Jesus, Upholds All Things (part 2)

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Systematic Theology (part 3)

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Isle insect, abhorred monster, and your fallen angel,
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Adam. The book you might know has a title, and it's called The Modern Prometheus.
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Who knows the book? Otherwise called Frankenstein.
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Most of the time when you think of Frankenstein, you think it's the creature, his name Frankenstein, but he's never called that.
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Frankenstein is the doctor who created the monster, and his name was Victor Frankenstein.
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What does this have to do with theology at all? Who makes something but can't control it?
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Who designs, creates, and yet has no control over that creature in any way, shape, or form?
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And the only thing that I could come up with was Victor Frankenstein. Because contrary to Victor Frankenstein, God creates everything and he upholds everything.
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Take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews 1, and let's find that out again today as we talk about our
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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who creates and sustains. Unlike Victor, Dr.
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Victor Frankenstein, who can create but then loses control of this grotesque monster, God the
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Son creates and he upholds. I love the book of Hebrews because it talks about Jesus Christ and extols him.
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I was on the phone yesterday, and there was a message on the answer machine, and I listened to it, and I'm looking for a
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Bible -teaching church, and I thought I might as well call the guy and call them up. And he lives in Worcester, and he wanted to know all about the church.
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And I said, you know, we're going through the book of Hebrews. And we're just settling in right now at the beginning, but it's all about the preeminence of Jesus and who this great
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God is. I said, if you love Jesus, you'll love this church. And he said, well,
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I have a question for you. And I said, okay, what's the question? And he said, what Bible translation do you use?
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I said, well, the fascinating thing, we're looking at Hebrews 1, and ESV says he upholds the universe and brings it to consummation.
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But the Greek is, he upholds all things. And so we're teaching from the original language, but I happen to preach from the
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ESV. And he's like, well, you're not King James only? I said, no. I said, are you?
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And he said, yes. And I said to him, then you won't like this church. But if you like the
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Lord Jesus, and it doesn't matter what translation you use, King James, New King James, ESV, RSV, NLT, they all...did
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I just say that? They all extol the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to know what the original texts say about who this
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God is, because the purpose of the writer in Hebrews is to get you to listen to him.
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Why listen to someone if they're not great? Why pay attention to, why pay heed to someone if they're just a regular
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Joe, or Jill, or Jane? But if in fact, by name and by actions,
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Jesus is exalted and he is the one who's greater than Moses, greater than Aaron, greater than the prophets, greater than any other person you've ever met, then you think you'd probably want to lend them an ear.
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That is the introduction to the book of Hebrews. Why listen to Jesus over every other prophet?
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And the writer lists seven reasons why Jesus is great so that you hear him.
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God is a great creator God who not only creates, but with loving care, with loving kindness, with hands -on compassion, guides his creation to the final ending.
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Long ago, at many times, and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.
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That's how he used to specifically reveal himself. But in these last days between the first coming and the second coming, he has spoken to us by his son.
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And then he lists those seven reasons why the son is so great so that you listen to this final agent of revelation.
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Who is Jesus and what has he done demands an audience so that you listen to him.
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So just in a little bit of review, and I love to just rehearse who Jesus is, gladly
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I review, why listen to Jesus? Why is he superior? Why is he the final revelation?
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Verse 2, he is the heir of all things. The father appoints
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Jesus as the heir of all things. Not Moses, not Aaron, not anyone else.
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Jesus is the final heir. He has only one son, does the father, so he gets everything.
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Secondly, through whom also he made the world. Jesus is superior because he's the creator.
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And remember, we're not talking about he created the cosmos, although that's true. A different Greek word is used.
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He created the eons. He created the ages. He created matter and history. Why listen to Jesus?
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Well, unlike Moses, Moses didn't create anything. Jesus created everything.
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He's God and he creates the heavens and the earth. Thirdly, Jesus is superior, we saw, because he is the radiance of God's glory.
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Verse 3, if you're new to the church, welcome. We just go verse by verse by verse. I want to expose to you the meaning of the text.
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What did God mean when he wrote this? Remember, we don't come to the Bible and say, what does this mean to me?
