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When it comes to trials, temptations, difficulties in life, how do you respond? Where do you go to? How do you handle them? There was a song written in 1974 entitled, Whatever Gets You Through the Night.
How do you get through those dark, gloomy nights when there are trials and issues swirling around? By the way, that song was written by John Lennon, and it was number one on the Billboard 100, his only solo number one single in the United States while he was alive.
And I found it fascinating that he got the inspiration to write that song that he had Elton John sing with him and play piano. He was watching a prosperity preacher on television late at night, and he always kept a little notebook with him.
And that prosperity preacher named Reverend Ike said, Let me tell you guys, it doesn't matter. It's whatever gets you through the night. And that was the inspiration for Lennon's song. What gets you through the night when things are difficult, trials and troubles everywhere?
When you get those tests back from the doctor or your child is in an accident, what gets you through the night? Lennon said, Whatever gets you through the night, it's all right, it's all right. It's your money or your life.
It's all right. It's all right. Friends, if I'm going through a trial, I need something more than that dumb song. Don't you? What comes flooding to your mind when you need strength that you don't have?
You realize I'm in a trial, it's bigger than I can handle, and I need help. Aren't you just drawn back, and I know you are as a church, drawn back to the character and the nature and the attributes of God, specifically God's sovereignty, right?
Isn't it good to know that God is sovereign over everything? God is in control. Are there maverick molecules in the universe? As you know, for several months, we've been in the book of Hebrews. And Hebrews 2 has been very helpful to me, in particular, knowing that God is sovereign.
He's so sovereign. He's extremely sovereign. He's sovereignly sovereign. If I wasn't sure about God's compassion, His tenderness and His love, I might think it was a fatalism that God was so sovereign, He was distant, He was fatalistically kind of a Muslim view of God.
But because of the incarnation, because Jesus Christ is a human, right? He's the God-man, it makes the sovereignty of God more personal. It makes the sovereignty of God more warm, more sympathetic. It is true when Hebrews writes, therefore, He had to be made like His brothers in every respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
For because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted. So because of the incarnation, God is not this God who is so sovereign that He's not close, but He's a sovereign God who cares for His people.
This morning, we're going to look at the sovereignty of God. But the whole time you think of the sovereignty of God, I want you to think of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. You say, why are you preaching on the sovereignty of God?
Well, there's lots of reasons. One is, it's one of my favorite doctrines. Remember what R .C. Sproul said? The sovereignty of God is God's favorite doctrine. And if you were God, it would be your favorite doctrine too.
The sovereign rule of God. Westminster Shorter Catechism states it this way as defining the sovereignty of God. His eternal purpose, according to the counsel of His will, whereby for His own glory, He hath foreordained whatever comes to pass.
The sovereignty of God means God is in charge of everything. He rules. Even the word sovereign, He reigns. Isaiah 46 .10, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. The sovereignty of God means God is in fact God by name and God in actions.
And He, according to Ephesians 1 .11, works all things after the counsel of His will. All things. God is the supreme ruler. He's the ultimate authority. And whatever happens, it is because of His divine purpose has caused it to happen.
Whatever God wills to do, He does. Even the vocabulary of sovereign rule bellows forth, God is in charge. When you hear these words, Lord, Lord of hosts, most high, King, Almighty, throne, appointed, established, reign, dominion, rule, decree, command, predestine, foreordain, and control, you cannot say God is sovereign, but...
Well, you could say it, but you would be wrong. God is sovereign. God's sovereign rule is all or nothing. Can you imagine what it would be like if God wasn't sovereign? Then what do you do? The world spiraling, uncontrolled, no order, no guidance.
Turn to Daniel chapter 4, please. Arguably the best verse to summarize God's ultimate rule. And it's from a king himself. King's king and Lord's Lord. And a king now is describing the Lord of lords and the king of kings.
If I were to do flashcards with you, and on three double-sided cards, and the front of every card said, Lord, our throne, our established, the backside of the card would say, sovereignty, the godness of God.
Daniel chapter 4, verse 34 and 35. But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever.
For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth.
And no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, what have you done, the sovereign hand of God? What have you done? How could you do that? No one could say that because God is sovereign. The positive aspect of God's sovereignty is that He rules over everything.
The flip side of that is that His counsel and His plans could never be frustrated. Turn to the book of Isaiah, please, Isaiah 14. We're going to go to one main passage a little bit later, but just looking up a few different verses as we're setting the table, talking about the sovereignty of God.
