God Really is Sovereign - Part 1 of 2

The Baptist Bible Hour now comes to you under the direction of Elder Lacerre Bradley, Jr. O for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise, Thou the grace of my God and King, Thou triumph of his grace.

This is Lacerre Bradley, Jr. inviting you to stay tuned for another message of God's sovereign grace. Now to his temple drawn near, join me in glad adoration. Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee. Surely his goodness and mercy, Here daily attend thee. Under a new, what the Almighty can do, Him with his love he befriend thee. Praise to the Lord, who let all that is in me adore him. All that hath life and breath come now with praises before him. Let thee, amen, sound from his people again.

Gladly, for aye, we adore him. Today we're using a message that was on the air previously a few years ago, but it's a subject that is so important, I want us to consider it once again. People say, yes, I believe in the sovereignty of God, and then they begin to raise their objections, or they fail to make a practical application of it in their life.

So I hope as we examine this subject once again, it will prove to be a blessing to you. Psalm 115 verse 3, But our God is in the heavens, he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. My subject, God really is sovereign. The question is sometimes asked, if God is good, why doesn't he stop all the evil and all the suffering?

Does he lack the power, or is he not good? It's assumed that if God is good, and he has all power, then why would he not bring all evil suddenly to an end? Eliminate all suffering. There will be no hardships, no pain, no difficulty in life. Well, we know that God has all power.

He is not limited. Nothing is impossible with the Lord. And indeed is good because he is holy and righteous.

So the problem comes because we try to reason from the human vantage point and figure things out in a way that's going to satisfy our own point of view. That man is prone to fashion a God after his own thoughts. Somebody will say, well the God I worship is a God of love, and my God would never punish anybody. Well obviously that's not the God of the Bible, because you don't have to get very far into the reading of the Bible to find out that God in his holiness does at various times pour out wrath upon wicked men.

The flood came in Noah's day. Various judgments had befallen wicked men throughout history. And the time is coming that there will be a final judgment when the wicked will be cast into the lake of fire and suffer the wrath of God forever. But if we're going to have the correct view of God, we have to take what God says about himself in his word. Christians sometimes feel that they need to make God look better. That if you just take what God says about himself in the Bible, that's going to be offensive. Some people are going to say that's not fair.

I don't understand that. But we have no right to try to interject our personal point of view when we're talking about what we believe about God or expressing to somebody else what God is like. Just take the testimony of scripture. The God of the Bible, according to Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11, worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.

And it's his purpose to bring glory to his name. First of all, we consider the fact that God is sovereign over creation. Genesis chapter 1 of the first verse, God comes on the scene unexplained, unannounced, and it declares in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. God has always been. Now people sometimes will say, well I can't believe anything that I don't understand. I don't think anybody today would claim, I fully understand what it means for God to have been from everlasting to everlasting. God had no beginning.

He's always been. Can you work that out in your mind to say, I can grasp that. That's beyond our ability to fathom. Think about eternity, that it's going to go on and on and on forever. Everything we know has a time limit. We can sing the hymn, when we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun.

True. It goes on and on and on. We can fathom maybe ten thousand years, but you go beyond that and say it never ends, it's beyond us. God created the heaven and the earth. Six times in the first chapter of the book of Genesis, these four words, and it was so. God spoke and it came to pass. In the 31st verse of chapter 1 it says, and God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good. God made it. By the word of his power, he created the heaven and the earth, created man, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and he became a living soul. In the book of Colossians chapter 1, we find that God brought about this great work of creation through Jesus Christ our savior.

Colossians 1 16. For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers or things. All things were created by him and for him.

All things, whatever they be, created by God and they are for him, they are for his glory. And it's according to his purpose that he holds it all together. Verse 17 says, and he is before all things and by him all things consist. To say that by him all things consist is simply a saying that by Jesus Christ all things are held together.

Think of it. This savior in whom we trust for our soul's salvation. This savior who was born of a virgin and lived on this earth for 33 years is the one who holds everything together so that the earth continues in its course. All things in the heavenly bodies and the vast creation about us move on schedule according to his pleasure.

Now some would suggest that yes God created it all, kind of wound it up like a clock and now it runs on its own. So that whatever happens you could say well this is mother nature but God is not personally involved. Psalm 147 verses 16 to 18. He giveth snow like wool. He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels.

