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What do all these words have in common? Fascinated, flabbergasted, amazed, marveled, jolted, stupefied, stunned, and shocked.
What's the common denominator with all those words, besides being past tense verbs ending in "-ed"?
They're all words of response. They're words of reaction.
The algebraic equation for the Christian faith is simple but profound. Revelation demands response.
The Grand Canyon forces her onlookers to gape and to stare. I'm positive that the amount of human drool dropped over the rim of the
Grand Canyon, if collected, could fill thousands of 55 -gallon drums.
It's a good thought, isn't it? The sight of grandeur and largeness beckons everything out of the person except for a large yawn.
Why? Because revelation of God's creation forces a response. When the mist of the water in the
Niagara Falls is gushing down, and it soaks your face, and it's rumbling in your ears, everyone, from a child to a senior citizen, they respond as they absorb what's going on.
Every time a person is in the labor and delivery room watching a baby's birth, uncontrollable tears stream down the face of every family member.
Why? Because the revelation of God, even in the birth of a child, demands a response.
When a bride slowly promenades down the aisle, arm -locked on her father's trembling arm, people are internally compelled, aren't they?
To stand up, turn around, and then look at her and say things like, isn't she stunning?
The revelation of God in nature obligates a response. And similarly, and even to a greater degree, the word of God prods and pokes the awe out of people.
The word forces, the Scripture's cause. To use the Heidelberg Catechism, when there's grace displayed because of there's a lot of guilt that needs to be covered, there's only one response, and that is gratitude.
And one of the doctrines that will prod the praise out of you is the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, the providence of God.
Let's turn our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 1 and be reminded of this truth. I want you to say to yourself, as Paul did at the end of Romans 11, as he considered the sovereign providence of God, he responded with an interjection,
O -H, exclamation point. Wow. Oh, this is unbelievable, and that's exactly what should happen for us when we consider the sovereignty of God.
I love to study the sovereignty of God for theological reasons, but also practical reasons.
What's the first thing that went through your mind yesterday when you saw that the Supreme Court Justice Scalia was dead?
Oh, no, some people said. The carnal ones said that. If that's our first response,
I want the second response to be, but God the Son upholds all things.
You think, well, Mike, why are you trying to hammer this message in from every
Sunday? You just talk about the same thing over and over and over.
Because as we learned in Sunday school, this doctrine isn't just esoteric. It's not just some kind of hypothesis, not just a theory, but this changes the way you live.
I don't know about you, but when things are tough, I'd like to be more patient. Yeah? Would you like to be more patient in adversity?
When things are going really well and you're prosperous, wouldn't you like to be more thankful? I know
I would. Heidelberg Catechism, question 28. What does it benefit us to know that God has created all things and still upholds them by his providence?
What's the benefit? A, we can be patient in adversity. B, thankful in prosperity.
C, and with a view to the future, we can have firm confidence in our faithful God and Father that no creature shall separate us from his love.
D, for all creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will, they cannot so much as move.
Friends, I need the mooring of the sovereignty of God and his providence so that I could be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and have a real trust in who
God is. Hebrews 1, verse 1. Long ago at many times and in many ways,
God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his
Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
He, the Son, is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.
And he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
We're focusing this week, last week, and the week before, and maybe next week as well, until I have the
Spirit move me to move out of this, till a still small voice tells me to move. Jesus upholds all things.
And remember that word there in verse 3, he upholds, but then he drives to a conclusion.
The world is going someplace. Though history is not circular, it is linear. And he upholds and he does it with his sovereign love because it's with a view to purification of sins as he has paid for our sins.
And then the final consummation, final glory, final heaven. Everything's going the way it's supposed to be going and it upholds all things.
But pretty soon when we grasp that truth, all things means all things, what about the will?
What about prayer? What about evangelism? Do they matter? There's some drastic and dramatic ramifications when you say to yourself,
God does really uphold all things. So today I want to try to give you some helpers.
If you struggle with the sovereignty of God and you're like, yeah, I know it's true, but I'm just having a hard time because maybe
I've been taught a different way. Maybe my pride's getting in the way. I want to give you some helpers so you can embrace this truth with more firmness.
So you can just grab a hold of it and say, do you know what? I want to believe this and I want to submit to it.
I want to give you some helpers. And so if you want an outline today, I'm just going to give you some helpers to embrace the doctrine of the sovereignty of God.
If you want me to put it in a propositional form, let me give you several helpers to embrace the doctrine of the sovereignty of God so that you can be patient in adversity and have thankfulness in prosperity and say, you know, nothing will ever separate me from the love of God.
