Sovereignty of God vs Word of Faith

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Here's what I found in the Word of Faith. Now, looking back, let me give you an illustration. If I'm writing an email to someone, maybe someone here in Arizona, but I'm writing it from New York, I'm making a trip to New York, and it's

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January time, cold, and at 7 o 'clock in the evening in New York, something dramatic happens.

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The electrical grid goes down, and electricity isn't working for a number of hours, and in the great temperature challenges of winter in New York, it means the coldness on the outside of the building is now beginning to affect everyone inside all buildings in New York.

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And so I write a little note in an email to someone in Arizona and say, everyone in New York is cold tonight.

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Do you know, there's a context I've given you, and that context is cold in terms of temperature.

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It's not cold in terms of heart condition. For instance, it does not mean that everyone in New York is cold towards outsiders.

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They hate anyone visiting from another state. Everyone in New York is cold. But you can take that phrase, everyone in New York is cold, and make that your belief system.

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Why? John has told us, everyone in New York is cold. I have no reason to doubt him.

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He's there. He's experiencing firsthand the people of New York, and his impression is that everyone in New York is just cold -hearted people.

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No, that's not what I was saying. You've quoted my words, but out of context, they mean something other than what

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I intended them to say. And ladies and gentlemen, that happens all the time in the

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Word of Faith. Verses are taken out of their context, and although words are quoted, they're not quoted with an understanding of the context.

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And here's what I believe truth would allow us to do. If someone has the truth, they should be open to looking at that verse in its context and say, you've quoted

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Paul. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can run the marathon tomorrow, even though I've never trained, right?

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Because I can do all things through Christ who strengthened me. And you know, I'm 400 pounds overweight, but I can run the marathon.

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I can do it all through Christ who strengthens me. No, that's a verse that has a context.

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And the context is Paul has been beaten up in life, and he's had some blessings in life, and he can do both of those and all things through Christ who strengthens him.

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That's the context of the verse. You read it in Philippians chapter 4. The verse is verse 13.

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But look at verse 12. Look at verse 14. Look at before and after. You'll see there's a context, and so it is.

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There's a context for what we read in the promises of God. There's a context, and the big overall arching context is

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God and his sovereignty. Do you cry out for wisdom? Do you cry out for understanding?

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I hope you do. Proverbs says, you and I should. That's the way to wisdom. Do you think?

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Well, no, I'm a Christian. No, you should think. 2 Timothy 2, verse 7,

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Paul wrote to Timothy, think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

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When God gives understanding, it's because God is gracious, and he gave understanding.

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But you know what the means is? The means of us getting understanding? Thinking. I remember being part of a group that thought thinking was substandard.

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It's less than God's best. What God wanted to give you was supernatural revelation. Either an angel coming to you, or a dream, or some special insight.

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But you look at the Bible, and 2 Timothy 2, and it says, Timothy, you need to think.

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Think over. Think through. Think through what I'm saying, and you'll have understanding.

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Buy the truth. Don't sell it, whatever its cost. Hear these opening words of Proverbs 2, my son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding, yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, does that sound like a passive pursuit?

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No, it doesn't. If you seek it, that's wisdom and knowledge like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures, that's a lot of effort.

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Receive and treasure, verse 1. Make your ear attentive and inclining your heart.

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Bend your heart down. Be submissive to God's word. Call out for insight.

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Oh, God, I need your truth. Raise your voice for understanding. I've got to know the truth,

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God. If you seek it like silver, if you search for it as for hidden treasures, then we have the word, then.

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Then you'll understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

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Are you and I prepared for that? The promises of Proverbs 2, 5, and 6 are conditional upon our heeding the requirements set forth in verses 1 through 4.

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Do you want to know God as he really is? All right, let's go to some of the scriptures. Isaiah 46, verse 8,

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God speaking, remember this and stand firm. Recall it to mind, you transgressors.

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Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other. I am God, there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning.

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And from ancient times, things not yet done, saying, 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, I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass.

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I have purposed, and I will do it. Again, ladies and gentlemen, that's the

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God of the Bible. He gets his will done. The God of the

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Bible makes plans and accomplishes every one of them. All the events of time are ordained by God, and that means they have a purpose.

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There are no accidents that take God by surprise. Some people have a very hard time accepting that, but that's what scripture says.

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It's what it teaches very clearly. The opposite of this would be that all the events of time, and many of them, are senseless and purposeless, and nothing could be further from the truth.

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God has a purpose in all things, and for those who love God, he works all things for their good.

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History is his story. R .C. Sproul once said, there's not one maverick molecule in the universe.

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See, the big picture of our Bible is that God makes plans and achieves all of them.

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God and his glory is the purpose of everything.

