Chapter 13
The Sovereignty of God
"Whatsoever
the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all
deep places." -- Psalms
135:6
With those words the
Psalmist David both declares God’s absolute, universal sovereignty and calls
upon us to trust, worship, and praise him because he is the sovereign God of
the universe. The very foundation of our confidence and faith in our God is his
sovereignty. Were he not sovereign, absolutely, universally sovereign, we could
not trust him implicitly, believe his promises, or depend upon him to fulfill
his Word. Only an absolute sovereign can be trusted absolutely. We can and
should trust our God implicitly because he is sovereign. Nothing is more
delightful to the hearts of God’s children than the fact of his great and
glorious sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe
troubles, and when enduring the most heavy trials, we rejoice to know that our
God has sovereignly ordained our afflictions, that he sovereignly overrules
them, and that he sovereignly sanctifies them to our good and his own glory.
A Matter of Great Joy
Every believer rejoices in
the sovereignty of God. God’s saints rejoice to hear him say, “Is it not lawful for me to do what I will
with mine own?” (Matt. 20:15). Nothing in this world is more comforting to
the believer’s heart than the knowledge of the fact that “Our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased”
(Ps. 115:3). Yet, in this day of religious darkness and confusion, there is no
truth of Holy Scripture for which we must more earnestly contend than God’s
dominion over all creation, his sovereignty over all the works of his hands,
the supremacy of his throne and his right to sit upon it. We rejoice in God’s
sovereignty. Yet, there is nothing revealed in the Bible that is more despised
by worldlings and self-righteous religionists.
Natural, unregenerate,
unbelieving men and women are happy enough to have God everywhere, except upon
the throne of total, universal sovereignty. They are happy to have God in his
workshop, creating the world and naming the stars. They are glad to have God in
the hospital to heal the sick. They are pleased to have God in trouble to calm
the raging seas of life. And they are delighted to have God in the funeral
parlor to ease them of pain and sorrow. But God upon his throne is, to the
unregenerate man, the most contemptible thing in the world. And any man who
dares to preach that it is God’s right to do what he will with his own, to dispose
of his creatures as he sees fit, and save whom he will, will be hissed at,
despised, and cursed by this religious generation. Still, it is God upon the
throne that we love, trust, and worship. And it is God upon the throne that we
preach.
Sovereignty or Idolatry
God’s sovereignty is so
basic and fundamental that it is impossible to understand any doctrine taught
in the Bible until we recognize and have some understanding of the fact that
God is sovereign. A God who is not sovereign is as much a contradiction as a
God who is not holy, eternal, and immutable. A God who is not sovereign is no
God at all. If the god you worship is not totally sovereign, you are a pagan,
and your religion is idolatry. You would be just as well off worshipping a
statue of Mary, a totem pole, a spider, or the devil himself as to worship a
god who lacks total sovereignty over all things.
In one of his letters to the
learned and scholarly Erasmus, Martin Luther said, “Your thoughts of God are
too human.” No doubt Erasmus resented the remark. But it exposed the heart of
his heretical theology. And it exposes the heart of all false religion. I lay
this charge against the preachers and theologians of our day, and against the
people who hear them, follow them, and support them. -- Their thoughts of God
are too human. I know the seriousness of what I have written. But it must be
stated with emphatic clarity. The God of the Bible is utterly unknown in this
religious generation.
God’s charge against
apostate Israel was, “Thou thoughtest
that I was altogether such an one as thyself” (Psa. 50:21), and that is his
indictment against the religious world of our day. Men today imagine that God
is moved by sentiment, rather than by the determination of his sovereign will.
They talk about omnipotence, but imagine that it is such an idle fiction that
Satan can thwart the power of God. They think that if God has a plan, it must,
like the plans of men, be subject to constant change. They tell us that
whatever power God does possess must be limited, lest he violate man’s
free-will and make him a machine. The grace of God is thought by most people to
be nothing but a helpless, frustrated desire of God to save men. The precious
sin-atoning blood of Christ is thought by most to be a waste, shed in vain for
many. And the invincible, saving power of the Holy Spirit is reduced by most to
a gentle offer of grace which men may easily resist. All such thoughts about
God are blasphemies of idolaters.