All right? Helpers. When I was thinking about helpers, I was thinking about Hamburger Helper. And I don't know if you know this, but it was sold under the
Betty Crocker brand and it was primarily boxed pasta bundled with some powdered seasoning.
And first introduced, I found this out in 1971. And the
Food Network listed Hamburger Helper as number three in its list of the top five food fads in the 1970s.
Usually we have a little thing on Valentine's Day where I do the cooking, so I need all the help I could get. No. In 2013, the company rebranded to just Helper.
Helper, H -E -L -P -E -R, to deemphasize the meat specific naming. Why? Because there's
Tuna Helper, Fruit Helper was introduced in 1973. I don't know what kind of powder you put on that.
Chicken Helper, Asian Helper, Whole Grain Helper, Pork Helper.
Yum. And the idea was you got some meat and you don't know what else to do and you just need some help preparing this meal.
And so let me give you a few ways to just help you kind of get over the hump of, this is hard.
And if you already embrace this doctrine, then maybe you can rehearse these ideas in your mind so that you can be reminded yourself and then you could also help other people as they will inevitably struggle with this doctrine.
I don't know what other option we have. I guess it could be like Clark Pinnock. We detect in this story, not some dark predestinarian decree operating behind the scenes, making sure everything works out right.
What we do encounter, Pinnock says, is the freedom of God to respond positively and negatively to man's freedom.
God weaves into His plan for history, the significant choices that we make. History is not a computer printout of program decisions set long ago before an all determining deity.
It is more like a dialogue between the Father and His human respondents. That doesn't help me.
That doesn't help me when the Supreme Court Justice dies, then what? Our Bruce Reichenbach's comment, though God knows all truths, including truths about what free persons choose,
He does not know what free persons would choose were conditions different from what they are or about the choice which would be made possible but never existing.
That doesn't help me. But what does help me and helps me be patient in adversity and thankful in prosperity is that God upholds all things.
But it's difficult. So let me give you helper number one.
Helper number one so that you can digest this truth. And many of the things I found here were brought to my attention by Kurt Daniel's wonderful work.
Number one, start and end with the Bible. How do I submit to the doctrine of God's sovereignty?
How do I embrace it? How do I believe it? Start and end with the Bible. Yes, but pastor,
I feel this. We can't start with feelings. Yes, but my opinion is, now what does the
Bible say? It's like James Montgomery Boyce when he was training Bible fellowship groups,
Bible study fellowship, and they were going through Romans and he taught the leaders and said, when people begin to have all these questions about all these issues, when it comes to the sovereignty of God, you tell them to put their finger on Romans chapter nine and say, but the
Bible says. Not your opinions, not the denomination you attend, not what your pastor says, not what your old pastor says, not polls, not human intuition, not
I've got to start with the death of my loved one who was without Christ as far as I know and extrapolate backwards to somehow get them in.
That's not where you start. You don't start with the human will. You don't start with predestination.
Predestination makes man a robot. You don't start with forced love of man. Is it real love? You start with God and His word.
Let me give you an illustration. Turn to Revelation 17, please. We strive to have a
God -centered theology. We're striving to say what we believe comes from the word of God.
Left to ourselves, we're not going to make it. We're going to think things with our heart and our heart has been affected by the fall.
And so what do we have to do? How can we stomach such a sharp doctrine?
You've got to start with the word of God. If the Bible says it, I must yield. Revelation 17, 13.
Especially when people are talking about the will and is the will, the holy of the holies, off limits, can't be touched by God.
Somehow that damaged the human. Somehow that makes a human a robot. What does the
Bible say? And by the way, friends, I know most all of you believe this.
And so I'm commending you and also teaching you how to help other people when it comes to this.
But I'm sure there's a few of you that are sitting there saying, this is difficult, help me.
And so I'm trusting that the help is not just some powder in a box thrown together with some
Hamburg. Notice how I said that? Like a real New Englander, Hamburg.
Verse 13, Revelation 17. And these are of one mind and they hand over their power and authority to the beast.
They will make war on the lamb and the lamb will conquer them for he is the Lord of lords and king of kings.
And those with him are called and chosen and faithful. And the angel said to me, the waters that you saw where the prostitute is seated are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.
The 10 horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire.
Note well, not what you think, not what your intuition is, not what your denomination says.
What does the Bible say? Verse 17, for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled.
Can you think of a verse that so teaches the utter sovereignty of God?
Sovereign over the sinful and through the sinful acts of man. They get together and worship the beast.
And who's the one who exercises all sovereign control over that?