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At the end of time, God and his attributes will be put on display, all of them, and fully glorified.

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His sovereignty, his mercy, his love, his justice, his holiness, his omniscience, his omnipotence, everything we could name about God, all his attributes are put on display.

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That's where everything's headed, so that God is fully glorified in all that he is.

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That's the purpose of everything. Not living for the glory of God is one of the definitions of sin,

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Romans 3 .23. Sin is transgression of the law, and it is also falling short of the glory of God.

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God is not a buffet line of options. Do you know what I mean by that?

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When you might go to a buffet meal, there's no buffet police standing by, making sure you've put chicken on your plate as well as meat, or cabbage as well as celery.

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Oh, you need to put some beans on there. No, it's a buffet. I actually don't want beans.

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There's no police at the buffet saying, you need to get everything of the buffet on your plate, a little portion of everything.

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There's no police. But some people have the idea that we can pick and choose in terms of the attributes of God.

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I'll take the love of God. I'll take the power of God if it's for my benefit. I don't like that thing called sovereignty.

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I'll give that a pass. I'll give that a miss. You don't have that option. God as he really is, is all that is available to us, and anything else is an idol and therefore idolatry.

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We have no right to form God with stone, with wood, with metal, or with thoughts in our minds.

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We're to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and find out what God has revealed about himself.

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That, ladies and gentlemen, is where this issue of sovereignty occurs. The heavens declare the glory of God.

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Why is the universe so vast? I don't need that star to be out there so many light years away.

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It doesn't affect tides here. It doesn't affect my life. I didn't even know it was there until I saw a program that revealed it on TV.

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It doesn't affect me at all. Why would it even be out there if it isn't for me? Because it's there for God.

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It's to reveal the vastness of his majesty, his creatorship. And God says,

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I'm going to make it so vast that no man will plummet the depths of the universe because that's the kind of God I am.

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The heavens declare, they shout the glory of God. The sky's above his handiwork.

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Why did God create the cosmos? Not for little Johnny here, but for God. And if there's something out there that is not for little

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Johnny here, but is for God, it means all things are for God. And in God's kindness,

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God allows us to live when we don't have the right to live. He's merciful.

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He gives rain to the just and the unjust. We call it common grace.

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CH Spurgeon said this, I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes.

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That every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit as well as the sun in the heavens.

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That the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses.

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The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence.

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The fall of leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche.

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Okay, that's Spurgeon, that's his opinion. But does scripture actually teach this?

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Or is Andrew Womack right? You know, it does teach it, absolutely.

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Here's just a small sampling that shows that God is sovereign over everything.

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Do you know he's sovereign over sin? The greatest sin that ever took place on planet earth was the crucifixion of the

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Son of God. There's nothing more hideous than that. You read Acts chapter 4 and it tells us that all of that was undertaken by the pre -ordained plan of God.

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Man is entirely responsible and God is entirely sovereign.

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Still, I don't know how those two things fit together, but if I'm to believe what the

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Bible teaches, I must embrace both concepts because both appear in the

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Bible. Man's responsible and God is sovereign. Hear this, over seemingly random things.

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Is he sovereign? The lot is cast into the lap, but two -tenths of the decisions are from the

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Lord. No, no, it's every decision. Hear this, the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the

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Lord. Proverbs 16, 33. Someone wins in Vegas and someone loses in Vegas because of God.

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There's no such thing as chance. Chance is not a thing.

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It doesn't have power. It's an expression we use to describe mathematical probabilities.

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There's a one in 50 chance of this. There's a one in 100 chance of this, but let me ask you, what power does chance have?

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If I've got a coin, a quarter, one side is heads, the other is tails, how much power does chance have to make it heads?

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None. Okay, over to you, chance, make it heads.

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Chance can't do it. It can tell you there's a 50 -50 chance of it being heads or tails, but it can't make it heads and it can't make it tails.

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Chance is not a thing. Chance is no thing.

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Chance is nothing. What about human will?

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Yeah, God is sovereign. Hear this scripture. I know you've heard it. Proverbs 21, 1.

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The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the

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Lord and he turns it wherever he will. Who's the he?

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God. The heart of the most powerful person in the land, the king.

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The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord and does your Bible say God will never violate free will and he has to just listen and watch as man chooses and his hands are tied?

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No. He, God, turns it, the heart of the king, wherever he will.

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Ladies and gentlemen, that's your Bible. Proverbs 20, 24.

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A man's steps are from the Lord. How then can man understand his way?

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Proverbs 19, 21. Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the

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Lord that will stand. That's Old Testament.

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Well, sure it is. It's the revelation of God. Do you want new? James 4, 13 -15.

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Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we'll go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit, yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.

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Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.