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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/peter-simms/the-gospel-the-sovereignty-of-god/
Well, there's not a whole lot of time I'm going to have today to speak on our first lesson, because I want to show you basically what this chart is all about. And hope you'll come back and get to know, to understand these doctrinal truths.
Now, they're all true and based upon what happened here. When this man, Jesus Christ, the last Adam, died upon that cross, he was buried, and on the third day rose again from the dead. Now, the basic truths that we're going to be talking about is that we all were once identified with this man.
He's called the first Adam, and he represented the human family. And when he fell and sinned, we all fell with him as our federal head. In Adam, all died. In Adam, I'm a rebel. I'm a slave. I'm a criminal.
I'm dead in sin. In Adam, God is my judge. Woe be to the man who dies in Adam. Woe unto them that go in the way of Cain. And so, that is man's predicament because of this one man's sin. Now, into the world came another man, and this is the Son of God, and he becomes incarnate.
We're going to talk about that one night. His incarnation. And he comes to be the man that this man should have been and failed. So he comes into the world now to be the head of another race, another family.
Now it says in our Bible, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. All things are brand new in this man because we're no longer in this man, but we're now in this man. And so the whole purpose of our chart is to show how God takes us out of Adam and puts us in Christ, where everything now is brand new.
If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. All things are forever passed away. Everything in Christ is brand new. Here, in Christ, all shall be made alive. In Christ, I am a new creation. In Christ, I'm a child.
I'm a saint. I'm an heir. In Christ, God is my Father. And these doctrines here are describing to us what is ours now in Christ, by virtue of what happened there on that cross. So on this cross, the Lord Jesus died.
And one time I asked the question, just to show you that not only young people don't always understand fully, I asked the question in one place, I said, is the death of the Lord Jesus sufficient to get a man to heaven?
And I stopped for a minute, and one of the elders down in the corner said, brother, what more does a man need to get to heaven than the death of Christ? What would you say? Who said that? Yeah. See, if all we have is a dead Christ, and He's buried over there under the Israeli desert sand somewhere, it's no value to us.
No. The Gospel is too prone. The Lord Jesus died to become accountable before God and for us what the sin of this man brought into the world and wrecked everything. He died for that sin, and He was buried, but it's no good if He stays in the grave.
The job's not finished. He has to rise from the dead as a conqueror and a defeater of sin. And now He becomes a risen Christ. And what God's work through the Gospel is, is to convince men what they are in Adam and show them what He has done for them through Christ, death, burial, and resurrection.
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried, and on the third day, He arose again according to the Scriptures. Christ also hath once suffered for sins, for the unjust, that He might bring us to God in resurrection.
So that's what we're basically going to be talking about. But the first three nights, or lessons, we're going to talk about, it's not so much in detail. If I had the chance to make the chart over, I'd do a whole lot of different things, but it's like everything else.
Well, you build your house, and then after you got the thing all up and built, you wish you'd have did this, and you wish you'd have done that, and so on. Well, that's just like making a chart. But this is what it is, and so we've got that to work with.
I want to spend, I think, three sessions on the sovereignty of God. Because the critics in the higher learning are challenging us, not so much like they used to in the past, but they're trying to take all the blame for sin and place it on God Himself.
And they're saying, if there is a God, then He's to blame. And if He is the God you Christians say He is, He is to blame. Therefore, He's not the God you Christians say He is. Because if He is the God you Christians say He is, He wouldn't have done what He did.
So we're going to go back now. How long do I have? Fifteen minutes? Alright. Pardon? Oh, twelve. Oh, that's not so bad then. I thought it was a quarter to. Alright. So, a preacher sometimes has trouble saying what he wants to say.
Anyway, here it is now. We're going to read a verse, a couple of verses now. And we're going to call this session, The Pre-Creation Sovereignty of God. Pre-creation. Sovereignty. That is, the sovereignty of God expressed before ever He made a thing.
I want in this lesson to try and help you to be able to answer these critics. And not only the critics, because if you've got a brain like mine, you also ask questions. What do you do that for? He didn't have to do that.
