Examining The Sovereignty Of God
I.
Examining the
“sovereignty of God” – It is widely believed amongst many Christians that
God is in control of everything and everybody on the Earth. That God is sovereign He does whatever
He wants and He can do anything He wants because He is God and if it happened
on the Earth it must be His will because if He didn’t want it to happen, then
it would not happen. Religion has taught people for years to
believe this way, but is it the truth.
A. Is God sovereign?
1.
Sovereign-1.Supreme
in power 2.Supreme; superior to all others 3.Possession of the highest power
4.Possessing supreme dominion
a. Is God supreme in power?
Yes – Is God supreme and superior to all others? Yes
2.
Does
God possess supreme dominion or control in the Earth? No
B. The word sovereign is not
even in the Bible so when we say He is sovereign we are using a word to
describe God that we didn’t get from God and that God didn’t use to describe
Himself
1.
If
we are going to be adamant about something that God is let’s be adamant about
things He actually said He was
a. If the religious world
would have been as adamant about His goodness as they were about his so called
“sovereignty” the church would be in much better shape than it’s in
2.
What
did God say about Himself? (Genesis 17:1-He is the almighty God (Most
powerful)---Isaiah 46:9-There is none like Him---Revelation 4:8-God is Holy---Psalm
36:6-God is righteous---Zephaniah 3:17-God is mighty---Job 9:4-God is strong---Isaiah
40:28-God is everlasting---Deuteronomy 33:27-God is eternal---Revelation 1:8-God
is the alpha and the omega---1 John 1:5-God is light and in him there is no
darkness---1 John 4:18-God is love---John 1:1-4-God is the Word---Psalm
136:1-God is good---1 John 3:20-God is all knowing---Psalm 139-God is ever
present, omnipresent)
a. People read verses like
these & then of their own volition decide to interpret them to mean that
God is in total control of everybody & everything on the Earth and can do
anything He wants at any time
C. If He is sovereign the
way most people think He is in their definition of sovereignty then you have no
authority, no say, and no control regarding your life or what happens in your
life
1.
If
God is sovereign the way most think He is, then you have no choice and no say
about anything that happens in your life and leaves the responsibility for
everything that happens in your life, good or bad, in the lap of God
II.
Might vs. Right-Luke
4:36, 9:1
A. God is all
powerful-Revelation 19:6
1.
Omnipotent
– Almighty; 2 Greek Words (1) All (2) Power, Force, Strength, Dominion
a. God is all-powerful, but
does that mean He is controlling everything?
2.
If
God is controlling everything that happens to everybody then you have no
authority, no choice, and no say about your life and therefore the results or
outcome in your life is his lap, his hands, and he is responsible for
everything that happens good or bad-Is that true? NO
B. You can have the
power/might to do something, but not have the authority/right or permission to
do it-Luke 9:2
1.
Example:
I could come to your house in a tank.
I have the power/might to blow your house to shreds, but I don’t have
the right/authority to do that and therefore I have the might, the power, the
resources to do it, but I don’t have the right to do it. No if you told me to do and authorized
me to do it, then I’d have the right to use my might.
2.
God is the Almighty and has the power, the might, the ability
and resources to do anything He wants, but he does not have the legal right to
do anything He wants. He relinquished
that right when he gave man dominion, when he gave man the authority, when he
gave man a choice.
3.
God,
can legally, only do what He is permitted to do
C. God is not in total
control of everybody and everything that happens in the Earth
1.
Psalm
115:3-God does whatever he pleases
a. Does that mean that
whatever God wants to happen and whatever pleases Him He’s going to do and make
happen because He’s God and that’s the end of it?
b. There’s a lot of stuff
happening on the Earth that we know doesn’t please Him
1)
Genesis
3-When they ate of the tree that didn’t please Him so why didn’t he stop it?
2)
1
Samuel 8-God didn’t want a king for them and then gave them a king? Was this
what he wanted?
c. Out of that way of
thinking people develop the belief that if it happened it must have been what
God wanted cause He does whatever He wants and if He didn’t want it He would
have stopped it
2.
Isaiah
46:9-10, Proverbs 19:21-God’s purpose will be fulfilled
a. Does that mean that God’s
plan in every situation for everybody is coming to pass? Is everybody on the
Earth fulfilling the complete will and purpose and plan of God for their life?
b. That means you might have
a bunch of plans in your head, but only his plan will work
3.
Job
42:2-No purpose of God’s can be restrained
a. Out of that way of
thinking comes this type of thought: everything that happens is God’s plan
because if it want his plan or if opposed His plan then He wouldn’t let it
happen
b. Is everything that
happens on the Earth God’s plan?
