Satan's Sifting of the Saints — Jim Van Gelderen

Luke 22, if you take your Bibles, the book of Luke and chapter number 22. I think we've got a few more children that are leaving the room, so we'll let them get out here. But while they're leaving, let me just simply say that, again, I just want to say a big thank you to many of you for your faithfulness, and for all of you for being here tonight.

I'm so grateful for just those decisions to be here. I'm interested, I know I asked it earlier in the week, but I just am interested. How many of you have been able to be here at every service? Can I see your hands, please?

Every service, that would include the nursery, if you got caught in there, and you can put your hands down. I shouldn't say got caught in there. There's one benefit of doing nursery duty, get that out there, right?

That is, your purgatory won't be as long, so that'll be a very good benefit for some of you. But how many have been here in every service except for one? Can I see you, please? Every service but one. Okay, wonderful.

And I just am so grateful, and I just want you to know it's been a blessing to be here. And I'll express appreciation to your pastor, and your associate pastor, and others who've just been a blessing to fellowship with, and to catch their heart, and just an encouragement to be here, and to see what God is doing, and to catch a little bit of the heartbeat and burden of this assembly, and what you believe God has called you for to do.

And it certainly is just a blessing to be a part of it, and to see the unity of vision and burden that I've been able to have with you folks for these days. It's been a great encouragement. I just want to say thank you.

Satan’s Sifting of the Saints in Luke 22

Luke chapter 22, and we're going to be looking at verses 31 and 32, Luke chapter 22. We're looking at verses 31 and 32. You know, folks, when God does a great work in our hearts, there's one thing we can always anticipate.

When God does a work, we can always anticipate that Satan will try to stop it. I've learned early in my ministry that often preceding great works of God is satanic opposition, and many times what comes after a real move of God is also a satanic opposition.

In fact, as you read about revival, you will find anybody who writes on the theology of revival, there's one thing you can always expect when there is a move of God, and that is persecution. You can always expect a counterattack.

And so let's look, if we could please, in light of that, the Bible says we're not ignorant of Satan's devices. Now I'm afraid many Christians are, but we don't need to be, because the Bible certainly exposes them.

So we're going to just do a very simple message tonight, and I've entitled the message tonight Satan's sifting of saints, Satan's sifting of saints. Let's begin in verse number 31. We'll read two verses of scripture and we'll begin the message tonight.

It says, and the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan had desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

Tonight for a few moments, would you put yourself in, should say, sandals, put yourself in Peter's sandals for a moment and think like Peter would think. Now one of the problems we have in trying to think like Peter thinks is that we're Americans and he was a Jew.

You say, what do you mean by that? You see, Peter lived in an occupied land. Roman soldiers walked his streets. Roman garrisons or military installations were on Jewish soil. They had a puppet government in Jerusalem.

They were really ruled from Rome. And I'm sure Peter, as any red-blooded Jew, wanted nothing more than to throw off the yoke of Roman rule and once again rule themselves. Folks, we cannot relate with that.

It's unthinkable for we Americans to even think of foreign soldiers walking our streets. It's unthinkable for us to think of foreign military installations on American soil. It's unthinkable for us to think of a puppet government in Washington, D .C. literally being run from a foreign capital.

It is unthinkable. But for Peter, it was a reality. Now it's helpful for us to understand that Peter also had an Old Testament that promised there was coming a Messiah who would set up his kingdom. So religious Jews were not just looking for the Romans to be thrown out.

They were looking for this Messiah to do it, to throw off the yoke of Roman rule and set up a kingdom. And just like the Old Testament talks about, and so when the Lord Jesus came along, do not miss this, Peter was absolutely convinced that he was Messiah.

He said, Thou art the Christ. And the Lord Jesus' response tells us that that was revealed to Peter supernaturally. So it was not just him wishing for the Lord Jesus. God worked in his heart. He came to faith.

This Jesus Christ is Christ. He is the Messiah. He is the anointed one. Okay, now there was one problem. Peter's conception of a Messiah did not include a cross. You see, Peter was looking for a Messiah who would set up a kingdom.

Now don't get me wrong, the Lord Jesus is going to set up his kingdom. But what Peter missed is that before the Lord would ever be a reigning Messiah, he would be a suffering Messiah. Before he would ever deliver the people from the Romans, he would deliver his people from their sins.

