How Does God Know All Things?

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I want to invite you to take out your Bible and turn to Matthew chapter 6.
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We're going to be looking today at verse 8.
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We have been examining the Sermon on the Mount, and we have noted already that the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus' corrective teaching.
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He is correcting misunderstandings about Scripture, about practice, ethics, morals, all of these things.
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He is bringing corrective teaching to His disciples.
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In the first chapter of the Sermon on the Mount, which is Matthew 5, He uses the phrase over and over, you have heard it said, but yet I say unto you.
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He's telling them, you've heard this, you've believed this, but it wasn't right.
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This is what is right.
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When He gets to chapter 6, His focus is on the piety of His disciples.
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He begins first by focusing on giving, then He moves on to the subject of prayer and fasting.
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Well, we are in the midst of the portion of the Sermon wherein He is dealing with prayer.
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Last week, we talked about verse 7, where He discusses the issue of using empty phrases when praying.
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We mentioned that the King James Version says, vain repetition.
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To simply say the same thing over and over as a chant is not the way that Christ has encouraged us to pray.
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Well, today we are going to be looking at the portion wherein He makes a simple passing reference to the knowledge of God.
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We are going to use that verse to ask this question.
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How is it that God knows all things? So, let's stand together and read that verse, and then we will pray that God will bless our time of study.
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Matthew chapter 6 and verse 8, speaking of the Gentiles who pray in vain repetition.
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He says, do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
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Our Father and our God, we thank You for Your Word.
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We thank You that this morning we can study it together as a church.
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I pray first and foremost, as I always pray, Lord, that You would keep me from error, as I certainly am a fallible man and capable of preaching error.
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I pray also that You would open the hearts of the people to the truth, for it is Your Holy Spirit who will ultimately be the teacher today.
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And I just pray that He would use me as a mouthpiece.
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So, Father, in all of this, we are completely reliant upon You, trusting in You and You alone throughout this time, thanking You through Your Son, Jesus Christ, and it is in His name we pray.
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Amen.
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Sometimes there are statements which are made in the Bible which are very meaningful, but yet very easy to overlook.
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I believe that verse 8 of Matthew 6 that we just read is one such statement.
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Jesus is telling us something here about the nature of God in this passage, which is so sublime that it should cause our very knees to buckle beneath us.
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And yet, we often read right over it without giving any serious consideration to the weightiness contained therein.
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This verse makes a very powerful statement in a very subtle way.
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It tells us that God knows our needs before we even ask Him.
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And you know, that may seem like a simple thing, especially since we consider ourselves to be orthodox in our understanding of God.
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We are Christians.
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We believe we hold to the orthodox or the proper faith.
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And thus we affirm God's omniscience.
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We affirm that He has a knowledge of all things.
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So it may seem like a small thing.
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By the way, if you're unfamiliar with the term omniscience, that means all knowledge.
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It's one of three definitions which are used for God that all begin with the omni.
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There is omniscience.
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That is all knowledge.
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There is nothing that He doesn't know.
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There is omnipotence.
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That is all power.
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There is no limit to His power.
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And omnipresence, that He is everywhere.
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There is no limit to where He is.
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God is defined by those three omni statements.
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And it would stand to reason, then, if we believe that God is omniscient, that He would know what we need before we ask.
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But I want to challenge you this morning with a question.
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Because I think that this inspires a question within most people.
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How? How is it that God knows all things? There is a philosophical system.
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I will not call it a theological system.
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Because I believe that proper theology is pulled from Scripture.
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And that which comes from man is philosophy, not theology.
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But there is a philosophical system which says that God doesn't know what's going to happen in the future.
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With exact certainty.
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They say He has a pretty good idea of what will happen.
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And He knows what He is going to do.
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But He doesn't know what you're going to do.
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Because of your supposed autonomous will.
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And thus God cannot know for certain what the future holds.
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That system of philosophy is called open theism.
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Open theism teaches that God is not aware for certain of the future free acts of individuals because they are not yet decided.
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And God cannot know what is not yet decided.
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That's their position.
