Episode 115: What Does it Mean that God is Sovereign?

Rural Church Podcast 2.0

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Welcome to the Ruled Church Podcast. This is my beloved son, with whom

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I am well pleased. He is honored, and I get the glory. And by the way, it's even better, because you see that building in Perryville, Arkansas?

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You see that one in Pechote, Mexico? Do you see that one in Tuxla, Guterres, down there in Chiapas? That building has my son's name on it.

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The church is not a democracy. It's a monarchy. Christ is king. You can't be

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Christian without a local church. You can't do anything better than to bend your knee and bow your heart, turn from your sin and repentance, believe on the

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Lord Jesus Christ, and join up with a good Bible -believing church, and spend your life serving

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Jesus in a local, visible congregation. Welcome to the Ruled Church Podcast.

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I'm Allen Nelson, and I am your host, one of the pastors at Providence Baptist Church in Perryville, Arkansas.

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We have been a local church here for almost 30 years.

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Actually, 2026 will be 30 years. The church began as a bit of a split from First Baptist in town.

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It was originally called Second Baptist Church, or Perryville Second Baptist Church.

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That's what it was called when I started pastoring here in 2016.

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By the Lord's mercy and grace, we have undergone reformation as a church and moved in a healthier direction.

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A couple of years ago, we said, You know what? We're not sure that we love the name Second Baptist.

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It kind of advertises, Hey, we're a split, or maybe even has a little bit of a negative connotation.

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We're number two, or whatever. We changed it to Providence, giving

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God the glory for what had happened in our church providentially, and then affirming one of the great doctrines of the

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Christian faith. That actually is going to roll into today's episode, because what we're going to talk about today is what do we mean by the sovereignty of God.

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What do we mean by the sovereignty of God? I would say every

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Christian, every Christian, almost every professing Christian, but certainly every true

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Christian, every true follower of Christ, truly regenerate, justified follower of Christ, affirms the sovereignty of God.

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What do we mean when we say that God is sovereign?

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Do we just mean that he knows everything that is going to happen?

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Do we just mean that he has certainly a measure of control over all creation, but of course we still do things that can maybe change the course of history?

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Or do we mean something else? Do we hold to a doctrine of fatalism that all mankind is just robots?

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So that's what we want to look at in this episode and want to consider what we mean. I read a tweet this morning about this and kind of sparked some thoughts, but it doesn't matter who wrote it, but it's a lady.

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She said, The sovereign God can do whatever he wants, including give you free will.

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Jeremiah 32 -35 was the verse that shook me out of Calvinism. He either allows a certain measure of free will or he's a liar.

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I decided he's not a liar. So Jeremiah 32 -35, let's just read that for a second.

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I guess I could have had that pulled up. Jeremiah 32 -35, this young lady, or I don't know the lady's age, this lady says it shook her out of Calvinism.

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So Jeremiah 32 -35 says, They built the high places of Baal in the valley of the son of Hinnom to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech.

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Though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind that they should do this abomination to cause

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Judah to sin. Right? So let's take this verse and let's consider it for a moment.

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The verse that shook this person out of Calvinism. So when God says that he didn't command them, okay, so no problem there, right?

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He did not command the people of Judah to offer their sons and daughters to Molech.

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No problem there. Probably the issue that she has is, Nor did it enter into my mind that they should do this abomination.

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Well, it's going to be a little bit problematic, no matter anyone's position, if you take this to mean that something could happen that God was not able to foresee,

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God was not able to understand. So if you take this verse and say,

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Well, what it means is that something occurred in history that God had no idea that it was going to occur.

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Or it didn't enter his mind. Well, that's a problem. That, in every definition of sovereignty, falls short.

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God is no longer God, if that's the case. But if that's not the case, then what is being said?

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Well, it's simply this, that oftentimes the scriptures come to us in anthropomorphic language, that is, ascribing human, the way that God responds, ascribing human characteristics, the way that God acts in order for us to comprehend.

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So what the text is saying, not that it literally didn't enter God's mind, not that he didn't know that this was going to happen, what the text is saying is, it's giving us the disposition of God, if you will, towards sin.

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It is helping us as finite creatures to be able to wrap our minds around the great wickedness.

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It would be like me saying, that is unimaginable. That is unimaginable.

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Well, I don't mean that I could not actually imagine such an event that happened.

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A kid at a baseball game hits an unimaginable home run. Well, I mean, that's a bit hyperbolic language to articulate the amazingness of the home run.

