What Is The Sovereignty Of God?

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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July 13, 2016

00:00: Well, this evening, I would like to ask you to turn in your Bibles to the Old Testament and go to the book of Isaiah, and go to the 45th chapter.
00:26: Isaiah 45, verses 5-7 will be the text for the evening when we arrive at our time to read.
00:34: But I'd like to begin with a short introduction.
00:37: Yesterday, an event occurred in the church, in my life, that was actually inspirational for today's message.
00:54: And this isn't the first time this has happened.
00:56: There have actually been several times over the last ten years where someone will inspire me to teach something.
01:05: Not meaning to.
01:10: Yesterday, I was here with Pat.
01:11: We were working in the office.
01:13: And a gentleman came in, and he handed out flyers to Pat and I, and began to talk about that the end is near, that we needed to be concerned about pestilence in the air, and how the government was essentially in league with the Jews and trying to kill everybody.
01:38: That was his message.
01:41: And I said, okay.
01:42: Okay, and he handed me his flyer.
01:44: I didn't challenge him.
01:49: I wasn't quite sure where he was mentally.
01:53: I just let him say what he was going to say.
01:57: Well, as he was walking out, we had some ladies in the fellowship hall that were having game day.
02:03: So he walked out of my office, and then he took a left.
02:07: Well, my office, to leave, is to go straight.
02:10: He took a left, and I hollered from the office.
02:12: I said, no, no.
02:14: You don't need to go in there.
02:17: I said, if you want to talk to anybody here, you talk to me.
02:20: I said, don't go bother those ladies.
02:24: Well, he turned around and came back in and engaged me in a conversation.
02:29: And I was trying to get from him what he believed about the gospel.
02:35: And I asked him, you know, how do you believe that a sinful man is made right with a holy God? You know, we had that conversation.
02:42: And he made a reference to the blood of Christ, and sort of obscure reference to salvation for all men through the cross, and didn't really nail anything down specifically.
02:54: But one thing he kept saying was, God is not in control.
03:00: We're in control.
03:03: He kept saying, God has given all authority to men.
03:08: And he kept quoting Genesis, you know, that all authority has been given.
03:11: You know, God created man to have authority and dominion over the world, so we have dominion in the world, and we have all authority.
03:17: God doesn't do anything, it's all us.
03:19: And even to the point where he was saying these hurricanes and floods and things that we see, that this is man-made caused by this shadow government that's killing people who don't agree with them through famine and, you know, pestilence and flooding and all, earthquakes even.
03:40: And I said, and my challenge to him was very simple.
03:45: I said, you don't believe that God is in control.
03:49: You don't believe in the sovereignty of God.
03:51: I do believe in the sovereignty.
03:53: I believe God's the first in control, but He's given authority to us, and He doesn't exercise that control.
03:57: We exercise control in the world.
03:59: I said, so God can't do anything without us.
04:04: And we sort of went back and forth on that.
04:06: Ultimately, I got down to this very simple question.
04:08: I said, okay.
04:11: I said, because he kept saying, well, if you believe that, you believe God causes rape, and you believe God causes murder, and you believe...
04:17: He kept challenging me on that.
04:19: And I said, well, hold on.
04:21: I believe God's in control of all things, and I do believe God is sovereign even over rape and even over murder and even over all these things.
04:28: And I said, let me ask you this.
04:31: I said, let's say you walk by a house.
04:34: The house is on fire.
04:35: You know there's a child inside.
04:37: And you have the ability to go in and save that child.
04:39: Do you do it? Well, of course I would.
04:42: I said, okay.
04:43: I said, every day, children die in fires all around the world.
04:48: I said, does God have the ability to save them? And he said, no.
04:57: That's why they die.
04:59: God can't do anything about it.
05:05: And so I...
05:07: He challenged me.
05:08: He said, you don't know what sovereignty means.
05:10: I said, I know exactly what sovereignty...
05:12: If there's one word I've spent a little time with...
05:15: I said, look at the sign, brother.
05:16: You came to Sovereign Grace Family Church.
05:18: This is one word we've dealt with.
05:21: But it really did challenge me.