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An open theist would say that he believes that God is omniscient, but only in the sense that God knows all that can be known.
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And since free acts are not yet determined, He doesn't know what decisions we're going to make.
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And thus He doesn't know the future.
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That is an errant theology.
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It is filled with unbiblical nonsense.
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It leaves God in the dark to future events.
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And is rightly called heresy.
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For that is what it is.
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And beloved, we should never be afraid to use the word heresy for that which is heresy.
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Orthodox, by the way, orthodox comes, orthos means to straighten.
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If you know what an orthodontist is, they straighten teeth.
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Orthodox means to be straight in your teaching.
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It means to be right in accord with the Scripture.
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Also the name of the Eastern Orthodox Church, I don't want to confuse you all.
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There is an entire church that identifies itself as the Orthodox Church.
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But the term orthodox simply means to be right, appropriately straight with right doctrine.
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An orthodox Christian teaching has always held that God has absolute and exhaustive knowledge of everything past, present and future.
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That there is no knowledge that He does not have, even that of the future.
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But how can God know the future? Some propose that God can simply foresee the future.
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I call this the bare foreknowledge view.
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Not bare as the animal, but B-A-R-E.
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Simple foreknowledge or bare foreknowledge.
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And the problem with bare foreknowledge is that it makes God a passive observer.
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In this view, God only knows what is going to happen because He sees that it is going to happen.
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And from this perspective, He is not managing history, He is simply witnessing it unfold.
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Beloved, that is not the biblical teaching either.
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Though I must admit, it is very popular in many Christian churches to teach that God simply foreknows the future because He foresees the future.
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I will admit that is better than open theism.
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But it is still not the truth.
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Now I have got your attention.
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If you have no idea where I am going next, I imagine.
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The biblical view of how God knows all things is based on the fact that He has declared the end from the beginning.
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He has said this is how it will be.
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Go with me to Isaiah 46 and we will see God say these words.
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Isaiah 46 and verse 8.
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If you get to Isaiah 46, go to verse 8 with me and we will begin reading.
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I saw her Bible page is turning, so I will give you one more second to get there.
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It says in verse 8, and I wish I could put it on the screen for you today.
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Our normal person is out.
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I do thank my daughter for taking over her place.
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But she does not know how yet to put Bible verses on the screen.
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So we will have to open our Bibles today.
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Verse 8 says, Remember this and stand firm.
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Recall it to mind you transgressors.
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Remember the former things of old.
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For I am God.
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This is one of my favorite verses of Scripture, by the way.
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For I am God and there is no other.
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I am God and there is none like me.
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Verse 10.
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Declaring the end from the beginning.
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And from ancient times things not yet done.
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My counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose.
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Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country.
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I have spoken and I will bring it to pass.
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I have purposed and I will do it.
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That, beloved, is a statement that only an omnipotent God could make.
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He says, I have declared the end from the beginning.
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I have declared from ancient times things not yet done.
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And my counsel shall stand.
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I have spoken.
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I will bring it to pass.
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I have purposed.
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I will do it.
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We call this declaration the decree of God.
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A decree is an official order handed down by one who is in authority.
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And when we say the decree of God, we are saying that this is the way that God has ordered the world to be.
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I want to read to you from a Confession of Faith.
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This is the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith.
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And I realize Confessions of Faith are not Scripture.
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I also realize that they are not infallible.
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But they are attempts by godly men to codify what the Scripture teaches on certain issues.
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And thus, to quote from them is not inappropriate.
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So I want to quote from the 1689 Confession on the issue of the decree of God.
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And listen, please.
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God has decreed in himself from all eternity, by the most wise and holy counsel of his will, freely and unchangeably all things which shall ever come to pass.
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Yet, in such a way that God is neither the author of sin, nor does he have fellowship with any in the committing of sins, nor is violence offered to the will of the creature, nor yet is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.
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In all this, God's wisdom is displayed, disposing all things, and also his power and faithfulness in accomplishing his decree.
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That ends the statement from the Baptist Confession of Faith, the 1689 Confession.