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Well, similarly here, if you will, the Lord is using this language so that we can understand the great severity of this, and the text says, abomination.

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So if you're going to take the position that some things actually happen that God has no idea, they literally don't enter his mind, he has no idea that they could happen, well, that's a problem.

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Actually, that leads you to open theism, and that is heresy.

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So the position that I take, and actually I'm going to make an argument in this episode, that the position that all

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Orthodox Christianity must take is this. It is a measure.

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I don't care so much about the philosophical words so much, because I just care about what the scriptures teach us, and I hope to walk us through that a bit in today's episode.

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But the point that I'm going to make here is that all

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Christians, all true believers, hold to some form of determinism.

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That is, the future is determined. Even the thought that you have about that sentence is determined from long ago.

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And this is an Orthodoxy issue, it's not merely a Calvinism issue. So a lot of people, again, the philosophical term is determinism, so a lot of people label

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Calvinists as, well, you're a determinist. It's an emotional appeal, really.

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What they're trying to say is that they're trying to get to that old adage that you just believe everyone is a robot.

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Well, I'm actually saying that any person who holds to the omniscience of God, that is, that God knows all things, must carry the same level.

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And I would prefer maybe the term compatibilist, but even that, I don't really care. I'm not going to die on that hill. I just want to be biblical.

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I just want to be faithful. So let me give you an interaction

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I had with, I believe I met this brother with some SBC stuff. His name's Ronnie Rogers, but this is from back in 2019.

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And in a blog post he wrote, God can know, so I would not hold this position, just to be clear, but he says this,

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God can know what he determined to happen apart from the influence of libertarian free human beings and what comes into being because of the actions and choices of libertarian free beings.

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These are known as contingencies. The only thing that required is that God sovereignly chose to create beings with libertarian free choice.

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So this actually goes back very similar to the tweet I read earlier from the lady.

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And that is that God is so sovereign that he gives up his sovereignty to libertarian choice.

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So there's a bit of sleight of hand there in that quote

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I read, in the word determine. So there are some things that God determined to happen, but there's other things that just come into being because of the actions and choices of libertarian free beings.

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The thing about this, I know this is kind of complicated, hard to wrap our minds around, and maybe you're driving or hopefully you're not operating heavy machinery because this is an episode that we really need to think about.

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So he says that God can know what he determined to happen apart from the influence of libertarian free human beings and what comes into being because of the actions and choices of libertarian free beings.

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And he says those are known as contingencies. The point that he's trying to make is there's some things that God has determined and there's some things that God just allows to happen.

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Actually, I would say that that position is probably the most prominent position in Christian circles today.

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And that is, yeah, there's some things that God is sovereign over, and then there's other things that God is just, he sovereignly allows to happen.

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He's not really in control over, he just foresees that it's going to happen because of the libertarian free choices of men, and he just kind of lets it play out.

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So let's walk through that for a moment. Does God only determine some things and then the libertarian free will of people, men, women, boys, and girls, determines other things?

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Well, that might sound reasonable at first, but consider this for just a moment.

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How do non -existent creatures determine anything?

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So let's just say a person, well, let's give him a name, Roberto. So let's say

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Roberto is going to eat vanilla ice cream on Tuesday, April 3rd, 2025.

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Roberto is going to eat vanilla ice cream on Tuesday, April 3rd, at whatever, 2025, at 3 .07

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p .m. Does God merely know that's going to happen or does he determine that's going to happen?

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If you're in eternity past where no creation exists, only

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God exists, Roberto doesn't exist, vanilla ice cream doesn't exist, a free market economy doesn't exist,

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America doesn't exist. You understand? None of these things exist. And then, how is it that Roberto determines that event?

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You understand? Just think about that for a second. Let that simmer in your brain for just a second.

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How does someone who does not exist determine anything and how do they determine to choose vanilla ice cream over chocolate ice cream unless both vanilla and chocolate are decreed to exist?

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You understand? It sounds nice to our fallen minds to say, well,

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God simply knew what people would choose. How did these people get here? And how did every little circumstance involved in their actions, how did that come to be?

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How did the ability to invent ice cream and the material necessary to invent ice cream, how did all this get here?

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Well, the number one verse, it may surprise you, but the number one verse that affirms the sovereignty of God, in my opinion, in all of Scripture, is

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Genesis 1 .1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

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If you're an Orthodox Christian, meaning if you are a true believer, you're not into open theism, which is heresy, you, at minimum, believe that God created people, mankind, with himself,

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God, having full knowledge of their actions. God determined to create them with their libertarian free will, from Ronnie's perspective, that would then determine what would come into being.