The god of this generation
no more resembles the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth than a flickering
candle resembles the noon-day sun. The god of modern religion is nothing but an
idol, the invention of men, a figment of man's imagination. Pagans in the dark
ages used to carve their gods out of wood and stone and overlay them with
silver and gold. Today, in these much darker days, pagans inside the church
carve their god out of their own depraved imaginations. In reality, the
religionists of our day are atheists, for there is no possible alternative
between a God who is absolutely sovereign and no God at all. A god whose will
can be resisted, whose purpose can be frustrated, whose power can be thwarted,
whose grace can be nullified, whose work can be overturned, has no title to
Deity. Such a god is not a fit object of worship. Such a puny, pigmy god merits
nothing but contempt.
When I say that God is
sovereign, I am simply declaring that God is God. He is the most High, Lord of
heaven and earth, overall, blessed forever. He is subject to none. And he is
influenced by none. God is absolutely independent of and sovereign over all his
creatures. He does as he pleases, only as he pleases, and always as he pleases.
None can thwart him. None can resist him. None can change him. None can stop
him. None can hinder him. He declares, “My
counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Isa. 46:10). “He doeth according to his will in the army
of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand,
or say unto him, What doest thou?” (Dan. 4:35). Divine sovereignty means
that God sits upon the throne of universal dominion, directing all things,
ruling all things, and working all things “after
the counsel of his own will” (Eph. 1:11).
This is a subject about
which hundreds of books have been written, and yet “the half hath not been told.” Divine sovereignty is not some
isolated doctrine, taught in a few verses of Scripture. It is revealed,
literally, upon every page of Inspiration. In this study, we will consider just
five things which manifestly and irrefutably reveal the sovereignty of God:
(1.) predestination, (2.) creation, (3.) providence, (4.) salvation, and (5.)
spiritual gifts
Predestination
God’s sovereignty is
irrefutably revealed in the eternal predestination of all things. Does the
Bible teach predestination? Of course it does! Anyone who attempts to deny that
it does is either totally ignorant of the Word of God, or a liar. God chose
some men and women in eternity to be the objects of his saving grace and
predestinated those elect ones to be conformed to the image of his dear Son
(Rom. 8:28-29). Before the world began God sovereignly determined that he would
save some, who they would be, and when he would save them. Having determined
these things, our great God infallibly secured his eternal purpose of grace by
sovereign predestination.
Yes, God predestinated from
eternity everything that comes to pass in time to secure the salvation of his
elect. That is the plainly stated doctrine of Holy Scripture (Eph. 1:3-6, 11;
Rom. 11:36). It is written, “All things
are of God” (2 Cor. 5:18). "The Lord hath made all things for
himself" (Pro. 16:4). Eternal election marked the house into which
God’s saving grace must come. Eternal predestination marked the path upon which
grace must come. And sovereign providence led grace down the path to the house
at the appointed time of love.
Creation
No one can reasonably deny
the revelation of God’s sovereignty in his marvelous work of creation (Gen.
1:1; Rev. 4:11). Nothing moved God to create, except his own sovereign will.
What could move him when there was nothing but God himself? Truly, “the heavens declare the glory of God” (Psa.
19:1-4). God created the heavens and the earth as a stage upon which to work
out his purpose of grace (Psa. 8:1-9). He created the angelic host to be
ministering spirits to those who shall be the heirs of salvation (Heb. 1:14).
God created the sun, the moon, and the stars for the benefit of his elect. He
created all plants and animals to provide food, comfort, and pleasure for man.
At last, God created man in his own image and after his own likeness that he
might show forth the glory of his grace in man. Adam was created in the image
of Christ, our eternal Surety and Substitute (Rom. 5:12-21). He was created in
conditional holiness. In God's wise, holy and good purpose of grace, Adam was
permitted to fall and we all fell in him that we might be raised to life again
in Christ the second Adam.