See Peter missed that. So that when the Lord Jesus began to talk about dying, it really messed up Peter's thinking. From this time forth began Jesus to say unto his disciples how that he must needs go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed and be raised again the third day.

Then Peter took him, and he began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me. Thou art an offense unto me, for thou saveth not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Folks, do you see what Peter was in? Peter was in what we might call a paradox. He was looking for a Messiah who was going to come, throw off the yoke of the Romans, set up his kingdom. That's what he clearly saw in the Old Testament.

What he missed was Isaiah 53. And so when the Lord Jesus started talking about fulfilling Isaiah 53, Peter could not comprehend that. And I'm convinced, it says, Get thee behind me, Satan. I'm convinced that Satan was already beginning that process of sifting, and we're going to get to that in just a moment.

Now let's leave Peter right now in that paradox. And let's go to the text, and let's investigate the text for a moment, folks, because there's something here that's outstanding. It says, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.

Now, of course, this is moments, this is really just an hour, a few hours before Peter's denial of the Lord Jesus. So he's predicting this is coming. And I'm trying to set the scene that Peter was in a paradox, and we're going to see how that fits into this passage of Scripture.

Now the key is the words, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you, and notice that little word as, this is a metaphor. This is figure to which, okay, so what does it mean to sift? Now, I've got a confession to make, I am not an agricultural guy.

I grew up in the concrete jungle of Chicago. I think I learned milk came from cows about the sixth grade. But anyway, I thought it came from the grocery store, but anyway, so I'm not an agricultural type guy at all.

I've never seen a wheat harvested at all, and I don't understand a lot about it. But fortunately, we're not dealing with literal sifting here. We are dealing with figurative. When I began to study the word sift, I came across Strong's Concordance, and it said, here it had a figurative definition.

It said figuratively, don't miss this, sifting means, here it is, to riddle. To riddle. Well, you say, boy, that is, that's strange. What does that mean, to riddle? Now let's think for a moment, folks, and this is a dumb illustration.

I even hate to give it, but it will help us get this down. It was either 1964, it could have been 1965, maybe 1966, but it was probably in that three-year window. I remember as a little boy going into the den, and I remember our family sitting down, and we had an old black and white television, and you had to kind of hold the rabbit ears a certain way in order to get the picture.

And I remember us sitting down and watching the very first episode of Batman and Robin, black and white. I mean, we were transfixed. We thought this was unbelievably high-tech, and it came to the very end, they'd have this fight scene.

We had no idea there was a fight scene on every program, but there was this fight scene, and it said, poof, you know, and kabow, and bam. We thought that was, that was big stuff, you know. And so I remember, I still remember turning it off, you know, when I think about Batman and Robin and all that kind of stuff, you know, that was brand new stuff.

And I will tell you, the next week, same bat time, same bat channel, we were back watching the Caped Crusader, Crusade for Justice. Now, I know some of you are looking at me like, Preacher, I have no clue what you're talking about, but I soon learned as a little kid that they always had a villain.

There was always a villain on the program. There was the Mr. Freeze, and there was Catwoman, and there was Joker, and then there was a guy, he was my favorite one, there was a guy, his name was the Riddler.

Now I had no idea years later, because it was black and white, that his outfit was actually green. I thought it was gray. But anyway, it was, he had this green outfit on, and all over his green outfit was what?

Tell me. See, you did watch it, I set you up, okay? You didn't want to admit it, but you did, okay? Years back. But now, my whole point is, to riddle. So what does it mean to riddle? Folks, don't miss this.

You know what to riddle, I'm convinced is, is when Satan takes those question marks and he throws them into our hearts. Now, think about this for a moment. What does the Bible say in Ephesians chapter 6?

It says, above all, taking the shield of faith, that you may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Talking about the wicked one. Could it be that those fiery darts are darts of doubt? Since the shield of faith quenches them, that's a real good possibility, isn't it?

So Satan loves taking fiery darts, and he throws them into our hearts to get us to question God's character, God's word, God's promises, bottom line, God. Satan is constantly taking question marks and throwing them, and obviously, if we put the shield of faith down, they find their mark.

If we lift the shield of faith, those darts are quenched by the shield of faith. That makes all the sense in the world. Now let's see whether or not what we have just done exegetically bears up under the context of the passage.

So go back to verse 31. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, and here it is, that thy, what's that next word? Faith fail not.

