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Sermon
by Dr. Jeffrey Jeremiah “The
Sovereign God” How big, how strong is your God? Whenever something bad happens, I think you’ll agree with me that our view of God is usually challenged. Is He really big, really strong? There’s plenty going on in our world this summer to test our view of God: the Israeli-Hezbullah conflict, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the nuclear standoff with Iran and North Korea, the terrorist plot that was foiled in London last week. Closer to home, Travis Britt, known to many of our senior highers, is dying of a rare bone cancer. In the midst of all these tragic events, where is God? Do events like these prove God isn’t in control, that He means well but He isn’t big and strong enough to prevent bad things from happening? If your God is “puny,” small and weak, then His impact on your life and your faith will be puny, too. A great faith demands a great God for its starting point. Whatever else the Gospel of Jesus Christ claims to be, it claims to be a great faith, a faith in a great God, a mighty, all-powerful God. To be biblical, presbyterian, reformed, and calvinist (and you need to know that those terms are synonymous in my mind), is to affirm such a God, high and lifted up, unlimited in His majesty and holiness, infinite in His power and His glory. God’s sovereignty, that is, His power is what I’d like to address with you today. Sovereignty is that quality by which God rules all creation in power, according to His perfect and holy will. He chooses and carries out all that He wills, and no one can prevent or frustrate His plans. There are an incredible number of Scripture verses which speak to this characteristic of God. Two that caught my attention are Job 42:2, where Job says of God, “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.” Verse six of Psalm 135 says, “Our God is in heaven; He does whatever pleases Him.” To be sovereign Lord, two characteristics of God are absolutely critical. The first is that God is omniscient. Omniscient is a compound word from Latin: omni – all, scient – knowledge or science. God is all-knowing; He knows Himself and all things actual and possible in one simple, eternal act. First John 3:20 says, “For God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.” When we speak of the power of God, we say He is omnipotent, all-powerful. His power is infinite and free, in that nothing in all creation can hinder or prevent God from accomplishing His will. There is one qualifier here. God cannot do anything that would contradict or deny His character. For example, God cannot lie. In Titus 1:2 He is called “the unlying God.” In the same way God cannot sin or do evil. In this sense it’s not entirely accurate to say that God can do anything. He freely can and will do those things that are consistent with His character. That may all sound well and good, but does it make any difference in our lives? The answer is, yes, absolutely! That God is sovereign - omniscient and omnipotent - can have a dramatic impact on your understanding of what’s happening in our world. Terror, war, Islamic fascism, nuclear confrontation: it’s all a part of the way God is moving human history, moving us toward this goal, this purpose: the return of His Son Jesus Christ. When Jesus comes again, we know that sin, evil, suffering, and pain will be judged and condemned and vanquished for good, forever. That’s where our sovereign God is leading human history. In the meantime, we’re called to be about the great work of building His church, proclaiming to people in our community, country, and world the salvation that is found only in Jesus’ name! That God is sovereign also has an impact on the certainty of your salvation, because it’s God’s sovereign power that saves you. Repeatedly in the New Testament we’re told that the believer in Jesus Christ is the person who has been “born of God,” is “born again,” and has become “a child of God” (John 1:13; 3:3, 7; I Peter 1:23; I John 5:1). To be born of God, to become a child of God is to receive into your life not human or natural power, but supernatural power. That’s God’s power, sovereign power poured out, poured into your life. When that power comes it reaches into the very core of your being (your heart, your mind, your soul) and changes you forever. You’re given a new desire, a new purpose, a new life; you’re a new creation when God does this work within you. And please understand, when your salvation is grounded in God’s power, in His work in your life, you need never fear that you will lose that salvation. Your salvation is accomplished and secured by the supernatural power of God! Third, God’s sovereignty makes a difference in how you live your life as a follower of His Son. It’s not the case that you’re “whiling away the time,” wandering aimlessly through this life. No, the sovereign God who has willed and acted to save you has also willed and is acting in this way: He is working all things for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). God is working everything (not some things, not most things, but every thing) in your life for your ultimate good. Not your immediate good, but your ultimate, eternal good. No promise can bring more hope, joy, confidence, and freedom to your life than to know and believe this commitment the almighty God has made to you: everything for your good. If God’s going to work that way, He’s going to do it in good things and in bad. Here
are three ways that God works good things in your life for good.