It is in fact the doctrine that will get you through the night. Isaiah chapter 14 gives the flip side of the truth that God plans and God works out things without being frustrated. I don't know about you, but I've had plans in my life that have taken detours and I have to change my plans because I can't control things or certain situations have come up.
But that never happens with God and Isaiah 14 verses 26 and 27 echo that. This is the plan devised against the whole earth and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations. For the Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies has planned and who can frustrate it?
And as for His stretched out hand, who can turn it back? That means, beloved, that there are no plan B's for God or plan C's or plan D's. That means there are no if-then's in the mind of God. There are no what-ifs.
There are no flow charts with God, charting out human history with all kinds of lines and arrows pointing in crazy different directions. God doesn't make a plan and then has to use an eraser to use things that when I was growing up, we loved the invention when we were kids of whiteout.
Remember when whiteout was a big thing? I don't even think kids know what whiteout is anymore. Nothing can happen in the mind of God or in the world that makes Him change His plan. Oh, I didn't know that would come up.
If God were a chess player strategizing against human history, He would never hear check or checkmate. When you take a trip and I remember taking trips when I was younger and Kim and I had little kids, it didn't matter if we packed for one day or a thousand days because the station wagon with the paneling on the back was just as packed.
You've got to bring all the different things and then you forget something. Imagine if you travel on the sea or venture off to the moon or you're off to Mount Everest. You have to have contingency plans.
Things might come up, unexpected issues and emergencies come up. Not with God. Not with the sovereignty of God. That never happens. Did you know God's plan for the universe and for you can never even get better?
Because God is sovereign. God's plan can't even get better because it's already the wisest it could be and it stems from the perfect God who has the perfect mind. You plan a vacation, something comes up, you've got to change it.
As fast as the winds are prone to change velocity and directions, so too are man's plans prone to be altered, modified, changed or cancelled. But the sovereignty of God means His plan is singular, immutable and faithful.
Lots of times I work through issues in my mind and I have something that you also do. We call it a decision-making process. God has no decision-making process. There's no process of, well, what about this?
How to sort that out? What would happen here or there? God is sovereign. Turn to Ephesians 1, please. As we continue to lay the foundation and definition that God is the ruler and God reigns over everything, nothing can escape His sovereign reign.
What gets you through the night? Ephesians chapter 1. I remember once back in the day Luke was born and I thought it was going to be like every other day. Off to the NICU, as I've told the story before, and what do you think of?
Well, you think of the health of your boy, you think of your wife and you think, you know what? What gets me through the night? What do I fall back on? What do I lean upon? What do I kind of fall against for a crutch?
And it has to be the sovereign compassion of God. It has to be. What am I going to do? I hope the percentages work out in His favor. I hope luck works. Knock on wood. Is this wood? You know, the least you could do after 20 years is to give me a pulpit that's not made out of particle board.
Now, come on. Happenstance? We're hoping all our cards are in on fate and fortune and chance and luck and serendipity? Ephesians 1 .11. Also, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose, who works all things after the counsel of His will.
That is a verse there that screams the sovereign control of God. And I know you believe this. Go to chapter 3 of Ephesians. Paul echoes that truth. Paul never got over the sovereignty of God. It was the sovereignty of God that intercepted Paul when he was off to persecute people on the Damascus Road.
And God sovereignly interrupted Paul and gave him new life and made him born again. Paul would never forget that. Paul would never forget that God used Paul's background, even in Judaism, to make sure he understood that gospel was not tainted with law.
Ephesians 3 .11, this was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord. The sovereignty of God means that God is free to do what He wants, when He wants, as often as He wants.
Isaiah 46 says,. Thus declaring the end from the beginning, my purpose will be established. I will accomplish all my good pleasure. And I have to say that when God does what He wants as often as He wants, I have to include even if that's not what we want.
Because God's mind is greater and He has purposed things that we could never understand and maybe won't understand until heaven. Now, just imagine human kings for a little bit. Who would influence human kings?
Well, I would imagine the mother of the king might have a personal agenda and influence a king. Maybe military leaders would be sought out for opinions, and they might influence the king. But did you know God's sovereign hand, God's sovereign mind and control is free from all external influences, opinions, and polling numbers?
Every external compeller God is free from, He's liberated from. The only thing that makes Him act is Himself and His own will, His own free will. Have you ever thought of this? God experiences no peer pressure because He has no peers.
It only makes sense that God's decree is eternal and uninfluenced because before there was a beginning, before there was Genesis 1 -1, who would give Him advice? There was nobody there except the triune God.