Providence
We see God's sovereignty in
all the works of his daily providence (Rom. 8:28; 11:36). In divine providence,
God almighty sovereignly accomplishes his eternal purpose of grace in
predestination. The Holy Spirit showed John a beautiful picture of this recorded
in the Book of Revelation. He saw the Lord Jesus Christ as our Mediator, the
Lamb of God, taking the book of God's purpose, opening the book, and fulfilling
all that was written in it in all the world (Rev. 5:1-10; 10:1-11). He who is
God our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ rules all things in providence by the
book of God’s predestination.
God’s sovereign rule of
providence extends to all his creatures. Inanimate matter, irrational
creatures, all things in this world perform their Maker’s bidding. It was by
the will of our God that the waters of the Red Sea divided (Ex. 14). By his
word the earth opened up her mouth to swallow his enemies (Num. 14). When he
willed it, the sun stood still (Josh. 10) and went backward ten degrees on the
sundial of Ahaz. Once, he even made an ax head float. Ravens carried food to
his prophet (1 Kings 17). Lions were tamed by God's decree for his servant
Daniel. He made the fire refuse to burn his faithful servants when they were
cast into the fiery furnace. All things come to pass, or not, at his pleasure.
God’s rule of providence
extends even to the thoughts, and wills, and actions, and words, even of wicked
men. He kept Abimelech from adultery with Sarah. He kept the Canaanites from
desiring the possessions of Israel, when they went to worship him (Read Ex.
34:23-24). The hearts of all men, their thoughts, intents, and passions, are in
the hands of our God (Pro. 21:1). Shemei was sent of God to curse David. Even
the wrath of man shall praise him, and the remainder of wrath, that which he
chooses not to use for his praise, he restrains (Psa. 76:10).
The object of God’s
providence, the object of God in all that he does, or allows to be done, is
threefold. It is for the salvation of his elect, the eternal, spiritual good of
all his people, and the glory of his great name. Here is a resting place for
every believer's troubled heart. Neither Satan, the demons of hell, nor men,
nor sickness, nor war, nor pestilence, nor the whirlwind is beyond the reach of
God’s sovereign throne (Matt. 10:30). Blessed be God, “Our times are in his hand!”
Salvation
God’s indisputable
sovereignty is conspicuously revealed in the salvation of sinners by his
almighty grace (Rom. 9:8-24). God chose to save some, but not all. He gave
Christ to die for some, but not all. He sends his gospel to some, but not all.
He gives his Spirit to some, but not all. He causes some to hear his voice, but
not all. He saves some who seek him, but not all. He saved the woman with the
issue of blood but not the rich young ruler, the one leper but not the nine,
the publican but not the Pharisee. “Salvation
is of the Lord!” He planned
it. He purchased it. He performs it. He preserves it. He perfects it. He shall
have all the praise for it.
Spiritual Gifts
God’s sovereignty is also
conspicuously revealed in the various spiritual gifts he bestows upon his
people (1 Cor. 12:14, 18, 28-29). He sees to it that his church has everything
she needs to carry out the work he has for her to do. We need missionaries, and
pastors too. We need preachers; and deacons, as well. We need faithful
witnesses; and we need the prayers of God's saints. We need workers; and we
need givers. We need some to do great things; and some to do small things. In a
word, we need Marthas and Marys, Johns and Jameses, Peters and Pauls, Lydias
and Lucases. God gives each when they are needed and where they are needed for
the accomplishment of his will. Let each child of God covet earnestly the best
gift, the gift of love one for another. If we have that, we will serve God and
his people well in our place, using all other gifts accordingly.
“Our God is in the heavens. He hath done (and is doing) whatsoever he hath pleased.” Let us,
therefore, believe him confidently, walk with him in peace, submit to him
cheerfully, serve him faithfully, and honor him supremely.