God Really is Sovereign - Part 2 of 2

The Baptist Bible Hour now comes to you under the direction of Elder Lacerre Bradley, Jr. This is Lacerre Bradley, Jr. inviting you to stay tuned for another message of God's sovereign grace. This is Lacerre Bradley, Jr. inviting you to stay tuned for another message of God's sovereign grace. This is Lacerre Bradley, Jr. inviting you to stay tuned for another message of God's sovereign grace. Ye fearful saints, fresh-terrified, love, proud, Jesus, O God, strength, are bid with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head. Just not the Lord by people's hands, but trust Him for His grace.

Behind a frowning proper face, He hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The blood may have the bitter taste, but sweet will be the fire. Blind of belief, He's sure to bear, and stand His work in vain. God is His own Interpreter, and He will make it plain. Today we'll be continuing our message entitled, God Really Is Sovereign. The text is Psalm 115 and the third verse, but our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. If you'd like to get this complete message on CD, just request that when writing us this week.

Our address is the Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. In this message, we have first considered that God is sovereign over creation. He is, of course, the Creator, but He continues to sustain it by His power. Secondly, we have looked at the fact that God is sovereign over rulers. And then thirdly, that God is sovereign in saving sinners. Now we're talking about the fact that God is sovereign over suffering. We noted last time that trials came to Job, not because he was a great sinner, but because God was going to use him as a demonstration of true faith. Yet we know that there are times that God chastens His children and sufferings come as a reminder of sin. But sometimes suffering is for the purpose of waking us up, making us see our own sin, our own failures, our own faults.

Sometimes it's simply to the glory of God. Jesus encountered a blind man in John chapter 9. And the question was asked, who did sin?

Was it this man or his parents? Why is it that he was born blind? And Jesus replied in John 9 3, neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be manifest in him.

So that's a little difficult for me. Why would God have this man born blind and have to suffer the inconvenience of being blind all this time simply that the works of God might be made manifest? Thinking like that reveals that we don't have the right concept about the greatness and glory of God.

God has the right to do with His creatures as He pleases ultimately to bring glory to His name. It was the intent and purpose of God when this man was born blind that Jesus would come that way one day and open his eyes. And he gave a great testimony as to the deliverance that was wrought by Jesus Christ. So the fact is God brings sufferings to His people. Job 19 21, Job says, Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O my friends, for the hand of God has touched me. The hand of God has touched me. He didn't say anything about the Sabeans that had robbed Him. He didn't say, I'm going to get up a group of men and go after them and I'm going to get revenge. The hand of God has touched me.

Made all the difference. Job had bad days, Job had questions he could not get answered. But he said, No, he swayed me, yet will I trust him. Because he believed God is a good holy God in spite of the fact he could not understand why he was going through such difficult times. Chapter 9, verse 16, For I will show him, these are words concerning the Apostle Paul. The Lord had blinded his eyes, struck him down on the road to Damascus. And the Lord says then, I will show him how great things he must suffer for My name's sake. What an introduction to Christianity.

When you're trying to witness to somebody, do you ever bring that up? Say you become a follower of Jesus Christ and you learn what difficulties are all about. You may be persecuted.

You may suffer greatly. Oh, the health, wealth and prosperity evangelists want to make it sound like if you follow Christ, your road is going to be smooth, your pockets are going to be full, your bank account is going to grow, everything is going to be wonderful, all your sicknesses will go away. Jesus never promised that. He says, In the world ye shall have tribulation. Acts chapter 14, verse 22 says, Confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

Somebody might say, well, thank you anyway, I was halfway interested in Christianity till I found that out. If it's through much tribulation that you've got to go to the kingdom of God, I think I'll try to find something that offers a little something better. But you see, when you understand that in all of this suffering, God has a purpose. It's conforming His people more to the image of Christ.

It's weaning them from the world. It's bringing them into closer fellowship and communion with Him. Philippians 1 29 says, For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him but to suffer for His sake. It is given to you to believe and to suffer. God is sovereign with regard to the sufferings of His people. Number five, God is sovereign in making the wrath of man to praise Him. Now somebody might say, preacher, this has been kind of a rough road for me but I've been with you up to this point, though it's been challenging. But when you say that God makes the wrath of man to praise Him, I'm going to have to leave you. Hang on.

I'm not making this up. I'm giving you the testimony of what the Word of God says. Psalm 76 verse 10, Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee and the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. This is what God says.

You say, well that doesn't sound real good. How am I going to explain that to people that are a little apprehensive about Christianity to start with? Well you don't have to defend God.

You don't have to try to make Him look better. We just proclaim the truth and it's by the power of the Holy Spirit that man's minds and hearts are opened and they become receptive to it. God uses man's wicked purposes to accomplish His purpose. Now there are obviously some things we cannot fully understand. When Habakkuk had trouble with that whole issue he had to go aside for a time, meditate on it. Think about what God had said and then came to the conclusion, The Lord is in His holy temple and all the earth keeps silence before Him.