God decreed the universe and all history in eternity past as He alone saw fit. Our confession of faith, the 1689 London Baptist Confession simply states that God is not bound by external influence, quote.
From all eternity, God decreed all that should happen in time, and this He did freely and unalterably, consulting only His own wise and holy will. Now, I begin to listen to my own sermon, and I think, God is not like me.
God is different, God is other. And yet, as I'm thinking about the incarnation, I'm thankful for the incarnation, because what if God were just so sovereign, so utterly in control, which He is, but He wasn't close?
He was only transcendent, but He wasn't eminent close. Isaiah 40, who has directed the spirit of the Lord, or who has, as His counselor, informed Him? With whom did He consult, and who gave Him understanding?
Who taught God in the path of justice, and taught Him knowledge, and informed Him of the way of understanding? God does what He wants without external compulsion. Maybe one of my favorite set of verses in Psalm 135, I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods.
Whatever the Lord pleases, He does. In the heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all the deep, He controls it all. Job 23, 13, He is unique, and who can turn Him? And what His soul desires, what God's soul desires, that He does.
Psalm 115, verse 3, our God is in the heavens, and He does what? Whatever He pleases. Now, sometimes we all say to people, man, that's mind blowing. That is mind blowing. God does whatever He wants, as often as He wants.
I remember early on in my Christianity, I know some of you might not have been legalist and fundamentalist when you first were saved, but I think I was. If ever I heard anybody say the word awesome, I'd have to kind of correct them.
You know, awesome's only a word used for God. I also used to correct people too if they said luck, but I think that's worth it still. We still must do that. This is awesome when you think about the sovereignty of God.
He's sovereign over you, every molecule in your body. He's sovereign when you're born, when you're going to die, how many kids you will or won't have, who were your parents. He's sovereign over everything.
Who else is sovereign and does what He pleases as often as He pleases? God does not do anything that does not please Him. Thankfully, He's loving, thankfully, He's powerful, and thankfully, He's wise because a sovereignty without kindness, a sovereignty wouldn't be sovereignty without power.
What if He was sovereign but not wise? Theologian James P. Boyce said, the decrees of God may be defined as that just wise and holy purpose are planned by which eternally and within Himself, He determines all things whatsoever that come to pass.
You say, God looks down the quarters of time, He knows what's going to happen in the future. Friends, that's true, but that's not the only truth. He knows what's going to happen because He's planned what's going to happen.
He will bring it to completion through wise and perfect means. Isaiah 40, do you not know, have you not heard the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, does not become weary or tired?
His understanding is inscrutable. Romans 11, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways. God, the master architect, has a blueprint that's faultless, and no one can stop Him.
Nothing can stop Him. I make plans, sometimes they work out well, many times they're frustrated. Many times I don't have the capacity to finish the job. I have to do things in an incomplete manner. But you know, God is not like men.
God doesn't experiment, Hendrickson said, He carries out His plan. Job 42, I know you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. So I'd like you to take your Bible and turn to Romans chapter 8.
What gets you through the night? I think this passage, and you know which one I'm going to talk about, is going to be a nice, soft pillow to lay your head down when trials come knocking at your door. Years ago, Rabbi Kushner wrote, God wants the righteous to live peaceful, happy lives, but sometimes even He can't bring that about.
It is too difficult even for God. I think you'll see in Romans chapter 8 that's not true. Psalm 33 says, The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations. He frustrates the plans of the people. The counsel of the Lord stands forever.
And as we study Romans 8 and look at it again, you'll say to yourself, yes, in fact, God's sovereign, but it's a sovereign love where He cares for us. And I think the Incarnation brings that into clear focus.
You're going to see in Romans chapter 8 that things that happen in this world, small or large, important or trivial, temporal or eternal, God is in control of everything. It is a comprehensive sovereignty.
God is not going to be surprised by things. God does not have to, here's my computer engineering kind of programming friends, He doesn't have RAM, random access memory. His mind's finite. The universe has been pre-programmed, as Kurt Daniel said, and God's sovereign over everything.
Someone once said there's only two things in life that are certain. What are those two things? Death and taxes. I guess both of those are certain. But when you read this, there'll be something else that's certain.
Death, taxes, and the sovereign hand of God. God's sovereign for the weary head, for the person going through trials. It's good to go back to Romans 8 .28. Paul has been talking about justification by faith alone and how we have no righteousness, but God gives us the righteousness of Christ.