05:23: I said, there are still people out there who somehow believe that man is sovereign and that God has essentially given you all control.
05:35: That is blasphemous.
05:36: I said, you do not believe in the God of the Bible, sir.
05:39: I said, the God you believe in is a God you have created in your mind.
05:43: But you do not believe in the God of the Bible.
05:47: He eventually became upset with me and left.
05:49: He said, you're what's wrong with the church today.
05:52: Currently I have a new title.
05:54: I'm what's wrong with the church today.
05:55: And he left upset.
05:58: But the point is, we went back and forth.
05:59: You can ask Pat Steve.
06:00: We went back and forth for about ten minutes.
06:02: But the point of the whole conversation, when he said God couldn't do anything, God doesn't have control over that.
06:11: He demonstrated that he does not have a biblical theology.
06:16: You see, you have to understand, the most neglected doctrine in the church is the doctrine of God.
06:26: The most neglected doctrine in all of theology is what we call theology proper.
06:36: Theology proper in systematic theological terms, theology proper is the doctrine of who God is and what God is and how God operates.
06:52: This is the theology of God.
06:55: And people are woefully ignorant of the theology of God.
07:01: And as a result, people find themselves worshiping a God that they create in their mind.
07:08: My God, God wouldn't do that.
07:10: That's what he kept saying.
07:11: God wouldn't do that.
07:20: And I said, the Bible says, I said to him, I said, the Bible says, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion, and whom I will, I will harden.
07:34: And he said, that's the old covenant, man.
07:35: That's what he kept saying.
07:36: That's the old covenant, man.
07:37: That's the old covenant.
07:38: I said, that's Romans chapter 9.
07:42: It's not the old covenant.
07:48: So tonight I wanted to address this subject.
07:50: Since I have two weeks and I didn't have anything else to teach.
07:54: I don't want to say it like that.
07:54: That sounds really terrible.
07:55: We finished our lesson in James.
07:58: We're going to start BBS in two weeks.
08:00: And I've got two weeks that I could do whatever I wanted.
08:03: And I was even asking Jennifer Monday, what do you think we should study? You know, what should I do? I've got two free weeks.
08:11: And then this guy came in and told me what to teach on.
08:16: So we're going to deal with it.
08:17: Deal with the theology of God.
08:22: And again, you've got to understand part of the problem with not having a proper theology of God is the anti-intellectualism that has made its way into the church.
08:31: People do not want to really think.
08:34: People do not want to think.
08:37: For instance, the subject of predestination is a big issue.
08:41: People get upset about the subject of predestination.
08:43: But I just want to say this and just as a blanket statement.
08:48: The Armenian perspective is woefully inconsistent.
08:53: And it's a grand inconsistency because it's the only way they can maintain their position.
08:58: They have to be inconsistent.
09:00: Because they will say on one hand, God knows for certain every person who's going to be saved.
09:05: And on the other hand, they'll say the number of people that's going to be saved isn't fixed.
09:10: Well, you can't have it both ways.
09:11: You can't have both of those.
09:13: He can't know for certain and it not be certainly determined.
09:21: You can't have both.
09:23: You can say he doesn't know or you can say it's not determined.
09:30: Well, I'm sorry.
09:33: Anyway, you understand.
09:34: I got a little confused.
09:35: If you say that God knows for sure.
09:37: It's like my wife and I.
09:38: We did family worship last night.
09:39: And my kids and I talked about this.
09:42: I said if God knows for sure that tomorrow I'm going to fall down a set of stairs.
09:49: Let's hope He doesn't.
09:52: But for the purposes of the argument, if God knows for certain that tomorrow I'm going to fall down a set of stairs.
10:00: Is it not absolutely certain that if He knows it that it's going to happen? He has ordained it.
10:11: Now, we haven't got there yet.
10:12: But you're right.
10:13: You're getting there.
10:15: But the point is in the Arminian position, God knows the future, right? Arminians don't deny that.
10:22: See, I don't believe God knows the future.
10:24: I believe God's determined the future.
10:25: And there's a difference.
10:26: And we're going to talk about the difference.
10:28: There's a difference between God knowing the future and God determining the future is God could have made it different.
10:34: See, the Arminian believes God.
