Jeff Durbin: The Comprehensive Sovereignty Of God | Proverbs 16:9

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If you want to open your Bibles to the book of Proverbs, chapter 16, Proverbs 16, starting in verse 9,

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Proverbs 16, 9, and a perfect song to sing before our message, right?

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Oh, rule, those are the last words, we're, oh, ruler of all. It's part of our worship, it's what we believe about God, and today's message is about the comprehensive or total sovereignty of God.

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In Proverbs, chapter 16, verse 9, hear now the word of the living and the true

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God. The heart of man plans his way, but the

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Lord establishes his steps. Thus far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray together.

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Sovereign God, Heavenly Father, Lord, you are the ruler of all.

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You are incomprehensible, and yet you are here.

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Lord, you're transcendent and yet imminent among us, active.

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And though, Lord, as creatures we cannot fully comprehend all your ways, plumb all the depths of your majesty, your knowledge, your power, and your holiness.

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Lord, you've revealed to us who you are, what you're like, and what you do.

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And so now, Lord, as your creations, as your creatures, you're the creator, you're the sovereign.

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We yield before you in your word, and we ask God that you would apply your word to our hearts tonight.

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Teach us by your spirit. Get the teacher out of the way today for your glory, instruct by your word and spirit.

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We pray, God, that you would allow this message to heal our hearts and our minds. Bless us as your people to see you as you are, as you've revealed yourself to us.

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We praise you, God. Be glorified and lifted up in today's message. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Amen. The sovereignty of God. This is a central, a central core teaching throughout all of Scripture.

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The sovereignty of God. It teaches about his rule. It teaches about his reign.

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It teaches about his control. This is a particularly important message and sermon, because if we get this wrong, not only are we facing just a mountain of text in Scripture that teach us very clearly about God's rule, his sovereignty, his control over all things, we're coming up against a mountain of biblical testimony and evidence that teaches the comprehensive sovereignty of God.

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But if you don't get this right, I promise you, your perspective about God, your view of God is going to dramatically impact how you face suffering and trials and difficulties in this life.

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How you view God here and his sovereignty will impact you and your day -to -day life and your hope and your peace and your rejoicing in God.

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Because if we believe God is this far -off God that actually is in some way impotent, powerless over his creatures and their will, if we believe that things happen in this life without purpose and without meaning, then we are essentially in the same standardless position as the unbeliever who believes that all the universe is is time and chance acting on matter.

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It's chaos. Things just sort of happen with no meaning and no purpose. And that is fundamentally the unbelieving perspective or the humanist perspective or the atheist perspective, that there are things throughout this entire life, as a matter of fact, everything, that are purposeless, they are meaningless, they don't mean anything.

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We are just things bobbing on the surface of the cosmos, and this cosmos doesn't care about us.

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And yet, you know, we've been loving the Lord together as a body for many years now.

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Just even in this, the life of our church body, we've faced so many difficulties and so many challenges from death and disease, just difficulties we've had to face together as a body.

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We've joined together holding hands and fellowshipping and loving God together and grieving together with the dead bodies of our brothers and sisters or even babies before us.

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We've had so many difficulties and challenges that we've worshipped the Lord together in.

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And then, you know, in your own lives, you deal with difficulties every day, financial difficulties, financial strain, relationship difficulties you've dealt with, maybe you are dealing with now, disease, decay, death, in your own lives, in your family, in your circle around you.

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And so this question about the sovereignty of God is everything in those daily struggles and trials.

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It's everything. Now what you believe about this doesn't change the sovereignty of God.

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But what you believe about this will absolutely change you. It will absolutely change you.

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Is God kind of sovereign? Is God mostly sovereign? Or is

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God completely sovereign? The text before us, it's just one of many texts in Proverbs, is the heart of man plans his way, but the

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Lord establishes his steps. There's that reminder that though you make the plans, it's the

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Lord who is the sovereign behind it. It is God who rules over it. He's the master of all of creation.

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He is the great narrator of all of history. This is his story. He carries the universe along to where it's supposed to go, down to the macro issues, to the micro issues, the big issues, the overarching issues, to the minimal issues, the minor issues.

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God is completely sovereign. And look how intensely personal that is. The heart of man plans his way.

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There's individuals there. There's a very personal relationship there, but the Lord establishes his steps.

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God is the sovereign. And this particular teaching, this is important, this particular teaching that you hear so often coming from reformed folks or those with reformed commitments is so important because, and you hear it coming from us so much, because it's a distinctive teaching of scripture about the true

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God, get this, about the true God over against false gods.

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So get that. The reason this is so central is because God actually identifies this particular doctrine, this teaching, this central issue, he identifies it as a distinction between him as the true and living

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God, as the everlasting God, as the all -powerful God, as the mighty God, as the all -knowing

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God. This is the distinctive area that separates God from the false gods of men, idols, gods of our own creation, our thinking, the gods in our mind, the gods we put gold on or flesh on.

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This particular teaching of the sovereignty of God, his comprehensive sovereignty, is something that God identifies as a distinction between him and all the false gods of mankind that God is totally sovereign.

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Just consider now just the book of Proverbs before us, Proverbs 16 .9, we've done together just now, but now look over at Proverbs 19,

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Proverbs 19 .21, Proverbs 19 .21,

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God's word says, many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the

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Lord that will stand. So you're contemplating, you're thinking, you're dreaming, you're creating, you're envisioning, you're hoping, you're planning, you're stretching, you're doing all that you're doing, and yet scripture is still testifying that behind that, all of your plotting, all of your preparing, all of it, behind it all is the purpose of God that will stand.

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Now that's gonna go, I think, personally go either direction in terms of for good or for evil.

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There are people who plot and scheme to do evil things. They plan for the future to do evil things, unrighteous things, ungodly things, unjust things, and what's the text say?