4.
Ephesians
1:11-Does that mean that everything that happens on the Earth is God’s will? Does
that mean that God is in everything that happens in the Earth?
a. 1 Kings 9:11-12-There’s a
wind, an earthquake, and a fire and the Lord wasn’t in any of it and He had
nothing to do with it
1)
People
make the mistake of believing if something happened in the Earth, then God was
in it and they’ll say things like, “That was God’s judgment on that city.”
2)
When
God’s in the wind, the fire, and earthquake…
a) Exodus 3:2-God was in the
fire when the bush was burning and not consumed
b) Acts 16-When God was in
the Earthquake people got delivered and nobody got hurt
c) Acts 2-When God was in
the wind people got filled the Spirit
b. How can you tell when God
is in it and when God’s not in it? If it’s stealing, killing, and destroying
then God’s not in it
1)
God
only does stuff that is His will and if it’s not in line with His will then
He’s not in it
5.
Proverbs
16:9-The Lord directs a man’s steps
a. Does that mean the Lord
forces people into his plan and forces people to go places even they want to go
somewhere else?
b. Jeremiah 42-Did God force
them to Egypt where he didn’t want them to go
D. Because God is not
all-controlling you can never discern His will by what happens or what doesn’t
happen on this Earth
1.
People
have tendency to think that God is “sovereign” and in “total-control” so
anything that happens must be His will cause if it wasn’t His will He wouldn’t
let it happen – Then as a result that type of thinking they discern His
will by what happens and what doesn’t happen rather than by His Word and His
Spirit
2.
If
somebody dies, people say well that must have just been what God wanted --- God
needed another angel in Heaven
a. Really God knew that
person in their mother’s womb and had a plan for their lives and the plan was
for them and to die at the age of 2, 12, 22, 32? – Psalm 91:16, 1 Kings
3:14, Proverbs 3:2,16, Genesis 6:3
3.
People
don’t know the will of God because they ignore His Word and try to determine it
by circumstances
a. God is not the only one
involved in determining whether or not his will comes to pass because you have
a will to and if you don’t choose His will for your life, then His will doesn’t
come to pass in your life
III.
God created man and gave
him dominion-Rule, Reign, dominate, the power of governing and controlling the
Earth-Genesis 1:26
A. God created the Earth and
the first thing he did was give man the controls – Let THEM have dominion
1.
If
God wanted to be in control of everybody and everything that happened on the
Earth He could have been, but he relinquished that right in this verse
2.
One
definition of sovereign means to possess supreme dominion; in the Earth God
gave the dominion to man so in that regard He does not possess supreme dominion
B. If God gave man dominion
over the Earth, then if God wants to do something in the Earth He has to get
permission from the man that He gave the dominion to
1.
God
only has the right to do in your life what you grant him the permission to do
2.
Psalm
115:16-God’s not running the Earth, God’s running the church and the church is
supposed to be running the Earth
C. After the fall of man God
was on the outside looking in and His approach to man was similar to that of
Satan’s in the Garden in that God could only present things to a man and it was
for them man to either reject or received them
1.
What
took so long for Jesus to get here? God needed permission from a man and He
started with Abraham
2.
Noah-God
needed to destroy the Earth for the sake of mankind and when He recognized the
need He needed a man who would allow Him to do it so before He moved He went a
looking for a man
a. Genesis 6:5-8-God can’t
legally do this apart from a man permitting Him
b. Gen 6:13-Why is God even
talking to Noah about this? God’s getting permission from his man
1)
2
Peter 2:5-Noah preached righteousness-He’s working with God
2)
Gen6:8-9-Noah
was a righteous man of faith who walked with God and worked with Him
3)
Hebrews
11:7-Noah is building this ark as an act of faith and that’s granting God
permission to do what He wants to do
a) Noah’s faith brought this
flood to pass
b) Noah condemned the
world-He permitted this whole thing
c. Genesis 6:18-This
covenant God made with Noah was before the flood, not after the flood and he
needed permission from the man to do this
1)
The
covenant was I’m going to flood the Earth because it’s wicked, but you won’t
die, I’ll bless you and prosper you and I won’t do this again
2)
Genesis
9:2-He needed the blessing to build the ark, he needed control over those
animals before the flood
3.
Genesis
12-God’s working with a man because he needs to get Jesus into the Earth
4.
Luke
1-God had to find a woman who would say yes to being the Mother of Jesus