10:36: It's up to us.
10:36: It's all about free will.
10:37: And God really couldn't have made it different.
10:39: He just sees what's going to happen.
10:41: See, I believe God could have made it different.
10:42: And He didn't because He has a purpose for the way it is.
10:44: That's a major difference between Calvinism and Arminianism is I believe God could have changed it and didn't because He has a purpose for it.
10:52: But see, even the Arminian believes He knows it.
10:57: Not that He had to act on it but that He does know it.
10:59: But here's the point.
11:00: If God knows it, it's determined, right? If God knew I was going to fall down the stairs tomorrow and I didn't fall, what does that mean? That means He was wrong.
11:09: That means He doesn't have perfect foreknowledge.
11:12: And guess what that means? He is not God because He didn't know.
11:16: Part of God is being omniscient, right? If He doesn't know, there's a whole, like I said, we can really go a long way with this.
11:23: We can really stretch it out and show the inconsistency of Arminianism.
11:27: But my point is simply to say this.
11:30: If we want to have a proper theology proper, I didn't mean to say it that way.
11:35: If we want to have a correct theology proper, you must have a consistent theology proper.
11:45: You must remain consistent.
11:49: Because God is not the author of what? Confusion.
11:55: And what is inconsistency? It's nothing but confusion.
12:01: God is consistent.
12:02: Yes, sir.
12:16: Yeah.
12:25: Exactly, yeah.
12:26: I mean, once you start saying God doesn't know, and we're going to talk about that in a minute, because we're going to talk about open theism.
12:31: Open theism believes He doesn't know.
12:35: That's a theological system.
12:37: I would say it's heresy because it's unbiblical.
12:41: But it's a whole system.
12:44: God just doesn't know.
12:46: Because that's the only consistent Arminianism.
12:48: The only consistent Arminianism is open theism.
12:51: Because the only way that you can consistently say that there's not a fixed number is to say God doesn't know.
13:00: That's the only way you can stay consistent.
13:02: And as a result, you become an open theist if not by language, calling yourself that, you're an open theist by practice.
13:11: And people say, well, why do we got to go through all this deep stuff? Why don't we just cruise with something? You had two whole weeks.
13:17: Couldn't we have done like something easy? No.
13:20: Got to do something, get our minds really thinking about something.
13:24: Like I said, I think this was an ordained conversation I had yesterday.
13:28: I don't think it was an accident that I was here.
13:31: And so it all worked out.
13:33: So let's go to Isaiah 45.
13:35: We're going to read this passage.
13:36: I quoted this passage yesterday.
13:38: I thought it would be a good one for us to start with today.
13:40: Isaiah 45, 5-7.
13:44: God is speaking.
13:46: He's speaking about Cyrus, whom He had chosen, who was not a believer by the way.
13:52: Cyrus is a pagan.
13:53: God chose him to be a leader, to be over the people.
14:03: And God used him in this particular time in history for His purposes.
14:08: And this is what He says about that.
14:09: He says in verse 5, He says, I am God, or excuse me, I am the Lord.
14:14: And in Hebrew it would say, I am Yahweh.
14:17: I am the proper name for God, Yahweh.
14:20: I am the Lord and there is no other.
14:25: Besides Me, there is no God.
14:30: I equip you, though you do not know Me, that people may know from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides Me.
14:39: I am the Lord and there is no other.
14:43: I form light and create darkness.
14:47: I make well-being and create calamity.
14:50: I am the Lord who does all these things.
14:56: And may God add His blessing to the reading of His Word.
15:01: See, people don't like that passage, especially when they read it in the King James.
15:04: Because in the King James, what does it say? Yeah, it says, I form the light and create the darkness.
15:12: I make good and create evil.
15:15: Now, I do think that that's a place where the King James sort of misses it.
15:23: Because I don't think that the word evil is the proper way to translate what is said here.
15:28: I do think calamity is the better way.
15:31: But it is interesting that that, for those who would claim King James only, and then say, well, God doesn't do anything that we would consider bad.
15:39: Well, He says, I create evil in the King James.
15:43: Interesting.
15:45: Very quickly, though, I do want to make a note.