So whatever sifting is, we see it very clearly, it was an attack on Peter's what? Attack on his faith. So this bears up very clearly that what is sifting? Sifting is when Satan riddles us. He puts question marks.

He throws question marks into our heart and mind to get us to question God's character, to question God's, God's word. Now let's just think about this for a moment. Let's take what we just learned about Peter, and that's what we just learned exegetically from the passage.

Now we left Peter in what I called a paradox. Here's Peter expecting the Lord Jesus to come and set up his kingdom, and now the Lord's talking about dying. That had no room in his picture of what the Old Testament taught about the Lord Jesus.

Now friends, he was in what we might call a paradox. It is, a paradox is not two medical doctors, no, no. A paradox is a seeming contradiction, okay? A seeming contradiction. All of us understand a paradox.

A paradox would be a conservative Democrat, okay? That's a paradox. You have one, by the way, here in Georgia. His name is Zell. But anyway, a conservative Democrat. At first glance, it doesn't seem to match up, but in further investigation, there are cases which we just mentioned where that it does match up.

Okay, we understand. That's a paradox. Paradox would be putting World Series and Cubs in the same sentence. That would be a paradox. We discussed that last night. We'll not revisit that open wound. But anyway, so, you know, paradox is a seeming contradiction.

We all understand that. Now folks, don't miss this. Satan used a paradox in Peter's life that left an opening for fiery darts of doubt. Why do you think hours later, after the Lord says this and Peter says, no, I won't deny, I'll die with you, we find Peter denying the Lord.

Why? Somewhere along the line, it was in that paradox, that seeming contradiction that Peter just could not resolve and Satan took that window of opportunity and began to take those fiery darts and it began to throw them in Peter's heart so that he did something he never thought he would do.

It was deny the Lord. Now that teaches us something, friends, and that teaches us that we, when we are in paradoxes, we are in a very vulnerable time. Now tonight, the balance of the message, I want to deal with paradoxes.

I can't deal with them all, but I'd like to introduce to you some paradoxes that I have seen Satan use very effectively in absolutely neutralizing believers' effectiveness. Folks, we ought not be ignorant of his devices.

We ought be ready to lift that shield of faith so when those darts of doubt come, we confront them with confidence in the Word of God and they are quenched instead of finding their mark and rendering us ineffective as they did with Peter.

Now we're going to see in a moment at the very end of the message, we'll come back to Peter and we will revisit the fact that his sifting was not permanent and he came out with the victory and we'll see that in a moment.

The Paradox of Suffering and Christian Maturity

But first, let's talk about paradox. There's several paradoxes we can visit tonight, but let's start with what we might call the paradox of suffering. The paradox of suffering, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh, you tell me.

Patience. Patience. You know, when our faith is tried, folks, it's when we can't figure it out. When we're going through difficulty and hardship and we can figure it out, then our faith is not being tried.

Our faith is only being tried when the circumstances we're going through don't make sense with the verse, all things work together for good. Now could I, without doing damage to the more serious trials of life, could we talk about the more, the little trials of life?

And sometimes how difficult even those are to reconcile with the verse, all things work together for good. Let me start with a hypothetical. How many of you have ever had a bad day? Don't raise your hand.

You know, bad days always begin. You do not get up when you know you needed to. That's how they always begin. And so you're a little bit late. You get up. Oh, I'm not going to make it to work in time.

And so you go running down the kitchen and you really don't relish your stomach growling at 10 o 'clock. So you can say, I better grab a bowl of cereal. So you grab the cereal, you grab your Captain Cavity, you know, you put it in the bowl and you go over and you grab the milk and you fill the bowl up with milk and you start pouring in your mouth.

All of a sudden you realize the milk. Oh, you say, oh, this is terrible. You get up and you're so frustrated. You knock the bowl. The milk goes all over the floor. You lean. You come back on your socks.

You hit the milk. You slip and you come back on the cat. It's the last meow. You're thinking, oh, great. Now the cat's dead, you know. So you think, well, let's just forget it. Let me get to work. And so you go and you throw the cat in the garbage can, cover him up, you know, and so on.

You get in the car, you know, you turn the car on, you put it in reverse. Oh, you forgot to put the garage door up. Just one of those days, you know. On the way to work, you know, it's raining. It's 40 degrees.

You have a flat tire. And then you remember that your spare tire, you blew that last week and you haven't got it fixed yet. Two hours later, you're getting to work. Your boss is upset. Your wife calls and said the roof's leaking, you know.