I'm going to quit speaking, I'm not going to complain anymore, I'm going to be quiet. The Lord is on the throne, He's reigning, let us bow in humility before Him. There are some things that we cannot fully understand. Deuteronomy chapter 29 and the 29th verse says, The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever that we may do all the words of this law. There are certain secret things that belong to the Lord and you can't pry open the secret box. People are forever wanting to know what lies ahead, what's in the future.

And they'll use their Ouija boards and go to their fortune tellers and try to figure it all out. Why it's the mercy of God that He hasn't let us see everything that's down the road. Suppose you had to see at one time all the troubles, all the aches and pains that you might endure before you die and you had it heaped on you all in one day. That would be tough wouldn't it, the Lord hadn't let you see, we have to live one day at a time. My grace is sufficient for you, we pray give us this day our daily bread.

So there's some things you can work at it, you can try to figure it all out and it will just be more than you can comprehend. But it does say that the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children. The things that are made known, the things that are made clear in scripture are there that we might do all the words of this law, that we might obey Him. He's given us sufficient light to know what He expects and requires of us and we're to be diligent in doing it.

Now we think of some biblical examples, you've heard me use this one time and time again but it is so explicit in teaching the lesson. Jacob gives his son Joseph a coat of many colors, the brothers are jealous, they see him coming one day and they say let's kill him. They hated him, their hatred was so intense that they wanted to get rid of their own brother. After discussion they finally decided to sell him to the Ishmaelite traders who were coming that way.

He sold to a man named Potiphar, he does well and this is an important point. Obviously Joseph did not want to be in Potiphar's house, Joseph wanted to be back home with his father. He loved his father as it becomes evident when you look at the details of the story. But Joseph put forth his best effort, he didn't sulk, he didn't withdraw, he didn't feel sorry for himself, he put forth his best effort and was exalted to be chief of the servants in Potiphar's house. Then he's falsely accused, goes to prison, interprets dreams of the butler and the baker. He asks that the butler will remember him when he goes back to Pharaoh's house.

Two years pass, he's been forgotten. Joseph obviously didn't want to be in prison but Joseph is an example for us because he continued to trust God, he continued to do the right thing in the midst of all the adversity that he encountered. In Genesis chapter 45 in the fifth verse, after he had been exalted to be the prime minister in Egypt next to power to Pharaoh himself and interpreted the dreams, told him that there was going to be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine and then that famine touched his family back out there at a distance and so they come before him. And Joseph said, now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither for God did send me before you to preserve wife. Joseph believed in the sovereignty of God.

God sent me before you, there was a purpose in it. Genesis chapter 50 verse 19, and Joseph said unto them, fear not. They were fearful after their father Jacob died. They thought surely now Joseph will take advantage and they can understand that they deserve whatever he might meet out. That if he killed them, it was no more than justice being pronounced but now that Jacob's out of the way, they're fearful once again. But Joseph said unto them, fear not for am I in the place of God but as for you, ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good to bring to pass and as is this day to save much people. You meant it for evil.

In other words, you're accountable for your action. What you did was wrong but God meant it for good. Notice the language, God meant it for good. Not just that he used it for good but he meant it to happen. It wasn't that God just saw a difficult situation and say I'm going to make something good out of this. God was in the arrangements from the beginning. It was in the purpose of God that Jacob make that coat and give it to Joseph.

Do you think that it was just circumstances? It was just one of those things that the Ishmaelite traders came by when they did. They arrived on schedule and they were going where God intended Joseph to go. They were going to Egypt, that's where God wanted Joseph to be, was in Egypt. Do you not see the unfolding of God's purpose?

Yes, he meant it to happen, not by chance but by the providence and sovereignty of God. It was his purpose that he be in Potiphar's house. It was his purpose that he should be in jail and meet the butler and the baker. It was his purpose that they would dream dreams that Joseph could interpret. It was his purpose that Pharaoh would dream about cows and corn and wake up in the morning and say, I'm troubled, I need to know what this is all about.

Nobody could help. They had to call Joseph, why? Because God had a purpose in Joseph interpreting those dreams and bringing his family down to Egypt because God wanted his chosen people to be in Egypt. And it was his purpose ultimately to bring them out of Egypt and it was through this lineage and through the unfolding of God's providence that ultimately Jesus Christ was born.

All of this involved in God's great purpose. Someone argues and said, well, wouldn't it be better just to say that some things just happen, just to say, you know, sometimes we're lucky and sometimes we're not. Now Christians ought to get that word out of their vocabulary. We're not talking about luck, somebody to carry a rabbit's foot. You know, that's the most ridiculous thing for a luck charm.

Think about the poor rabbit, it didn't go well for him. Nothing is out of God's control. In fact, I heard one man say, well, sometimes God chooses not to be sovereign. It's amazing how hard people will work to get around the fact that God is sovereign. God is always sovereign. God never sets his sovereignty aside. He's always on the throne.