Who can stand before his cold? He sendeth out his word and melteth them and causeth his wind to blow and the waters to flow. A lot of people will say well yes I believe in the sovereignty of God. I believe God was sovereign in the creation of the world. But to get down to this point of God still controlling his creation.

And some people begin to back off and say wait a minute that's a little too tough for me. I know that God set it all up in the beginning. But to say that God controls all the wind, all the rain, all the snow on a daily basis now that's a little too much.

Psalm 148 verse 8 goes on to say fire and hail, snow and vapor, stormy wind fulfilling his word. So somebody will say oh I believe that God sends April showers and sends the sunny days of summer. But they have difficulty in believing that God is in charge of hurricanes and tornadoes and tsunamis. God is in control of it all.

It's not out of culture. Nature hasn't run away. God is sovereign in controlling the universe. Secondly, God is sovereign over the rulers of this earth. He sets up kings.

He brings them down. Daniel chapter 4 verse 32. And they shall drive thee from men. These words of course concerning Nebuchadnezzar the proud king that said this is my kingdom.

I built it for my glory. He was exalting himself. And the Lord says they shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be with the beast of the field and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen. And seven times shall pass over thee until thou know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will. God says by the time this king is down on his all fours eating grass like the beast of the field he's going to come up having learned a lesson. He's going to have to recognize that the most high rules in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will. I wonder how many kings or presidents or prime ministers around the world today recognize that they occupy that position because God put them in it. Probably a great many would deny it thinking that God has nothing to do with it. Somebody may have a little trouble here say well I can see that if God blesses a people to have a good king, a noble leader, a president that fears him and honors him in every detail. I can see God involved with that. But this didn't say that God just put up the good kings.

He puts them all up. Sometimes they're put up to judge the people over whom they reign. He does it according to his will. Habakkuk chapter 1. The prophet was concerned because it was a day of great wickedness. Even the leaders had become corrupt. And Habakkuk made the assumption that God is ignoring this.

He's doing absolutely nothing about it. And so he complained to the Lord. And the Lord says in Habakkuk chapter 1 verse 6, For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation which shall march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs. God says, I'm going to raise up this wicked nation and bring them into this land to punish these people because of their sin and then reveal that when I'm through doing that I will punish the people that I use for their sin.

Habakkuk wasn't satisfied. He didn't like the way God operated his business. He said, I thought Lord that you're of two pure eyes to be involved with the wicked nation. God because of his sovereignty makes it clear I have the right to raise up wicked kings or wicked nations and use them to my ultimate end for my purpose and to the glory of my name. He can change the plan and intention of any king, any president, any governor. Proverbs chapter 21 in the first verse, The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water he turneth it whithersoever he will. And that should be a comfort to know that there is no leader upon this earth, no dictator, no powerful man, no matter what his position, what nation he is in. The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord and God has no problem changing it.

He can turn it whithersoever he will. God really is sovereign. Number three, God is sovereign in saving sinners.

Now each time we come to another point here we lose a few more people. So we'll start out, well yes God is sovereign in creation. But I'm not sure about his sovereignty when it comes to the details of everyday activity and every wind that blows. I believe God is sovereign but I don't know that he's involved in putting up kings and bringing them down.

But God says he is. So people try to make some kind of excuse for that. Like Lord this makes you look mad. We want people to think more highly of you.

We want people to like what we have to say about you. So we want to try to explain this to some degree. And then it comes to the matter of saving sinners.

And many people begin to object here. He bestows mercy according to his pleasure. Turn to the book of Romans. Reading in chapter nine of the thirteenth verse, as it is written, Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?

God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. And it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that showeth mercy. Well, somebody objects and says that's just not fair. And the Holy Spirit knew that's what people would say.

It's incorporated in the text. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Is God unfair? Say you come from the standpoint of human reasoning and say surely God is obligated to do the same thing for everybody.

That's the standard that someone has set. And if God doesn't meet it, then I don't want anything to do with him. I don't like the way he operates. Are you going to claim that there's unrighteousness with God? That God is unfair. God's not handling things in an appropriate way. He said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

And what's the conclusion to that? It's not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that showeth mercy. Salvation is not based on man's free will. It's not based on his works. It's not based on his effort.

It's not based on anything that he can do or anything that anybody can do for him. It's by the grace of God through the redemptive work that is in Jesus Christ. Therefore he that glories, let him glory in the Lord. By grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, and to the gift of God not of works, lest any man should boast. Salvation of the Lord.