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Be hopeful, child of God, trust the Lord, rejoice in God, because it's the purpose of God that will stand over against the schemers and the plotters and the evil, but at the same time,

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I think there's a second lane there, and that is, of course, you and I as believers. How many times have you as a believer prayed and asked for the will of God in your life, and should

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I go this direction or should I go that direction? At times you're confused about the will of God because you're saying, okay, look,

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Lord, I don't know. Both seem righteous and good. I mean, it's easy, isn't it? Isn't it easy to determine the will of God when you've got two lanes in front of you?

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You can go either path. One of them is righteous and good and spiritual and holy, and the other one is sinful and wrong.

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It's not difficult to discern the will of God in a situation like that, right? It's obvious, this is the way of the

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Lord, God's spoken on these issues, this is where I'm supposed to go, but we plan sometimes in difficult situations where you're having a hard time navigating, what's the will of God?

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Should I go here? Should I go there? How should I actually do this? Maybe it's a business plan, something.

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Where should I go? Where should I move? Where should I set down roots? And so you're asking God and you're planning, and at times you just commit it before the

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Lord and you go. And sometimes it comes out exactly as you thought the Lord was going to do it, and sometimes you get knocked right over and you go,

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I didn't see that coming. And you're kind of maybe even mad at God, like, well, why did you even take me down that path?

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Why did I even waste that time? And the hope you and I have in the comprehensive sovereignty of God is even in the plans you make.

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It is the purpose of the Lord that will stand, meaning in all those scenarios, even with disappointments, even with discouragement, with the true and living

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God, you know His purpose will stand. I am exactly where the

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Lord decreed that I would be for His glory and for my good. That's what the text says.

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And there's more. Again, just the book of Proverbs. Look now at Proverbs 21, verse 1.

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Now this one's a powerful one. There's a lot of people that don't like this one. This one creates difficulties in our anthropology, our view of man.

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We talk about things like free will and the choices of men and all of those questions come right into contact with this, and this creates a challenging scenario for people that might have an unbiblical perspective about the will of man and the sovereignty of God.

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Think about this for a moment now. The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the

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Lord. He turns it wherever he wills. Now that's hope, right?

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That is hope because you know that in the midst of a fallen world, in the midst of evil and plotting and scheming, in the midst of administrations like we have in our nation today, you know that the

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Bible says about God, his revelation is that, well, the king's heart is like a stream in the hand of God.

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He can direct it wherever he wills, meaning that you have hope in your prayers as a child of God that I can pray,

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I can ask God, and if it's according to His will, God can redirect that stream for His purposes in grace and goodness, or He can redirect it in the area of judgment and wrath.

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God controls the king's heart, the ruler's heart. It's like a stream in his hand, which, by the way, also gives you and I hope that what's happening in our world today, with so much darkness and so much evil, and you wonder how do we lose our grip on our sanity?

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And you see it coming from leaders and rulers, and you ask the question, how is this like this?

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Why is this happening? And the answer, if you have a biblical view of the sovereignty and the rule of God, the answer is, actually, yes, they're evil.

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They're doing what they want to do. God isn't forcing people against their will to be sinful, but guess what?

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They're doing and saying what they're doing by permission, and only by permission, meaning that you know that all of the evil and darkness and decay around us is something that is according to the purpose and the plan of God.

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None of it is wasted. Even the king's heart is like a stream in the hand of the sovereign, true, and living

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God. He's that kind of sovereign. Next, go backwards now to Proverbs 16 .33.

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It gets deeper. Proverbs 16 .33. Well, how sovereign is

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God, I wonder? Maybe he's just sovereign over the big things, right?

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The macro things, the things that are overarching, big ticket items. Isn't God just sort of concerned with those things?

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Is he concerned with the sparrow? Is he concerned with the deep? Is he concerned with the chance occurrences in life or the things that seem to be random?

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The book of Proverbs says that God is so sovereign, he's this kind of sovereign. I mean, I could ask like this.

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God is sovereign, and you say, how sovereign is he? I was thinking about doing that, and then

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I thought, no, okay? I resisted the flesh. We think about how comprehensively sovereign is

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God. Think about random occurrences. We call them random occurrences or chance events.

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Think about things like the rolling of the dice, right? Going gambling in a casino, and so much seems completely maybe random or by chance, and the scripture says the true and living

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God, the real God, the only God, the creator of all things, is this kind of sovereign.

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It says, verse 33 of 16, the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the

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Lord. He's that kind of sovereign.

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He manages every detail of his creation, all of it, all of these insane galaxies that are just sprawled out across the universe, everything that is so unbelievably fine -tuned and just working and humming along exactly as it's supposed to go.

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Our own Milky Way galaxy, where we live today, and the planet that we're on is just spinning at just the right amount of speed, and we're just far enough away from the sun that we need to be so that we don't get fried, and just far enough away so we don't freeze to death, and we have just enough with the gravitational pull of the moon to make sure the tides do exactly what they're supposed to do.

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God is managing all of history, every detail, down to what we say are chance occurrences or random events, even the lot.

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That very decision is from the Lord, and honestly, this creates a challenge for people.

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People say, are you telling me that even the roll of the dice, even the roll of the dice is a decision from the

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Lord? My answer to that is, I'm not telling you that. He told you that.

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These are the words of God. This is what God says about himself, and the thing is, as creatures, we say, that's incomprehensible,

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I don't understand that, and my answer to that is, that's why you're the creature, and he's the creator. That's why we worship him.

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And we want a God that looks so much like us. We don't want a God that's that kind of sovereign. We don't want a

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God that's behind every event in history, and yet not actually causing people to sin.

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We don't want a God that is that kind of sovereign, even over the random occurrences of our universe.

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And then 16 .4. The text says, the Lord has made everything for its purpose, and everyone says, glory to God, hallelujah and amen, all of it's in God's hands, and then the text hits you really hard and says, even the wicked for the day of trouble.

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He's made everything for his purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. He's that kind of sovereign over every detail.