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You see, what this says to us, and it tells us exactly what the Bible says to us, is that God has decreed all things.
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That does not mean that we are puppets.
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That does not mean that we are robots, as some have falsely accused us of teaching.
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And it does not mean that God is the author of sin.
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For God cannot author sin.
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For he is holy, righteous.
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But what God has done in his decree, is that his will is the ultimate guiding force in this world, and will ultimately bring him glory, and his people good.
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Some don't like the word decree.
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So I want to read to you from a man by the name of James Pettigrew Boyce.
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And I figure Richard would get a kick out of me going back to Boyce, because this was one of the founders of the seminary which our worship leader Aaron is attending.
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He's away now, and he is there at Southern Seminary up in Kentucky, and this is one of the men who founded that seminary.
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And this is what he says about the decree of God.
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Because he wanted to clear up confusion.
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Because he said that word can confuse people.
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So let's make it easier.
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And I quote, The term decree is liable to some misapprehension and objection, because it conveys the idea of an edict or some compulsory determination.
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Purpose has been suggested as a better word.
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And I want to stop at the quote there.
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Nobody has a problem saying God has a purpose, right? Right? Nobody would.
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He goes on to say, Plan will sometimes be more suitable.
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Who would deny that God has a plan? You see, he's a smart guy, because he's showing us how we're already using the language.
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We're just not understanding what we're meaning.
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He goes on, The mere use of these words will remove from many some difficulties and prejudices which make them unwilling to accept this doctrine.
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They perceive that in the creation, preservation, and government of the world, God must have had a plan.
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And that that plan must have been just, wise, and holy, tending both to His own glory and the happiness of His creatures.
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They recognize that a man who has no purpose nor aim, especially in important matters, and who cannot or does not devise the means by which to carry out his purpose, is without wisdom and capacity and unworthy of His nature.
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Consequently, they readily believe and admit that the more comprehensive and at the same time the more definite is the plan of God, the more worthy it is of infinite wisdom.
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Indeed, they are compelled to the conclusion that God cannot be what He is without forming such a purpose or plan.
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So beloved, when I say the decree of God, if it makes you feel better to put the word plan there, put the word plan there.
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If it makes you feel better to put the word purpose there, put the word purpose there.
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But it's all the same, it is God's will which is in charge.
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His plan is being worked out.
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His decree is being worked out in this world.
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So when we talk about the word decree, we are talking about the definite plan and purpose of God.
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He has planned that the world will work out in a certain way.
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He has also planned that it will not work out in another way.
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And beloved, no one can thwart His plan.
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I remember a few years ago I used that word in a lesson for children.
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I said something about thwart.
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And they all got a big kick out of that word.
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The word thwart, in case you know what it means, to stop or to hold fast.
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The kids did not know what I was talking about.
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They thought it was the funniest thing they had ever heard.
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But no one can thwart the plan of God.
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No one can stop it.
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This is why He said in Isaiah, I am God and there is no other.
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There is none like Me.
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All of us have plans that can be thwarted.
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All of us have plans which can go a different direction at some point.
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But God is not like us.
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The failure of the modern church is that we have dethroned God and we have made Him a person like us.
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Even the pagan God Nebuchadnezzar understood this truth.
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If you do not remember, Nebuchadnezzar was talking about how great he was and how much he had done.
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So God made him go crazy and he ended up out eating grass like an ox.
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You tell God how great you are and God will show you how great He is.
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Well, after he was brought to his senses, after he was restored to his sanity, he said this in Daniel chapter 4.
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If you want to go there with me, it is Daniel 4, 34 and 35.
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This is after Nebuchadnezzar's sanity has been brought back to him and he says in verse 34, And at the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever, for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation.
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All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing.
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And He does, according to His will, among the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, no one can stay his hand or say to him, What have you done? Who can look at God and say, Why did you do it this way? And have any position at all to call God onto the carpet? That's Nebuchadnezzar's point.
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Who could look to God and say, Why have you done it this way? As the Apostle Paul would say in Romans chapter 9, Who are you, O man, to answer back to God? You see, beloved, it is not just that God knows the future, for He certainly does, but He knows also how the future will end up because He has a plan, and that plan is being worked out in time.