Jesus lived the perfect life, died on the cross to save us from our sins, was raised from the dead. And it says now in chapter 8, as of course it leads with, there's no condemnation for those in Christ.
And it talks about the work of the Spirit in the life of the believer. It says in verse 18, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us.
Verse 26, likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
And now we come to the pillow. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. The New American Standard translates it this way, and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to His purpose.
This is the sovereignty of God, where God can take everything that happens in the world, good things, bad things, sinful things, righteous things, and He causes them to work for our good. And what does this imply?
God is at work in our lives. He's not a distant God far away. He's at work. Now, we might not know how to pray, verses 26 and 27, but we do know that God's sovereign. Did you see that? Well, we don't know how to pray, the Spirit's got to help us, but we know.
This isn't conjecture, this shouldn't be wavering or doubt. This is the sovereignty of God. God causes, God works in time on our account, and He causes all things, do you notice? All things work together for good.
And that even includes, can you imagine? Satan. Remember Genesis chapter 50, verse 20, as for you, you meant evil against me, Joseph said to his brothers, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.
Those sinful brothers, God used. I was thinking of Job, rather, with Satan, where Job is attacked by Satan for the purposes and glory of God. Now, those words there, work together in your English translation, is where we get the word synergy.
And it refers to medicine. When Kim and I and the family went down to Sagamore Hill a couple weeks ago to Teddy Roosevelt's house off of Oyster Bay on Long Island, and have you been, how many people have been there?
I should be a tour guide, because it is really wonderful. They had some stuff from when he was going down the Nile River, and they had like the medicine chest from 1908 or something, when he went down there, and all the different medicines, you know, like a little first aid kit that we would have?
You know, we would have gauze and bandage and erythromycin or something like that. It was just a bunch of powders. And you can imagine, the doctor would take those different powders and they would mix them together to give you the medicine.
That's exactly what this means. Here's what Thomas Watson said. Several poisonous ingredients put together, being tempered by the skill of the apothecary, make a sovereign medicine and work together for the good of the patient.
God sovereignly in his providence, putting together all these different things that might be bad in and of themselves, might be dangerous, might be sinful, might be something else, and he puts them together in such a way that it's for our temporal and eternal benefit.
And it's all things, do you see the text? All things, comprehensive plan, not one detail excluded. Paul, but you are an armchair theologian. You talk a big game, but you've never suffered. Paul wrote two years before Romans was written, five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep.
I've been on frequent journeys and dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren, danger, danger, danger.
And you know what you want me to say, but I'm not going to say it. God causes all these things to work together for good. He causes good things like His promises, His Word, His attributes, prayers, saints, angels, He puts them all together for good.
But even the all things is included bad things, affliction, sickness, disease, trial, temptation, sin, Satan, and the world. What would we do if it was just by chance this is happening to us? Not on the direction of God.
We can't understand always why, but we know who is in charge. God overrides all these things and it should cause every one of us. It should cause you to say, you know, I can be thankful, I can trust in Him, I can be dependent on Him.
I know He loves me. I've got problems in my life, problems with my job, problems at home, problems with issues in the church, whatever it is. God is sovereign over all these things. Samuel Rutherford was a writer and he knew what it was like to suffer and he said this, let not the Lord's dealing seem harsh, rough, or unfatherly because it is unpleasant.
When the Lord's blessed wind blows across your desires, it is best in humility to strike sail to Him and be willing to be led any way our Lord pleaseth. You know not what the Lord is working out of this, but you shall know it hereafter.
Good advice. Now what are some of these things that are in all things? Well, if you just keep reading, I think you'll find them. Go down to verse 31. Well, let me first read verses 29 and 30. I want to preach on them for a while, but I want to get to verse 31 first.
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, and in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestined, verse 30, He also called, and those whom He called, He also justified, and those whom He justified, He also glorified.
What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? But when I look at verse 28, and God's working all things together for good, He's causing this to happen. What are some of those all things?
And I find those all things down in verse 35. There are real hardships. There are real trials. There's real difficulties in life. But Paul says they don't ultimately hurt. They're ultimately part of the sovereign hand of God that works together for good.
He works all things like these things. When he says in verse 35 of Romans 8, what shall separate us from the love of Christ? Now, none of these things can separate us from the love of Christ, because God is working all these things together for our good.
You say, well, I sure have a hard time seeing that in my life. Well, for every one of us, myself included, we are men and women who must what? Walk by faith and not by sight. If God said this is true, we must submit to that truth and believe it.