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Nothing is outside of his gaze. Nothing is outside of his control. That's what makes him

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God. That's why we worship him as God, and that's so foreign to the gods of mankind. They can't have a

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God like that, that's actually in control of his creation in that way, and then there's more.

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Now go to Proverbs 20 .24. What hope is this?

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Think about this, and hope, and living skillfully every day. It says, a man's steps are from the

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Lord, how then can man understand his way? And another one, go back to 16 .1,

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final one from Proverbs. The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the

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Lord. You know, I thought it was interesting, because have you noticed the book of Proverbs, we've been in it together for a while now, and you have all these amazing bits of divine wisdom that are so transformative.

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Amen? Have you felt like that? Have you felt like this sermon series has just really challenged you and changed you in your daily life, and your interactions with your brothers and sisters, or it's changed you with your wife, or your husband, or your kids?

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You've gleaned some nuggets of divine wisdom that have actually set the stage for a new way of life for you.

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I feel like that in so many ways, the book of Proverbs has done damage to us as a church, righteous damage, in a good way.

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It's healed us up in many ways, and yet there's so many ways where it is skillful living, it's like, put flesh on it, it's application, it's like, look at the ants, sluggard, right?

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And you're like, okay, I get it, don't be lazy, keep pushing on, if something gets in the way, get around it, keep pressing forward, plotting, working, don't be lazy, be skillful in your work, and it's things even down to business transactions, like, don't overcommit, think about your commitments, if you make a promise, you're going to be held to it, and so some of this is like, yeah, that's skill,

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I get it, but it's a lot conceptual, and put hands on it, and then in the book of Proverbs, all of a sudden, there's all of this divine knowledge and wisdom about the sovereignty and hand of God, right?

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You plan your way, he's the one behind it all. It's his purpose that stands, the lot, cast, all the rest, everything down to the king's heart is a stream in the hand of the almighty, and you wonder, like, wait, why is all that detail in there?

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And the answer, I believe, is because if you want to, and I want to live skillfully to the glory of God in this life, we have to have our hearts settled on his rule and reign and sovereignty over every single detail.

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Why? Because this world is fallen, it is a mess, it is filled with injustice, and pain, and harm, and death, and slander, and gossip, and division, and disunity, and lies being breathed out, all that, you're going to face it your entire life, and you have to know as a believer, as a child of God, that there's a sovereign

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God behind all of this, and nothing happens apart from his will, which means all of this evil is happening because of the hand of my loving father, and it's not without purpose, and there's no meaningless event in history, no meaningless transaction.

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That's how sovereign my God is, and so if I want to have skill in living, I have to at the bottom of all of this is a foundation of my father in heaven who loves me, calls me his own, and he's sovereign over everything, everything has a purpose in your life, and I know,

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I know I'm not even going to pretend in any way, like that in any way minimizes the damage that you feel right now.

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People in here are struggling with unfaithful spouses. People in this room dealing with potential divorce.

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People dealing with abuse currently, or you're dealing with past abuse, sexual abuse, or things that have happened in your past.

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Some horrible, awful, terrible things have happened in your life, or maybe you're going through it right now, disappointments, disappointment over your life, and your children even, and it's not what you thought was going to happen, whatever the case may be, we're going through it, you feel it, and I'm not saying that these truths are going to make those things not hurt, but they will cause you to rejoice in the midst of that suffering.

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They will cause you to rejoice in the midst of that pain knowing that I have a loving father who is guiding all of history for my good and for his glory.

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He's sovereign even over this pain, even over this pain, and so it's interesting because I said that it's a distinctive teaching of scripture about the true

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God over against the false God. You see it throughout the book of Proverbs, but it's interesting because it's one of the ways that God has actually highlighted the distinction between him and the false gods, and I want you to know this.

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You've heard it a lot from this pulpit, but I want to make sure you know where to land on this.

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If you go to Isaiah 46, book of Isaiah 46, truly my favorite

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Old Testament prophet and book, Isaiah 46, this is that famous section of the trial of the false gods.

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Here's what God's word says. In Isaiah 46 verse one, it says, Bell bows down,

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Nebo stoops. Their idols are on beasts and livestock.

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These things you carry are born as burdens on weary beasts. They stoop, they bow down together.

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They cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity. Listen to me,

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O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been born by me from before your birth, carried from the womb.

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Even to your old age, I am he, and to your gray hairs,

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I will carry you. Does that make you feel good, Pastor James? Even to the gray hairs. I have made, and I will bear,

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I will carry, and I will save. Now listen, even in that one point there, he's mocking. God is mocking.

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Here's the serrated edge. God against the false gods. God mocking. Why would you do such a thing?

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But note, it's from the womb to your gray hairs. I'm the one that sustains you.

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That's who God is. And God says this, to whom will you liken me and make me equal and compare me that we may be alike?

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Those who lavish gold from the purse and weigh out silver on the scales. Hire a goldsmith.

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And he makes it into a god. God's highlighting the foolishness of this.

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You're getting some professional to work and take the things that God has made in this world to create a god and to fall down and to worship it.

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It says they lift to their shoulders, they carry it, they set it in its place, and it stands there.

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It cannot move from its place. If one cries to it, it does not answer or save him from the trouble.

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And God's highlighting the absolute stupidity of this kind of idolatry.

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You know, have you ever gone to like, I love to go because they always have amazing things and amazing food, but like to like the big

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Asian markets, there's one down the road from here, a big Asian market, they have like the best pho there and boba and all the rest.

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So yeah, okay, so you're seeing what I like. And you go in there and typically in the

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Asian markets, they'll always have like the stores with the storefront and it's just nothing but idols, idols, idols, and you think as you walk by this, and people are buying it, and you're like, this is so stupid, right?

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Like why? Or you walk into like a, like a, something from like the, the Far East and the restaurant or something, and as you go up to the counter to pay, they got this big stupid looking cat idol or something there, and you're like, what are you, what are you doing?