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What does this mean to you? What did God mean when he wrote it? He is the radiance, speaking of Jesus, of his glory.
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The shining, the admitting, bright Shekinah glory of God is Jesus, not
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Moses. And remember, these listeners, these readers are thinking to themselves, we're getting persecuted.
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The siren song of the world and of other people are saying, come back to Judaism.
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Ignore Christianity. Turn your back on who Jesus is. And the writer from the very beginning says, you can't go back.
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There's nowhere to go back to. Why go back to shadows? Why go back to ceremonies? Why go back to anything but the substance of who
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Jesus is? You say, well, I thought only God gives Shekinah glory.
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Yes, Jesus is God. That's the point. Fourthly, he's the exact representation of God's nature.
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Jesus bears the very stamp of God's nature. If you'd like to know what God looks like, as it were, look to Christ.
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He is the image of the invisible God, Colossians 1.
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And now, where we're parked right now, where we're settling in, is the fifth reason
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Jesus is the final agent of God's revelation and is superior.
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He upholds all things by the word of his power.
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He sustains, he guides, he propels, he orchestrates everything.
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Who can do that? Who can take all things? Who can take the universe and then just control it and manipulate it and to drive it to where it's supposed to go?
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Only the Lord Jesus. He holds everything together. Wait, wait, I thought
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God just kind of wound everything up in Genesis 1 and then just kind of lets it go.
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What do we call those kind of theologians who believe that God is a hands -off God, a faraway
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God? They're called what? Deists. That's right. God knows the appointed end of everything.
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And he's going to say in the very next part of the verse, purging sin, seated at the right hand of the
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Father. He's driving everything to a consummation and God controls all things. That's pretty amazing.
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He controls all things, present tense, involved.
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And how does God do it? Pulleys, block and tackle. He does it by the word of his power.
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He says it and it's done. He utters it and it happens. How can you just say something and it's done?
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That is the proof of the Son's superiority and sovereignty. Robert Dabney is one of my favorite theologians and here's how he describes providence.
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I mean, if you think of the root words, you know, sometimes my kids will laugh because they feel like I'm the dad in a particular movie about Greek people.
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And I like to do word origins. I don't like Windex, but I like word origins.
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And you think of providence, what's the word providence? What are the root words? Pro, video.
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Before, to see. God sees everything before. Pro, video.
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But that's just the root word because providence doesn't mean God just sees ahead of time.
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God sees ahead of time, knows ahead of time, works ahead of time, works in time, upholds in time, and drives to the very end.
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Listen to Dabney. Providence is the execution. I mean, this is just brilliant. It just makes you think, who could do this but Jesus?
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Providence is the execution in successive time of God's eternal unsuccessive purpose.
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We believe the scriptures to teach not only that God originated the whole universe, but that he bears a perpetual active relation to it, and that these works are providential.
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I mean, if you weren't powerful, you couldn't do this. If you weren't wise, you couldn't do this. If you weren't good, you couldn't do this.
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If you weren't omniscient, you couldn't do this. If you weren't a personal God who cares for his people, you couldn't do this.
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He upholds all things. And I love to boast of God about this providential sovereignty because I know me and I know you.
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I like to boast of this in me. I like to think I'm a little sovereign, and I pick and choose, and I run my own universe, and I even pick and choose the football teams
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I root for. I chose. I know there are some arranged marriages here, but your parents then chose, but I chose my wife.
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I chose my children's name. I think I've told you the story. We used to have something in the backyard that we used to play in.
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My father got this large tractor tire. It was an old tractor tire, and he just threw it down in the backyard.
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And instead of CrossFit stuff where you have to lift it up and bring it around, he just put it there and dumped a bunch of sand into it.
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And that was our sandbox. We played in it. That's what kids did before this. And I had these little army men, but they weren't just regular army men.
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Some of them had blue uniforms. Some of them had gray uniforms. We had the
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Confederates and the Americans. And I was a
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Yankee. I don't know if Nebraska people were Yankees, but I was a Yankee. And my team, my soldiers, they wiped out those gray coats.
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And there's one guy left at the end, and he was on the top of the little castle, and he was the victor, and he was the champion, and his name was
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Mike Avendroff. I'm a sovereign demonstrating my little sovereignty.