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And that plan establishes the future.
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Some people don't like that.
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Some people have a big problem with that.
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They say, Sure, God sees it happening, but He's not causing anything to happen.
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Beloved, why would you worship such an impotent deity? Why would you worship a God who simply watches the world pass by as a parade? I heard a guy tell, This is how God said God is sovereign.
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You know how when you stand at a parade and you see the parade going by? He said, Well, God is like a person up on top of a building, looking down, and He can see the beginning, He can see the end, He can see the middle.
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That's how God sees the future.
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Beloved, that is such a minuscule view because that makes God the passive receiver of information.
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So you're telling me God had to learn something? See, that's another problem.
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The omniscient cannot learn, for He knows all.
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And yet you're saying He had to look down the corridor of time to see what would be and what would not be.
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Such is foolishness.
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Jonathan Edwards, the great pastor from the United States, made this point because he was hearing people object to the decree of God.
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They were saying, Yes, we believe God can see the future, but we don't believe He has a decree.
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This was Jonathan Edwards' rebuke to that.
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He said, Whether God has decreed all things that ever come to pass or not, all that believe in the being of God know that He knows all things beforehand.
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So he's assuming if you believe in God, you believe at least that He knows what's going to happen.
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He says, Now it is self-evident that if He knows all things beforehand, He either approves of them or He does not approve of them, and He is either willing that they should be or He's not willing that they should be, but to will that they should be is to decree them.
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Could God not change if He chose to change? And thus, what He has done and allowed is not that part of His decree.
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This is Edwards' argument.
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If you think God can see the future, but He's not in control of the future, then you're saying that the whole future is outside of His will.
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He's just observing it.
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He's not managing it.
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Some might object, and I like to assume objections.
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I like to consider what the objections may be.
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And somebody might object and say, Well, if God decrees all things, if God has planned all things, purposed all things, then that means God has purposed and planned sin, and thus that makes God evil.
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This is the objection which often comes to me from those who are opposed to the reformed perspective, and I tend to talk to people quite a bit about this because any time you talk about God being absolutely sovereign, a lot of people talk about a sovereign God, but I tell you, it's a small S.
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It's not a capital S.
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Their idea of sovereignty is similar to when we talk about a sovereign nation or a sovereign individual, a sovereign citizen or something.
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They don't understand true sovereignty when we talk about God.
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They say, God's plan cannot include sin because that would make God evil.
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Well, let me say this.
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We know God's plan does include sin because sin exists.
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Let me clarify myself.
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If we say that sin is not a part of God's plan, then we are saying that most things are really outside of God's control.
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Think on this.
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I really want you to think.
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I don't want you to leave confused because I'm not saying God is the author of sin, but what I'm saying is His allowance of sin is part of the plan.
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If it were not, it would not be allowed.
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Because if you don't think God has the power to stop you from sinning, then you go back and you're...
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Hey, wait a minute.
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Y'all read this already, didn't you? You read this morning in Sunday school.
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I think our Mr.
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Bunnings class read about a man named Abimelech who certainly would have had an affair with Sarah, had the opportunity arose.
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But what did God say? I did not let you sin with her.
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You tell me who's in control.
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The Bible says in the Old Testament that there was a time where the men of Israel had to leave their women and children and go away for a time to worship.
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And it said during those times, the men who surround you will not covet your land.
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Beloved, they always coveted the land.
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They still covet the land of Israel.
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They're still fighting over it today.
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But God said during these times, they will not covet your land.
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You tell me God's not in control.
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Don't give me that small-s sovereignty business.
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God is a capital S sovereign.
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Because if He wasn't, He wouldn't be God.
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People say, well, sin can't be a part of God's plan.
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Acts 2.23.
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I want you to turn to Acts.
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This is important.
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Because there has been no greater sin than that which was perpetuated against Jesus Christ.
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Because never in history has a more innocent man been charged with false crimes and executed unjustly.
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Never has sin been so profound than when Jesus Christ was hung on that cross.