Hot water heater went out. You look down and you got a blue sock and a green sock on. Just one of those days. Finally, you're coming home and you got the doves and your dog senses that and he comes up to greet you.

You go right over the dog, you know. I mean, first the cat, now the dog, two funerals, you know. And of course, it's Wednesday night church. What other day could it be? You know, it's Wednesday night church.

And so you come to church and maybe it leaks out among some of your dear brothers and sisters in Christ here at Calvary. And you've had a rough day. And so I want you to imagine a dear brother or sister in Christ comes up wanting to comfort you.

They throw their arm around you glibly and they say, well, brother, well, sister, after all, hallelujah, all things work together for good. Now when I ask you an honest question, what do you want to do to that dear brother or sister in Christ?

Well, we won't go into what we want to do. We'll just leave that alone for the moment. But folks, you know what I'm describing? I'm describing paradox. Do we believe that all things are going to work together?

Sure we do. We're just figuring how in the world is this day going to reconcile with all things work together for good? Doesn't seem like it's going to work, does it? You know what happens at that moment?

Your faith's being tried. When you can see what God is doing, that he's going to work it all together for good. There's no faith there because the Bible very says we walk by faith, not by sight. See, when we can see it, it's not faith.

Our faith is tried when we can't figure it out. And by the way, it says, knowing this, let the trying of your faith, you know what the trying of your faith is? That's a paradox. That's the Bible words for paradox.

What is the trying of your faith do? It works. Patience. What does that mean? It means the paradox is going to last longer than you want it to last. That's what it means. And you know what, friends about paradoxes, don't miss this.

The trying of your faith works patience. That word patience obviously has the idea we think of in patience, but it is absolutely a word that is impregnated with a lot of other meaning as well. It's the idea of staying in the frying pan and abiding in Christ.

It's hupomeno. In other words, abiding under. It's staying in the trial, walking with God in the fiery furnace because you know that's the will of God. See knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience, in other words, it teaches us to walk with God under duress.

And God says, let patience have its perfect work. Why? That you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. You know, folks, this is not a nice thought, but the only way to Christian maturity is through paradox.

It's the only way. And it's not. Obviously, when we can figure it out, there's no paradoxes when we can't figure it out. And there's a seeming contradiction. And it seems like what we're going through does not mesh up with all things work together for good.

And it is at that moment, is it not, when Satan picks up those darts and saying, does God really know what he's doing? Is this really going to work together for good? Is God really good? And my friend, all of us who have lived the Christian like any length of time know what it is for Satan to fire those question marks into our heart.

The paradox of suffering. Now, again, folks, the same circumstances that God wants to use to bring you to Christian maturity are the same circumstances Satan wants to use to destroy your life. You've seen two people.

I'm sure two families go through the similar trial. One family comes out like gold. The other family is shipwrecked. Same circumstances brought one family to Christian maturity or the same circumstances.

Another family can be shipwrecked on and it all determines whether or not we got the shield up. See, so the paradox of suffering, more could be said there, but for time we'll move on. OK, now let's go to a second paradox.

The Paradox of Subscriptural Experience and Evangelistic Faith

It's what I'm going to call the paradox of a sub scriptural experience. Now, hang on the paradox of a sub scriptural experience. I'm going to warn you ahead of time. I'm setting you up. That way you won't get upset with me.

I'm going to set you up here. I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to ask you if you believe something. You tell me. I guess if you believe it, say, OK, here it is. How many of you believe that the gospel is the power of God into salvation?

Say amen. Amen. Fairly weak, except for Brother Gary, but OK, now that's all right, brother. I appreciate it. OK, here we go. Number two, how many of you believe that the fields are white on the harvest?

OK, number three, how many of you believe that God's grace is more than enough? It's sufficient to do the will of God. OK, now you're doing better. That's great. Now, you know where I'm going, don't you?

We all know we're getting set up here. If we believe the fields are white, think about this. Can you imagine a Kansas farmer going out and saying to his co-workers, hey, listen, the fields are white.

We're going to harvest tomorrow. Sure. Hope we get some grain. Don't you think he ought to expect harvest? Well, the fields are white. Sure. We expect harvest. Now. Now, folks, it's like this. If the fields are white and the gospel is the power of God and God's grace is more than enough, then we ought to be able to go expecting harvest.