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Okay? So, again, heavy lifting. So, let me just say it this way. God created mankind, even from this perspective, from just the foreknowledge, or the omniscience perspective,

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God created mankind with full, 100 % knowledge of every single thing that they would do.

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And yet he still said, let there be light. But there are people out there, men, like the blog we wrote, like the tweet

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I read, they want to say, well, that's not determinism. Even though, think about this,

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Roberto had no choice in his existence, he had no choice in his parents, he had no choice that he was born in a free market economy, he had no choice that he lived in an era when ice cream was readily available, yet God determined all that.

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Right? God determined all these things, where he would be born, his parents, his time period in history, it's all up to God's determination.

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But that's not all. God's complete omniscience demands that when he said, let there be light, that he knows all the choices of his creatures, and he still decrees their existence, so that means, at a bare minimum, orthodoxy affirms that everything that's going to happen tomorrow is going to happen tomorrow.

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It's going to come to pass with a 0 % chance of it being altered in any way.

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You understand? I hope this makes sense to you. That the future is determined.

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Now, what we need to think about is, is it determined by the will of man, or is it determined by the will of God?

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If God were not omniscient and not omnipotent, you know, he wasn't all -knowing, he wasn't all -powerful, well, maybe one could try and make a case for the creature's ultimate determination of events.

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But then, that's not affirming the sovereignty of God. Friend, if your affirmation of the sovereignty of God means that God hands over libertarian free will to mankind, whereby they determine, well, that's going to get you in a mess.

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Number one, it doesn't affirm the sovereignty of God. Number two, it gets you in a mess.

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And I'm going to explain that. Keep listening. First, let me give you a better way. Biblical way.

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I think our church's confession of faith, the Second Lenten Baptist Confession of Faith, the more commonly, or popularly, maybe, referred to as the 1689, gives us a much better definition, much better clarity on this issue.

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So it says this, paragraph, chapter three, paragraph one, from all eternity, God decreed everything that occurs without reference to anything outside himself.

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All right, so let me break that down for just a second. What the confession is saying is that God did not look down through the corridors of time.

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I'm going to give you some scripture references in just a minute. So hold on. But God did not look down through the corridors of time to just say,

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I see what's going to happen, and so I'm going to allow it. Rather, he decreed everything that occurs without reference to anything outside himself.

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He did this, I'm reading back to the confession, he did this by the perfectly wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably.

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Okay, so why do all things happen? God has decreed that it would be so.

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Yet, reading the confession again, God did this in such a way that he is neither the author of sin, nor has fellowship with any in their sin.

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This decree does not violate the will of the creature or take away the free working or contingency of second causes.

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On the contrary, these are established by God's decree. In this decree,

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God's wisdom is displayed in directing all things, and his power and faithfulness are demonstrated in accomplishing his decree.

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Okay, that's the confession. 1689, chapter 3, paragraph 1.

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Beautifully written. So, here's the reality. I don't care about the philosophical terms,

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I just care about the scripture. It's clear from the scripture that God decrees all that will come to pass without violating the will of the creature or being responsible for sin in any way.

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So, one system, that God gives up his sovereignty to the free will of man system, has

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God determined the future based on meaningless, random choices of his creatures.

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So, he knows they'll choose the vanilla ice cream, he knows they'll do this, he knows they'll murder that person, and he determines to create them with full knowledge of the event and power to prevent the event, but he determines to create them nonetheless.

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The other system, which I would call the Reformed Baptist position or Reformed Theology position, actually, the other system, what

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I'm presenting, is God has determined all things based solely on his own good, wise, and sovereign will.

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Now, why does this matter? Well, it matters very practically because it means any moments of suffering that I experience, any heartache, any trial, they're not random acts that God just saw was going to happen and God could have prevented these things from happening, but he just didn't want to because of his commitment to giving up his sovereignty to the free will of man.

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That's terrible. Instead, these are acts that he sovereignly decreed from eternity without being the author of sin, and in all these events, he has some measure of good in them, even if I don't fully understand it all in this life.

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Alright, what's the Bible say? A surplus of passages that we can consider.

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Probably one of the easiest to get to and simplest to understand, I think, is

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Ephesians 1 .11. So in Ephesians 1 .11, the Bible says, In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.