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And yet, this is what it says in Acts 2.23.
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This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.
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You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
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What does it say? Definite plan.
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In the Greek, you know what it means? Definite plan.
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In this case, you won.
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It means definite plan.
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Now go over to chapter 4.27.
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Chapter 4.27, For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus whom You anointed.
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This is talking to God.
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He says, You anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel.
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All these people were brought together to do whatever Your hand and Your plan had predestined to take place.
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Oh, we don't like that word.
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Well, Paul liked it.
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Luke wrote Acts.
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He didn't have a problem with it.
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Why do you? He says all these people, Pilate, Herod, all these people, the Gentiles, were all brought together to do what You had planned from the beginning of time.
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Beloved, that's sovereignty on display.
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Someone might argue and say, well, yes, God allows sin, but that doesn't mean He decrees sin.
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Does that mean? I want to answer objections.
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I write these down.
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I sit and meditate on what you're going to ask me.
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I do.
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I meditate.
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What are they going to ask? After the sermon.
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Let me put it in the sermon.
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And this is the question.
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Somebody said, well, God allows sin doesn't mean decrees sin.
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Well, that means you don't understand the term.
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Decree does not mean to be the author of something.
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But it does mean to have ultimate control over this thing.
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God is in control of all things.
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Everything that God allows, He has a purpose for.
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And if He has a purpose for it, then it is part of His decree that it would happen.
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So to simply say, well, He just allows it.
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He really didn't want it to happen.
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He really was kind of hoping we'd get over that small G God business.
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Because that's what that is.
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Something about capital letters today is really on my mind.
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But we've got a small S sovereign and a small G God.
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To simply say God passively allows something is really a meaningless statement because the only things which He allows are the things which He ultimately has a purpose for.
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For instance, think of the life of Joseph.
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By the way, you guys in Genesis, you'll all be here in a year maybe.
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It's at the end of Genesis.
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And the life of Joseph.
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Genesis 50, verse 20.
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You don't have to turn there.
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It's very short.
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Joseph is looking at his brothers.
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His brothers had sold him into slavery.
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While in slavery, he'd gone through all of these different things at the house of Potiphar.
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He had gone to prison.
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Finally being raised up to the second under Pharaoh.
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And what did he say to his brothers who thought for sure they would be killed? What you meant for evil, God meant for good to save this day many people alive.
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That's one to commit to memory, folks.
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Genesis 50, verse 20.
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And know that the verb is the same verb.
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What you meant for evil, God meant the same verb for good.
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God was acting on the stage of history bringing about His purpose through the evil intentions of those men.
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But yet at the same time, He was not the author of their sin.
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Their sin came from within their wretched souls.
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We call this doctrine compatibilism.
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If you take some time, look that up because I don't have time to really get into it all today.
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But what we mean when we say that is God's will in the sense that His decree is always worked out.
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That His will is always being worked out.
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And if we don't believe that, if you cannot affirm that, then you have no reason to affirm Romans 8.28 that says God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
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If you cannot affirm that God has decreed all things, you have no reason to trust Romans 8.28 which says God is causing all things to work together for your good.
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So that's the truth.
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That's the easy thing.
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People all the time, Romans 8.28, God's causing all things to work together for good.
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Well, God didn't have anything to do with that.
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God didn't have anything to do with this.
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God didn't know that was going to happen.
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Little gee, God.
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And it's a problem.
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It is a problem.
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Beloved, I'm going to go through just a few verses of Scripture with you and then I'm going to draw to a close.
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I want to show you a couple of things just to take home.
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You may just want to write these down.
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You may want to go try to look them up for me, but I am going to go through them kind of quick.
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I want to show you two things today.
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I want to show you God's decree on display on a global scale and on an individual scale.
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On a global scale and on an individual scale.
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Because I think you ought to be armed with these Scriptures.
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I think you ought to have these on your brain, on your heart, written down in your Bible, take and put them in a phylactery and slap it to your forehead.
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Whatever you've got to do.
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Arm yourselves with the truth.