15:48: Evil isn't something that can be created.
15:52: You have to understand, evil is not a thing.
15:58: Evil is a non-thing.
16:06: Yeah, it's anti-God.
16:07: You're right.
16:07: That's where I'm going.
16:09: Righteousness is God.
16:12: And everything that opposes Him is unrighteousness.
16:16: Righteousness is positive.
16:18: The unrighteousness is negative.
16:19: Righteousness is the thing.
16:21: Unrighteousness is the lack of the thing.
16:24: Understand? So when I say something is evil, I'm saying it's lacking righteousness or goodness.
16:30: So evil itself is not a creation.
16:33: Evil itself is the rejection of something that God has determined is right or good.
16:40: So it's not as if God had to create evil as a thing.
16:44: Evil is the result of Him being good and someone opposing His goodness.
16:49: That's what evil is.
16:51: So evil is not a thing.
16:52: Evil is a non-thing.
16:54: So it's not something that's created.
16:56: And we think about, did God create evil? Well, not in the sense of having to create something because it's not a created thing.
17:03: That was free.
17:04: That wasn't even in my notes.
17:04: You can take that.
17:06: That was no charge for that one.
17:08: But that's an important little side note because I do always point that out when somebody goes to King James.
17:13: I say, well, here it says He creates evil.
17:15: I say, well, evil is not a thing that can be created because it's a non-thing.
17:20: Okay? It's the lack of something.
17:25: Calamity, though, I think in the ESV is more in line with the ESV.
17:28: What does it say in the NAS, Rich? Richard? I call you Rich like we're on that basis where we can go with nicknames.
17:37: Calamity, right? And so it's the same as the ESV.
17:40: And I think, ultimately, when we look at something...
17:51: Yeah.
17:52: Yeah, exactly.
17:54: And that's the thing.
17:55: When we look at the world and we see something good, people will often say, well, look at what God did.
18:01: We see something bad, and they won't say, look at what God did.
18:04: And a lot of people will say, God wasn't a part of that.
18:08: Okay.
18:08: So God didn't have any control over that? No.
18:11: And that's what people are saying.
18:12: That's what a lot of people are saying.
18:14: God doesn't have any control over your cancer.
18:17: God doesn't have any control over your infirmity.
18:22: God doesn't have any control over your sickness.
18:26: I asked the man, I hate to bring up the conversation, but I did ask him.
18:31: I said, are your days, in fact, numbered? Because it says in the Scripture very clearly, Psalm 139, that your days have been fashioned for you, every one of them, even though none, you have none yet.
18:43: In the womb, your days are fashioned before you.
18:46: Like, I know that God knows when I'm going to die.
18:49: And he wouldn't answer that.
18:53: Because he knew it was right.
18:55: But he knew it was destroying the argument he was making.
18:58: And then he started talking about my weight.
19:00: Well, you're heavy, and you made those choices to make yourself heavy, and you eat poorly, and that's your problem, and I'm fit.
19:08: Well, whatever.
19:09: He got a little ugly.
19:10: But the point he was making was, well, you've made these choices, and you're probably going to die earlier because of these bad choices.
19:17: And I said, hey, I'm going to die at the exact moment that God has determined.
19:25: Well, that's true.
19:27: Like I said, the healthy is heavy man you know.
19:30: But no, it was an interesting moment that he would bring that up.
19:33: Well, you've made these free will choices, and thus you've decreased your life span.
19:38: At the end of the day, I haven't decreased anything, because I can walk out there, and the man who wrote the book on jogging died while jogging.
19:47: Just so you know, you can walk in front of a bus, and if that's the day that God has decreed your end, I've said it, and I'll say it again, you are immortal until the day that God has decreed, and you can't live a day past it.
20:03: No amount of kale will get you past that day.
20:06: No juicing or any other.
20:11: Now, all that stuff can help you live healthier.
20:14: And being healthy is an important thing.
20:16: I'm drinking unsweetened tea, just in case anybody's wondering.
20:19: I do want to have a better, healthier life.
20:23: And I do think that that is part of what I would call consequences that God has put in life.
20:29: You know, if you don't want to deal with things like lung cancer, maybe you shouldn't smoke.