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What are you doing? Just make some great pho. What is this? And you see, and you think about it, it's just so, so stupid, and you're like,

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I, we're in good company. God thinks it's stupid too. It's absolutely foolish, and God's saying like, you're paying some smith to, to build all this, and then you like carry it on your shoulders, it's not even moving, gotta make sure it doesn't fall and break, and then you set it up, it's there, and you talk to it, and it doesn't even talk back to you.

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It's absolute foolishness, and God says this, remember this and stand firm or call it to mind you transgressors, remember the former things of old, for I am

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God, and there is no other. I'm God, and there is none like me.

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Here it is. Here's what offends, here's what offends prideful humanity.

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Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country,

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I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass, I have purposed, and I will do it.

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How sovereign is God? He's that kind of sovereign. You didn't think God cared about the birds of prey and where God is sending them.

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He's that kind of sovereign. He declares the very end from the beginning. God is the master storyteller.

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He's the author behind this redemptive story of history. God's the one who has written it.

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God has declared the end from the beginning, saying it's my purpose that will stand. So get this. God's not only mocking the fact that this is utter futility, it's silliness, that you're taking the stuff that can't talk back to you, it's obviously fake, you're using the stuff that I made with the creature that I made to build this thing, and it won't talk back to you.

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He's like, I'm the only God. There's no one like me. You can't compare anybody to me, and he says,

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I'm the one that declares the end from the beginning, my purpose will stand. Then God talks, go back now to Isaiah 40, about his sovereignty over creation, and listen to what

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God says here in Isaiah chapter 40, starting at verse 12. Oh, this one is powerful, absolutely powerful.

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Isaiah chapter 40, verse 12, listen to the word of God. God says this, who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hands, and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

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Who does that? Who can comprehend that? Who can understand that?

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Have you ever stood in front of the ocean on a beach, and just looked far out and thought to yourself, how much more of that is there?

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That goes on forever. I mean, flying over the ocean for extended periods of time can get kind of scary.

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Years ago, I got asked to go and to help the church in Australia. Actually, Pastor James was there for that as well.

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We weren't on the same flight, unfortunately, but I remember the flight from San Francisco to New Zealand.

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Okay, I'm going to say that again. It was San Francisco to New Zealand, and that is all ocean.

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And there's a certain point during that flight, and it's like a very, very long flight. I think something like 13 or 14 hours or something like that.

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There's a certain point about midway through the flight, where I think every responsible thinking human being probably stops and goes, there's nowhere to land, and there's no help coming if we go down anywhere near here.

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And so you're sort of just like, you know, twirling your thumbs, and it's like, I just can't wait to get near land, because this is all ocean for days, and you're going like hundreds of miles per hour.

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So you're zipping through the air, and it's ocean, ocean, ocean, ocean, ocean, ocean, ocean. Let me look at it again. It's more ocean, ocean, ocean, everywhere, all around us.

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And God is saying about himself, who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? It's like all of the oceans, all the water, everything in this world, all the deep is like right there in the hands and the palm of God.

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God is that kind of sovereign over his creation. And this is powerful. In verse 13, it says this, who has measured the spirit of the

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Lord, or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult, and who made him understand?

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Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?

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It was an interesting point. I think Josh Bice made this point recently in the G3 conference.

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I think it was Josh. So many good talks from there, but Josh, I think, mentioned here regarding this, that we understand that today, when we have political leaders, rulers, governors, presidents, you'll always hear about their cabinets, right?

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They've got their professional counselors, their experts next to them, that are supposed to do what?

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What are they supposed to do? They're supposed to give them advice, right? Because from a human perspective, what do we all know?

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That none of us knows everything. And none of us can be experts in absolutely everything.

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And so what about humans? A wise human being will allow for counsel to say, well, you're missing this.

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You need to understand this. You need to know this, which is, by the way, also why I love so much that within a local church context,

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I believe we have deep convictions about this. Scripture has multiple elders over a church body, so that there's wisdom and counsel.

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Someone can say yes. Someone can say no. There's always something where you say, oh, I didn't even realize that.

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In abundance of counselors, there is wisdom. Listen, from a human perspective, we all understand. We know.

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We go to each other. Hey, am I missing something here? Can you help me with something here? And you realize, oh,

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I didn't even see that. Thank you for that. Or with women particularly, women will ask like, well, how can

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I do this better? Or what would you recommend? And women will go to older, more godly women, and they'll say, you know, how do you do this in your home?

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Or how do you do that? And how can I skillfully do this? We all understand human beings need wisdom and counselors around us.

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And God's point is this. Whom does he consult? Who teaches

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God? Who's on God's cabinet? Who are the people that surround

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God that tell him, Lord, make sure you do this. Lord, this is the way to go. The point is, is

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God is this kind of sovereign. No one teaches him. No one's like him. No one counsels him.

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No one instructs him in justice. God is the very foundation of knowledge and wisdom, and that's why we worship

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God. He's that kind of sovereign. And the text goes on. It says this in verse 15, behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are accounted as the dust on the scales.

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Behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

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All the nations are as nothing before him. They are accounted by him as less than nothing, an emptiness.

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To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? An idol, a craftsman, an idol, a craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts it for silver chains.

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He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot. He seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move.

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Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

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It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like a tent to dwell in, who brings princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

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Now one last point here from this chapter in 25, it says this. To whom then will you compare me?

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That I should be like him, says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these.

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He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name. By the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.

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Not one is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel? My way is hidden from the

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Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God. Have you not known?

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Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth.

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He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable.

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He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might, he increases strength.

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Even youth shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. But they who wait for the

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Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary.

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They shall walk and not faint. This is the God that we're talking about.

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This is how sovereign he is. And then final word on this from Isaiah and the trial of the false gods. In Isaiah 41, verse 21, here's what

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God says. He says this, set forth your case, says the

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Lord. Side note for all of you apologetic ninjas and those who are into Christian epistemology and philosophy.

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One of the foundations of reason and laws of logic in terms of a foundation for them from scripture, so many ways you can talk about it.