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Okay? He doesn't just know all things according to the counsel of his will. He works all things.

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He is actively involved in this world today working all things after what?

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The counsel of his will. Not in just looking down the corridors of time and thinking about things, but working all things according to the counsel of his will.

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This isn't difficult to understand. The problem with the absolute and meticulous sovereignty of God, it's not that it's difficult to understand.

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It's very easy to understand. God has decreed all that comes to pass. God is sovereignly working in all the meticulous details of life today.

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That's not difficult to understand. Rather, what happens is it's difficult for mankind in their pride to accept.

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And then we want to bring up all these philosophical exceptions or protestations, protesting.

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Hey, well, if God has determined all things, well, then how is man really responsible? Well, I say,

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Romans 9. Who are you, old man, to answer back to God? God says man's responsible because he is responsible.

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We make real choices. We make meaningful choices. We're not robots.

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The scriptures teach us this. Why can't I wrap my mind around that? Well, that's really not our problem. That's really not

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God's problem. That's our problem, right? Okay, what about Acts 4, 27 and 28?

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The early church is praying, saying to God, For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant

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Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the

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Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

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Again, this is very forthright. Herod, Pilate, the Gentiles, the peoples of Israel, they all share culpability in the crucifixion.

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They chose to kill the Son of God. And yet God, simultaneously, had predestined, not just knew, he did not just know the cross was going to happen.

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He predestined that this would take place. Okay? He didn't just merely know, sovereignly know, by giving over.

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Otherwise, you understand, that would make the cross just this random event. It just so happened.

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Think about Joseph and all that happened with him. It just so happened this worked out. Or with the cross.

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It just so happened this worked out. No, that's not true. It didn't just so happen. God predetermined that this would happen.

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He predetermined even the choices of those involved in the crucifixion while also never violating their desires to crucify

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Christ. Okay? God is sovereign. Man is responsible.

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There's another passage. It's a very, very, very popular passage among all

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Christians that we cite, rightly so. Romans 8, 28.

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And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose.

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Now, here's a question that you need to consider. How is this? How does this happen?

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How do all things work together for good? Is it just, it just so happens that things, chance, luck, things just so happen to work together for good for the church.

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Why would you looky there? Man, that just, you just give it enough time and things just happen to work out.

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Friends, that's, that's not the universe ran and governed by our wonderfully sovereign

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God. God doesn't just know that these things are going to happen, but He is working.

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When it says all things work together for good, the implication there is the sovereign hand of God is the one who stands behind the working.

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These things are working together for good because God is the one governing and guiding these actions.

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It's just the reality. God has, God has not merely foreseen that billions of events on any given day are just going to randomly work out for the good of the church, right?

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Instead, He promises in His word that all things will work together for good because He is the one that is working.

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Think about billions of events in any given moment happening all around the world.

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All these little molecules and someone turning right here instead of left and the rise and fall of the stock market and the billions of stars in the universe.

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All of that, at any given moment, God is working these things toward a grander purpose for His glory and His people's good.

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Okay? So, if you press people hard enough, they would probably say, yeah, yeah, this is

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God's doing. But then, if you try to tease this out, they would still say, well, man has free will.

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Man has free will. Man has free will. Man has free will. Well, by the way, let me say this.

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I affirm that man has free will to an extent.

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So, let me read from the Confession. Chapter 9 of 1689. Paragraph 1.

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God has endowed human will with natural liberty and power to act on choices so that it is neither forced nor inherently bound by nature to do good or evil.

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Humanity, paragraph 2, humanity in the state of innocence had freedom and power to will and to do what was good and well -pleasing to God.

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Yet this condition was unstable so that humanity could fall from it. Paragraph 3.

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Humanity, by falling into a state of sin, has completely lost all ability to choose any spiritual good that accompanies salvation.

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Thus, people in their natural state are absolutely opposed to spiritual good and dead in sin.

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So, if they cannot convert themselves by their own strength or prepare themselves for conversion. Paragraph 4.

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When God converts sinners and transforms them into the state of grace, He frees them from their natural bondage to sin.

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And by His grace alone, enables them to will and to do freely what is spiritually good. Yet, because of their remaining corruption, they do not perfectly nor exhaustively will what is good but also will what is evil.

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Paragraph 5. Only in the state of glory is the will made perfectly and unchangeably free toward good alone.

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So, the point is that men do make choices that are neither forced and they're not inherently bound by nature to do good or evil.