One, there’s His power.
Do you know that as a believer in Jesus Christ you’ve been
given resources of power and strength to live your life that know no
limit? Colossians 1:11
declares that in Christ we are “strengthened with all power,
according to His glorious might.”
Christian, are you drawing on the power of God to live your day
today, tomorrow? Two, God’s
promises work for your good. His
promise to forgive your sins is one precious example.
In Isaiah 43:25 God promises that He blots “out your
transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”
You can have a clear conscience, you can be released from guilt
and shame as you confess your sins, as you’re forgiven and cleansed
by the blood of Jesus Christ! Three,
God’s Word works for your good.
2 Timothy 3:16 declares, “All Scripture is God-breathed and
is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in
righteousness.” God
uses His Word for your good because it provides all that you need to
live a godly life. By His
power, His promises, and His Word God uses good for your good. That was easy. Anyone can see God’s goodness when things are going well. What about the bad, the tough, the difficult times? God’s commitment is no less effective. God sovereignly works in whatever is bad to work it out for your good in the long run. Let me address two struggles, two bad times we all confront in this life. The first is suffering. Please understand at the outset that if sin had not come into the world, there would be no suffering, no pain, no sorrow, no death. Suffering is the result of an evil, fallen world. How can God use something like suffering for your good? One benefit of suffering is that it teaches you to hate sin. When Christ went to the tomb of His good friend Lazarus, He “was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled” (John 11:33). This is a fascinating statement. Jesus went to the tomb of Lazarus knowing exactly what He was going to do. He was going to raise His dead friend to life, performing one of His greatest miracles. So why was He “deeply moved in spirit” and “troubled”? He agonized over the tears, pain, and sorrow that sin and death bring. When we experience suffering, we learn to hate the sin that brings it about. Another benefit of suffering is that it exposes the sin in our lives. When everything is fine, it’s easy to feel pious and godly. But as soon as trouble comes our way, it can be very easy to get angry at God. We can lose our patience and begin to doubt His goodness. That’s when you find out what’s really going on in here, whether you really trust God, because suffering will expose any evil in your heart. Suffering not only exposes sin, it can also drive it out of your life. Suffering is like a fire that burns away impurity in our lives and reveals what is true, genuine, and real. In the midst of His suffering Job said of God, “He knows the way I take; when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). And lastly, suffering also drives us to God. When everything in our lives is comfortable, we’re apt to be preoccupied with our house, car, job, business, or wardrobe. When suffering hits hard, the material things that take up so much of our time and attention become suddenly empty. We turn to God, to what really matters for meaning, help, and comfort. God uses suffering for our good. A
second bad time God uses for your good is temptation.
Struggling with temptation causes you to see how weak you
really are, and to realize that you need God; you need His help.
The Son of God Himself knew what temptation was all about
(Hebrews 4:15-16). Because Christ Himself experienced great temptation, He
understands what you go through and is therefore able to help you in
your struggles. What’s
the nature of His help? Is
it help that “might work, but might not?”
No! It’s help
that will enable you to win the battle, to overcome temptation.
Temptation also works for your good because it makes you yearn
for, look forward to heaven. Can
you identify with Paul’s frustration in Romans seven?
I can. “The good
that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not
want…Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of
this death?” (Romans 7:19, 24).
At times like that we rightly long for heaven, saying with
Paul, “To me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians
1:21). Why?
Why does God promise to work everything out for our good?
Because He’s committed to conforming you into the image, the
likeness, the character of His Son (Romans 8:29).
Making you like Jesus Christ is the goal, the purpose He
sovereignly appointed for you before you were born, before the world
even began. Since nothing
can thwart His sovereign purposes, you can be “confident of this
very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until
the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).
You see, if your God is “big enough” to include His
all-powerful, all-knowing sovereignty, you can be a Christian who
understands what’s happening in our troubled world today, who knows
to the depth of your heart and soul that you are saved by His
sovereignty, and that all the days of your life are lived in accord
with His sovereign purpose and plan.
Because your great God is a sovereign God, you can be
confident, secure, and bold in your faith, in your life in your Savior
and Lord Jesus Christ! |