Sure. Sometimes we water. Sure. Sometimes we plant. But we also should harvest. You know, it's amazing. Everywhere I go, people have excuses why it's tough there. You go to the Pacific Northwest. Now, brother, did you know only three percent of the population goes to church in the Pacific Northwest?

It's tough out here in the Pacific Northwest. Did you know that the Pacific Northwest is white already into harvest? You say, how do you know that? Because Jesus said the fields are white. California.

Oh, brother. This is California, brother. There are free thinkers out here. This is the land of the fruits and the nuts out here. And hey, brother, it's tough in California. Is it? Well, folks, we recognize Satan's fighting everywhere.

He blinds minds. We recognize that. But God is also working to whiten harvest. New England. Brother, this is New England, cold, formal New England. And everybody's got their religious heritage. It's tough in New England.

So everybody's got the excuse. You say, well, preacher, what about the Bible Belt? Yeah, they got excuses down here, too. Well, brother, this is the Bible Belt. You know, you knock on the door, they say, yeah, I'm saved.

I go to St. Jude Baptist Church. You know, what's the preacher's name? I don't know. I haven't been there in 20 years, you know. Did you know the Bible Belt's white already on the harvest? See, what I'm simply saying is God is constantly whitening harvest.

He's getting people ready to be saved. You say, well, preacher, if that's true, why don't I see very many people saved? It's because you really don't believe it. Now, let me illustrate it this way. There's a gentleman who was a medical doctor in my home church.

Name is Tom. Tom Johnson. We call him Dr. Tom. I observed Dr. Tom, and he's got an unusual personality, and I observed him for years. He was a very ineffective soul winner, and yet he tried hard. He's the kind of guy you're kind of thinking he's going to turn people off or he's just not going to do it.

And he's got a lot of nervous energy, and he wouldn't even, you wouldn't, he's not the medical doctor type at all. And so one day, Dr. Tom got a hold of two truths. Number one, well, actually three truths.

The three truths were mentioned. The fields are white. The gospel is the power of God. God's grace is sufficient, so we ought to go and expect God's word to be true. See, we blame the Charismatics, and well, we should, for interpreting scripture through their experience.

But you know what we do? We interpret scripture through our lack of experience. See, we get defeated. And so we just kind of push off these things, and well, these things impact the Dr. Tom, and I will tell you, he is one of the best soul winners I know.

You know what? He has simple faith. He just believes God. He got his deputation, his support, in less than a year, because just about every church he went in, he just, you just see people saved. I mean, he is a constant challenger of rebuke.

In fact, some of his stories are absolutely unbillable. One time, Dr. Tom is driving down the road, you know, and as he is driving down the road, something begins to malfunction in his car, and he thinks, you know, I got to pull off and get it fixed.

It wasn't a long fix, but he was going to have to pull it off. And you know what his first thought was? I wonder who God wants me to talk to. I'm going to be dead honest with you. You know what my first thought would have been?

Stupid car. He pulls off the car, you know, he goes into this parking lot, he parks. A 71-year-old lady was walking across the parking lot, she must be it, walks up to her, gives her the gospel, and she gets saved.

And then she says to him, young man, you're not going to believe this. She said, I got up this morning and I said to myself, I've got to know how I can know when I die, I'm going to heaven. She said, I called all my friends, they couldn't tell me.

Called my Catholic priest, he couldn't tell me. And now you come along and tell me. You know, friends, that's pretty white. That's white and harvest. Another time, Dr. Tom walks up a guy in a store, this is typical Dr. Tom, doesn't matter where he is.

He walks up to this guy and holds out a track and said, are you 100 sure if you die tonight you'd go to heaven? Just holds it up right in front of the guy's face. The guy looks at it, it's like he saw a ghost.

Dr. Tom looks at him and says, you want to talk about it? Guy nods. So they went outside to the front of the grocery stores. You know where those benches are outside? I bet you didn't know that they put them there for soul winning.

But anyway, they got those benches outside. And so he sat down and he opened his Bible, leads the guy to Christ. The guy says, you're not going to believe this. Dr. Tom hears that a lot. You're not going to believe this.

He said, I just came to the grocery store from the cemetery. He said, I, I, my, one of my parents just died a day or so ago and the other parent had died a few months ago. And he said, I just threw myself on the fresh grave of the parent who just passed away.