I mean, our source for theology has to be the Bible. And the Bible everywhere clearly teaches that God's sovereign over everything.
Turn to Proverbs 16, please. Let me show you another illustration. They're found all over Scripture.
We looked in Sunday school about the son of man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed.
Speaking of Judas, I like the Proverbs because they make sure
I submit to this truth. What does the Bible say? I could have you turn to Romans 9, but we've been there quite a bit in the last several years.
Proverbs 16. Let's look at four verses here in the Proverbs that all shout,
God is sovereign. He's sovereign over the human will. And he turns it whatever way he'd like to.
Proverbs 16. One, the plans of the heart belong to a man or to man.
But the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. Verse 9 of the same chapter, the heart of man plans his way, but the
Lord establishes his steps or his stepper steps.
Chapter 19, please. Verse 21. What we plan doesn't always come about.
What God plans always happens because God overrules, because God's sovereign over even the will, even the plans of a man, even the mind of a man.
Proverbs 19 .21. Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the
Lord that will stand. And then Proverbs 21.
Proverbs 21. You can think irrigation.
You can think trying to get water from one place to another as a person would control that.
And look at how this will of the king, the strongest, most powerful person on the earth, how he is dealt with underneath the rubric of the sovereignty of God.
Proverbs 21. One, the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He, the
Lord, turns it, the king's heart, wherever he, the Lord, wills.
God controls everything. So you say, well, wait a second, but I thought this and my feelings are this.
But what are the implications here? You say to yourself, I have to start with and end with the Bible. Augustine said of Proverbs 21.
One, God works in the hearts of men to incline their wills withersoever he wills, whether to good deeds, according to his mercy or to evil after their own deserts.
His own judgment being sometimes manifest, sometimes secret, but always righteous.
What does the Bible say? That's why FOF is such a good class, because every question is answered with the
Bible verse. Ligon Duncan tells a story about Mark Devere teaching a class on the attributes of God.
And once you start talking about God and how great he is, you realize how small you are in comparison to God.
And a guy didn't like what Devere was saying. And Ligon Duncan records the account.
So the man raised his hand and said, Mark, you know, I like to think of God as omniscient, but not meddling.
Just, but not nitpicky. Sovereign, but not overbearing. And on and on he went, according to Ligon Duncan.
After he finished this little spiel, Mark said, Thank you, Bob. But we're not here to talk about what you think.
We're not here to talk about you. We're here to talk about God. And so we're going back to the
Bible now. This assumes that you read the
Bible to make sure you can sit underneath it and go, whatever it says, I'll agree with it.
I'll try to agree with it. God, help me to agree with it. I need to form my theology based on the
Bible. So start with and end with the Bible. Number two, if you'd like to be more patient and adversity, more thankful and prosperity and have a firmer confidence that God will never separate you from the love that you have in Christ Jesus and his love for you.
Number two, remember that God is not like a man. Or if you'd like me to put it more personally, God's not like you.
And that includes me. God is transcendent.
God is other. God is alien. God is wholly other.
He's not a man. Turn to Isaiah chapter 40. What sometimes we do is we say, well, here's how
I understand things. And we take God and say, well, he's a man, except just a greater man.
He's like a holy man, but he's an ultimately holy man. And we have these degrees. And we mess with quantity and quality when we ought not to because God is infinite.
He's not a man at all. And of course, I know Jesus is the God man, but we're talking about, especially here, the
Father. We are very susceptible to creating
God in our own image. And so I love reading the scripture, Isaiah 40.
Who am I in comparison to God? I'm not like him. So, of course, when I'm thinking about the sovereignty of God, I'm probably going to disagree here, there, the other with my feelings and my emotions and my mind.
But I have to remember, this is not a manageable God. This is not a tame God. Verse 13 of Isaiah 40.
Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord? Or what man shows him his counsel?
And that's a sermon right there. Whom did he consult? And who made him understand?
God, you just don't quite get it, do you? Who taught him the path of justice and taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding?
And the concept here is compared to God, we're nothing.
We're puny. We're insignificant. God knows everything.
He never learned anything. That tells me right away, he's not like me.
I like what Tozer said. God knows instantly and effortlessly. All matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit and all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every law, all relations and all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven, in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven and hell.
End quote. You're just like me, God. We're just the same. Birds of a feather. Verse 15.
Behold the nations. The nations, by the way, nations are composed of people, large people groups are like a drop from a bucket and are accounted as dust on the scales.
Behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. He's so sovereign.
He's so different. Can you imagine when you take water from a bucket and you're carrying it? You know, water is heavy.