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But here's an example of God, the central reference point. God, the foundation of knowledge, saying to the world, set forth your case.

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All right, give me an argument. Talk back. Say something that makes sense. God says, set forth your case, says the

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Lord. Bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob. Let them bring them and tell us what is to happen.

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Tell us why the former things, tell us the former things, what they were, that we may consider them, that we may know their outcome or declare to us the things to come.

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Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Do good or do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified.

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Behold, you're nothing and your work is less than nothing. An abomination is he who chooses you. Here's the point

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God's saying. That's the, by the way, that's the climax to God's dropping the mic.

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That's God crushing the argument. God's saying, all right, make your case. Let's see you make your argument. How about this?

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Tell us the future. Go ahead, false God, who sits on a stand that can't move, that's made from stuff that I made.

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Go ahead, the one who doesn't see or hear or speak, make your case.

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Bring your case. Tell me what's going to happen in the future. Tell me, since you're

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God. And the answer is, well, they don't do a lot of talking, first and foremost. The idol is dumb and deaf.

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They can't hear you. They're not gonna respond. The point is, this is futility. And God is saying, what separates me from the false gods of mankind is

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I can tell you what the shape of the future is, because I declare the end from the beginning. It's my purpose that will stand.

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I can tell you the future because I'm the one who holds it all together. And then God says this, and this is a unique one.

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And when Pastor James taught me this many years ago, the light bulb came on for me, and it was a powerful thing because it brought so much hope to my own life.

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God's saying to the false gods, okay, tell me the future. Can you do that? No, you can't, because you're not the sovereign

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God. But do this. How about the past? Tell us the past, and tell us why things have happened the way they have.

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See, God can tell you history, and he can tell you every detail as to why it occurred the way that it did.

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Which means that the future is not the only thing that has purpose. It's what has already occurred in this world and in your life that has a purpose known to God for his glory, the one who purposed it.

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And ultimately, we know if you're in Christ for your good, God can tell you everything about the past.

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And he can tell you every detail as to why, everything. Every detail, the shape of all of human history, every small step, every butterfly effect,

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God can say, and here's why I did that. And here's why I moved this direction. And here's why

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I said no there, because I was doing this. I was moving you here.

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I was moving the pieces here for my glory in this way. And the answer is yes, I confess, we are not gonna know every answer on this side of heaven, you won't.

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Are you okay with that? Am I okay with that, being okay with not knowing the answer to every pain, every thorn, every hurt, every bit of persecution, every death?

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Are you okay with not knowing? But are you okay with knowing that it's because of a sovereign, loving, holy, righteous judge who always accomplishes his purpose?

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That's what God is saying. The future, the past, I run the history. I'm the one that can tell you every detail as to why, which means, by the way, we know that everything that happens in our lives happens because it's first strained through the sovereign hand of God and decreed by God for his purposes.

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Nobody thwarts God. Now, one other thing. I said this was a distinctive teaching in scripture that separates

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God, the true God, from all the false gods of mankind. So here's the heart of it. He's sovereign, he rules over all, he reigns over all.

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His purpose always stands from the micro things to the macro things, the small things, the insignificant things to the big things.

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But this is also a distinctive teaching of the Reformation, something that the reformers were highlighting from scripture.

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It was a major, major blow to a lot of false teaching because the sovereignty of God, the rule of God is offensive to natural man.

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It's offensive to people who are trying to save themselves or their own good deeds or their own will or their own good works.

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And so, of course, at the heart of the Reformation was not just sola scriptura in terms of what's the ultimate authority here, what's the measuring line, how do

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I know? But it was this doctrine of the sovereignty of God that's throughout the Bible. And so, of course, you got a lot of things in the

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Reformation that were light in the world. Sola scriptura, sola gratia, sola fide, solus

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Christus, that Christ alone is the one for salvation and his atonement and his mediation.

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But then this one, and it is solely what? Daniel, some of you guys, you guys sound so sad about that.

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To God alone be the glory. Okay, let's try this. Solely what?

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To God alone be the glory. Why add that?

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Stop to think about that. Why add that? Like I get sola gratia, grace alone. It's all God from him. Why sola fide?

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I get that. It's the sole instrument for justification and eternal life. And I get solus

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Christus because it's one savior, one God, one perfect sacrifice. I get all that. But why soli deo gloria?

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Soli deo gloria is actually one of the most offensive ones there, because it takes man, men and women, out of the equation.

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And it says that it is solely because of a sovereign God whose purpose will always stand that all of this takes place, everything to the glory of God and the honor of God.

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God is sovereign, soli deo gloria. God is sovereign, God gets all the glory. Now, fallen man hates this truth.

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And I'll tell you what, there's no more frenzy of activity and no more band hammers coming from me than when

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I talk on the sovereignty of God on social media. I will tell you, sometimes, I'm still being sanctified, work with me.

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Sometimes, I'll do a post in the sovereignty of God to the glory of God, but also to clear out my friends list, right?

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Cuz as soon as you mention the sovereignty of God, everyone comes nipping at you, right? And so you can mention something that like, you know what

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I've done before? I've written posts. Now again, I'm being sanctified, forgive me. I had a holy and righteous purpose in this.

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I've written posts before where I literally use just verses, but I don't identify the verse reference where it's coming from.

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And I'll form it like a paragraph talking about the sovereignty of God. I'll just be using scripture. But I'll reword things just a bit where they can't quite tell.

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It's like King James English or something. And they can't quite tell where I'm pulling from. But I'll bring together a string of things in a paragraph with no reference.

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And you'll see people going, that's horrible. I can't believe you say that about God. And yuck, and rah, and people come with pitchforks and they're yelling.

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And I'm like, I was quoting from Psalm and Proverbs and Isaiah. These are the words of God.

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Because I think there's no more offensive doctrine from the Bible than the sovereignty of God.

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Because as creatures who are at war with God, one of the very first things we're gonna revolt against is his rule, his sovereignty.

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That God is God and I'm not. And so when you talk about the sovereignty of God, people hate this truth.