And when we create in our mind a whole lot of other things that might have been done to avoid the mess that the world's in today. So, I want to straighten our thinking out about that, our own mind, and then to help us to be able to answer the critics.
Because we'll have an understanding in our mind what was involved. Okay, Psalm 135, and verse 6. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven and in earth, in the seas and all deep places. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that He did in heaven and in earth, in the sea or anywhere else.
And if we read Daniel chapter 4, let's look at Daniel chapter 4 and verse 35. If you put these verses in your mind, it will help. Daniel 4 and verse 35. Now, this is the words of Nebuchadnezzar. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing.
And He doeth, that's God, the God of Daniel, and He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, what doest thou? Or in our language, say to God, what are you doing?
Nobody can say that to God. Nobody has a right to ask God or to challenge God or question God as to any of His works. Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9 and verse 20. Now, here's people like today, and maybe in our own minds, we're questioning God as to His ways.
And verse 20 says, but nay, O man, or verse 19, thou wilt say then unto me, why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay, but O man, who art thou that replies against God? Shall the thing form, say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus?
What did you make me the way I am for? You made me, and you made me the way I am, and if I turned out bad, it's your fault. You made me, I didn't make myself. I didn't ask to be born. This whole thing is in God's court.
So, you see the way the ungodly think, and they're trying to get the whole problem thrown back into God's lap. He's the problem. Because he didn't make the thing right. Isaiah chapter 26, or 29. Isaiah 20, let me see here now, Isaiah 29 and verse 16.
Now, this is the prophet reasoning, and God is instructing him in inspiration as to what to say. Isaiah 29, verse 16. Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay. For shall the work say to him that made it?
He made me not. So, here's a denial of the creatorial power of God. He made me not. And shall the thing that's being created, he made me not. Or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it? He has no understanding.
He made a mess of it. He didn't know really what he was doing. So, when he had the thing all formed, it turned out bad, because he didn't understand how to do it right. Okay. So, I'm just going to start on this, because we want to try and answer these problems.
First, I'm going to use an illustration. Now, remember, we're going back before creation. No world, no galaxies, no milky way, no stars, nothing but God. God, the great designer, is going to design his creation.
There's nobody there to ask counsel from, and there's nobody there to give account to after the design is done. Now, you're going to make a house. You're going to build yourself a house. And you sit down and you make your plan.
And can the house that you're going to build talk to you and say, don't build it this way? No, you know that. The house cannot talk back. The house cannot have no input into its own making. You're framing it.
You're putting it together. You're putting the door where you want. You're putting the kind of roof on you want. And you're putting the kind of basement you want. You're doing everything you want as you design this house.
And the house has no part in it. You're the designer. You're using your own resources to build it. And you're not asking Joe or Jack or Bill anything about how to build it. You're the one building the house.
Using your own resources. You'll build it like you want, how you want, where you want, and you'll do as you please. Psalm 135 said, God does what he pleases in heaven and on earth and in the seas. And Daniel 4 and 35 said, when God's doing it, nobody can ask him, what are you doing?
Questioning what God is doing. Nobody can do that. And the thing framed cannot say, you didn't make me. It's like, you know, keep the idea of the house. I know it's a little funny, ridiculous, because the house can't talk.
But it would be like the house saying to you, the builder, you didn't make me. You didn't build me. See how ridiculous that is? And again, the house saying to you, you didn't know what you were doing, man.
You really made a mess of things. You didn't know what you were doing. That's Isaiah 26 and 29 and verse 16. Okay, here's God. Far back there in the past. There's nothing. And God's designing creation.
He takes advice from nobody. And he's accountable to nobody. What he does, he's going to make. Now, this is one of the reasons why a Christian, or those who believe the Bible and believe in God, become such great worshipers of God.
Because when they look around and see what God did, how did God design that? Where did he get the ideas from? Some of the animal world. Man, they're beautiful. Beautiful. Graceful. Some of the fish in the sea.
They're beautiful. The fowls, some of those birds, they're so beautiful. They sing such beautiful songs. And they all got a different song. The Milky Way. I understand there's lots of them. Galaxies by the billions.