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And see, friends, we're image bearers of God. And we like to pick and choose, and we like to control things.
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I mean, we can't because we're not all powerful, not all good, not all omniscient. But what we see in ourselves is a little flicker of the greater picture of the
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God who controls everything. Why argue against the sovereignty of God when,
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A, it's so clear in Scripture, and, B, we love sovereignty, at least in ourselves. Charles Hodge said, sovereignty cannot be ignored nor rejected.
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It binds all creatures as inexorably as physical laws bind the material universe.
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Ephesians 1 .11, God works all things after the counsel of His own will, all things.
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So what we were doing last time is trying to give you some realms of God's sovereignty because I don't want you to lose this truth.
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Could be chaotic year for you personally, for the nation, for the world. Where do you rest your head at night except for saying to yourself,
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God upholds all things that He's created, and there's a rhyme or reason. I might not see it,
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I might not know it, I see through things in a dim glass, but God knows perfectly what's happening.
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True or false, God could possibly be anxious this year. I mean, just think about it for a second.
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Who do you know that's never been anxious? And you think of the Lord Jesus on earth and the temptations and everything else.
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He was fully human, never anxious, never worried.
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1 Timothy talks about God being blessed. He's just always happy, always content, never worried for many reasons, but one is
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He created everything and He's driving it toward the end. And let me give you some realms of all things.
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How would I flesh out all things before we move to God's purifying work at Calvary next
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Sunday? We saw last week that He is sovereign over all things, including creation.
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If I wanted to make this a very practical outline, I could say, friends, take rest in and don't worry this year because God is sovereign over all of creation.
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I mean, how do you control the uncontrollable wind, the unpredictable sea, the untetherable sun?
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Psalm 107, verse 25, He spoke and raised up a stormy wind, which He lifted up the waves of the sea.
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How about Joshua 10? So the sun stood still and the moon stopped until the nation avenged themselves of their enemies.
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God is sovereign over all creation. For many reasons, I wish I had more children, but one of the reasons is because when they were born,
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I love to make the proclamation. When they were birthed and then they were shown to me and wiped off and then given to me,
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I'd always look at the doctors and nurses and I would say, ain't evolution grand?
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All of creation. Secondly, we saw last week that God is sovereign over even history.
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Don't worry. Be comforted in the fact that God is sovereign over all history, time, place, every speck of dust.
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And now let's look at something new. God is sovereign over the small things in life. Turn to Proverbs 16 .33,
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please. God is sovereign over even the small things. There's a group of people running around saying God is sovereign over the big things.
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He sustains them. The large world events, He ordains them. The things of the world, He oversees those things.
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But the small little tiny details, do you know what? I can't be bothered with the frivolous molecules of the world.
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I have the big things to attend to. But Scripture shows there's no such thing as a trifling atom or something small.
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How about even dice? Proverbs 16 .33. When I read this,
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I think odds in Vegas are 100 % certainties in the plan of God. Proverbs 16 .33.
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The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.
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What little pieces of pigment that are on the top of pieces of dice are sovereignly ordained?
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You can probably think of another case where some men said, let us cast lots that we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us.
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So they cast lots and the lots fell on Jonah. Even the smallest little details.
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Jesus said, are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father.
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But the very hairs of your head are all what? Numbered.
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God is not just in control of all the big world events, who's going to get elected. But He's sovereign over little birds and hairs on your head.
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He knows all about that. What's more assuring in a world that's full of tragedy, trouble and crime?
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The sovereignty of God are randomness. The random God is at the helm. Be warm and be filled.
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Microscopic things are under the sovereign hand of God. Insignificant things, minute things, infinitesimally small things.
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What other words could I come up with? Diminutive things and events. It's not random.
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God is upholding all things. Let's take a look at quite a few verses today.
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Normally I like to just park in a book. I'm going to park in this book Hebrews as I have been.
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But today we're going to look at quite a few verses. So buckle up. Turn to Ecclesiastes 7, please.
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If you're thinking this way, you're thinking rightly. God's sovereign over big things, yes. Now, Mike, you're saying
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He's sovereign over small things. But what about things that are negative like calamity?
