Soteriology. The Comfort of God s Sovereignty. ST309 LESSON 15 of 24

Transcription

1 Soteriology ST309 LESSON 15 of 24 H. Phillip Hook, ThD. Experience: Dallas Theological Seminary, ThM and ThD This is tape number fifteen of a series of twenty-four on soteriology by Phillip Hook. At the close of the last tape we were finishing up our consideration of Romans 9 and the process of the sovereignty of God and God s choosing, God s decree, His program by which He is working. As I introduced that chapter, I said this is one of those chapters that if we stop and look at it, it ought to make us sit bold upright. And I m sure that as we look back over it, that s exactly what the chapter does do. I m thankful, when I finish teaching it, that it s God s word that I have been teaching and not mine. I trust that the interpretation that I have given is fair to that which God intends because it is a very hard passage. It s a passage that so clearly demonstrates that God is God and if this isn t what God is, then we have somebody sitting in the heavens wringing his hands, wondering what s happening. And, you see, that couldn t be God. If God is God, He s sovereign, He s powerful, He is just, He s loving; and, therefore, the heart of this is the fact that we can face the world and the future and the past with confidence because we know God s at work. Now I want to make some observations about the design of God s plan that ll start with where we were in Romans 9 and add a few points to it. And then, from there I want to work at comforts and contradictions because this concept of God s working, God s sovereignty has enormous implications to all of life; so, back again to the decree of God. Number one, God s choosing is not according to natural generation and we noted this in Romans nine. Second, God s choosing is not according to works. There s no merit; there s nothing in my life that makes me deserve God s choosing. God s choosing is sovereign. 1 of 8

2 Thirdly, God s planning, His choosing, to place before the foundation of the world. In Ephesians 1, Paul talks about each one of us being destined in Christ before the foundation of the world. God didn t start out and then at each point along the way and time when things went wrong, He didn t decide at that point, I m going to send a new rescue operation; I ll send Moses this time and I ll send Isaiah this time and then decide, well, finally things had gotten so bad, I guess I m going to have to send Jesus. No, He was working according to a plan and out of this plan He s showing the sinfulness of sin. He s showing the direction that man goes apart from God s working. He s also showing His love and His mercy. And so, before the foundation of the world began God worked out, planned out, what He was going to do. Now, there s one problem here that I d like to note. If I could solve it, I think I could solve all of the problems that are in my mind and your mind about this subject at this point. This is the problem: what is time really to God? Because, you see, I think God is eternally present in time. There is sequence of activity, yes; but as Peter says in 2 Peter 3, time for God is very, very different than it is for man. A day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day. If I really knew what eternity was like, what it meant, then, when I said before the foundation of the world God planned it, I think I could understand. But lacking this understanding of what time really is for an eternal God, we are limited to using words that we understand although we may not understand their real thought and their meaning. And that is that God foreordained, God planned, before the foundation of the world and yet He s vitally involved in every step of the outworking of His plan. A fourth thing that I would like to note about God s planning is that it s immutable, it doesn t change. God has a purpose by which He s working and He s accomplishing that purpose along the way. For example: in 2 Timothy 2:18-19, speaking of some of the problems that were in the church that are there, Paul writes of Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth by holding that the resurrection has past already. They are upsetting the faith of some. But God s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: The Lord knows those who are his, and, Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. You see, in the context of these problems and people who were promoting error, Paul s confidence is God s plan stands. He is perfectly going to accomplish all that He was going to do. If I may refer you back to Romans 8 and a passage that we ve 2 of 8

3 noted before and will be noting again, Romans 8:29: For all those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the first-born among many brethren. And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified. All of the verbs in these verses are past tense verbs; past completed actions even though the final verb is yet to take place in all of our lives. But from God s point of view He can speak of it as past, accomplished, perfectly done. God has one plan, Acts 15:18, and He s working to accomplish it and it is a wise plan. In Romans 11:33 as Paul comes to the end of this section on Israel and God bringing Israel back in, he concludes with this statement: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or, who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. And as Paul looks back over what he s written in these first eleven chapters of Romans, God s plan of salvation and God s sovereign working in this world, he ends up breaking out in praise at the wisdom and knowledge and understanding of God and so, His planning is wise. And finally, His planning is free. God accomplishes perfectly what He wants to do without condition, without referring back to others or contingency or dependence but He s at work. A few years ago when I was pastoring a church on a part-time basis in the Midwest, the outbreak of God is dead theology started going and so I searched my own mind and heart and the word of God and asked the Lord for some messages to preach to the people about God in a day when people were proclaiming his death. And God took me back to Isaiah and I started in Isaiah 40 and I worked from there through; and sometime when you re a little discouraged about God or things, I d suggest you do the same. But I d like to read just a few verses out of these chapters about God who is free and who s planning is unconditioned, who is perfectly accomplishing His purpose. Isaiah 40:12 God, Who measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor instructed him? Whom did he consult for enlightenment or who taught him the path of justice? Or who taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are 3 of 8