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That's before the fall. But after the fall, we are in a state of sin.

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So, that is what you get to John 6, verse 44.

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No one can come to me. No one has the ability. That's the inability of man to make a choice of spiritual good.

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Why? Because they're... But are they forced to not choose spiritual good?

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No. They don't want to choose spiritual good. Why? Ephesians 2. They're dead in their sins. What they want to do is they want to do spiritual evil, spiritual wickedness.

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It's like, you set before the buzzard the beautiful, well -put -together Caesar's salad or you set before him the rancid, three -day -old dead possum.

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What's he going to choose? He's going to choose the dead possum. Freely, right? You didn't have to force him to not choose the

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Caesar salad. He doesn't want the Caesar salad. And this is the reality of mankind and the biblical teaching when it comes to the doctrine of the will, responsible will, free will, in the sense that we make choices in accordance with our nature.

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So, back to the main discussion. You think about the world that we live in.

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I don't even know how many people in the world. Are we eight billion or something? So, do we live in a world that is full of eight billion little sovereigns and they are randomly determining things that God has decreed that they could determine these things?

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So, we live in a world today where a lot of things are happening and God knew that they were going to happen but they're not really part of His plan.

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He just knew that they were going to happen and they're just random. Or, do we live in a world where our sovereign,

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God, has left nothing to chance? Proverbs 16, 33. The lot is cast into the lap but its every decision is from the

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Lord. So, do we live in that world, like the Bible says, where God has created everything for its purpose?

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Proverbs 16, 4. The Lord has made everything for its purpose? Everything for its purpose. Even the wicked for the day of trouble?

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Even establishing man's steps? Proverbs 16, 9. The heart of man plans his ways but the

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Lord establishes his steps. My point is to show you that all who hold to an orthodox understanding of God's omniscience are actually determinists.

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They do believe that God has determined tomorrow. When God said, let there be light in Genesis 1, 1 some 6 ,000 years ago, what is going to happen tomorrow is already set in stone.

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No matter who, no matter what position you take, no matter what position you take, it's already set in stone.

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But I'm trying to give you, in this podcast episode, the biblical understanding that God has not just merely allowed things to come, but He has ordained them.

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He has decreed them. Paragraph 2 of chapter 3 of the 1689.

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God knows everything that could happen under any given conditions. However, His decree of anything is not based on foreseeing it in the future or foreseeing that it would occur under such conditions.

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He's not just looking down the corridors of time and saying, I'm decreeing based on the sovereign choices of man.

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Rather, this is the way that it is going to be.

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Now, again, if this is new to you, if you listen to this podcast regularly,

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I would doubt that this is new to you, but maybe someone shared this with you or you're just kind of stumbling on this and you're just like, well,

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I just don't know about that. I just don't know if I could serve a

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God like that. But I remember or I remind you of Romans 9.

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In Romans 9 verse 14, Paul says, What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part?

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By no means. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom

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I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.

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For the scripture says to Pharaoh, For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

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So then he has mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens to whomever he wills.

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Now, I know that there are people out there, you can Google this and you can try to find a sermon and they'll say this is talking about nations.

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It has nothing to do with people. Well, first of all, it does have to do with individuals because Pharaoh is an individual.

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He's not just talking about the nation of Egypt. He's talking about a specific person, Pharaoh. But also in verse 19,

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Paul anticipates the questions that I'm asked all the time about this. That is, you will say to me then, why does he still find fault for who can resist his will?

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So, okay, again, why does he still find fault for who can resist his will?

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That's Romans 9 .19. Paul is making the very argument that I'm making in this podcast.

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The sovereign will of God is in complete, meticulous, exhaustive control of the history of mankind, of all things created, of every plan.

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God is in complete control of all of this. You say, okay, but if that's true, if what you're saying is true, why does he still find fault for who can resist his will?

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So Paul says, now here's Paul's answer. And notice that Paul's answer is not some philosophical, long -winded, well, let me explain the doctrine of determinism and compatibilism and we're not fatalist and all that.

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I'm not saying that those conversations are not important. We can have those, and at times they're certainly good.

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But just notice how Paul responds in Romans 9 verse 20. He responds to this question.

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Why does he still find fault for who can resist his will with this answer?

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But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?

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Will what is molded say to its molder, why have you made me like this?

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Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?

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Paul answers not with philosophical pontifications. He answers with an affirmation of the divine sovereignty of God.

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God is God, and he thus being God, he has the right to do with his creation whatsoever he pleases.