Back in the old days, when we'd go to our cabin up in South Dakota, we would get there early and we'd have to prime the pump.
I don't know where we got the water from to prime the pump, but I think it was the river. So you scoop up some water from the river, you pour it on the top of the pump and you pump it and out comes the water and you fill up your big bucket and then you carry it someplace.
I don't know where we were carrying it, but I know my father, when one little drop came out of the bucket, he didn't go,
Oh man, what a relief that was. That drop was so significant. Or if you're going to have dust on the scales and you're going to go buy some grapefruit at Hannaford.
I don't know if you have your little shaving cream brush that I bring to the grocery store and make sure there's not one speck of dust on there because you're playing with your chin now.
See how that works? It's just a piece of dust. It's insignificant. It's negligible.
It doesn't matter. And now God says, not a person, but this is the nation, the United States of America.
Oh yeah, it's like a speck of dust. How much does a speck of dust make a scale go down?
And what does it say? He takes up coastlines like fine dust. Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard.
It's a little powdered sugar. Lebanon would not suffice, verse 16, for fuel.
Remember, that's where all the cedars are. Nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
Take every tree in Lebanon and every pine in Yosemite and put it all together for a big bonfire and God doesn't even know.
It's insignificant. Doesn't care, maybe is a better way to put it. It's not enough.
All the nations, what's it say, verse 17, are as nothing before Him. They're accounted by Him as less than nothing and emptiness.
Wow. Is there sarcasm in the
Bible? Yes. Verse 18 to 20, to whom then will you liken
God? Or what likeness compare with Him? An idol?
Craftsman casts it. Goldsmith overlays it with gold. Casts it for, casts for it with silver chains.
Got to hang it up in their temple so it doesn't fall over. He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot.
He seeks out a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not move. Be careful.
It's going to fall over. Do you not know? Do you not hear?
Verse 21, has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understand from the foundations of the earth?
God is sovereign. He's not like you. By the way, if you just think for a quick second and say to yourself that that He would love me and have
His Son clothe Himself with humanity to come and rescue someone like me, so insignificant, so minor, so negligible.
That doesn't speak about how great I am. That speaks about how great the love of God is that He rescues people.
Do you not know? Do you not hear? Verse 22, it's He who sits above the circle of the earth.
Inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like a tent to dwell in.
What imagery! He brings princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. He is not like us.
You thought I was just like you, Psalm 50. Turn to Job 38, please.
This I think is helpful to me because God does things. He does a lot of things. He does whatever
He wants. And if I'm not careful, I could be tempted to say something to God and to question
Him. How could you? Why, God? Why'd you do that? We want to make sure that we don't ever say that to God.
And even when it comes to the sovereignty of God, not just over when my dad died or my mom died or tragic things happen like that.
God, why? But even here with the sovereignty of God and human responsibility, why isn't everybody a believer?
All kinds of things. We just need to make sure we're not questioning God sinfully. Job 38, verse 1.
Before I read these verses, rest assured that when you have bad theology, it's because your theology is too man -centered.
It's too man -centered. And it's too much of your own views of things, not
I'm just going to submit to whatever the Bible says. And what's that bumper sticker? The Bible says it,
I believe it, that settles it. Is that what it says? Do you like that bumper sticker? I mean,
I've seen all kinds of bumper stickers at the church here. Hells, I mean, afterlife, smoking, non -smoking.
I've seen that one here. I don't even know who that is, but I'm not going to tell you who. The Bible says it and that settles it.
Not what I think about it. That's the problem when I inject myself into here. How in light of our sins and our finiteness, how can we question
God? Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind. I mean, can you imagine if you were there? Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
Dress for action like a man, Job. I will question you. You'll make it known to me. Where were you when
I laid the foundation of the earth? If I was Job, I'd be swallowing pretty hard right now. You could see my
Adam's apple gold. Tell me if you will have understanding.
Let me say this in a more kind fashion. If you can't get your arms wrapped around the sovereignty of God over the human will and who goes to heaven and who doesn't, and you've got all kinds of questions for God, there might be some nice theological questions that you could ask.
But at the end of the day, if you can't understand it, just say, God, I can't understand it. Help me, but never question
God. It doesn't turn out so well. Who determines its measurements?
Surely you know. Who stretched the line upon it? Or what were its bases sunk?
On what were it sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone when all the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
If we can't even figure out that, how can we figure out the deep things of God? Chapter 40 of Job.
