The Sovereignty of God

There is only one sovereign, and that is our God. Men are not reigning. It says, the Lord reigns. Circumstances are not reigning. The Lord reigns. Good luck is not reigning. Bad luck is not reigning. Fate is not reigning. There are no accidents.

There are no random occurrences. Those are all pagan myths. There is only one who is upon the throne in heaven, and there is only one who is actively reigning, and that is the Lord Himself. Psalm 97 begins with these words, the Lord reigns. All Christians agree with this, but if you press believers on what they actually mean when they talk about the reign of God, His sovereignty, many definitions fall short of the testimony of Scripture. You are listening to Renewing Your Mind on this Thursday as we conclude this week's study with Stephen Lawson of some of God's attributes. Today is also the final day to request access to the complete 16-message overview and the companion hardcover book, Show Me Your Glory. You can learn more at renewingyourmind.org.

R.C. Sproul has said, If God is not sovereign, God is not God. So a study of God's attributes, especially rightly understanding His sovereignty, is so important. To walk us through the Bible's description of God's sovereignty and the areas and scope of His rule and reign, here's Dr. Lawson.

In this session, we're going to wade out into the deep end of the pool. In this session, we want to consider that towering truth known as the sovereignty of God. This is the foundational truth of all Christian theology, that God is, and the God who is, is the God who reigns. He actively reigns and presides over the entirety of His created order.

This is the bedrock doctrine of all doctrines. This is the immovable mountain of God's supreme authority and His right to exercise His sovereignty. The sovereignty of God is His absolute active, continual reign over the heavens and the earth and hell itself. It is His undisputed right to govern all that He has created, as God, by the free exercise of His supreme right, rules over all with unhindered, unrivaled majesty.

This is the first article of our doctrinal creed. It's the chief cornerstone of all divine truth. I want to say it again, that God is, and the God who is, is the God who reigns.

He is not merely passively sitting on His throne, disconnected from the world, but instead, upon His throne, He is directly governing and ruling over everything in this world. The greatest spiritual leaders down through the centuries have all been men who have weighed in on this truth and have declared it with clarity. Jonathan Edwards, perhaps the greatest theologian and greatest pastor America has ever known, the greatest author, the greatest philosopher, wrote, absolute sovereignty is what I love to ascribe to God. God's sovereignty has ever appeared to me a great part of His glory. It has often been my delight to approach God and adore Him as a sovereign God. How our hearts delight that God is the one who is in control of all that comes to pass. What a comfort it is to know that the devil is not in charge. What a comfort it is to know that those in Washington, in reality, are not in charge, but that the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is the one who is presiding and has a master plan and has the macro as well as the micro for all of human history. Charles Haddon Spurgeon wrote, there is no attribute more comforting to his children than that of God's sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all.

A.W. Pink says, God always does as He pleases, when He pleases, where He pleases, with whom He pleases. There is no attribute of God more exalting than this truth.

I remember the day in class when R.C. Sproul told us, the doctrine of the sovereignty of God is God's favorite doctrine. And he said, it would be your favorite doctrine if you were God.

So, let's plunge into this. Let's see what does the Scripture say. And the Scripture declares it so forcefully and so clearly.

Psalm 103 verse 19 is a great place to begin. The Lord has established His throne in the heavens. His sovereignty rules over all. I looked up this word sovereignty in the dictionary, just to try to get a handle on what this word means.

Listen to these definitions. Above or superior to all others, chief, greatest, supreme, supreme in power, rank, and authority, holding the position of ruler, royalty, reigning, independent of all others. Pink would say, this is the Godness of God. This is what it is to be God, that you are presiding and ruling and governing over all of the affairs of creation. Psalm 93 verse 1 is an enthronement psalm. When you read Psalm 93 through 99, these are the enthronement psalms. And there is a reoccurring chorus that is repeated, and it is these three words, the Lord reigns. The Lord reigns. Psalm 96, 10, say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Psalm 97 verse 1, the Lord reigns.

Psalm 99 verse 1, the Lord reigns. If the Lord reigns, and He does, it is not Satan who reigns. There are so many Christians who cringe, thinking there's a demon behind every bush. And while Satan is greater than we are, Satan is nothing compared to our God. And there are Christians who literally cringe as though the devil is sovereign.