He's always working his will according to his purpose. And then back in Romans chapter 9, where the truth is set forth concerning God's sovereignty and the salvation of sinners, it continues in the 17th verse. For the scripture sayeth unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose, that I raise thee up, that I might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

God raised up Pharaoh, put him where he was, on the throne in Egypt. For hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, why doth he yet find fault, for who hath resisted his will? Isn't that what comes to your mind? If God raised up Pharaoh, then Pharaoh surely wasn't accountable for his action.

No. He says, this is what you're going to say. Why does God find fault? Why does God hold him accountable for who has resisted his will?

Nay, that's the answer, no. And old man, who art thou that repliest against God, shall the thing formed say unto him that formed it? Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the porter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? What is God willing to show his wrath? Now this is one of the purposes by which God works. He wants to demonstrate his wrath upon sin and sinners, to show his wrath and to make his power known endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he hath afford prepared unto glory. You see, man is accountable for his actions.

All of the arguments to the contrary do not stand up. The Holy Spirit knew what the argument would be. You're going to say, if God put Pharaoh on the throne and raised him up, then he's not responsible. God says he is responsible.

He is accountable. Well, you see, that's hard for me to fathom, absolutely. But we need to humble ourselves, not standing up saying, I've got a problem with what the Bible says about how God operates. This doesn't fit my thinking.

I'm not comfortable with it. We need to remember the words of Isaiah 55 8, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. God's ways and God's thoughts are higher than ours. So when we have difficulty understanding his ways, we don't argue about it, we don't complain about it, we don't say I give up.

I don't believe in God. We bow in humility and say, Lord, I'm weak but power is strong, power is full of wisdom and I have such a little understanding, Lord, I praise thee, adore thee, worship thee. And then the greatest example of all concerning the fact that God makes the wrath of man to praise him and the rest of it he will restrain, concerns the crucifixion of our Savior. Acts chapter 2 verse 23, Peter preaching on the day of Pentecost, speaking of Jesus says, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and full knowledge of God. Jesus was delivered to those who came to arrest him according to the purpose of God. There were times they came trying to take him but Jesus said they could not because his hour was not yet come. When the hour came, he was delivered into their hands according to the purpose of God. Did that mean that what these men were doing was honorable and good?

No. What they did was wrong, sinful. You have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain the Lord of glory. Judas was guilty of great sin. He did it because he wanted to. God never coerces anybody to sin. God does not cause somebody to do the wrong thing. When men sin they do it because they're sinners because that's their desire because that's what they want to do. You by wicked hands have crucified and slain the Lord of glory.

Chapter 4, Acts chapter 4 and verse 26, the kings of the earth stood up and the rulers gathered to gather against the Lord and against his Christ for of the truth against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontus Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together, get this, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. If that were not the case, if God had not determined before the foundation of the world that he would send forth his son Jesus Christ to redeem fallen sinners, arrange the time and the place and the details, there'd be no reason for us to be gathered here this morning because we would have no hope of heaven. We would have no Savior. All of this came about by the design and purpose of God to the glory of his name. Can you not rejoice today to know that God really is sovereign? Nothing is out of his control.

Would it not be alarming, would it not be terribly frightening to think that there are some things loose in the universe that are just beyond God's ability to control? The Lord works his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can say his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? You can trust him even when you cannot understand the unfolding of his providences. Think of the troubles that Joseph experienced.

Think of what Job went through. Great questions, no doubt, great trouble within. But both of these men set an example of patience for us that they trusted God in the darkest of times. The sovereign God who made the world, according to what Paul said in his message at Mars Hill in Acts chapter 17, he made all things in it and he gives life and breath and all things. He commands all men everywhere to repent. This sovereign God commands you to repent. If you've never repented, I pray you repent today.

Acknowledge, I am a sinner, I violated the law of God, I'm guilty, I'm undone, I deserve nothing. Seeing then that salvation is by sovereign grace, will you not fall prostrate today at his feet, asking for mercy through Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners. God really is sovereign and therefore we have hope in the darkest of times and we look to that grand and glorious day when the whole redeemed family will be safe home at last and Jesus will say, behold I am the children which thou has given me. They'll all be there without the loss of a one and lift up that triumphant chorus and sing thou art worthy for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy own precious blood. Can you not rejoice today to know that God really is sovereign, nothing is out of his control. You can trust him even when you cannot understand the unfolding of his providence.

This sovereign God who made the world and all the things in it gives to all life and breath and all things and he commands all men to repent. Seeing that salvation is by his sovereign grace, will you not today fall prostrate at the feet of Jesus asking for mercy, knowing that he is the Savior of sinners. Till next week at the same time may the Lord richly bless you all.

Thank you. When we all say, Jesus, we'll sing and shout and shout with the wind. The Baptist Bible Hour has come to you under the direction of Elder LeSaire Bradley, Jr. Address all mail to The Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217.

That's The Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. Onward to the prize before us, soon His beauty we'll behold. Soon the burning gates will open, we shall treasure streams of gold. When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing there to be. When we all say, Jesus, we'll sing and shout and shout with the wind.