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What about things that are tragic? Is God sovereign over tragic things?
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Is He sovereign over just the good? Or is He sovereign over evil and trouble as well?
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Now, these verses are tough to take. But I want you to consider this. Jesus upholds all things.
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All things mean all things. And whether it's good or bad, evil or holy,
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God is sovereign over them. I don't want you to think. I don't want you to ever say. God is sovereign but.
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Ecclesiastes 7 .14, In the day of prosperity, be happy. But in the day of adversity, consider.
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God has made the one as well as the other so that man will not discover anything that will be after him.
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Prosperity, adversity, God sovereign over everything.
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How about Lamentations 3 .37? Let's turn to Lamentations 3 .37.
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Maybe the way you could think through this is the equivalent of Hebrews 1 .3. It's upholding all things.
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It's Paul's Romans 8 .28. God causes all things to work together for what?
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For good to those who are called according to His purpose and for those who love Him. Can you imagine
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Lamentations 3 .37? The light of God's sovereignty hits everything.
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There's no shadow to the sovereignty of God. Lamentations 3 .37 and 38. Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass unless the
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Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth?
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What would it do to your perception of God if God was only sovereign over good? What if God is not sovereign over evil?
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Number four, God isn't just sovereign over history and creation and the little things, but He's sovereign over your birthday and your funeral and everything in between.
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He's sovereign over your life. Turn to Job 14, please. Job 14.
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He's sovereign over your birthday and funeral. As you know, figures of speech are fascinating because the more you know about them, the more you'll understand your
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Bible. That's a little merism. And so if I say from the tip of your head to the bottom of your feet, that means everything in between as well.
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And so when I say from your birthday to your funeral, that means your entire life, God's sovereign over you.
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Job 14 .5. Do you know that the King of the universe could have decided that you were never to be born? He could have chose the country you were born in and did.
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He picked your parents. He chose your very strands of DNA. He picked the day of your birth, what your eyes are in terms of color, your gender, everything.
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Job 14 .5. Since His days are determined, the number of His months is with you and His limits you have set so that He cannot pass.
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Psalm 31 .15. Let's go there as well. Our birthdays and our death days are determined by God.
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What if God wasn't sovereign over the day you were born? What if He wasn't sovereign over the day that you died? He's sovereign over all those and we could take comfort in those.
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They're still painful, the funerals. They're still joyous, the births, but God is sovereign over all those things.
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This so prevents us from all the what ifs that we say. If I was only there, if I only turned this way, if I only did that instead.
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God's sovereign over everything. Psalm 31 .15. My times are in your hand.
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Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me. When I'm going to die,
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Lord, I'm going to die. More explicitly, Psalm 139 .16.
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Psalm 139 .16. Of course, I want you to exercise and I want you to watch your health and there is a profit for physical exercise.
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Is that true? Bodily exercise profits a little. True or false? True. It does profit, just profits a little and it can't make you live the day beyond you're supposed to live.
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You can buy as much zinc, echinacea and vitamin C as you want, but the day you're going to die is the day you're going to die.
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And David knew this too. Your eyes have seen my unformed substance. Psalm 139 .16.
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And in your book were all written the days that were ordained for me when as yet there was not one of them.
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That's pretty amazing. Before I was born, the writer of the Psalm says you knew the day
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I was going to be born and you knew the day I was going to die. Did not
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Jesus say to John, this is how you're going to die,
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John 21, truly, truly. When you were younger, speaking to John, but about Peter.
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Let's see, who is it talking about? Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wish, but when you were old and you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go.
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Now he said this signifying what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me.
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God is sovereign over everything, upholds all things, your birth and your funeral. And now let's get into the sticky wicket of the whole thing.
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Number five, all things includes every act committed by man including sin.
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Is God sovereign over sin? Does God uphold all things? Does that include sin? Or is God not sovereign over sin?
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Genesis 45, please. God is sovereign over even sin.
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I know this is hard to digest. When I was a kid and I had an upset stomach,
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I think my grandparents would give me maybe ginger ale and saltines. Do they still do that around here?
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Ginger ale and saltines. When I had a cough, my grandmother had a home remedy and she would take a teaspoon full of sugar and it would help the medicine go down.
