not free will from God, free will from sin, free will from Satan, free will from the world because you're not free.
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You say, well, then I'm a robot. No, you're not a robot. You're clay in the pot.
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Listen to the same passage, Romans 9, 16. So it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
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God is sovereign over salvation. Just think about it this way. Even if I was going to try to talk about logic, how can
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God be sovereign over everything except your island of righteousness, your will? He can't.
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He can't get in there and do something. Well, here's what happens. People make caricatures. And I grew up, it was when
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I was in my 20s in Los Angeles and they had these crack houses. And so Daryl Gates, the chief of police got these little tanks and these tanks would go in and they would bust down the doors, these big
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SWAT team tanks, bust down the doors, and they would round up all the culprits who were selling cocaine.
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They said, yeah, that's what God is. God is like that caveman, the proverbial caveman who walks over and the lady's got really long hair with all kinds of split ends and everything.
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He just grabs her hair, carries her like that. That's how he saves people. And they're biting and kicking and screaming, no, don't save me.
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That's not what God does. God does this. God says, you're a rebel. Yet I love you for reasons that only the
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Trinity knows. And I love you anyway. And I'm going to make you like Christ. And I'm going to make you someone into my own family.
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And I'm going to give you a new heart. And the second God gives you a new heart, you're not scratching and climbing against God, don't save me.
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You have a new heart and new affections. So now you love what you used to hate and you hate what you used to love, right?
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He changes your heart. So if you say, yes, I have freedom. Yes, you do. The freedom is this. You're free to sin all you want before you're saved.
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God gives you a new nature. And that new nature now has freedom to worship God or not worship God. Think about it this way.
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Is there free will in heaven? In a sense, you'll have a glorified body. You're free to worship
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God as much as you want. But not in what the world calls free will. Somehow you're free to sin in heaven. No.
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I just always ask people, what do you mean by free will? Jonathan Edwards meant the right thing.
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Nine people out of 10 in churches today mean the wrong thing. And just always ask them this question. Are you free from the sin in you?
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No. Are you free from Satan's will? Second Timothy 2? No. Are you free from the world's influences? No. And the big one is, are you free from God?
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If God has you marked and elect, you're going to get saved. And I might add, you're going to like it.
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In a real way. Because you'll have a new nature. You'll say, God, thank you. You chose me. And when you get this in your mind, for me, it was like a charismatic second blessing, except it was more a different second blessing.
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It was a second blessing to realize he didn't have to choose me, but he did. And I believe if you get this doctrine right, you will lose sleep over it.
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Not in a bad way, but a good way. Laying there thinking, what's the difference between my twin and me? What's the difference between my dad and I?
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What's the difference between all these people? Nothing except God's good pleasure. The same difference between the Hittites and the
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Israelites. They weren't bigger. They weren't better. Like I tell the story all the time.
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My friend, Scott Labs. We grew up together. We worked together. Our families had cabins together. And Scott Labs is called the
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Anvil now. And he's bald. And he's big. And he's got a beard that goes down like the
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ZZ Top guy. Down like that. I wouldn't say these on Sunday morning. He goes down like,
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I mean, it seems like Sunday night. Down like this. Why am
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I a Christian and called in the ministry? And why did Scott Labs go to his girlfriend that he got pregnant a couple times at a bar, put the gun to her head, and pulled it.
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And it misfired. So it didn't kill her. What's the difference between Scott and Mike? Family friends.
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Our parents went to the same high school. We worked together. We did all kinds of stuff together. We listened to rock and roll music together.
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What's the difference? When we get to heaven, what will the difference be? The difference will be the grace of God. And that's why we will all praise him all the more.
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Because we don't deserve to be there. That's why grace is grace. One part works. 99 billion parts grace.
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And what do you get? You will not get to heaven and say, God, I'm different than everybody else.
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Because I really put my pen to task. And I studied hard. And that's why I believe in you. When you get to heaven, you'll say this.
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I can't believe you gave me the grace, faith, everything. I could put it this way.
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Is faith the cause of salvation or the result of salvation? I teach this all the time. But it will determine how much you praise
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God. Is your faith the cause of salvation? God, I believe. God said, I was up there like this for a long time.
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And just waiting for you to believe. And now you believe. Good. Or did God give you the gift of faith?
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Well, according to Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9. Even if you want to argue the neuter there. Go to Philippians chapter 1 verse 29.
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It says, God has granted you faith. Even the faith you have is from God. Well, the last two, we don't really have too much time for them.
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Except I'll just try to push it a little bit more. Number 10, God's sovereign in sanctification. You don't have to try to sanctify yourself alone.
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God's sovereign over that. You can read Philippians 1, 6 and Romans 8. And then lastly, number 11.
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God is sovereign not only who goes to heaven. But who doesn't go to heaven? And let me just take you to one last passage.
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Romans chapter 9. People say, well,
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I'm a puppet. Why go evangelize? Then you need to study God's sovereignty a little bit more.
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You're not a puppet. You should evangelize because God says to evangelize. You pray because God says, go evangelize.
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As you're turning to Romans chapter 9, I will say that God hates sin. Men are fully responsible.
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God's plan does include sin. But you have to be careful with the terminology. Because God in Romans chapter 1 verse 13 says that he's good.