20:34: You know, because that's a byproduct.
20:38: That's what I'm saying.
20:38: Yeah, it's a stewardship issue.
20:40: You know, if I go out and waste my money, and then I can't pay my bills, that is an issue of choice, right? That is a will thing.
20:46: But at the same time, we have to understand, is God still not God? Even though He gives me the ability to make choices, and there are choices, and I do make real choices, don't get me wrong.
20:56: And don't ever think that Calvinists think that people don't make choices.
21:00: And I am consistent in this.
21:02: Because I will always say this, if you want to know how I get to make choices, and God still remains in control, go back to Genesis chapter 50.
21:10: And read verse 20.
21:12: Because when Jacob's brothers were facing Him at the end of his life, Jacob's brothers were scared to death because...
21:21: I'm sorry, Joseph, thank you.
21:23: Joseph's brothers were scared to death because they thought He was going to put them to death because what did they do to Him? They sold Him into slavery, right? They were going to kill Him.
21:35: They chose not to kill Him.
21:37: They chose instead to sell Him into slavery.
21:39: He went into slavery.
21:40: Then He ended up being the first at Potiphar's house, right? And then He got put in prison because Potiphar's wife accused Him of attempted rape.
21:49: So He gets put into prison.
21:50: He gets made the head over the prison.
21:53: So then Pharaoh uses Him to interpret and understand His dreams.
21:59: And He becomes second in command only to Pharaoh in all of Egypt, right? At the end of His life, He looks at those men who had sold Him into slavery and He said, What you did for evil, God did for good.
22:14: Same verb, by the way.
22:16: What you meant...
22:17: Actually, it's what the English usually translates as meant.
22:19: What you meant for evil, God meant for good.
22:25: God used your evil intention and your evil action to do a good thing by saving many people alive.
22:34: All things work together for the good of those...
22:36: I asked Him yesterday, How do you interpret that? How can you come to a right understanding of Romans 8.28 that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose? How can you come to a right understanding of that if you believe that God has some things He's not in control of? As I said, as R.C.
22:55: Sproul has said many times, if there's one molecule in the universe that's gone rogue, that He's not in control of, that could be the one molecule that destroys everything else.
23:05: It's the nail in the shoe of the horse that causes the horse to fall.
23:11: It's the one horse in the battle that causes the battle to be lost.
23:14: It's the one battle that causes the battle to be lost.
23:17: It's the one battle that causes the war to be lost.
23:20: And it's the one war that causes the nation to crumble.
23:22: One nail in one shoe in one horse can cause a nation to crumble.
23:29: And you say God is not sovereign? He must be.
23:34: A.W.
23:35: Pink wrote this, The sovereignty of God is an expression that was once generally understood.
23:45: It was a phrase commonly used in religious literature.
23:49: It was a theme frequently expounded in the pulpit.
23:53: It was a truth that brought many hearts brought comfort to many hearts and gave virility and stability to Christian character.
24:01: But today, and this was almost 100 years ago, but today, to make mention of God's sovereignty is in many quarters to speak in an unknown tongue.
24:12: Were we to announce from the average pulpit that the subject of our discourse would be the sovereignty of God, it would sound very much as though we had borrowed a phrase from one of the dead languages.
24:23: Alas, that it should be so.
24:25: Alas, that the doctrine which is the key to history, the interpreter of providence, the warp and wolf of Scripture, and the foundation of Christian theology should be so sadly neglected and misunderstood.
24:39: That was almost 100 years ago.
24:41: Think of where we are today.
24:46: It hasn't gotten better.
24:48: Now I will say this, there has been a resurgence in Reformed theology.
24:56: Praise God.
24:58: There has been a resurgence.
25:00: Men like Al Mohler, who is the head of Southern Seminary where Aaron is going to school.
25:05: Men like R.C.
25:06: Sproul and John MacArthur.
25:08: Men like John Piper, and I could name countless others.
25:11: Voddie Bockham and many others.
25:13: Men like this have produced a renaissance of the Reformation, if you will, by the preaching of the Word of God.
25:22: And thankfully, many pastors are seeing where they have erred and are beginning to go back to the Scripture and see for what it says.