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By the way, I think that's a pagan show, isn't it? Mary Poppins is like a witch or something? And she would pour some nasty scotch on that sugar in that teaspoon and you would have to take that.
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And it burned. And then she'd say, how are you feeling? Really good, Grandma. Even if you were worse.
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It's like these home remedies. Yeah, I think I've got a stye. Lay down. And then she'd take a big thing of milk, warm it up, put a big piece of bread, probably
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Wonder Bread, sop it in there to make a soppy and then you've got to lay down with the Wonder Bread milk eye.
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How's your eye? Great, Grandma. When you say
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God's sovereign over evil, it makes you kind of like, I've got to get some saltines. I mean, wait a second. Sovereign over evil.
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But the second you start seeing how God is sovereign over it and then He brings it to its fruition, its consummation, as He makes something good come out of it, then you go, the
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God that I'm able to serve, He makes good things come out of wicked things. And that's exactly what we see in Genesis 45.
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It doesn't take you many books of the Bible before you realize people are evil, but evil people aren't outside the sovereign umbrella of the
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King. And before I read these, note to self, you've got an oppressive boss, you've got bad workers, you've got all these other things going on in your life, and you think,
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Lord, only You. I'm going to just have to rest in You. I'm just going to have to trust in You.
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Why am I worrying about these things? Genesis 45 .8 Joseph understands the sovereign rule of God in the midst of his sinful brother's actions.
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Now therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God. And He has made me a father to Pharaoh and the
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Lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt. You wicked brothers, you would have killed me except for one of you and then now
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God sends me here for a reason. Genesis 50 .20, please. Turn to Genesis 50 .20. It is just worshipful to consider
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God is sovereign over these things. I love His holiness. I love His love that He would love sinners like me and like you, but I love
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His sovereignty as well. Genesis 50 .20, you probably have this verse memorized or marked in your
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Bible. My question is, why do you mark it? Answer, because like me, like you, we love to know that God is sovereign over evil.
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He upholds all things including evil and sin and wicked people. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result to preserve many people alive.
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They were responsible. Make no theological mistake, human agents are responsible to obey
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God, yet God's sovereign rule is seen over and through human responsibility.
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Now back in the day, if you wanted to be the king, or if you were the king, you slept with concubines.
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And if you wanted to show that you were the new king, you'd take the old king's concubines and you would sleep with them.
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And you'd sleep with them in a way that everyone would know that that's what you're doing. Now it's certainly sinful to usurp the king, small k, and it would be sinful to sleep with the concubines.
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But do you know God orchestrated all that? Let me show you what happened to show you the extent of God's sovereignty.
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2 Samuel 16 .22 2 Samuel 16 .22
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Absalom's heinous sin happens under and through the auspices of the sovereign rule of God who controls and upholds and sustains all things.
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This is horrible. It's preposterous. It's sinful. But it is not outside the rule of God.
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This is aberrant. It's immoral. It probably would make Jerry Springer blush.
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But it's right here in God's Word. 2 Samuel 16 .22 So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof.
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And Absalom went into his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel.
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Who is the king now? I am, says Absalom, and I'll prove it.
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That's what he's doing there. Is God sovereign over that? This is pretty gross.
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Turn to 2 Samuel 12. Four chapters earlier. And I want you to know this was all planned out by God.
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All sovereignty and control by the God who upholds all things. When you say, and I've said to myself many times this week as I've bordered on worry,
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God upholding all things is a God who I can trust in and rest in and not to worry.
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I guess I could say it this way. When I worry, I'm saying, God, You don't uphold all things. When I'm overly concerned, sinfully concerned, not trusting in the
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Lord, I'm saying, you know what? You don't uphold all things. You say it, but you don't do it. You're a big talker, God. I don't want to act that way.
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2 Samuel 12. This egregious sin, was it planned out by God?
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Verses 11 and 12 of 2 Samuel 12. Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will raise up,
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I will raise up evil against you from your own household. I will even take your wives before your eyes, and I will give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight.
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Indeed, you did it secretly, but I, God says, will do this thing before all
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Israel and under the sun. And you just want to go,
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God's sovereign over these things. It's under His control. The auspices of all things mean all things, including the sinful actions of people.