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Prideful men hate it too. Because when you talk about God as the ultimate, God as the sovereign, as the ruler over every detail, prideful men hate it because me, me, me.

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I wanna be part of the story. Like I must get some credit here. What are you saying? It's like all God's got nothing to do with me, that God grants faith,

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God grants repentance, God chooses the people in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world. Yeah, that's what the

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Bible teaches, plainly, clearly, you can't avoid it. People say, that doesn't make sense.

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I've gotta have something to do with it. Where's my part of this? Where's my crown? Where's my glory? Now, people may not be so perverse and sort of out there with it.

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And that objection, I've heard that, by the way, just like that. But not everybody announces their offense of the complete sovereignty of God over salvation in that way, but it lurks there.

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Are you saying it's all God? It's got nothing to do with me? He does the choosing for grace. He does the regeneration.

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He draws people. He saves people, that there's really nothing in me that did this?

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Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's what God says, all to his glory. And it offends people. It even offends professing

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Christians. What the Bible says about the sovereignty of God doesn't just offend unbelievers.

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It offends professing Christians. Why? Because we want the credit. And here's one instance, one thing that we can't answer today's sermons.

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I'm just gonna give you what the Bible says, but here's one thing where people think I'm protecting God's reputation.

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Right, God is sovereign, but there's a lot of really bad stuff that happens in this world. A lot of bad stuff, every day, right now, in the world.

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People are being victimized, people are being abused, there's pain, there's suffering, people are weeping, people are crying, people are grieving right now, and people say, well, if we say

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God is completely sovereign and he has a purpose in everything, then we're gonna somehow indict God, because God's got an answer for all this evil in the world.

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And the answer is, yeah, scripture has an answer for all of that. Men are responsible, they're doing what they want to do, this is a fallen world, we've chosen it for ourselves.

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These are the consequences of our sin, this is what we deserve, but God is sovereign and not being thwarted by us.

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But I would argue that we think we are protecting God's reputation with the evil that happens in the world when we say that God's not sovereign over it, we're not protecting

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God's reputation, we're actually indicting God. Think about this, we're indicting

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God because if evil takes place in this world apart from the purpose and plan of God, that means that evil happens before the watching eyes of an impotent

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God, thwarted by the mighty will of his creatures without any intention, meaning, plan, or purpose in the evil.

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You see, that is a view that I am not prepared to take about my God. I am not prepared to believe that God is impotent or thwarted by the mighty will of his creatures.

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I am not prepared to say that the sovereign holy God of scripture is standing by over the evil in history with no purpose, no plan, and no meaning behind the evil things that happen in this world.

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That is not the God of the Bible, and I reject that. Remember God's challenge to the false gods?

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What did you challenge him with, brothers and sisters? Tell me the what? The what?

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The future and the what? Meaning all of it has purpose. God's sovereign over all of it.

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People will say, okay, Pastor Jeff, I get it, I see the text, they seem very clear. We've got whole discourses, not just proof texts here, they're single lines.

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We've got whole discourses, whole discussions. This is everywhere from the beginning to the end. I get it, but what about free will and the sovereignty of God?

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Answered quickly, because that's not the main point of today's sermon. The Bible teaches that fallen man's will is actually enslaved and not free.

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So we hear a lot of conversation about what about free will? I think we need to go and have a biblical anthropology, a view of man, men and women, mankind, the image of God.

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Jesus said in John 8, 34, whoever commits sin is what? A slave of sin.

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Where did we ever get the idea that we're free? Where did we ever get the idea that we're free, completely free?

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Jesus says, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. If you are a slave, you are not free, which is why

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Jesus says, if the sun sets you free, what? You shall be free indeed.

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But when we talk about humanity, fallen people, their wills aren't free. They're making choices, willing choices.

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They are their desires. They're doing what they want, but their will isn't free. It's enslaved, which is why the gospel is so glorious, because Jesus saves sinners from the penalty of their sin and the power of their sin.

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He sets people free. Even their natures are changed, which is when we talk about being born again or regenerate or made alive and no longer dead.

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But this idea of the free will of man, no, in the fall, our wills are enslaved, not free.

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And I want to answer this too, when we talk about the sinful choices people make under the sovereign rule of God, they're doing what they want.

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God's not making anybody sin ever. They're doing what their will wants, but the will operates on the basis of the nature.

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If you have a fallen nature, you will have fallen choices. Fallen nature feeds the fallen choices.

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Now what we do have, I think a more biblical way to talk about this in scripture, is we would have a creaturely will.

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We're creatures. God is sovereign. We're doing what we want. It's a creaturely will, but God is the only truly free being in existence.

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He's the one that does what he wants. Now I'm going to give you guys some verses to work with and go back later to study more and dive deeply into this, but I wanted to give you the word of God on this issue and just let him speak.

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He declares, God declares his comprehensive sovereignty and rule throughout the

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Bible. I want to tell you right now, this is a hard message to prepare because it's always a question of where do

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I start and where do I end? I don't want to exhaust the people of God as they're hearing a sermon, but there's so much and so many powerful, hopeful quotations to pull from, but I'm going to give you some.

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God declares his comprehensive sovereignty and rule. Psalm 115, three.

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God says, our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases.

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Job 42 to I know that you can do all things and the no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

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Romans 8 28 and we know that for those who love God, what all things work together for good for those who are called, called according to his what purpose.

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I'm glad you all know that. Praise God. Psalm 103 verse 19 it says the Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all some 135 six, whatever the

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Lord pleases, he does in heaven and every Christian goes amen to that.

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God's in charge of heaven. That's where he's sovereign. The text says in heaven and in on the earth, in the seas and all the deeps, even deep down there with them ugly, ugly fish and crazy things.

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I don't even want to think about it's ugly down there and it says that God in heaven sovereign over that he's not sovereign over the earth.

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He's even sovereign over that crazy, filthy deep. Sorry, you guys are hearing how

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I feel about the ocean, how scared I am of it. Now Daniel four 35 says all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing.