Stars untold. God designed them. And God planned where they would be and where they would fit into His creation. He planned the whole thing. Designed it in His mind. And He planned to make angels. Angels weren't born like you and I.
There's no marriage with angels. God created all those angels at one time. And He made one. He planned to make one. One big one. Over all the rest. The bright and shining one. Lucifer. Now here we're running into some problems now.
You see, there was nobody there to say to God, Now look, you know what you're doing? You're omnipotent? All powerful? Yeah, look at the universe. God's infinite in power. He's omnipotent. But He's also infinite in omniscience.
He knows everything. God never learns anything. Neither did He ever forget anything. With God, everything is one right now. No such thing as tomorrow with God or yesterday. Everything with God is right now.
His omniscience. And His wisdom. He's wise. He can't make a mistake. If He can make a mistake, He's not God. So He can't make a mistake. So here He is. He's going to make this angel called Lucifer. And there's nobody there to say to Him, Look, don't make Him.
You know what He's going to do. And you know what He's going to become. Do you think it's wise to make Him? There was nobody there to talk to God like that. He's all alone. And God made Him. God's plan, designed to make Him.
And in God's plan, He has a design to make man. And He's going to form the first man out of the dust of the ground. And there was nobody there to say, Now look, before you go plan to make this fellow, you know what He's going to do?
You know what He's going to do? And what He's going to become? Do you think it's wise to make Him? Because if He turns out bad, whose fault is it? That's the higher critic. See, he's thinking these things through.
Or at least he's trying to. With an ungodly mind. And no spirit of God within him to guide him. No word of God that he'll bow to. He's thinking this thing out in his own head. And you might say in your mind, as I have, what do you do it for?
Wouldn't there have been a better way? Another way? Especially with these three attributes. There's no lack of power. God didn't lack power. And He didn't lack knowledge. He's got omniscience. So there's no lack on the knowledge side.
Wisdom. In designing those two. Was He wise? Now, you and I got to come together now in our thinking. And as Jude said, when he sat down to write about the common salvation, and then the spirit of God said, No, Jude.
You write about the faith. Once for all delivered unto the saints. And you talk about defending that faith. Now, this is where we got to be defenders. We don't only have to be defenders for ourselves, but we have to try and be defenders for others.
Especially young people. I would think most of you older ones, you theologians, you've been through this yourself. But there's young people. They go to school. And some of these professors, they purposely want to destroy any faith that these young people have in God.
And this is the way they'll come. They'll say, is God good? Well, Christian young people will say, of course God is good. Oh, He's good. He's all good. Yes, He's all good. Okay. Okay, young man. Now, if you saw somebody, and they were going to get into trouble, and you had the ability to save them from getting into that trouble, and you did save them from it, would you be good?
Yeah, I'd be good. But suppose you knew they were going to get in trouble, and you knew it, and you never helped them, and they fell into trouble. And you could have stopped it and you didn't. Are you good?
Well, the young Christian says, Well, no, I wouldn't be good, because I could have stopped him, and I didn't. I'm not good. Then the teacher, the intellectual fellow, with a big grin on his face says, Well, what about God?
Who's responsible for Lucifer? Who's responsible for Adam? Could He not have stopped it? Well, if you say, no, He couldn't, then you're limiting God. Something He couldn't do. But He did it, so that means He's not good.
So they say, see, this whole problem of sin and evil in our world all goes back to God Himself. He's the one that's at fault. Now, I'm telling you, there are Christians, young and old, who struggle. Some would not express that because they're afraid to.
God don't mind you asking questions. God doesn't mind that at all. More questions you ask, and the closer you get to God talking these things over, the more you're going to learn. Because if you depend on God, listen to His Word, see what He's saying, you're going to find out that He's in the right.
And you're in the wrong. Now, let's look at a few things now. The sovereign decrees of God. He designs everything, both in heaven and in earth, according to His own will. Now, we're going to talk quite a bit in the next two lessons about will.
Human will. Freedom. When God made Lucifer, designed to make him, and He designed Adam, how He's going to make him and so on, not only could the question come and ask God, are you sure you know what you're doing?