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That's hard to take, and it is. Turn to Acts 4, please, as we consider how
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God upholds all things, including sin and sinful acts. God upholds everything.
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God is sovereign over everything. He reigns through and over all things.
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Was Jesus' death at Golgotha as a substitutory atonement sovereignly planned by God even though sinful men did it?
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Even though those sinful men will give an account for their sinful actions of crucifying the innocent one?
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The answer is yes. Can anything be done in the world that is done without God's will under His divine pleasure and permission?
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What's the worst sin ever committed by mankind? No one deserved execution less than Jesus, but notice the words of Scripture, Acts 4 .23.
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When they had been released, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
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And when they heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord and said, O Lord, it is You who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, who by the
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Holy Spirit through the mouth of our father David Your servant said, Why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples devise futile things?
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The kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ.
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Notice, For truly in this city they were gathered together against Your holy servant
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Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, they're responsible, along with the
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Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, they're responsible, to do whatever
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Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.
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Only God can be sovereign over evil and make something good come out of it. And to use my father's language, last time
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I checked, a lot of good came out of the death of Jesus Christ. He permits it.
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He punishes evil with evil. He brings good out of evil. He tests people with evil and He eventually redeems people from all the evil.
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But He is, in fact, universally, particularly, sovereign over all evil.
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And finally, number six, all things. Jesus upholds all things and He moves it to a consummation.
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What's the all things? Well, creation, history, the small things in life, life and death, evil.
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But the one you're all thinking about, the one you're all waiting for, the one you're all wondering about, is the stumbling block of all stumbling blocks and that is,
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Jesus is king over who goes to His heaven and who doesn't. God is control over who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.
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After all, it's God's heaven. I have been carrying a very heavy surfboard along the water's edge, getting out of the
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Pacific and stubbed my toe on a rock. And you know those kind of stubs where it just splits down the middle, kind of like the parting of the
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Red Sea, because pretty soon you do get the Red Sea, the blood is just gushing out. That's when other surfers want you to go surfing, when you're just bleeding and you attract the sharks.
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And you stub your toe and it is just a killer. These verses and this idea is the theological toe -stubber because the implications are serious.
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The destiny of every human being is in the sovereign control of God.
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It may be hard to take, but it's in the Bible. Let's turn our
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Bibles to look at a few of these verses. First of all, let's go to John 1. Jesus should be listened to.
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This is the context of Hebrews. Why listen to Jesus? Well, we should listen to Jesus because He's great.
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He's the final prophet. He's the priest. He's the king. And He upholds all things. To what extent does
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Jesus uphold all things? To the extent that He upholds even who goes to heaven and who doesn't.
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Don't forget, as we look at this doctrine, grace is never deserved. Sinful rebels never deserve heaven.
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All human beings, short of Jesus Christ, deserve death and eternal judgment.
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Grace is not contingent on anything except God's sovereign, distinguishing work.
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I could put it this way before we read John 1. Well, let's read John 1 first, verses 12 and 13.
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I have kind of a pet peeve, and one of the pet peeves I have in my life is people read verse 12 without verse 13.
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And both of these concepts are here. The human responsibility and the sovereignty of God.
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They're friends. I don't need to reconcile friends, Spurgeon said. John 1 .12. But as many as received
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Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but born of God.
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God is the sovereign one. Theologians call salvation the passivity of regeneration.
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God is sovereign over who enters heaven, and since salvation is something done to people by God, God is the one acting.
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The people are receiving the action, so we call it the passivity of regeneration, or redemption. Maybe the
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Arnolds are related to Thomas Arnold. I don't know. Maybe you guys can find out. I hope you are, because he's a great theologian, and he said this,
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Thomas Arnold, the distinction between Christianity and all other systems of religion consists largely in this, that in these others, other religions, men are seeking after God, while Christianity is
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God seeking after men. So the question is, if it's God seeking men,
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He's the one that has to save. Why doesn't He save everyone? Why does He only save some?
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That's the question. Romans 9 .16, So then it does not depend on the man who wills, or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
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Sovereignty in general shouldn't strike us as odd in the Scripture. Jesus chooses 12 and not everybody else.
