THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD IN ADMINISTRATION If you weren t looking to the Lord we re living in frightening days! Yes, there have always been earthquakes and tornadoes and cyclones and volcanoes and different types of natural destruction and countless numbers of people have died as a result of such disasters. Who, too, can add up the number of lives that have been lost in war and conflict down through the centuries? But things seem to be getting worse! There is the greenhouse effect that s heating up our climates, melting the polar icecaps and raising the levels of the sea, - on Tuesday in London in mid-september the temperature was 28 degrees! There is pollution and man-made interference in just about everything we eat. There is not just one nuclear threat, - there are umpteen nuclear threats from nations one as mad as the other! When you look at society and see what is happening among our young people in our families in our communities; look at the older people tonight over in the Bingo hall without any thought of meeting God soon. The world seems to be getting crazier and crazier and more and more out of control. There are those who would with aggression ask you, Where is God?! They would tell you He is dead or He is not interested or He just doesn t exist! I even hear some Christians, with their pathetic knowledge of the Bible coming to the fore, and what they really tell me is that the devil is in control of this world. But when you read the Bible right on three occasions the Bible speaks about him as the prince of this world, and, if Christ says he is, so he is, - but he is only the prince he is not the King! The Bible tells us, Jn. 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. Jn. 14:30 the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. Jn. 16:11 the prince of this world is judged. Just imagine what it would be like if the devil was king: Murder would be more rife than it already is, Families would be more pulled apart than they are already are, Churches would be full of vain religiousity even more than presently many of them are,
D.G. 2 All the Bible preaching would have been halted and faithful churches closed. If the devil was the king pollution would be unimaginable, the world would be in total disarray, the stars and the planets would be crashing into each order because he is the author of confusion and everywhere he goes and everything he touches is contaminated and spoiled. Just imagine what it would be like if God ceased to be God and the devil was in control! But, you see, God is still on the Throne and He will never relinquish His eternal power and authority. The devil could never do what God can do because only God is capable of keeping in order that which He alone created. Again, at the beginning of the Bible God simply had to speak and His will was carried out, Gen. 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God said And God said We looked last week at the Sovereignty of God in creation, - He brought it all into being by His Word. He brought the flood that covered the whole of the earth in Noah s day. It rained for the exact period of time (forty days and forty nights) He had planned it to rain. Prior to this there had been no such thing as rain for a mist rose out of the earth and watered the land (Gen. 2:5,6). In Egypt He made the water of the river turn into blood, He called the locusts to do His bidding, and He sent the thunder and the hail. What He did in our eyes we might consider terrible, - through His plagues in Egypt there were little children killed as well as responsible adults. But we ve got to keep focused on His glory and He does all things for His glory no matter what it might seem like in our eyes. In Sodom and Gomorrah He rained down upon the inhabitants the fire and the brimstone. He parted the waters of the Red Sea. He defied the heat of Nebuchadnezzar s furnace and He made as tame and as harmless as little kittens the ferocious lions in the den. His Son stood up in a boat rocking from side to side on the Sea of Galilee and He stilled the storm. What a God we worship!
D.G. 3 He lined up the animals in their proper order to enter the Ark of Noah, He put words into the mouth of the donkey Balaam was riding, He gave the food to the raven to bring to feed Elijah in the desert; He made the water of the brook flow to quench his thirst. He brought a fish large enough and capable to swallow Jonah and save him out of the rough sea to vomit him up onto the shore. What a God is ours! I m very aware that for some reason I cannot understand there are some who profess to be Christians that do not like me talking about the Sovereignty of God but no matter how hard I try before you this evening I cannot even begin to adequately draw how Sovereign and how in control God actually is! Why is it so offensive to some Christians? As hard as I try, I can t understand. Why does the world not like this subject? Because the world, - and sadly, the world sometimes in the professed believer, - likes to think that God is Sovereign only as far as we allow Him to be. I can tell you that the God they believe in is not the God I believe in for the God I believe in and which the Bible teaches us about is a God Whose majesty and authority to govern far exceeds all that He has ever created. He is in no way limited and to say otherwise is to fall foul of the devil s deceit. He brings the snow and the frost, the sun and the heat. Every part of His creation is sustained and kept by Him personally. He has an allintricate knowledge of everything and nothing is outside of His will. In speaking about Him like this I m even afraid I would in any way lessen Who He truly is and of what He is really capable. He is absolutely and all-together in charge and in control of every aspect of creation right down to where the sparrow builds the nest and the number of the hairs on your head! And what about humanity? Is God in Sovereign control of humanity? Or is He only in control of some aspects of it that we allow Him to be? If He is not in control of it all, does that mean there are certain aspects that have priority or control over what He would desire? because, - it would seem to me, - either God governs, or He is governed! If He is governed in only one tiny little aspect it undermines all His power as a whole and makes a nonsense of His absolute Sovereignty.