You would think every one of these things would hurt us eternally, at least. Hurt us on the earth, but God says He's working all things together for our good and for His glory. He uses tribulation. God causes even tribulation.
Do you see it in verse 35, shall tribulation? What's that word mean? It means to be squeezed. It means to have external trials that are pushing you. Situations that are overwhelming, external forces you cannot control, and it's like a vice grip.
I hate to tell you, as a kid in Nebraska, we would put our finger in our dad's vice, and we could see who could crank it the most without saying uncle. But you had to keep your buddy or your brother away from arm's reach, because he might try to finish the job so you would win.
Who can hit the softest? You're just being squeezed with all these issues from the outside. And sovereignty means, Romans 8 .28 means, God is using that. He can't separate you from the love of God, because God is using it.
Suffering is included in that. Tribulation, health, family, job. That's all this word, tough times. What else is God causing to work together for good? Distress, that's the second one. Shall tribulation or distress?
Now, distress is different than tribulation. Tribulation is from the outside. This is a little more internal. This is, yes, you're being hemmed in. You're being forced to a situation where early on with the trial, maybe you had four different doors to go through, and now there's no doors to go through.
A narrow place, a hemmed in place. That's where we get the word, from narrow and space. It's a tight situation. There's no way out. It's like, the only decision I can make is the best of the worst choices.
That's what this word is. I don't really see there's a way out. I have no escape. What about persecution? Does God use persecution? Sovereignly, well, we know the answer to that. When you're persecuted for righteousness sake, He even uses that.
Did not Jesus say, if they persecuted me, they'll also persecute you? Look at all these things that Paul says. They won't separate me from the love of God. And the reason is, because back in verse 28, He's causing all these things to work together for good.
How? I don't know, but I walk by faith and assume that's true. Famine? Whether atomic bombs wreak havoc on crops and cattle, there's no food, there's no rain, God's sovereign. Nakedness? You can just imagine some of the disciples of Jesus, over the years, stripped by their enemies.
They're in poverty, they're hiding like beasts in caves. Vulnerable, unprotected, that's the word here. Hebrews 11 says, Men of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.
You're so afflicted, you can't even afford clothes. Or peril, exposed to treachery. Sword, the symbol of capital punishment, the assassin's dagger. Paul knew what he was talking about. He, even on the last moments of his life, would have the recognition that, yes, beheaded for the sake of Christ.
That's not going to separate me from the love of God, because God's causing it to work together for good. He's not saying they're not true. He's not saying they don't hurt. He's not saying you won't be afflicted.
He's saying you won't be separated by the love of God, because God is working these things together like a master pharmacist. That's why in verse 31, I started to read it, and then quickly went down to verse 35, because I wanted to make sure we ask these questions when it comes to the sovereignty of God and the love of God found in Christ Jesus.
No wonder this is Calvin's life verse 31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? If God is for us, who can be against us? And deep down, don't we all know, we've all sinned enough that God should be against us.
But Jesus has paid for those sins, and now God is for us. And if God is for us and He gives us the greatest gift, salvation in Christ Jesus, isn't He going to take care of every other area of your life?
If God is for us, who can be against us? God, to what extent are you for us? Notice verse 32, He did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. That's the extent to what God is for us. He gives His best, His Son, His beloved Son.
How will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Like taking trials in your life and issues in your life and all the circumstances of difficulties and being hemmed in and trials, won't He work those together for good for you?
He doesn't withhold His Son. He's not going to withhold anything else. And it was all planned by God. Delivered Him up for us all. Who delivered Jesus? Judas? Herod? The soldiers? Here, the Father does it because He loves the Son and He loves the children.
And because of that, no matter what trial comes up, who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? God's putting all these things together, working them for good.
There's going to be no condemnation. Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who is indeed interceding for us. And it has often been said, can you imagine if you would be in your worst trial that you could think of, and in the room next to you, if you could hear Jesus praying for you, would it be okay?
Could you get through the night and hear the text says, interceding for us? God is sovereign. He is the Lord. He sovereignly decrees everything. But we see it through the Incarnation where He's close to us, closer than a brother.
Do you believe God's sovereign? Sometimes we fall. Sometimes we fail. Sometimes it might be hard to believe, but a good reminder in the Word of God that God is sovereign and there's no one like Him. It's good for all of us.
Let's pray. I thank you, Father, for today. Good reminder of the sovereignty of God. And we just would ask that you would help us live in light of these truths, that you are in fact sovereign and you work all these things out.
In Jesus' name, Amen.