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You've already heard that before. That's an Isaiah. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing.

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Where did we ever get the idea that the will of man is so powerful and so mighty to God that he just can't do anything about it?

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He's just trying so hard. He wants to do and he, he desires to do. He's just trying so hard, but it's just this, this mighty little puny grasshopper creature that's thwarting his purpose.

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He does all that he pleases. He does all that he pleases and it says he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say to him, what have you done?

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Isaiah 46 10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things not yet done saying my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose.

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Lamentations three 37 who has spoken and it came to pass unless the

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Lord has commanded it, unless the Lord has commanded it. I love this one.

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Isaiah 43 13 also henceforth I am he. There is none who can deliver from my hand.

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I work and who can turn it back. Isaiah 14 27 for the Lord of hosts has purposed and who can annul it?

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His hand is stretched out and who will turn it back? Isaiah 14 24 the

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Lord of hosts has sworn as I have planned, so shall it be.

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And as I have purposed, so shall it stands. Again, we can go for days on this, but you see that God announces over and over and over his purposes, his counsel.

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He declares it. He's sovereign over it. He's in control. So what exactly is

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God sovereign over? We noted in Proverbs 16 33 that God is sovereign even over what we would call chance or random events.

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The lot itself is God's determination. The chance or random events, or how about God being sovereign over death and life?

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Go to Deuteronomy brothers and sisters, Deuteronomy 32, Deuteronomy 32 verse 39.

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This one is another text that is offensive to natural man, to the person who's fallen, person who's in rebellion.

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People don't like this about God. They don't like God being this kind of sovereign. We don't like God being this kind of responsible.

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In Deuteronomy 32 39, it says, see now that I, even

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I, I am he and there is no God beside me. I kill and I make alive.

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I wound and I heal and there is none that can deliver out of my hands.

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God's the giver of life. We get that, right? We love that as families and we rejoice in God that we have a baby in the womb, a baby born, families that God has created and God has given to us.

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But God's also the one who determines the boundaries of your life and your breath and your heartbeats.

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And God's the one who determines when life ends. Now you know, watch, I know, I recognize completely in Deuteronomy 32, it's a powerful thing.

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It's an encouraging thing, but it's also a devastating thing. It can be a threatening thing from God, but you know it as a child of God in a much more satisfying way.

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Just think about that truth about God being sovereign over death and life from Matthew 6, 25 to 33, just record it.

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You already know the, you know the section. It's where Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount is telling his people not to be anxious.

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It's one of my very favorite things because God used that section of scripture to heal my life as a very, very anxious and worried person.

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Very anxious. Healed my heart in this area. But you know what Jesus says, he doesn't just say, do not be anxious as a command and then like walk away.

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Don't be anxious guys, stop. And like walk away and we're like, uh, I need a little more because it's there.

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He actually tells us why we're not to be anxious and what is one of the things he says?

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The very hairs on your head are numbered. Do you know that detail?

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I mean it's easy for some of you, right?

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But that's kind of not fair to use that example. But the point is that Jesus is saying to people, he's saying he knows the very hairs on your head.

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Do you think he, you think he's lost somehow with his care for you, his love for you, his concern for you?

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You don't even know that detail. And then Jesus says, do not be anxious. He says with, with all your anxiety, can you add an hour to your life?

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So all your worry, all your trouble, all your anxiousness, can you add an hour to your life?

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And the answer from each one of us as a child of God, we're like, no. And, and, and why, why, why can you not add an hour to your life that you're worried?

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And the answer is going to have to be inevitably what? That's in the hands of my sovereign father. He's the one that's already determined my life.

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There's a day recorded in the mind of God, decreed by God of your and my death.

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It's a fallen world. Some of those things are going to be painful. Some of them will be easy. But the point is, is that the father has determined the boundaries of your life.

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He kills and he makes alive. How sovereign is God? He's sovereign over death and life.

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He's sovereign over calamity. And this one is offensive to people.

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But the text could not be clearer. Isaiah 45 verse 7. God says that he is sovereign even over calamity.

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That there's purpose and meaning behind calamity. He's the sovereign one over it. Isaiah chapter 45 verse 7.

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God says this, I form light and create darkness. I make well -being and create calamity.

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I am the Lord who does all these things. We want to protect

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God. We want to protect him, his reputation in a fallen world. There's darkness, there's evil, there's calamity.

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We'd like to protect him. He's got nothing to do with this. He's got nothing to do with this, right? You have like famous televangelists on television lying to people about God.

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You have people trying to minimize the blow of the pain that's occurred and say God's got nothing to do with this.

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If God has nothing to do with it, then it was purposeless, meaningless, evil.

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And God is impotent. And he's not worthy of your worship if he's got nothing to do with it.

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And God is standing there with a televangelist saying God's got nothing to do with this calamity,

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God's got nothing to do with this pain. And God's actually saying he wants his day. He says,

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I form light and create darkness. I make well -being and create calamity.

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Well, God, you're not responsible for that. And God says, I'm the Lord who does all these things.

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Are we prepared to believe what God says about himself or how about in Job chapter one related to calamity?

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Would you go there just for a moment? I wasn't gonna read all this, but I think it'd be best that I just read this small section so we can actually hear the weight of it.

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In Job chapter one, Satan is asking to hurt

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Job and he only gets to do what he does to Job by divine what?

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Permission, only by permission. Satan is doing all this, but he's only doing it by permission.

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And in Job chapter one, starting in verse 13, listen to how bad this is. Now, there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house.

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And there came a messenger to Job and said the oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them. And the

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Sabaeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword and I alone have escaped to tell you.

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While he was yet speaking, there came another and said the fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and they consumed them and I alone have escaped to tell you.

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While he was yet speaking, there came another and said the Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid of the camels and took down and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword and I alone have escaped to tell you.

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While he was yet speaking, there came another and said your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house.

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And behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck down, struck the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young people and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.