25:32: Some of them don't have the freedom that I do, and I thank God for the freedom that I do to speak so freely.
25:39: I know men who have said, I can't preach that, it will upset half the church.
25:45: And I understand the fear.
25:46: I don't agree necessarily, but I understand the fear of losing a whole constituency of people simply because they don't understand something.
25:56: So they're trying to slowly teach in a way that people can understand it.
26:01: You know, the job of the pastor is often like the job of the mother bird who takes apart the food and gives it to the children so they can eat it.
26:08: You know, distilling it down so that it can be received.
26:14: One of the worst things you can do is just go in and throw it at somebody and just say, take this and eat it.
26:20: I'm not going to try to help you understand it, I'm just going to force feed it to you.
26:23: And there are guys, we call them cage stage Calvinists.
26:27: Have you ever heard that? Never heard that phrase? Cage stage Calvinists.
26:31: Anybody who becomes a Calvinist should be put in a cage for a whole year afterwards because they can't do nothing but argue.
26:38: You just put them in a cage because they're so excited that God has showed them something from Scripture that they have to feel like that everybody has to be converted to this understanding.
26:51: And it's very, very not good.
26:55: And I'll never forget, and my wife loves this story.
26:58: She'll probably be mad at me.
27:00: But it's funny.
27:01: She laughs about it.
27:02: One day, years ago, she calls me on the phone.
27:05: I was riding in the car.
27:07: And she said, honey, I've got everybody in my office on speakerphone.
27:10: Can you please explain predestination? I said, take me off the speakerphone right now.
27:19: And it was so funny.
27:21: I said, no, not this way.
27:24: I said, if people want to have a Bible study, if they want to get together and learn, I'd be happy to.
27:28: I said, but this is not, all this is going to do is start a fight.
27:33: But she was excited.
27:35: And she was talking to them about the Scriptures.
27:37: And that's great.
27:39: But anyhow, God's sovereignty is something that we need to understand.
27:48: It's something that we need to study.
27:50: And the opposite view, I've mentioned this already, but I want to kind of get into it a little bit now, is the subject called open theism.
28:07: Here is the, if you want to know the three basic views on God's sovereignty, I'll put them out.
28:13: We'll say Calvinism, Arminianism, and open theism.
28:23: Now, in regard to the knowledge of God and the knowledge of the future, Calvinism would say God knows the future because he has determined the future.
28:36: Okay? So just be clear.
28:37: I don't know how to write that.
28:40: Calvinism says God knows the future.
28:42: He's determined the future.
28:48: Okay? Open theism says God does not know the future.
28:54: So it's not determined.
29:01: Open theism believes that God is going through time in much the same way we are.
29:07: And though God knows more than we know because God has been around longer than we have, and God has a knowledge and understanding that's much greater than ours, he certainly knows more.
29:18: He doesn't know everything.
29:20: He doesn't know whether you're going to fall down those steps or not.
29:22: He doesn't know whether or not you're going to go get and turn left or right.
29:25: Not.
29:26: And the reason why he doesn't know is according to the open theist, that does not happen until the choice is made.
29:33: And it doesn't happen anywhere until the choice is made.
29:37: And God can't have a knowledge that doesn't exist yet.
29:41: You see the point? Yeah, God is going to react to what we do.
29:47: And basically what they say is you haven't made that choice yet.
29:49: That knowledge isn't there to be had.
29:52: The one thing about open theism, they will say God has all the knowledge that can be had.
29:58: You see? They'll say God has all the knowledge that can be had, but because you haven't made that choice yet, because you haven't been faced with the choice to make yet, you...
30:11: God can't know it because you haven't...
30:14: It hasn't happened yet.
30:15: It doesn't exist.
30:17: You see? And because it doesn't exist yet, God can't know it.
30:20: So that's the open theism.
30:22: The future is not determined.
30:24: In Calvinism, the future is determined.
30:27: Okay? Well, I would say yes, but they...
30:35: What I'm going to say about Arminianism and open theism, both groups believe wholeheartedly, at least for the most part, that they are protecting the character of God.
30:50: They will say that the God of Calvinism is a monster because He can do something and doesn't.