It's good to just rest. It's good to just know the Father knows. Don't you notice when you read the book of Job, how many times does
Job say, Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? And God's answer to him is, Here's who
I am. Who is the right question? Who's the one in charge of all these things? You can imagine just with a kid, when my kids were little and they'd get sick in the night, and you just try to hold them, and maybe they're old enough to ask questions, and why am
I sick? And will I get better? You don't have to answer those questions at two o 'clock in the morning, sitting by the fireplace, if you just hold them real tight and rock them and say,
Daddy loves you. Isn't that enough? That was enough. And then they throw up on my back again.
Remember one time, Luke threw up all over me. And, all right, let's just take the shower together.
We take the shower together. We sat back down, you know, he's got his little footsie kind of PJs on. We're rocking again.
And then I feel this hot thing going down my back again. Here we go. What does this have to do with anything?
I don't know. Verse 1 of chapter 40, And the
Lord said to Job, The covenant -keeping, eternal, loving God said to Job, Shall a fault finder contend with the
Almighty? I mean, sinful people can't question God righteously.
He argues with God. Let him answer it. Job answered. And the Lord said, Behold, I... He answered the
Lord and said, Behold, I'm of small account. I'm not like you, God. What shall I answer you?
I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once. I will not answer twice. But I will proceed no further.
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Dress for action like a man. I will question you and you will make it known to me.
Still haven't learned yet. Will you even put me in the wrong? Who are you,
God? I could insert here for saving this and not saving the other. Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?
Have you an arm like God? And who can thunder with a voice like his? Finally, Job got it.
Verse 1 of chapter 42. Job 42 1. Then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do all things.
Here's a good, submissive heart, finally, to the sovereignty of God. And that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand. Things too wonderful for me, which
I did not know. Here and I will speak. I will question you and I will make it. You will make it known to me. I have heard of you by the hearing of the year, but now my eyes see you.
Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. How do
I help myself and help others submit to the sovereignty of God? One, start and end with the
Bible. Two, remember that God's not like you. Number three, number three.
Know that God does not need anyone or anything. God doesn't need anything and he doesn't need anyone.
Before we look at the passage, think about it for a second. What was God lacking in eternity past?
Genesis 1 .1, did God need anybody? Was he lacking anything? God needs no one.
He's not lacking anything. Turn your Bibles to Acts 17, please. Acts 17,
I don't know about you, but I have a long way to go in being patient in adversity. I have probably a longer way to go so that I might be thankful in prosperity.
And I need to go a lot farther to realize no matter what happens in the world, nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
And it's all about the character of God who upholds all things and drives them to the end.
And so I say to myself, you know, I've got to be captive to the Word of God. I can't think of anything else besides that.
I can't create a God that looks just like me, right? That's what we do in society today. Well, I think
God is all love. I think God doesn't judge. I think God saves everybody. I think God gives everybody an opportunity.
Oh, excuse me, what's your name? My name's Sheila. Well, I'm glad to know that you just started a new religion because the word
Christian's already taken and your religion is Sheila -ism, to use
Michael Horton's language. We can't do that. So then we come to the
Scripture and we say, what does God need? Acts 17, Paul is on Mars Hill, Areopagus.
And just a couple of verses here as Paul is preaching that serve the point.
The God who made, chapter 17, verse 24, you can see it right there in your own Bibles, the
God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is
He served by human hands as though He, what? Needed anything. By the way, gods in temples needed things like this, gotta dust you off, gotta move you over.
You ever dust somebody's house and maybe it's grandma's house and she's got a lot of knick -knacks everywhere? It's kind of nice to dust an apartment that just a single man lives in because they ain't got nothing.
No dusting needed. I don't know if I ever dusted one time when I was a single man.
But all of a sudden you start having those knick -knacks everywhere and you've got to dust. Gotta dust this little god off over here.
He's not made by human hands as though He needed anything since He Himself, emphatic, doesn't just say
He gives. He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and to make sure we just cover it all, everything.
He's the giver of all. How can we give to Him? He sustains everything. How can we sustain
Him? We depend on who God is. God doesn't depend on who we are.
Kurt Daniel quote, isn't this good? God is perfectly happy. The eternal self -existent
God is and has always been completely happy in Himself. That means He can never be happier than He already is.
Nor does He do anything in time to gain happiness as if He were at some time lonely or sad.
Away with such nonsense. The perfect God is perfectly happy. He had full joy within Himself.
How? He enjoyed Himself. He loves Himself. The Father, the Son, and the
Spirit enjoy a full relationship of love and joy as they mutually possess glory and honor and power and wisdom and love.
Eternal blessedness of communion, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Before Genesis 1 -1, was there anything lacking in God?
Of course not. He's self -existent. I remember
Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers who has sent me to you, and they ask me what is
His name, what shall I say to them? You remember what the answer is?