No, there is only one sovereign, and that is our God. Men are not reigning. It says the Lord reigns. Circumstances are not reigning. The Lord reigns. Good luck is not reigning. Bad luck is not reigning. Fate, blind fate is not reigning. There are no accidents.

There are no random occurrences. Those are all pagan myths. There is only one who is upon the throne in heaven, and there is only one who is actively reigning, and that is the Lord Himself. It's in the present tense. The Lord reigns. It's not as though the Lord used to reign in Old Testament times when He would part the Red Sea and smash the walls of Jericho, and He's on sabbatical now and doesn't seem to be doing such demonstrative things. It's not that He's not reigning now, but He will reign at the second coming of Christ, and oh, then He will really begin to reign. No, every moment of every day, God is reigning. The God who reigned in the Old Testament is the God who is reigning in the New Testament, is the God who will reign at the second coming, is the God who will reign throughout all eternity future. Every time this verse is picked up and read, the Lord reigns, it is a testimony and a clear statement that God is presently reigning in the heavens above.

There are no boundaries set upon His jurisdiction. It just says the Lord reigns. That is to say, He reigns over the whole universe. He reigns over the entire globe. He is not a territorial sovereign who is only reigning in small little places like Geneva or Edinburgh or Wheaton or Colorado Springs or little Christian outpost places.

No, the Lord reigns over the whole earth, and His sovereignty is displayed in every place. He reigns over nations and nature. He reigns over events and circumstances. He reigns over good people and evil people. He reigns over human minds and human hearts. He even reigns over human wills. Proverbs 21 verse 1, the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord. As rivers of water, He channels it, whichever way He wills. I want you to come to eternity past with me.

I want you to go back as far as your mind can go, back to a time before there was even a created heaven, before there were angels, before there was ether, gas and whatever gases are in the outer space. There was only God and God alone. Ephesians 1 verse 11 says, having been predestined according to His purpose, who works all things after the counsel of His will. Four key words, predestined, purpose, counsel, will.

A careful Bible student will line those words up in the correct order. As God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit came together and deliberated and presided, first came their counsel. That is divine deliberation and inter-Trinitarian consultation as they counseled with each other. They considered every conceivable possibility for creation, for providence. They could have created one world. They could have created a thousand worlds.

They could have created the sun to be green and the sky to be red and the grass to be yellow. They considered every conceivable possibility and out of this inner Trinitarian counsel came their will. That's the second word. The word will means a divine decision, a choice was made.

It is all inclusive. It encompasses all that comes to pass. This says He works all things after the counsel of His will. Included in this sovereign will that has come out of His counsel is the choice of His elect, those whom He set His heart upon to be His own possession.

It included all the affairs of providence, where you would be born, when in history you would be born, who your parents would be, what your gender would be, what your DNA would be, who would live on both sides of you, who would be your first grade teacher, who would have influences upon your life, who your friends would be, when you would come to faith in His Son, who you would marry, where you would work, where you would live. There's no end to all that God pre-scripted as the author of His eternal decree. First came His counsel. Then came His will that is all inclusive.

The very hairs of your head are numbered. Not a sparrow would fall apart from the Lord. The casting of the lot into the lap, its every turning up is from the Lord. All of this a part of God's sovereign will. And then the third word is the word purpose. It says, having been predestined according to His purpose.

This word purpose means His divine determination, His resolve. God is very resolved. God is very determined to execute His will. Man plans his way, but God directs his steps. And God overrules in our lives. He is determined to carry out plan A, and He will never deviate from His plan A.

There is no plan B. There would be no end to the second guessing in our lives if I'd only done this or I'd only done that, etc., etc. No, God had one determinative will from all eternity past, and He has purposed and He has resolved with inflexible resolution to carry it out. And then the fourth and final word is predestined. Only now do we come to the P word, to predestined, which means that God guarantees that His sovereign will be brought to pass, that even in eternity past it was as certain to be completed as though it had already occurred.

Jesus was the Lamb of God slain from before the foundation of the world. It was a done deal in eternity past because God the Father had predestined it. It was according to the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, Acts 2, 23. So in eternity past, before there was anything, God became the architect of the master plan for the entire universe, and it was so precise and it was so detailed that it encompasses everything that comes to pass.

We've quoted Dr. Sproul, there are no maverick molecules in the universe. Every tiny molecule foreordained by God and controlled moment by moment by God. This is how sovereign God is. This is how awesome God is in His towering sovereignty over all that there is. Now this sovereignty is carried out in three basic areas.