And he said, I cried out to God. And I said, God, would you please show me how I could be 100 sure if I die tonight I go to heaven? That's white friends, friends, that's white and harvest. You say, well, Richard, why does Dr. Tom see these kinds of things all the time?

And why don't I ever see him? It's because he believes it and you don't see, see friends. It's like this. When we get defeated in our outreach, you know what happens? Satan comes along and he picks up those darts and he throws them into our heart.

Now we'd never admit it out loud, but we begin to believe him. Maybe the gospel isn't so powerful after all. Maybe the fields aren't really that white. Maybe God's grace isn't sufficient for me. It might be for others, but not for me.

Aren't those subtle forms of rank unbelief? And folks, it is in the paradox of a subscriptural experience. When we have a defeated Christian experience, we have a tendency to believe our experience and allow Satan to throw darts into our heart, getting us to question clear statements of scripture.

It's so subtle, isn't it? Now let me give you another example. This relates to our message on Romans six. We mentioned on that message, there's a verse that says, thanks be unto God who always causes us to triumph in Christ.

As we pointed out, friends, there's always a provision of victory. You know, every time you and I sin, every time we fail a provision of victory, there's always a way of escape. Now that doesn't, obviously we realize the Bible does not teach sinless perfectionism.

They used to call that living above sin. I remember when I was in Bible college, someone in Bible conference said this, the only way to live above sin is to rent a room above a pool hall. I thought that was interesting.

But anyway, some of you old timers will get that one. But so we recognize we're never going to live above sin. And sometimes we so emphasize that doctrine, which we do believe, that we diminish the other doctrine.

And that is, there's always a provision of victory. And every time we sin, we have no excuse. See, sometimes what happens is we get so defeated and so discouraged, we kind of think, well, that's just the way it is.

After all, you can't reach perfection on this side of the grave. So I just guess I'm going to have to live with this defeat in my life. I'm going to have to live with this problem with pornography. I'm going to have to live with this anger problem, or I'm going to have to live just being a frustrated, irritated person.

No, no, friends, there is a provision of victory in Christ and there can be progress. There can be deliverance. And the triumph is in Christ. And the question we have to ask ourselves, are we going to believe what God says when he says God always causes us to triumph in Christ?

Are we going to believe that? Are we going to believe our defeated experience? Friends, it does not matter tonight what sinful habit is absolutely strangling you. There is a provision of victory in Christ.

There is hope. And any doubt of that certainly does not come from God. And Satan making up those doubts and saying, oh, I just got to live with it the rest of your life. You'll never get victory over that one.

I will tell you, friends, there are lies from the pit of hell. You do not have to be addicted to pornography. There is victory in Christ. You do not have to be addicted to tobacco. There's victory in Christ.

You do not have to be addicted to making wrong media choices. There's victory in Christ. You do not have to be addicted to sensual, fleshly music. There is victory in Christ. Hallelujah. So the other paradox, the second paradox that Satan gets us with is this paradox of subscriptural living.

Our experience is lower than the word and Satan picks up the darts and get us to doubt clear statements of Scripture. Okay, that brings us to a third paradox. Number one, the paradox of suffering. Number two, the paradox of subscriptural experience.

The Paradox of Supralogic: Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility

Number three, and I hang on with this one, the paradox of supralogic. The paradox of supralogic. Now, don't get scared off on this one. It is the paradox of logic, as supra means above, it is the paradox of logic that is above finiteness.

Now, we touched on this in one of the messages and I'll review just briefly, but you know, friends, that God's infinite and we're finite. And certainly, if I were talking tonight about the sovereignty of God, do you believe in the sovereignty of God?

I do. I'll tell you on September 11th, I was glad God was sovereign, weren't you? Glad God was in control. I believe that nothing takes God by surprise. But I also believe that the Bible teaches us that you and I are not robots and we can make bad choices and we often do, don't we?

We are what we might call free moral agents. Now, you say, preacher, how do you reconcile the sovereignty of God and free moral agents? I will be honest with you, my brain is too small to reconcile them, but I figure that God's smarter than I am.

I don't know about you, I'd love to have a God that is bigger than my tiny little brain. I believe I said it the other night, Romans chapter 9 talks about God's sovereignty, Romans chapter 10 talks about human responsibility, and Romans chapter 11 says his ways are past finding out.

And I'll tell you, friend, if you figured out how sovereignty and free will go together, you haven't figured it out because his ways are past finding out. God is bigger than the smartest man's brain on this planet.