The self -existent distinguishing name of God. And God said to Moses what?
I was who I was, but now I'm better. I am who
I am. Moses, the issue with your problem isn't the
Egyptians. I am here. I'm self -existent. Of course, the
Lord Jesus Christ tells His followers that He is the great I am as well in the
Gospel of John. Purposes can't be thwarted. He's self -existent. What am
I up to? Number four, submit to this truth. God, whatever He wants,
He does. Whatever God wants to do, He does. Whatever God wants to do, whatever
He pleases to do, He does. Let's think again one more time. In eternity past before Genesis 1 -1, did
God do whatever He wanted to do? Let's think about eternity future. In heaven, will
God do whatever He wants to do? Yeah, but now He's on earth. He can't do that. So, see, we allow
Him to do that in pre -Genesis 1 -1. We allow Him to do that in Revelation 21 and 22.
But right now, we're not so sure. Well, put that way, turn to Psalm 103, please.
Psalm 103, let me show you a verse here as we're thinking through it. And I've got one other section we must get to.
Psalm 103, if your car had a hard time starting up today, but finally got all warmed up, that's like my sermon.
Starting a little rougher, and now we're on cruise control. So if you want only a 44 -minute sermon today, can't help you.
Longer. Psalm 103, verse 19.
Say it out loud as a congregation. Psalm 103, verse 19, go.
Sounds good, doesn't it? I'm going to try that more often when I can't find Psalm 103 in my own Bible. Works out pretty well.
Good job. His sovereignty, His kingdom rules over all.
He does whatever He wants. So I sit back and go, yeah, what about the freedom of the will? What about double reprobation?
What about, you know, robots? What about how can it be real love if it's a forced love? And any kind of thing that goes through your mind.
Friends, whatever the Bible says, it says. God, He's not like me.
And He does whatever He wants. And how could I question Him? Number five, grasp compatibilism.
Grasp compatibilism. What is compatibilism? Well, if you were at my house,
I like to do root words, Greek words. Kids always make fun of me. Ask dad what a word means.
He'll try to break it down into Greek. Break down the root words. Compatible.
Compatibilism teaches that the sovereignty of God is compatible with human responsibility.
Both are true. Both are taught in Scripture. Secondly, they are not reconciled in Scripture.
Sovereignty, providence. Basically, if I wanted me to give you the difference between sovereignty and providence, sovereignty of God is
He controls all things. And as He does that in time, that's called providence. That might be a good definition.
But these things are both true. Sovereignty, responsibility. They're never reconciled in Scripture.
And so why do I feel like I've got to reconcile them? Both are true.
I know everyone here is a compatibilist because you know, as we saw last week, the death of Jesus Christ.
The cross makes you a compatibilist. Jesus, sinless, dies on the cross according to the preordained plan of God.
Acts 2, Acts 4, Luke 22. 1 Peter 1. Yet sinful men,
Herod, Jews, Gentiles, Pontius Pilate, Judas. Are they all responsible at the cross for all compatibilists?
In spite of what I think or feel, these two things are true.
D .A. Carson, quote, compatibilism is the view that the following two statements are, despite superficial evidence to the contrary, mutually compatible.
One, God is absolutely sovereign. Two, human beings are responsible creatures.
How? I have no idea. But it's true.
Why? Because I submit myself along with you to Scripture. Turn to Acts 27, please.
Let me show you that even though it seems irreconcilable in my mind,
Acts 27 teaches both. We could have looked at Genesis 20 if you would have liked, but I like Acts 27 as well.
As you're turning there, R .B. Kuyper said, I read the many teachings of the Bible regarding God's election, predestination,
His chosen, and so on. I read also the many teachings regarding whosoever will may come and urging people to exercise their responsibility as human beings.
These seeming contradictions cannot be reconciled by the puny human mind. With childlike faith,
I cling to both ropes, fully confident that in eternity I will see that both strands are true and, after all, true of one piece.
Sovereignty and responsibility, we just believe both. Acts 27, verse 22.
And yet now I urge you to keep up your courage, for there shall be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.
What was going on here? Who's on the ship? Paul's on the ship.
It's chaos. It's going to be 1952, February 13th or something, outside of Chatham where those two super tankers broke.
And you say, Mike, you're well -read. No, but I know about the movie. It's a horrible storm.
And what does the text say? No loss of life among you, but only the ship. Verse 23.
For this very night, an angel of the Lord or angel of God to whom I belong and whom
I serve stood before me, saying, Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar. And behold,
God has granted you all those who are sailing with you. Sovereignty or responsibility? Sovereignty.