When you know what they're going to do. And one of the questions they could have asked was, you're giving that angel and all angels a free will? You think that's wise? You're going to give Adam a free will?
We're going to talk quite a bit about that. Tonight in the Gospel meeting, we're going to talk about the origin of evil. Evil. Where did it come from? How did it get here? The critic says, God created us with a free will when He knew what we would do with that free will.
Now, what happens? The created thing and being wants to turn back on God and say, why did you make me this way? Can the clay say to the potter, what have you done? What are you making me this way for?
No. No. That can't happen. So let's look now. He decreed to create angels and humans with a free will. God decided to do that. That was in His plan when He designed to make the angelic world and the human family.
He's going to give them a free will. What do you think He did that for? Suppose angels never had a free will and we'll stick mostly with the human family. Suppose none of us had a free will. What would that do to us?
Yeah, we'd be just nothing but robots. We would be amoral. We cannot respond to good or to evil. We don't know the difference. We can't make a choice to love God and to resist Satan and evil. We wouldn't have that ability.
Now, did God know what was going to happen when He designed man and the angels with a free will? Yes, He did. He did. But you have to get this in your mind. God created, God designed the angelic world and the human family.
When He designed them, He designed them with a free will. And He created them with a free will knowing the possibility of evil coming. He did not create the evil. But He was responsible for the possibility of evil coming.
You understand that? I think it's James 1, verse 31 says, God cannot be tempted with evil. God is holy. So God can't be tempted with evil. But when He designed Adam, He designed Adam not holy but innocent.
And gave him a free will with the possibility of sinning. God did not make the sinning factual. Adam did that. But God created them with the possibility of doing so. Because God wanted His creation to respond to Him in a positive way.
God wants to display Himself to His creation in such a way that they would respond to Him in a loving, obedient manner. You will never answer all the questions that the critics will ask you or the questions that come from your own mind.
Because you just can't understand God. If you want to read Isaiah chapter 55, I think it is verse 8 and 9, God says, listen, My ways are not your ways. And My thoughts aren't your thoughts. My ways are as high as the heavens are above the earth.
So far are My thoughts above yours. So you cannot think like God. God has done certain things that don't jive, that don't harmonize in our reasoning. So where do we go for strength? So that we don't run ourselves onto the rails of unbelief.
Where do we go? Well, there's a verse in Mark chapter 12. I think it's 32, 38 in there. It says this, A lawyer asked the Lord Jesus one day, What is the greatest commandment? And the Lord Jesus said, Well, the greatest commandment is this, That you love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
And then He said, The next one is like on it, Your neighbor is yourself. Now, that's a man's personality. His mind, his soul, his heart, and his strength. That makes up a man. His personality. So we're to love God with all our personality.
Let's just take two of them now. Somebody comes along and says, Now they're challenging you about God's goodness. God is not good. And if God was good, He wouldn't have did what He did. And the whole thing is His fault.
And with the arguments that come, we struggle. Because some of the arguments they put forth come from a human reasoning, from a brain that is not infinite but finite. So we can't think as God thinks. Therefore, in our thinking, we are deficient in relation to the way God thinks.
And God says things and does things that don't jive with our way of thinking. So what do we do? When something comes and I have no answer, I can't answer. It seems like things are bad. I mean, God did create the human family with a free will.
And He did know what they would do. And they have sure wrecked everything. And God knew it. So the critic keeps pounding, you know, keeps jabbing the university students, constantly pounding at them that God is all wrong and He's at fault.
They'll even say, there's nothing wrong with the human family. The human family is all good. It's their environment. It's got nothing to do with this Bible and Christianity and sin and so on. Alright?
Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. Love Him. Now that is love Him with all your mind. That is intellectually. Okay? Love Him intellectually with all your mind.
Suppose you're... Well, we'll just use a relationship, say, as a man and a wife. And the man's away for a while and he comes home and there's a rumor. Comes to him, Listen, did you know that your wife has been seen moving around?
And at first you say, No. No, I don't believe that. I don't believe it. I know my wife. I know her character. I know what she stands for. I know she wouldn't do that. But they come with more evidence.