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He heals many people, but not all people. He chooses one nation,
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Israel, not all nations. But people start to become mad when they think, and I think it's mainly through ignorance and pride.
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They're mad that they're not in charge of their own salvation, yet Jesus upholds all things. Turn to James 1, please.
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I want to show you that it is God's will. Who decides to go to heaven? And you say, yeah, but I decide,
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I believe. As you're turning to James chapter 1, friend, I ask you the question, did your faith cause your salvation, or is your faith the fruit of said salvation?
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If you cause your salvation, then you're the upholder of your will, and He's not the upholder of all things.
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But if God saves you and you respond with faith and repentance, and I want to follow
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Him and I love Him and I'm thankful to Him, then you're thinking rightly.
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Your faith doesn't cause salvation. It's God's will that causes salvation. By the way,
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I know secretly on your knees when you pray, you believe this fact, don't you? How do you pray?
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God, You uphold all things. You're sovereign over my wife, my husband, my kids, my unbelieving friends.
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Would You grant them eternal life by Your will? That's how you pray. James 1, 17 and 18.
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I mean, what would be the option? People are sovereign and they're enslaved to sin. They'd never believe.
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Except God, He's transcendent but He's also eminent and He sends His Son to rescue people.
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And here's how it's fleshed out. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above.
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Coming down from the Father of lights with whom there's no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will,
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He brought us forth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.
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Isn't this the way kings do it? Think about Esther. King Ahasuerus, he puts out the scepter and says,
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Esther, approach. The difference is
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Ahasuerus liked the way Esther looked. I mean, after all those months of cosmetology, you know, of course he did.
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God puts out His scepter, the Son, to people like us and we're not pretty. We know deep down,
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I know deep down I'm vile and wretched and sinful and yet He chooses me anyway? How about Acts 13, verse 48?
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We need to wrap up here pretty soon but we need to finish this idea. For those of you that say, you know what,
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I get it that God's sovereign but I can negate His sovereign hand because I've got to be able to believe on my own and I've got my own freedom of the will and you've got a variety of ways to kind of work through this to try to avoid the degree of God's sovereignty.
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Acts 13, verse 48. If you say, I believed, but I believed. God didn't believe for me.
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Of course you believed. But you aren't implying that your belief was the cause of your salvation, are you?
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I hope not. Acts 13, verse 48. When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the
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Lord and as many has been appointed to eternal life, what? Believed.
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That's the order. Appointed to eternal life, why? Because Jesus upholds all things. He's not sovereign over everything except people.
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I have a name for someone who's creating people and who's not sovereign over them and his name is
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Victor Frankenstein. God saves
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Ephesians 4, 2, 4 says because of his great love. Not because of our faith.
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Ephesians says through faith. Why does God save? What's the motivation for salvation? He says love.
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Can you imagine an eternity past before Genesis 1? The Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit in perfect communion with one another.
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No secrets between them. Joy, wanting to spend time adoring each other.
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I think Sinclair Ferguson talks about it when a couple is in love and they just think you know, time doesn't even matter anymore because we just so enjoy each other's presence.
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And the Trinity is enjoying one another's presence and the Father and the Son and the Spirit say let's create a world and then
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I'm going to send you, Son, to go rescue the bride. And I love people.
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You love people. The Spirit loves people. And let's go on a rescue mission and I want you to go. Go and redeem those.
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Go and get the bride. I've chosen the bride for you. She's like Gomer, but I want you to go get her.
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And the Son would say no, I don't think I want to go. Of course the
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Son would never say that. I'll go. And then He goes and rescues. And what's the reason to rescue sinners?
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And the only reason is the love of God. If you say well, they knew in advance that some people would believe so let's go rescue them.
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God learns things. He doesn't learn things. He looks in advance and He sees fallen creatures, sinful, enslaved, in theological quicksand.
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But the Father loves sinners. The Son loves sinners. Go rescue them, Son. And the Son says,
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I will. And by the way, that's why it's so awful to ever say, as Ferguson would say and teach, if you say
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Jesus isn't the way of salvation, there are other ways, what else does the
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Father have to give except His Son? He's given everything to go rescue sinners. He has nothing else to give.