We could expand it into more, but I want to give you the three basic areas in which we see this sovereignty taking place. Number one, God's sovereignty in creation. Everything came into being out of nothing as an exercise of the sovereign will of God. The moon did not self-create itself. This earth did not self-create itself.

The Atlantic Ocean did not birth itself into being. No, there was God and God alone. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and it was God who said, let there be light, and there was light that is the exercise, the free exercise of His sovereign will. Who was there even to resist it?

For there was none. Psalm 33, 6, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made. By the breath of His mouth all their hosts, He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap.

He lays up the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke and it was done.

He commanded and it stood fast. This is our God. He is an awesome, sovereign God. This universe is not being run by a democracy, but by a theocracy, by God. Now, second, not only creation, but history and providence is all under His sovereignty.

Think of it this way. Not only did God create the stage of the universe, but God has pre-scripted the entire plot for what will take place on the stage of the universe, and it is God who is directing all of the participants who are on this stage. It was Calvin who said that all the universe is but a theater to display the glory of God. And as we see history unfolding before our very eyes and as we look back and see the affairs of history, history is really His story. History has a unifying theme, and it is the hand of God in the glove of human circumstances, God carrying it out. Psalm 33 verse 10, the Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations. He frustrates the plans of the people. The counsel of the Lord stands forever.

The plans of His heart from generation to generation. It is God who raises up one ruler and lowers another. It is God who puts evil rulers even into place as a punishment for evil nations, the consequences of their own choices. It is God who is over it all. Romans 8 verse 28 is still in the Bible, and we know, not we hope, and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God who are called according to His purpose. I have to read Isaiah 46 beginning in verse 8. Remember this and be assured, call it to mind you transgressors.

He says this because we have a tendency to forget this. Remember the former things long past for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is no one like me declaring the end from the beginning.

In other words, God stands at the beginning and He declares all that will come to pass all the way to the end as though He then works His way back to the beginning and everything in between, saying my purpose will be established and I will accomplish all my good pleasure. Truly I have spoken. Truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it.

Surely I will do it. I can trust a God like this. I don't want a God who's licking His finger and putting it in the air and seeing which way the wind is blowing and just going with the flow of things.

I want a God who is a rock, a God who is a mighty fortress, a God who is in control of even the hearts of kings to carry out His sovereign foreordained purpose for history and that God is working all things together for His glory and for the good of His people. He is sovereign in creation. He is sovereign in history and providence. And finally, He is sovereign in salvation.

And I need hours to unpack this. And we already have a teaching series that I've done on this, the doctrines of grace and the gospel of John. But suffice to say in the moments that I have here, Ephesians 1 verse 4, just as He chose us in Him. It's a reflexive verb in the middle voice which means He chose us by Himself and for Himself.

No one else was there to help Him with the choice. And He certainly wasn't looking down the tunnel of time to see what we would do because God has never learned anything. No, He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love.

What a loving truth this is. God didn't have to choose anyone. In love, He predestined us as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind intention of His will. He is such a loving monarch. He is such a kind and gracious sovereign. Mercy and grace just flow from His throne to display salvation upon His chosen ones. God is sovereign and there is no other. He is King over all the earth. That was Stephen Lawson from his attributes of God series on this Thursday edition of Renewing Your Mind. Who is God?

What is He like? These are some of the questions that we have been exploring with Dr. Lawson as you've heard messages from his detailed teaching series on God's attributes. You can request the entire series along with the hardcover companion book when you give a gift of any amount at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343.

These resources will help you better understand the love of God, the wrath of God, the wisdom of God, the immutability of God and other attributes. So give a year-end gift today in support of Renewing Your Mind, a daily outreach that is made freely available and serves countless Christians around the world at renewingyourmind.org. The attributes of God and Show Me Your Glory by Stephen Lawson will be yours as our way of saying thanks for your generosity and your care for this ministry. As you know, Renewing Your Mind would not be possible without friends who give regularly and their gifts fuel this podcast and radio broadcast, but they also help the global outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Tomorrow you'll hear a special event that we hosted live with thousands of Ligonier's ministry partners, updating them on the state of the church and the work of the Lord through Ligonier Ministries. So I hope you'll join us tomorrow for that special conversation here on Renewing Your Mind.