31:00: How many of you ever heard the atheistic argument, God can only be all good or all powerful, but He can't be both? Ever heard that argument? Atheists...
31:12: You may hear this one day.
31:14: If you ever engage an atheist, he'll say, Is God all good? You'll say yes.
31:19: He'll say, Is God all powerful? You'll say yes.
31:21: He'll say, He can't be both.
31:22: Because if He's all powerful and all this bad stuff is going on in the world, and He's not doing anything about it, but He's not all good.
31:29: And if He's all good and all this bad stuff is going on in the world, He's not all powerful.
31:35: You know what I said? How do you determine good and bad without God? So I just turned the table.
31:41: I said, What do you mean good and bad? You have no reference point for good and bad without a transcendent law.
31:50: And you don't have a transcendent law without a transcendent law giver.
31:54: So you can't even have that conversation without God.
31:58: So, that's the answer, in case you're wondering.
32:01: But the reality is, God can be all good and all powerful at the same time because God's goodness is not up to you to determine.
32:11: God can do something that you don't think is good and it still be good because guess what? He don't have to answer to you.
32:19: There's nowhere in Scripture where God says, Hey! Pam! Did I do it right? I mean, I'm just sorry.
32:25: You're just there.
32:26: You know, God doesn't look at you, Ann, and say, Ann, do you approve? No.
32:32: That'd be ridiculous.
32:33: Right? But see, that's the thing.
32:35: When we say, Well, that wasn't good of God to do that.
32:37: Because I've heard people read the Scriptures.
32:39: If you read the Old Testament, God is egomaniacal and maniacal and He's mean and He's hateful.
32:48: Tribalistic.
32:49: He only cares about the Jews.
32:52: I've heard all kinds of stuff.
32:53: You read Dawkins' book about what he thinks about God, and he hates God.
33:00: He doesn't even believe He exists, but he still hates Him.
33:03: He knows He exists.
33:04: That's why he hates Him.
33:06: But the point of all of it, you're right, the point of all of it is God is good and all powerful, but His goodness does not have to meet your standard.
33:16: That's the part that people don't like.
33:19: God might do something I don't approve of.
33:23: He is the standard.
33:24: That's right.
33:24: There's no standard of goodness.
33:25: He is the standard.
33:26: But let me get real quick back to this.
33:28: Calvinism says the reason God knows the future is because the future He has determined.
33:35: Open theism says God doesn't know the future, so it's not determined.
33:40: He doesn't know.
33:43: Arminianism tries to split the difference.
33:47: It says that the future is determined, but not by God.
34:00: It's determined by something else.
34:03: It's determined by choice.
34:07: See, Calvinism says it's determined by God.
34:10: Open theism says it's not determined at all.
34:15: Arminianism says it's determined by choice.
34:18: What do I mean? Well, they basically say this.
34:21: God knows every choice you're going to make.
34:25: And because you've already made those choices in His mind because He can see the future, He's already determined the future, but He hasn't determined it.
34:33: You have.
34:35: God knows what choices you're going to make, so ultimately the future is determined.
34:40: You just don't know it yet.
34:44: Here's the problem.
34:46: You ask the question, can God change it? They'll either say yes or no, and if they say yes, He can change it, then it's not determined.
35:00: And if they say no, He can't change it, then He's not God.
35:09: So who becomes sovereign in this particular instance? In this view, man is sovereign because the future is determined by your choices.
35:21: And guess what? That's very, very much what we tell people, isn't it? That's basically the mantra of the modern school system.
35:28: You're a product of your choices.
35:29: Everything's about your choices.
35:32: And I'm not saying choices don't matter.
35:34: What I am saying is that when that becomes the hallmark of where everything is going, is up to choices and individual choice and free will, and that becomes the foundation, the sovereignty of God gets a back seat because God's just along for the ride, and your choices are the roller coaster.
35:52: That's what causes it to go up and down.
35:57: So I just wanted to kind of share with you these three systems.
36:00: There's also one other one, and I don't want to confuse everybody, but because I'm here, might as well keep going.
36:09: There's one other system out there.
36:11: There's Calvinism, Arminianism, Open Theism.