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By the way, a phylactery is what the Jews use.
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They take a piece of Scripture and they tie it to their head in case you didn't know what I was referring to there.
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And I'm not encouraging you to do that.
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I'm saying I want you to keep these in mind.
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So let's look first at a global scale.
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On a global scale, we see the decree of God first in the establishment of authorities.
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When Jesus was talking to Pilate, John 19, 11, Jesus was talking to Pontius Pilate, probably one of the most evil and ruthless rulers of the Roman Empire, one of the most evil governors within the Roman Empire.
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What did Jesus say to Pilate? You would have no authority over me if God had not given it to you.
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He said, you would have no authority because I have the authority to set you free.
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Pilate is trying to exercise a little bit of clout with Jesus.
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Hey, you need to be nice to me.
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I can let you go if I want to.
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Jesus said you would have no authority over me if it had not been given to you by God.
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And the whole chapter of Romans 13 says, for there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God.
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Romans 13 tells us that.
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God is the one who establishes authority.
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And people say, well, I don't like the person who's in authority right now.
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Well, it doesn't say that God establishes all authority to bless us.
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Sometimes authorities are put as a judgment.
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But it's still God in control.
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If you don't think God uses evil men to judge other men, well, then you've never read the Old Testament.
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God uses evil men to judge other men all the time.
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He's still in control.
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Proverbs 21.1 The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord.
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He turns it wherever He wills.
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Beloved, if you can't affirm that, you don't have a sovereign God.
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Daniel 2 and verse 20 and 21.
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Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of God forever and ever to whom belongs wisdom and might.
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He changes times and seasons.
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He removes kings and sets up kings.
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He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.
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It is God who sets up the authorities.
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It is also God who is in charge of the rising and falling of nations.
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Job chapter 12 and verse 23.
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Job, possibly the oldest book of the Bible, written before even the books of Moses potentially, tells us in chapter 12, God makes the nations great and He destroys them.
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He enlarges them and He leads them away.
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It is God who rises them.
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It is God who brings them down.
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By the way, this ought to encourage us to pray for our nation because if it's going to stand, it will stand under the authority of Almighty God.
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If it will continue to exist, it will continue to exist under God.
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God is also in charge of the processes of nature.
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Psalm 135, verses 5-7, which we read for our call to worship this morning.
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It says He makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, He makes lightning for the rain, and He brings forth the wind from His storehouses.
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I'm reminded of something that was said by John Calvin who said that there is not one drop of rain that falls from the heavens apart from the decree of Almighty God.
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All he's doing is rephrasing Psalm 135.
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It is God who is in control even of the rain.
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God is also in control of the establishment of the church in the world.
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All throughout the Old Testament, there was promises and prophecies of Christ's coming.
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How could God make a prophecy if He were not in control of what would happen? And so too, how could Christ say these words if He were not absolutely in control? He told Simon Peter, I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
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That is Matthew 16 and verse 18.
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I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
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Beloved, we have a war to fight, but it's already won.
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We battle the daily battle, but Christ has won the war.
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He didn't say, I will try to build My church.
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He said, I will build My church.
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So that's God's decree on a global scale.
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Let's bring it down to the individual scale.
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God is sovereign over the birth of individuals.
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Psalm 139 verses 14 through 16.
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My wife's favorite passage.
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I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
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Wonderful are Your works.
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My soul knows it very well.
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My frame was not hidden from You.
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This is a great anti-abortion passage because it says that God knew us even in the womb.
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He says, My frame was not hidden from You when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth, speaking of the mother's womb.
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Your eyes saw My unformed substance.
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In Your book were written every one of them the days that were formed for Me, when as yet there were none of them.
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Our days were written in God's book before we were ever formed in the womb.
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Beloved, that should cause our knees to give.
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God is sovereign over our birth.
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He is also sovereign over our death.
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The Bible says it is appointed to man once to die.
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And after that is judgment.
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That's in Hebrews.
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But Deuteronomy 32, verse 39 says, See now that even I am He, and there is no God besides Me, I kill and make alive, I wound and I heal, and there is none that can deliver out of My hand.