D.G. 4 Either God has His way or we have ours! The future doesn t depend upon what God and us plans only what God plans! Does man have the final say, - yes, I know he can squirm and wriggle, - but is man strong enough and capable enough to confound the plans of God and throw them into disarray? Is man s will more powerful than God s?! If the President of the USA pressed the button that launched a nuclear missile would God be able to stop it? I ll give you what I believe: I believe that God achieves everything He sets His mind to and that nothing - nothing! can hinder His purpose or block His plans. Nothing at all! He says, Is. 46:9 for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. Satan thought he could overthrow Jesus by taking Him up on to the mountain with the promise of giving Him all the Kingdoms but who did the devil think he was?! Those kingdoms weren t his to offer anyone, least of all the Son of God Who was there at their creation; the Bible says in Ex. 9:9, Ps. 24:1 and I Cor. 10:28 the earth is the Lord s, and the fulness thereof. Satan thought he could enlist the help of Judas but in the secret mind and will of God Judas was merely carrying out the plan that God had already put into action, Ps. 41: 9 Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. You do God a great disservice and you show your ignorance of the Word if you say, Ah, but God knew Judas was going to do that! But God didn t just know it, - He planned it in His secret will! And to say otherwise is to imply God was merely an observer and not the Planner His Word claims Him to be. You see, there are some questions we don t ask we accept His Sovereignty. God had a beautiful creation lying lifeless in a beautiful garden. There was life in all the other plants and animals but no life in the flesh lying before Him in the garden until God breathed into the man to whom He gave the name Adam. Paul told those clever men on the hill in Athens, Acts 17:28 in him we live, and move, and have our being. They had all their own ideas as to what they believed or what didn t believe, and the Bible tells us that s the way it is Prov. 16:9 A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.
D.G. 5 Note that it is not that He knows what paths we are going to take but He directs our steps. The government and Pharaoh of Egypt fulfilled His plan. Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians fulfilled His plan in carrying the Jews into captivity. The Pharisees and the Romans fulfilled His plan when they hung Jesus upon a tree. The rich fool with all his big ideas failed to reckon with the will of God when God stepped in and did His will regardless of what the farmer in his riches had planned. Job 23:13 he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth. What is there that some people find offensive about this doctrine? Surely it gives the believer the reassurance that all is in the hands of Almighty God and as far as His people are concerned, Rom. 8:28 all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Surely it gives us confidence and hope that nothing happens outside the will of God and even those terrible things He has a purpose even in them the ultimate of which glory is brought to His Name. You don t understand why He allows certain things to happen do you think you need to understand it all to believe in Him? Wouldn t it be far worse if things happened and there was none of the guiding and permitting hand of God behind them! And besides, doesn t He call upon you to trust Him by faith and not by the mere pathetic understanding of even the wisest of men! A.W. Pink wrote, No revolving world, no shining of star, no storm, no creature moves, no actions of men, no errands of angels, no deeds of Devil - nothing in all the vast universe can come to pass otherwise than God has eternally purposed. Here is a foundation of faith. Here is a resting place for the intellect. Here is an anchor for the soul, both sure and steadfast. It is not blind fate, unbridled evil, man or Devil, but the Lord Almighty who is ruling the world, ruling it according to His own good pleasure and for His own eternal glory. And for that we praise Him and we are privileged to be counted amongst His children!