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And he can't be stained by any sin. But Romans chapter 9 makes it clear. Verse 22. What if God, although willing to demonstrate his wrath to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
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God is sovereign over these vessels. Let me read you another verse. 1
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Peter 2, 8. Stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. For they stumble because they are disobedient to the word.
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And to this doom they were also appointed. Proverbs 16, 4.
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The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil. Luther said, mere human reason can never comprehend how
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God is good and merciful. And therefore, you make to yourself a God of your own fancy, who hardens nobody, condemns nobody, pities everybody.
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You cannot comprehend how a just God can condemn those who are born into sin and cannot help themselves, but must, by necessity of their natural constitution, continue in and remain children of wrath.
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The answer is God is incomprehensible thorough. And therefore, his justice, as well as his other attributes, must be incomprehensible.
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It is on this ground that Paul says, oh, the depths of riches of the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out.
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As you know, the terminology is God chooses under salvation and he passes over those that he doesn't choose.
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Did I say last verse? Let me give you one more. It's too good. Genesis chapter 20. Strike that from the deep.
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Genesis chapter 20. Last one. Let me show you these two together. God's will and man's responsibility together.
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My point today has just basically been God's sovereign over everything. When you think of the snow, think of everything else. How does man's will and God's sovereignty go together?
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It doesn't. It's like Kuyper said, there's two ropes coming down from heaven. You can't see the pulley that's way up there, but there's two ropes.
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Pulley's up there, and if you jump onto one, there's human responsibility. You jump on it, it just doesn't work.
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You jump on God's sovereignty, you know, we're all robots. But you have to jump on both together. That's right. Look at both here.
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It doesn't even say anything. They're just compatible in God's mind. Now Abraham, Genesis 20, journeyed from there toward the land of Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur.
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Then he sojourned in Gerar. Abraham said of his wife Sarah, she's my sister. So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent and took
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Sarah. Is that true, by the way? Half true. Half true, true. And Abraham said of his wife, excuse me, verse 3, that God came to Abimelech in a dream in the night and said to him, behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken for she is married.
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I don't think Abraham knew that, but I'm always amazed. You know, we know what's coming next.
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But these poor guys and ladies who were living in those times didn't know. If you're Job, you didn't know that this was a big display of cosmic justice of God and dealing with Satan.
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You didn't know. And away we go. I couldn't talk today when
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I started. Sometimes when you get up here, it just kind of kicks in. And you go. Verse 4,
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I'm glad Kim's not here. Now Abimelech did not come near her. And he said,
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Lord, will thou slay a nation, even though blameless? Did he not himself say to me, she's my sister?
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And she herself said, he is my brother. In the integrity of my heart and in the innocence of my hands, I have done this.
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I didn't touch her. Then God said to him, this is such an amazing passage. Verse 6, yes,
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I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this. And I also kept you from sinning against me.
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Therefore, I did not let you touch her. That is so classic. And you don't see the narrator try to give all the reasons.
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How can man's will and God's will be together in sovereignty and responsibility? How are they compatible? And is he meant to mean all these things?
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They're just there. That's so nice just to say, you know what? I don't have to force mental closure.
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And I can just kind of live with it. God's sovereignty, Luke 22, 22.
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For indeed, the Son of Man is going as it has been determined. But woe to that man whom he betrayed.
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It's determined, but he's responsible. Acts 2, 22.
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Men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus of Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs, which
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God performed through him in your midst. This man delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross.
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They're just there. It's kind of nice just to let both coexist. God didn't tie it up.
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Well, those were the 11. You may find more, but I thought those were pretty good. Let me just give you some takeaways.
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Number one, it should make you stand in awe of God. That God could be sovereign over all this. Secondly, it should make you not complain at all.
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Because the circumstances God has put through you.
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Thirdly, it should make you never worry. Because if God has ordained the ends, He's ordained the means.
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And you know next, it should cause you to rejoice like no other.
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Revelation 19, 6. Hallelujah for the Lord our God and the Almighty reigns.
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And lastly, John Calvin said it makes life. Innumerable are the evils that beset human life.
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Innumerable too the deaths that threaten us. We need not go beyond ourselves. Our body is a receptacle of a thousand diseases.
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Now wherever you turn, all things around you are not only hardly to be trusted, but almost openly menaced and seem to threaten immediate death.
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Embark upon a ship, you're one step away from death. Mount a horse, if one foot slips, your life is impaled. Go through a city street, you're subject to as many dangers as there are tiles on the roofs.
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If there's a weapon in your hand or a friend's harm awaits. All the fierce animals you see are armed for your destruction.
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But if you try to shut yourself up in a walled garden seemingly delightful, your house continually in danger of fire threatens in the daytime to impoverish you, at night even to a collapse upon you.
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I pass over poisonings, ambushes, robberies. There's just so much out there, but God is
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King. Well, here's what we should do.
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I think the hymnal says 134. Let's strike that to 206. Mark, if you'd come up and lead us.
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I'd like us to sing a cappella. So ladies, you can just stay in your seats. And so, number one, we're going to have this.
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There's the Redeemer. This side here. Number two, this side here.
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We're losing our tenors. Number three all together. So 206, there's the
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Redeemer. Side one, this side number one. Side two, three. Let's just really sing out to the