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He's given everything, His Son, His only Son, His beloved Son. And then you ask the question, if God grants faith to some, why doesn't
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He grant faith to all? I think it's a fair question, but it's a works -based question, a merit -based question, not a grace question.
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Because a grace question is, nobody deserves anything and God could have given them all justice, but He gave some grace.
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Praise you for grace. 1 Peter 2 .8 does talk about the opposite.
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For they stumbled because they were disobedient to the Word and to this doom they were also appointed.
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Romans 9 .22 does talk about this. What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make
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His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
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Of course man is responsible, but God is sovereign. And God says, sovereignty of God and human responsibility, they don't contradict one another, they complement each other.
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God is sovereign over all His creatures and He governs all them. So, the point of the passage is this in Hebrews, since the
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Son upholds all things, and that means history, large events, small events, people, life, death, skin color, sin, the crucifixion of Jesus, and who goes to heaven and who doesn't, you should say, that kind of person
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I'll listen to. You have souls in your hands, you have the creation of the world in your hand, you're sovereign over everything.
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For those of you who are backsliding today and will watch a pagan game called the Super Bowl on the Sabbath, and they,
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I'm not a Sabbatarian, it's like the King James guy, you know, that said, I said, you won't like this church if you're
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King James only. If you're a Sabbatarian, you won't like this church either, because we're going to be going on bike rides on the
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Sabbath around here. When they pan out, and they show you the stadium, what's the stadium's name in San Francisco?
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It used to be Candlestick, what's it called now? Levi's Stadium? See, it's a biblical thing.
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The Levites. You got to know Leviticus to understand Hebrews. And you go, there's 80 ,000 people.
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I mean, if I say he upholds all things, you're like, that's too big to think about. But how about 80 ,000 people?
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He knows everything they thought, will think, ever think. He sovereignly said, you get this parent, you get this
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DNA, you're going to die this day, you do that, I choose you to get saved, I pass over you, all these things, 80 ,000 people.
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I can't even get my dog to stay in the garage. Father, I thank you for your word.
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I thank you that it is obvious that you do what is good in your sight.
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You are God. And even as Acts chapter 2 says, you deliver it up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, and then other people nailed
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Jesus to a cross. But it was sovereignly ordained. You had that all planned in eternity past in the covenant of redemption with your
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Son and with the Spirit to go rescue people because you're great and because you love them.
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I'm thankful that it's a God who's loving, who's sovereign. Where would we be without a gracious God who's sovereign?
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We would be in the Middle East under Muhammad. And yet here we are. Why? We're not better.
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You've called us out. You've chosen us. You've given us eyes to see. We serve the
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Lord Jesus, the God -man who would stoop and wash the feet of Peter and Judas.
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Why Peter saved and not Judas, Father? We distrust in you. And Father, for me, as I struggle with worry and for this dear congregation, the news of the world causes angst, stock market, portfolios, viruses in Brazil, new president, and the list goes on and on and on.
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We are prone to wander. We worry. Father, would you forgive us for that?
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If you were upholding all things by your Son's power, except the new president or except the
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Zika virus or except the stock market, except our health, then maybe we would have a right to worry.
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But you care for us. And like a good father, you don't want your children to worry. Does not the
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Bible says, I've been old and I've been young, but I haven't seen people begging for bread who are my children.
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And so we want to rest in you. Father, I pray that even as we have loved ones who aren't saved, thinking about my sister, my sister -in -law, my brother -in -law,
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I have family members and this dear congregation does too. We want them to come to saving faith.
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And Father, it's not going to help if we worry and sin because we so want them to believe.
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So we just trust them with you and your sovereign hand. Give us opportunities to tell them about the good news, of course.
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That's how you save people. But we rest in you. And even when we do something stupid, foolish and sinful, like Abraham saying about his wife,
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Sarah, when he was in a tough spot, oh, she's my sister. Lord, you were sovereign over all that.
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You kept Abimelech from touching her because you're sovereign.
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Thank you that although we've made so many mistakes and sinned so much, you're even sovereign over all those things.
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That makes me and that makes the congregation, I'm sure, not want to sin anymore. Thank you for upholding all things.