The Sovereignty Of God Series

The Sovereignty of God

Note:

This message builds on Part 1 (Spiritual Warfare). I feel it is important to read Spiritual Warfare first in order to understand the perspective of this message.

Today there is a growing departure from the historic Christian doctrine. A tragic product of this departure is that most Christians have lost focus or have no knowledge of the sovereignty of God. When I say ’historic Christianity’ I am referring to the absolute truth that God has delivered to us through the scriptures. Today we are seeing the scriptural warning of false doctrines that will infiltrate the faith in the last days. These teachers will put people’s focus on the worldly things, not on heaven, and will even deny the power of the Lord. The sovereignty of God is not a secondary issue but is completely foundational to everything we stand on. If God is not sovereign, how can I trust Him with every part of my life? When I say sovereignty I am referring our God who is all knowing, in total control and has the absolute right to do all things according to His good pleasure. There are countless false teachers today that contradict God Himself and claim their word has power over God and their doctrine overrules God.

For the sake of time, I can’t go into every area of these teachings in this study, but I do want to focus on the control of God. I recently had an in-depth conversation with a man who teaches the dominion of satan. He could not provide any scripture references, but this doctrine goes something like this:

God created man and gave him total dominion of the earth. Satan deceived man into sinning and therefore took man’s domain away from Him. Now satan is in total control and has total dominion of the earth and God is on the outside looking in. God lost man to sin and His right to the earth as well. Now satan is the god of this world and has total dominion over it. Man dropped the ball and satan took it.

There are some variations to this doctrine. Some say that God deceived satan out of it again through Jesus and some still believe satan has control.

There are many flaws with this teaching. You have to do a lot of reading between the lines to get satan in a position of authority. More important than this is that these teachers fail to realize that satan cannot take what man did not own. Man never had ownership of the world, but rather, he was a steward, or caretaker of God’s creation. God is the Lord and man was given the privilege to preside over it. Ownership belongs to God and has always belonged to God. God made this very clear throughout scripture. In Psalm 50:12 God says, "The world is Mine and all its fullness". If God did not own the world, He could not have judged the complete moral bankruptcy of man by flooding the world. When God provided the children of Israel the inheritance of their promised land, He made it clear that it belonged to Him and He was entrusting it to them. The land had to remain in the family. The land could be sold, but in the year of Jubilee it always went back to the family of the original inheritance. The people did not have the right to transfer ownership because they were not the owners. God also warned that if they abandoned Him and rejected His commandments, He would drive them out of the land. To abandon God is to abandon God’s blessings. The blessings belong to God and are enjoyed with fellowship with Him.

Under this modern false teaching, God is turned into an opportunist looking for loopholes to get His will in when He can. This completely goes against scripture. God will never honor the teachings of anyone who rejects His word and those who are following false teaching are committing the same sins. This is why the Bible warns us so strongly, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world." 1 John 4:1. God will never contradict His word. The Bible goes on to warn that false apostles transform themselves into apostles of Christ so they can deceive. The do so to because satan does the same. He masquerades as an angel of light to deceive. They have authoritative words and convincing arguments so that the only way to know they are evil is by comparing them to the word of God and looking at the fruit they produce.

The sovereignty of God is not a dispute over doctrine, but the foundational issue of scripture. If God is not sovereign, then He is not worthy of worship. If God is not in total control, then I cannot trust Him with every part of my life. If God does not have authority, God can’t direct everything according to His purposes. If God is not all these things, then we are calling Him a liar because God Himself makes these claims. Satan may be called the god of this world, but God says that all authority is granted by Him. He raises one up and casts down another and all things work to fulfill His purpose. Can we trust any teacher that says that God is less that God tells us He is? Any teacher that challenges the power of God will be judged and the Bible warns that those who follow will be judged with them. The Bible says that God has all authority and power and He will not share His glory with any other. How can anyone have the arrogance to take this glory and give it to satan? We must get to the position of the Psalmist who said, "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?" Only when you can stand in awe of God, you can understand that God is able to make your path and design it perfectly. Only an omnipotent, omniscient, sovereign God could orchestrate your path and work all things to your good as He has promised. I want to finish this study by turning our focus away from the error and look at the trustworthiness of our Sovereign God. To make this study memorable, I am going to use the acronym P.L.A.N. so you can remember that because God is in control, you can trust in God’s plan for your life.