4 as a drop in the bucket, and are accounted as dust on the scales; and behold, he takes up the islands like fine dust. Some of you might remember the old scales that were used that were balance scales or maybe we used them in chem lab or physics along the way. We used to just blow the dust off the scales before we used them and that s the concept here that Isaiah uses of the nations. The nations are like the dust on the scales in comparison to God. And then in Isaiah 46:3: Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to the gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save. To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike? Those who lavish gold from the purse, and weigh out silver from the scales, hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god; then they fall down and worship! They lift it on their shoulders, and they carry it, they set it in its place, and it stands there; it cannot move from its place. If one cries to it, it does not answer or save him in the time of trouble. These were the idolaters and they made their gods and they faithfully worshipped them and then when they moved, they had to carry them. And the Lord then says, Isaiah 46:8, Remember this and consider, call it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purpose, and I will do it. When man comes to God, there is only one thing that he can do and that s to bow and someday every knee will bow before God. And the great privilege of the believer is that we can learn to bow now to the authority of God, to His working, to His love and to His justice and find the meaning and the purpose that makes life livable. Now, I d like to take some time to just talk about some of the things that we ve been through and I d like to first turn to the comforts that come from God s sovereignty, God s choosing, God s planning in salvation and in all of life. Probably if I were to take one verse around which to build my theology, it would be Romans 8:28. We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him who are called according to his purpose. 4 of 8

5 A few years ago I was working on this verse because, you know, we get it out at all kinds of occasions. Somebody dies and we get it out, all things work together for good and there s an accident and we get out the verse, all things work together for good and then every once in a while you hear a message that says, well, they WILL work for good IF you love God and IF you are called, but those last two phrases aren t contingent clauses, they re descriptive clauses. They re descriptive of the person who is a believer. I think it s inconceivable to Paul that someone would be a believer and not love God and it s inconceivable that he could be a believer and not be called of God. And so it is for the believer that ALL THINGS work together for good. Why? Because God is at work in all things for good. Now, we need to be careful to note that it doesn t say everything that happens is good but it says God is at work in everything. Now, this means in my own attitude toward life, toward today, I face life a changed and different person. Why? Because the light that changes red at the wrong time, the thing that goes wrong in today, the blessing of today, the hard thing of today; this is not a failure or a catastrophe in God s working but it s part of God s design. In fact, if you go back to Romans 5:3, Paul says that having been justified in Christ, moreover than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which he has given to us. And in James 2 (this is actually James 1:2), Count it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into diverse, and the word there is the many surrounding, the manifold temptations that are a part of life. Why count it all joy? Because these are a backdrop of God s working. It s part of the privilege of seeing God at work in things that may go wrong and things that are hard; but, you see, suffering is a purpose. We live in a world today where there are two things that we avoid at all possible costs: one is death and the other is suffering. We live in a world that s lost its faith and knowledge in God; and, therefore, death is the ultimate thing to be feared because it s meaninglessness, it s emptiness, it s everything s over from the perspective of the world. But then, suffering; look at the millions of dollars Americans spend on avoiding any kind of pain, any kind of suffering. And, you see, I m not a masochist over trying to support suffering but what I m trying to get across is that God has designed the hard things, the suffering, even the pain into this world for a purpose. Many of us have watched the famous athletes of our day wrought on the field of conflict with 5 of 8

6 their ankle or their knee or their hip or their shoulder or their elbow filled with Novocain or some other kind of drug so that he can continue to perform and so that the pain will be reduced. But, you see, God designed pain that we might know when to quit, that we might know when it s time to stop and rest a joint or a muscle. And pain is a gift of God in this sense, not a curse from God. It s the danger sign, the warning signs that we need to go easy, we need to rest. And, you see, there s a sense in which God has put the pain, the suffering in this world as a warning sign but He s done other things with. Suffering is that which teaches patience. I have come more and more to the conclusion that the primary characteristic of maturity is patience. And, probably, this is a terrible commentary on America today and particularly American youth but never in history do I know of a period when there was more impatience; when people wanted easy and simple solution to all kinds of problems. In fact, they just wanted to wish the problems away. And yet God has said through suffering comes patience and endurance. I used to think when I was younger that God should have given children to grandparents and not parents because grandparents know what to do with them. So many times we puzzled over, you know, what s wrong now and grandma or grandpa knew right away what to do. But, you see, God gave children to parents so that they might learn together, grow together, and it takes that to make grandparents. And it s this way that God s at work. I don t think that I could face a day if I weren t absolutely convinced that whatever happens today is part of God s planning, part of God s design for my life and that it s good for me. One day as I was walking through the dormitory of one of the schools where I taught, I noticed on the door of one of the rooms, I pray like a Calvinist and I preach like an Arminian and it s an interesting perspective because, you see, prayer is meaningless if God isn t sovereign, if God can t do something about it. And yet preaching sometimes gets to be mechanical unless we really realize that it makes a difference what people do and how they respond. And, you see, in many ways I think this is the way we need to live, as we look back at the things God brought into our lives, we need to realize that this is God s working, His planning for us, that we might learn from it; and as we look to the future, we must realize that our decisions will affect it because if we would have kept going in Romans 9 at the end and Romans 10, the other side of the picture is that Israel lost out because she didn t believe, because she didn t respond in faith. And, you see, 6 of 8