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Psalm 115 .3. Our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases.

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Our God, by being God, has the right to do with his creation all that he desires.

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And at the end of the day, as we're walking through these things, and as we're trying to, it hurts our brain just thinking about these things and trying to put all this together and say, why are there famines?

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And why are there stillborn children? And why is there rape? And usually people go to all,

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I bring these up because usually people go to all these emotional things. So I just don't understand how to put all this together in my mind.

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Well, one answer is this. Who are you? Who are you to answer back to God?

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Your little finite, limited, sinful brain, you can't put all this together.

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But we are called in the scriptures to trust a God who can. A God who has decreed all that comes to pass, and yet he is not in any way the author of sin.

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And that men make real meaningful choices, and yet even those choices are under the sovereign hand of a holy and wonderful God.

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And every dust particle, and every molecule, and every raindrop, and every flat tire, all of it has been decreed by God before the foundation of the world.

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And yet he has done this in such a way that again, because this comes up a lot, I repeat, he's not the author of sin.

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How do I know? Because the scriptures say and he justly holds men responsible for the choices they make.

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How do I know? Because the Bible says this. But I can't put all this together in my brain. Okay, that's not

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God's problem, friend. You understand? That's not God's problem.

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That's your problem. But I'm telling you, if we think about God, if we don't think about God in this way, then we have to admit that there's a lot happening in the world today that is just pointless and meaningless.

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The random shooting, or the random explosion, or the random car wreck.

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You have to say, God knew that was going to happen. God could have prevented that from happening.

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He chose not to prevent that from happening. And it's just a random, meaningless event.

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That would be a terrible world to live in. Instead, we live in a world that we could say, not only did

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God know that was going to happen, but even this horrible thing, even this horrible thing, was part of God's decree.

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And I don't have all the answers, but I can tell you this. I know that for those who love God, for those who are believers, that in some beautiful way, and I may not know it in this life, but I will know it eventually, that is, in some beautiful way,

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God is working even this horrible disaster for the good of His church and for the glory of His name.

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And again, we can go to the cross for this. How can God use horrible events for the glory of His name?

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Well, consider. Is there a more horrific event in the history of the world than the crucifixion of the innocent, spotless, righteous

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Lamb of God that mankind would dare put their hands upon God Himself and to nail

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Him to the old rugged cross and to scoff at Him and to shame

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Him and to wag their heads at Him? Is there a worse event in the history of mankind?

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Well, there's not a more horrendous act of man than man crucifying the

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Son of God. And yet, guess what? God used the worst event in the history of the world to bring about the redemption of the church.

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Why do I use that illustration? If God is able to decree such an event and to bring about good from such an event, then we can be confident that in all events,

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God has not only decreed, but is able to bring about good.

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For more resources on this, again,

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I would encourage you, study the 1689 Second Lenten Baptist Confession of Faith. Reach out or get the copy from Founders from James Renahan on his commentary on the 1689.

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It's good. I think about looking at a book across my library right now as I'm recording this.

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And the book is called What About Evil? What About Evil? I'm not sure the publisher.

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Let me see if I can pull it up for you. Yeah, What About Evil? The full title here.

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What About Evil? A Defense of God's Sovereign Glory from M. Scott Christensen.

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So that's something I would recommend to check out. The foreword by D .A. Carson. What About Evil? A Defense of God's Sovereign Glory Scott Christensen.

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And then, just a faithful, systematic theology. Louis Burkoff, maybe, is good to consult.

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But it's right for us to consider these things. And it's right for us to have a healthy view of God.

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We're not going to have a healthy church if we don't have a healthy view of God. So it's important that we understand these truths.

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As always, if you've got questions, you can reach out to me. The best way is my email. CuatroNelson at gmail .com

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C -U -A -T -R -O -N -E -L -S -O -N at gmail .com I hope that this episode has been edifying to you.

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And hopefully I explained myself well and didn't confuse you. And hopefully nobody hurt themselves while operating heavy machinery.

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If you have ideas for an upcoming episode or a discussion that I should have, I would love for you to reach out.

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You can also learn more about our church at ProvidenceBaptistAR .com ProvidenceBaptistAR .com

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Really appreciate you guys tuning in this week. And we'll catch you next week on the Rule Church Podcast.

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If you really believe the church is the building, the church is the house, the church is what

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God's doing. This is His work. If we really believe what Ephesians says, we are the poemos, the masterpiece of God.