Now let me tell you this. If you've been working on this concept of salvation and you've come up with a theory that seems perfectly fair, nobody's going to ever object to it. This is what people, generally the world, will accept.

Then you know something is wrong with your concept. Because the biblical truth is that when you talk about God's sovereignty, God saving according to his sovereign will to the glory in his name, somebody's going to say that's not fair. That's what the Holy Spirit says in Romans chapter 9.

That's going to be the human response. He saves by his grace which brings glory to his name. Romans chapter 11 verse 36, for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever.

Amen. Now somebody will check further and say well if I believed in predestination, I would feel that it really didn't make any difference whether I believed in Jesus or not. Or it wouldn't make any difference how I lived because by predestination I would be taken to heaven anyway.

That concept is not the Bible doctrine of predestination, that is fatalism. That's not what the Word of God teaches. These who are predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son are redeemed by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ at the cross, are called and drawn to the power of the Holy Spirit, are transformed, become a new creature in Christ Jesus.

They may have stumbled at the gospel like the Jews and been offended by it like the educated Greeks, but he says to them that are called it is the wisdom and power of God. So when you're drawn to the Holy Spirit, when you're moved upon by his power, the gospel makes sense. You come to believe in Jesus Christ, faith itself being the gift of God, and rather than to say I just feel now that I'm free to live any way I please, just go after the flesh and live after the pattern of the world. No, because you are a new creature in Christ Jesus, your desire is to please and honor and obey him. And that's the evidence that you have salvation. It doesn't mean that you're going to meet the standard perfectly, but it means that is your desire and when you sin rather than wallowing in it and glorying in it, you're grieved by it, you repent of it, you ask for forgiveness of it and by his grace you turn from it. Number four, God is sovereign over suffering.

Now here again we lose a few more. Somebody says I just believe that suffering all comes from the devil. God doesn't have anything to do with it.

It's just the devil and we've got to fight the devil. And if it wasn't for the devil there wouldn't be any suffering. Well, God has a purpose in the suffering of his people.

There are several reasons for it. One is to make us know our need of him. The apostle Paul was given a thorn in the flesh. He was given that thorn that he might not be exalted above measure.

He'd had some unique experiences, he'd had special revelations, he had a special calling. And so the Lord gave him the thorn in the flesh. 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 7. There was given me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure. Who gave him the thorn in the flesh? God did. It was God's purpose.

I know from the standpoint of human reasoning we would say it looks like to me that since Paul had a great work before him, such a unique ministry, going to established churches, travel far and wide, write a great portion of the New Testament, that our concept would be let's build a little shield around him and don't let any adversities come his way. But you see, God doesn't operate like we are prone to think according to our human reasoning. God says, I am going to give my servant this thorn in the flesh that he might know his weakness, that he will therefore glory in his infirmities and will not trust in himself and not trust in his knowledge and not trust in his experience.

Not trust in me. God uses suffering for that purpose. Sometimes he uses it to remind us of our sin. We go along our way in life having a smooth path, things going well. We may begin to excuse some of our sins, tolerate some of our indiscretions, overlook some of our failures. But suffering comes and it has a sobering effect. It wakes us up.

It causes us to search our heart. It doesn't mean that all suffering comes as a result of sin. That was the mistake that was made by Job's friends when they kept saying, Job, there must be some dark secret that you have not acknowledged if you would just confess your sin thing to be better. All of this trouble could not happen to anybody unless sin was the cause of it.

They were in the dark, that was not the case. Job was an upright man. All of this suffering came because it was within the purpose of God. It was according to his sovereignty. Somebody said, oh no, it was the devil.

Wait a minute, where did this all start? The devil appeared before God and God is the one that brought up Job's name and said, have you noticed my servant Job? And the devil said, well of course, he serves you because you built the heads around him. You protected him, you prospered him, you take that away, he will curse you to your face. And so God says, go after him.

This is going to be a test to prove that Job will still trust me. God was involved in the matter. Job went through some very difficult and dark times. There were moments that he was deeply troubled, but he said though he slay me, yet will I trust him.

He stood the test. He demonstrated that his faith and trust was in God in the most difficult of circumstances. If you would like to get this complete message entitled, God really is sovereign, request it when writing us this week. Until next week at this same time, may the Lord richly bless you all. Goodness and mercy follow me, Their joys I cannot tell. They comfort me and give me hope, That in this house I'll dwell. I want to praise them while I live, Because they love me so. And rising to that glory birth, A perfect praise I'll hold.