36:13: There's a fourth one, but it sort of falls...
36:18: It's not Arminianism, so you can't call it Arminianism, but it sort of falls in this group over here.
36:24: It's called, well, it's called Molinism.
36:31: Molinism is from a philosopher named Molina.
36:35: Molina said this.
36:42: He said, God knows every possible way that the world could have been, and he, at the beginning of time, looked at every possible way the world could have been.
37:03: Every choice that you have made, he looked at both ways, or whatever, and he chose the world that would bring him the most amount of people saved and ultimately the most amount of glory.
37:23: And so the belief of the Molinistic system is that we are now in the world that God actuated to bring about the most amount of saved people.
37:36: And there was no other world anywhere, no other possible universe where another world would have had more experience of more saved people.
37:50: We're in the best one.
37:54: Now, if you're confused, do like this.
38:00: Okay.
38:01: Here's the thing about Molinism.
38:04: I've actually heard one of the top proponents of Molinism, William Lane Craig, say that God is dealing with the cards that he's been dealt.
38:17: That the world that we're in is the way that it is because this is the one that brought him the most glory, but the reason why we have all this terrible stuff going on is that God's dealing with the cards he's been dealt.
38:30: If that is the case, who dealt the cards? No, there are a subset of Christianity.
38:45: Oh, yeah, yeah.
38:46: It's a philosophical system, though.
38:49: They're not so concerned with Scripture.
38:52: They're concerned with philosophy.
38:55: And what they say is this guarantees freedom of choice, but actually it doesn't.
39:01: It actually robs the freedom of choice because what it says is all your choices have already been made because God chose the world where you would make this decision and not the other one.
39:11: He saw you would make that decision.
39:13: He thought that was best for you, so he chose this world as opposed to another world, he said.
39:18: So, ultimately, it robs free will.
39:20: It abandons free will.
39:22: See, in Calvinism, we do have something called free moral agency.
39:29: Free moral agency is important to remember.
39:32: Free moral agency simply says this.
39:34: We believe that man always makes choices according to his greatest desire at the time.
39:44: We believe that.
39:45: I believe that men make choices according to their greatest desire at the time.
39:49: So, for instance, if my wife says, Keith, you want to go shopping for shoes? My greatest desire at the time is probably not to go shopping for shoes.
40:07: But, if my desire to please my wife is greater than my desire not to shop for shoes, guess where I'm going? If somebody comes up to you and puts a gun in your belly and he says, Dale, give me your money.
40:24: Now, Dale may be kind of a Clint Eastwood type and he says, I'm not giving you my money.
40:28: And then he shoots you and takes it anyway.
40:30: But you have a choice.
40:32: Now, you may argue that choice has been coerced.
40:35: Yes, it has.
40:37: But you still had a choice.
40:39: Submit or die.
40:40: But it was still a choice, right? And you made a choice.
40:44: And we believe in the validity of the choice.
40:47: Here is where Calvinism differs from these in regard to choice.
40:53: Arminianism says that your choices are not coerced.
40:58: Calvinism says your choices are always coerced because you are born with a sinful nature.
41:03: And you will always be bent towards that which appeals to your flesh.
41:12: And prior to God doing a work, a miraculous work of regeneration on your soul, you will remain bent toward your flesh.
41:27: So that isn't free.
41:29: You're enslaved to your flesh.
41:31: That's why we don't use the word free will.
41:37: Because Jesus said, you're either a slave to sin or you're a slave to righteousness.
41:43: He never said you were free.
41:48: So that's the positions.
41:50: Next week we're going to go a little further.
41:52: We're going to talk a little bit about Daniel and Isaiah 46 and a few other passages.
41:57: Figured to make this a two-parter.
41:59: Unless you guys want to just finish tonight.
42:01: No, we're going to make it a two-parter.
42:03: We've gone for 40 minutes.
42:05: I think we can comfortably close and move to next week.
42:08: Let's pray.
42:09: Thank you Father for the opportunity to study your word.
42:12: I pray that it's been encouraging to your people.
42:15: I pray that we better understand your sovereignty tonight.
42:18: And by next week to even have a better understanding of it, Lord.
42:22: In Jesus' name, Amen.