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God is simply affirming who He is.
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I am the one in charge of life and death.
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I hear people ask me sometimes, and I don't mind the question, and don't ever think that I'm mocking people who ask me questions.
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I love when people ask me questions.
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This question comes up sometimes, and I want to address it now.
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People ask the question, Pastor, what about people who die before their time? Let me say this about that.
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I know what you mean.
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What you mean by die before their time is you mean that the person's life was cut off outside of a normal life span.
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They didn't live to elderly years, but they lived a shortened life.
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I know that's what you mean.
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But let me affirm for you something else that you must never allow into your mind, and that is that a person's life is cut off before God is finished with them.
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God has determined our days before He even formed us in the womb.
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I said, Byron, I talked about this week.
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I wasn't sure I was going to say this, but I will say this.
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I pray that you hear it with the intention that it is coming.
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You are absolutely immortal until the days that God has fashioned for you are up.
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And at that moment, no doctor in the world could save you.
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God is in control of your life.
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I'm glad that you can all affirm that.
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I saw many heads moving.
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God is in control of your life and your death and even your salvation.
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John 6 and 37 All the Father gives me will come unto me.
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God is the one who gives you to the Son.
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Psalm 65 and 4 Blessed is the one whom you choose and bring near to dwell in your courts.
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God chooses us.
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He draws us to Himself.
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God is sovereign and we are not.
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Acts 13 and verse 48 says On that day when the Gospel was preached that as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
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It doesn't say as many as believed were appointed to eternal life.
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It says they had been appointed to eternal life and thus they believed because God had chosen them.
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Romans 9 and 18 says God has mercy on whom He wills and He hardens whom He wills.
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Beloved, that's the part that most people do not like.
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But one of the biggest problems of the modern church is the rejection of God because they reject who God is.
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I want to end with a quote from A.W.
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Pink, one of my favorite writers.
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A.W.
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Pink said this, The God of this twentieth century no more resembles the supreme sovereign of holy writ than does the dim flickering of a candle the glory of the midday sun.
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The God who is now talked about in the average pulpit, spoken of in the ordinary Sunday school, mentioned in much of the religious literature of the day and preached in most of the so-called Bible conferences is the figment of human imagination and invention of maudlin sentimentality.
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A God whose will is resisted, whose designs are frustrated, whose purposes are checkmated, possesses no title to deity and so far from being a fit object of worship merits nothing but contempt.
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End quote.
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What's he saying? He's saying the God that most people have is no God at all for he is constantly frustrated, his will is constantly thwarted and he is begging for our attention rather than demanding our honor.
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God is not Santa Claus begging you to come sit on his lap.
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He is the king, the sovereign of the universe subject to none, influenced by none, absolutely independent.
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God does as he pleases, only as he pleases, always as he pleases.
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None can thwart him.
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None can hinder him.
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So his own word expressly proclaims my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure.
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That too came from the pen of A.W.
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Pink.
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We began today looking at the subject of prayer.
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God told us that he knows what we need before we ask.
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But beloved, that doesn't mean we shouldn't ask.
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What that means is that we should be able to come to him trusting him.
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It's an encouragement by Christ to trust God.
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To trust that he has everything already worked out.
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That he is the sovereign of this world.
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But how can we exercise that trust? Only by understanding that he is God and we are not.
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That he is God and there is none like him.
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When the Christian lays down his head at night, the peace which should undergird his rest is the sovereignty of his God.
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Father, I thank you for your word.
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I thank you for the attentiveness of your people that they would sit and listen to these words.
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And I thank you that you have put it on our heart to trust in what your word tells us about who you are.
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And we thank you.
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We thank you for this opportunity to again proclaim the truth.
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And we pray that this sermon will go into the hearts and minds of your people and be used to spread your truth.
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And Father, if there are those here who don't have a sovereign God, that they don't understand who God is, I pray that they have seen today what your word says about you and their need to submit to you.
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We thank you for Christ and the salvation that comes in knowing him alone.
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We pray all these things in his name and for his sake.
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Amen.