7 God has designed that responsibility should enter into all that we do so that God s sovereignty and His choosing affects, first of all, my attitude toward what happens. Secondly, it ought to affect my attitude toward everything that goes on in the world; that God is in control of this world. Now, there s a sense in which this is only an enlargement of that which has gone on before. Scripture says that Satan is the god of this world and Satan offered to Christ the kingdoms of this world if He would bow down so that Scripture does acknowledge that this world is Satan s world. But that s not outside of God s control. Witness the book of Job: when Satan wanted to do something with Job, he needed God s permission. And when God gave him permission, God also gave him limits in which he could work; and, therefore, as we look at this world and what s going on, for the believer there is a confidence that it s not out of God s control. Paul says in Romans 13 that the powers that be, the rulers that are, are ordained of God and this was written in a day when the Roman Empire was getting worse and worse. When the emperors were making themselves god and Paul could say that authority is not outside of God s control. And, therefore, when we look at our world today, I think we need to realize this is not outside of God s control. Very often we have lost a perspective and we re so concerned about the nations that we lose sight of the people. And Scripture is very clear that nations are in the hands of God but He s given the responsibility of reaching people for Him through Jesus Christ to man. And we can spend so much time saving nations and so little time reaching people. You see, if we really are firmly convinced that God is in control of this world, the headlines of this morning s paper won t shake us up. In fact, they ll be times when we ll rejoice because we can see in the headlines that the time of His return is drawing near. There s a third observation that I d like to make at this point that grows out of the previous one and that is that if everything that happens is within God s planning, if this world is under His control, then I can say, thirdly, that there is real purpose in this world. You know, in the underprivileged of our nation and of this world I think one can say that there is going to be justice; that God is not going to leave all of this just the way it is but that He s going to work in it now and in eternity to bring balance into the perspective. One of the great characteristics of the prophets is that they preached judgment because of injustice. When the rich could be fat cats enjoying their riches and the poor suffered, that s when God said to Israel and God said to the other nations, Time s up. 7 of 8

8 And, you see, God is concerned about the poor, the downtrodden, the underprivileged. The amazing thing is how little God s church seems to be concerned about this many times because, you see God is at work and there is purpose, there is design, and God s going to bring this whole thing to fulfilment. In this day when existentialism and meaninglessness so dominates the intellectual scene, the college scene, when people are saying nothing makes sense, there s no meaning, you see, Scripture comes through and says there s purpose and there s meaning, in the little things, in the big things. And God, by His very presence, by His very working, brings order to what looks like chaos. And so, as Campus Crusades first law in their four laws book says, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. That may be a little bit of a romanticized version of what the sovereignty of God really means, but on the other hand it s a very real understanding that God does love the individual, the people of this world. And He does have a design, a plan, and if we re willing to accept Him, let God be the architect of our lives, that plan, regardless of what it means whether it s suffering or whatever, will be a blessing. A few years ago I was working on the passage, my God shall supply all your needs and I was working it in context of suffering and some problems that we were going through and the Lord brought to mind the five missionary martyrs with the Aucas of several years ago now and I got to thinking, if I were on that beach as one of those five that day when the Aucas were attacking, what would I have said was my need that God promised to supply? Would it have been an airplane to take me off the beach? Would it have been a gun to defend myself? Or would it have been grace enough to die as a believer, as an example? You see, very often, we like to define our needs as the things we want, the nice things, the easy things. But God, I think, would have said to those men that day, I ll give you the grace to die in the way that will glorify Me and that will be your need; not more food, not a gun, not a helicopter. Your need will be perfectly fulfilled. You see, this is God s design so that in everything that happens, there s meaning and there s purpose; and, therefore, I have the comfort that comes in my own security because I m not saving myself, neither am I helping out God, but God is at work. I have received the salvation that He s provided and my security, my confidence, my hope rests in Him. Christ-Centered Learning Anytime, Anywhere 8 of 8