You sure? Sovereignty. Amen. Therefore, keep up your courage, for I believe that God, I believe
God that it will turn out exactly as I've been told. If I want to put catechism question number 28 from Heidelberg in the midst of this adversity,
I can still be patient. We must run aground on a certain island.
Verse 26, verse 27. But when the 14th night had come, as we were being driven about in the
Adriatic Sea about midnight, the sailors began to surmise that they were approaching some land and they took soundings and found it to be 20 fathoms.
A little further on, they took another sounding and they found it to be 15 fathoms. It's getting shallower.
And in theory, we might run aground somewhere on the rocks. They cast four anchors from the stern and wished for daybreak.
And as the sailors were trying to escape from the ship and had let down the ship's boat into the sea on the pretense of landing, intending to land out anchors from the bow,
Paul said to these guys who were going to try to sneak off the ship, unless these men remain in the ship, you yourselves cannot be saved.
Sovereignty of God or human responsibility? Human responsibility. God's going to save everyone, but you've got to stay on the ship.
And what do I like about Scripture? Just both are taught right there. I don't need, as Spurgeon said, to reconcile friends because both doctrines are friends.
I don't say there's no sovereignty. That would be a travesty. And I don't say there's no responsibility.
Because that also is an equal travesty. You say, well, what about the puppet thing?
God makes me a puppet. This doctrine of compatibility wipes out any kind of puppet robot talk because God is responsible.
He's responsible to act according to his own nature. God is sovereign and man is responsible.
Yes, but why pray? Because God is sovereign and you're responsible. Why evangelize? God is sovereign and I am responsible.
We're compatible. And then finally, we've got to do this one.
I'm going to make it pretty quick. Number six. Am I up to number six? Number six. This is for you artsy people.
This is for you non -propositional people. It's for all the people up here singing songs. It's for Charlie.
If propositional truth is hard to take, how about poetry? Turn to Ecclesiastes 3.
How do we grasp this? I know Charlie is just a joke because I know Charlie's a propositional truth guy as well.
Okay. Jesus upholds all things. It makes him as God. It makes him as one who's to be trusted.
It makes him to one to be listened to in the context of Hebrews 1. Hear him. But you know, this is a difficult doctrine.
It's so difficult because it deals with life and death, eternal hell and heaven. And God is in charge of who goes.
It's hard. So how can I make it easier? I'm going to submit to what the scripture says. And I'm just going to say, you know what,
God, you're in charge. You're not like me. You do things the way you want to. You tell me I have a real responsibility.
I just have to take that as true. I won't force mental closure on all this stuff.
By the way, that's a sign of a maturing Christian. You don't have to force everything to be closed up and figured all out.
And then if you can't take these propositional truths, just read some good poetry about the sovereignty of God. And maybe then the light goes on.
Poetry about the sovereignty of God. Propositional statements about God's sovereignty.
I like poetry for a long time. I didn't think
I liked so much. I kind of thought girls were into poetry. But you know,
God writes poems. He writes poetry so we might understand it. For those of you that want propositional statements, here's the
Westminster Shorter Catechism about sovereignty. His eternal purpose, according to the counsel of His will, whereby for His own glory
He hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. Got it.
I'm a propositional man. You know what? I was always thinking about a new name for the church, if we ever had to change the name.
Propositional Bible Church. Propositional Truth Bible Church. Okay, not so much.
That's why we have a plurality of elders. Just want you to know that. You may be excused.
Ecclesiastes, Solomon writes, and he's going to write this chapter. And from now on,
I don't want you to think about the bird song. I want you to think about without propositional truth, but with biblical truth.
God's sovereign with poetry. How can we stomach the sovereignty of God? A little poetry might just help us.
God has a fitting time for every single thing to be done.
And He appoints everything. Verse one, for everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.
NAS, there's an appointed time for everything. No chance, no fate, no things happen haphazardly outside of God's control.
There's no accidents. God didn't fall off His throne yesterday in Texas. And to illustrate this thesis, verse one is the thesis.
Verses two through eight illustrate that. And here's a list of things that describe what goes on, to use
Solomon's terms, under heaven. God's sovereign over everything. And whatever happens under heaven,
He knows all about. Don't you like the poetry? There's a time to be born and a time to die. It's life and death, birthday, funeral.
King of the universe decides all that. A time to plant, a time to pluck up what's planted.
Sovereignty of God is true in our lives and it's in the plant life as well. Even the life of a vegetable, of a cucumber is underneath the sovereignty of God.