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That's a bad day, that's a bad day. Listen to Job's response.

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Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell down on the ground and worshipped.

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In that moment, experienced so much death, so much pain, back to back to back.

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The enemy was just working him over all by divine permission, but it still hurt.

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And Job's response is to fall down before God and to worship God.

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And his response is powerful. It says this, naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall

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I return, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the

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Lord. Now wait a sec, wait, wait, wait, wait.

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Everybody goes, I get the blessings. That's all from the hand of God. I get that's

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God gave me that. I wanna give God praise for all the cattle and all the sheep and all the family and the wine and the stuff in the houses and all the wealth.

01:02:37

And that's all from God. God, you get the credit for that. But Job actually sees in the calamity still the sovereign hand of God.

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He's like, I came naked into this world. I'm gonna leave naked. And he says, God gave and God took away.

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Wait, God took away? God took away? You're saying God took away? I thought it was

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Satan who came and attacked you. I thought it was Satan who wanted to destroy you. And he recognizes that God has a sovereign purpose in all of this.

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And it was God's decision. It was God's decision to determine whether or not it would happen. It was God at first. It was by divine permission.

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It was God, God, God. He gave and he took away. Notice the response. Well, maybe, Job, that was a theologically wrong answer.

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You should have said God gave. But let's not indict God and say that God is the one who took away.

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But the verse after that says, in all this, Job did not sin or charge

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God with wrong. So even the calamity, even the death, even the decay, even the brokenness,

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God has a purpose, I'm naked in, I'm naked out, God's sovereign over all this. He gave, he took away, blessed be the name of the

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Lord. That's the kind of sovereign God that we worship. That's how sovereign

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God is. Scripture teaches that God is also sovereign over physical ailments.

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We're gonna go quickly through these last ones, but go to Exodus chapter four. Again, these are offensive, and I'm not making excuses.

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I won't try to minimize what Scripture says. Scripture, these are the words of God, and this one is highly offensive to people, but this is what

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God says about himself. In Exodus chapter four, starting in verse 11,

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God claims to be sovereign even over the physical ailments. Then the

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Lord said to him, who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind?

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Is it not I, the Lord? God's taking responsibility in a fallen world for even those bits of human brokenness.

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But there's another instance of God explaining the purpose in these things.

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If you go to John chapter nine, related to this claim of God.

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This is a famous scene. You already all know this one. You're familiar with this one. If you've read John, you know. In John chapter nine, you have the account of the blind man.

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Jesus heals him, but what's said before is actually pretty powerful. It's related to exactly what

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God says about himself. As he passed by, verse one, he saw a man blind from birth, and his disciples asked him,

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Rabbi, who sins? This man or his parents, that he was born blind? Everyone wants to know that, right?

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Whose fault is this? Whose fault is your physical problem? Is it your fault?

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Is your mom and dad is some sort of generational curse? Something like that. And Jesus just dispels all of it, puts it right back in the sovereign hand of God.

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He actually says, it was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

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So what does Jesus believe about his blindness? Is this man's blindness is in the hands of God, and it has a purpose.

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This has meaning. It's not what you think it was. It's not his fault. It's not his parents' fault.

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God has a plan in this brokenness, in this fallen world. And so God says he is sovereign even over the physical ailments.

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God says he is sovereign over the rulers of the people, for evil or for good. Daniel 221,

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Daniel 417. God is sovereign over choosing a people for grace and salvation.

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Ephesians 1, John 6, John 10. Jesus says,

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I've come down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who has sent me, that of all that he has given to me,

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I should lose what? Nothing. So Jesus says, this is my mission, here's why

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I've come. That all that the father has given to me, I should lose nothing but raise it up on the last day.

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There's a people given to Jesus Christ that he came for. And in John 10, Jesus says that he's the good shepherd who lays his life down for the sheep.

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I have other sheep which are not of this fold, them I must also bring. They will hear his voice. And the

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Jews of that day say to him, tell us if you're the Messiah. And Jesus says, I told you.

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And the reason you can't hear me is because you are not of my sheep. Even your ability to hear is in the sovereign hands of God, whether it's for grace or for judgment.

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Now I want actually to spend time, as we talk about the sovereignty of God, to anchor ourselves in it.

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I want to spend more time on this particular truth, but not today. Cuz I actually want to do it in a way that's a little more comprehensive as you can be in one sermon.

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But I wanna talk about how sovereign is God over even the salvation of his people.

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Does God truly choose people to save, to set his love upon, to give grace to? Does he actually do everything to save them?

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And does that also mean that God has prepared people for destruction? That he actually sovereignly determines whether he's gonna give them justice or grace?

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Does the Bible teach that? My answer is yes, clearly, throughout, everywhere, he's that kind of sovereign.

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But here's the point of today, the final word, the so what of the day. You know the passage that we read today, most all of you know.

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And it's probably for you the same thing it's been for me. It's been that daily reminder in the midst of pain that this has purpose, this has meaning.

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God hasn't lost this. He's not neglecting us. He's not neglecting me. It's Romans 8 .28,

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God causes what? All things, not some things, not some times.

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These anchors in the wisdom of God from Proverbs testify to what all the scripture says, but especially that verse, one of our favorite verses, he causes all things to work together for what?

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Good, for those who love God, those who are the called according to his what?

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He has a purpose in it, he has a purpose in it. Everything in this life ordained by God, everything in this life decreed by God for his glory and for our good.

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So I wanna encourage you with these bits of divine wisdom. I asked myself this week, well, what are these things doing in here?

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Now, I don't perfectly know the mind of God, but I can tell you what I'm sure of, what

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I'm confident about is there's no way to truly walk with divine wisdom in this world as fallen and as dark as it is, as painful as it is, if you don't have the anchor for your soul of the sovereignty of God.

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That everything is planned and purposed by God with meaning for his glory and for our good, amen?

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Let's pray. Father, I pray that you'd bless the word that went out today for your kingdom and purposes.