And it's really looking very bad. The evidence comes. And with all the evidence stacked against the young fellow, he stands firm. I know my wife. And I don't care what evidence you bring to me. I know she will be vindicated as innocent.
So against all the evidence, he loves her with all his heart. And he knows she will be vindicated despite all the evidence they bring against her. That's what God wants us to do. This is one of the recourses we have.
Young Christian, when you're being bombarded about the character of God, that He is responsible. And they go back with all these arguments. And they bring them to you. And you begin to wonder and your brain begins to waver.
And the evidence is coming. You know, all the things they're saying about God, if He's all powerful, if He's all wise, if He's all omniscient, He knows all these things. Why did He do it? And pretty soon your brain begins to...
Listen. Love God with all your intellect, your reasoning. When the challenges come, when the accusations come, and you cannot find a rational answer to the wise people of this world and their challenges, God says, I'm asking you that you love Me with all your heart, with all your intellect.
Don't doubt Me. With all the evidence they bring against Me to your mind, you stand firm. You will find in My Word that I give to you that I am omniscient. I know everything. And I am a God of wisdom, infinite in wisdom.
I cannot make a mistake. I can never come up short. I can never be outwitted. You have to believe that. That's why there's so much intellectualism coming from one direction and from the other. Because there are no clear, definite statements.
How can Me? God says. He tells us plainly. You'll never know My thoughts or My ways. You can't. In the Caribbean I used to use, maybe I told you before, the illustration of the donkey. And the donkey, you know, you take him and put the load, take him back into the mountains, and you feed all day there.
And when you're done your day, you have a saddle and then you put all the products in the saddle and you cut the donkey's rope or unleash it and let him go. And you can work another two hours and when you get home, the donkey will be installed.
He knows exactly where to go because he's a donkey. And he wiggles his big ears and he brays and so on. And within the range of that little brain he got, he functions well. But now you take an arithmetic question and you write out a math problem on a piece of paper and give it to the donkey, he'll just wiggle his big ears and look at it and turn away.
He can't handle that. Donkey brain is for donkey living on his level. Human brain is for the human to live on his level. He can do math and so on. But now just as there's a tremendous degree in difference between a donkey's brain and a human's brain, so it's infinitely greater between a human brain and God's mind.
And yet human beings want to think they can think like God. And they want to answer all God's dealings. Come up with an answer. They can't. And even though God in this DNA business is showing man, they're so stupid.
You think about evolution and look what I'm showing you. And you're digging into the DNA and into the genes. Look at all the stuff you're finding out. The marvels and the wonders. And the deeper you go, the deeper the problems come.
And the greater the evidence is that somebody had to design it. But yet they won't agree. They want to understand God. And they never will. When God designed the universe, the angelic world and the human family, in His design, He's going to give them a human will.
A free will to make choices. And if the people of this world from the intellectual side want to challenge God, let them go ahead. But we love God. We're like the young man. No matter what evidence you bring against my wife, I know my wife.
And despite all the evidence, one day she will be vindicated. And young man, that's the stand you take when they challenge you about God and the works of God. I know God. And I love God. And I can't give you an answer.
But I know the character of God. And He will be vindicated. What He says and what He did will one day be vindicated. So, that's pre-creation, sovereignty of God. And tonight we're going to talk about where did evil come from?
How did it get here? And what it's done? And so on. Let us pray. Father, we thank Thee for teaching us some of the wonderful things about Thy being. We're living in a world that don't trust Thee, don't believe in Thee.
They're actually, as Thy Word says, they're haters of God. And therefore, they will not bow to Thee. But Thou has given us a book written by the inspiration of Thy Spirit. And we believe it. And though there's things in it, we may never understand till we get home to glory.
And even then, it'll be all through eternity, learning more and more about Thee and Thy Son. And so help us, we pray, deepen our faith and deepen our love for Thee. For we're to love Thee with all our personality.
And no matter what the challenge might be, we love Thee with all our intellect. Thou canst make no mistake. We give thanks now. Pray for the gathering with the older folk this afternoon and the little children downstairs and the Gospel meeting tonight.
We ask Thy blessing in the Savior's name. Amen. On top? Oh, up here. Oh, there it is. No.