There's a time to kill and a time to heal. Yeah, you think you can be in charge of who lives and who dies, the government and capital punishment.
God is still the one in charge. There's a time to break down and a time to build up, even with emotions.
There's a time to weep and a time to laugh. There's a time to mourn and a time to dance. There's a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together.
There's a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. There's a time to seek and a time to lose.
A time to keep and a time to cast away. There's a time to tear and a time to sew.
Bereavement, tearing your garments when a loved one dies. And there's a time to keep silence and there's a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace. Everything has a time.
Verses two through eight all tuck itself underneath verse one. There's a season for everything, a time for every matter under heaven.
Then he gives those, I think, 14 pairs of descriptions to say
God's sovereign over everything. So God's sovereign over everything. Verse nine, what gain has the worker from his toil?
Why bother if God's sovereign over everything? I've seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
Verse 10, verse 11, he has made everything beautiful in its time.
Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
What's my response to the sovereignty of God? The Heidelberg Catechism says, patience and adversity, thankfulness and prosperity and firm confidence in a faithful God and father that no creature should separate us from his love.
But poetry says this, since God is sovereign, why don't you enjoy your life?
Verse 12, I perceive that there's nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live.
Also, that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil. This is God's gift to man.
I'm so vexed at the sovereignty of God. I'm so confused. I have so many questions.
Friend, have a nice meal. Take your wife out on a date.
Go take a cheese tasting class at Wegmans with your wife. Enjoy life.
The response for Solomon, who was the wisest man, he wasn't trying to figure out the
Rubik's cube of sovereignty and responsibility. He said, you know what? Enjoy your life because God upholds what?
All things. He's driving all things. If he's given you the greatest gift salvation found in the risen
Savior, won't he give you everything else? God's sovereign. I'm vexed. Sorry, friends, don't do that.
God's sovereign. Enjoy the present. He's not talking about hedonism.
I'm going to enjoy God. He's to be enjoyed. Friends, for those of you that embrace the sovereignty of God, thank you.
Good job. For those of you that don't, why don't you just say,
Uncle, wouldn't you like to just enjoy life instead of wandering around all the time, waking up in the middle of the night?
How can God be sovereign and man responsible? How can I unscrew the inscrutable? The response in poetry is, enjoy the simple pleasures from God.
Because if God doesn't uphold all things, you better be worried. You have no time to sit around and enjoy life if God doesn't control everything.
But since revelation demands a response, revelation is God upholds all things. And the response is,
God, thank you for upholding all things. That takes a lot of responsibility off my shoulders. So I'm just going to enjoy you today.
I'm just going to say, thank you, God, for all that you do. I can't change the world.
I can't make Scalia alive. I can't change the president. I can't pick who's going to be the president.
But I do know this. You've given me good things. I do know, as James 1 says, every good gift and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the
Father of lights, with whom there's no variation or shadow due to change. I do know that. What I do know is
I do know John Cowan's life verse. What then shall we say to these things? Revelation demands a response.
If God is for us, who can be against us? Revelation demands a response.
And that response is not vexation, nor should it be an academic exercise. It should be a humble response that says,
God, I submit to you. I'm going to enjoy my life now because of that. You're controlling everything. And God, would you help me to be more patient in adversity, more thankful in prosperity, and to make sure
I have a firmer confidence in you who love me at Calvary and beyond. Amen.
Father, thank you for this day. Thank you that we could come to your word. And we just need to have our minds reset.
Think about my computer or my iPad. Sometimes it just needs to be rebooted. And so,
Father, do that to our minds. Why do we worry? We're so frail. We're so weak.
We're so sinful. So we look to you, a great God who forgives. And we have a representative who never worries, who never worried.
And I think of the Lord Jesus. He was patient in adversity. He was thankful in prosperity.
And he had an unwavering confidence in your love for him that was never broken.
Not even at Calvary did you stop loving the Lord. Far from being angry with your son, you loved him as he was being the most obedient son there at Calvary as a sin bearer.
I pray for Bethlehem Bible Church. Folks here have lost moms and dads and loved ones.
And they have surgeries and lawsuits. All kinds of things.
And Father, it's just good to be held by you, as it were, metaphorically, figuratively, and just sit by that fire.
And Daddy's got it all figured out. Daddy's here. I pray through your word, that would be the case for Bethlehem Bible Church.
We want to be more patient. We want to be more thankful. And we want to be more trusting in you. So may your word work as your spirit illumines it, convicts us.
Father, you're sovereign. And so instead of worrying today about Justice Scalia, help us just to enjoy life by demonstrating the fact that we believe you're sovereign and work everything together for our good.