Is God in control of you? I mean, right now! Is He in control of you?
There are people who believe that, yes, it is all God’s doing.
Charles Spurgeon said, “I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes.”
What that means is that if I take a little pinch of cornstarch and blow it into the air like this … that God not only planned that eons ago but He was in charge of the distribution and where each particle would land. Not only that but what particles would be taken from the box and which would not and on and on.
Is God capable of doing that? Of course He is. Does He extend His sovereignty that far? Is He concerned with these particles as much as Heather is?
There are verses that seem to support this:
Psalm 135:6
“Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps.”
Daniel 4:35
“All the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does what He wants with the army of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. There is no one who can hold back His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”
Romans 9:19-21
“One of you will say to me: ‘Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist His will?’ But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?
“Shall what is formed say to the One who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?”
And, you can see from these quotes where they’re coming from.
Here’s the thing that gets me, the thing that makes me wonder about that.
It is something that I just can’t reconcile in my mind and here it is:
It is a two word phrase and it is found 419 times in the NIV Bible. “If you …”
KJV was a little more complicated - if ye, if thou, if thy, if thine, if you …
KJV 371
NKJV 366
NASB 359
HCSB 410
NLT 609
Average = 422
Now, out of the 419 instances in the NIV 180 were used in casual conversation such as Jacob saying, “If you do this one thing for me …”
That leaves 156 in the OT and 83 in the NT for a total of 239.
Consequently, “if you” must be a pretty important statement! That means that it is used over 6 times in each book of the Bible. And, that doesn’t count when the “if you” is implied such as in John 3:18
“Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
Just imagine that you are witnessing to someone and you quote John 3:18 and they do not understand it. How would you explain it to them? You might say something like, “What this means is that if you believe in Jesus you are not in danger of spending eternity in hell …” “If you …”
Let’s just take a look at a few of the “if you” verses from the Bible:
Leviticus 3:1
“If your offering is a fellowship offering, and you offer an animal from the herd, whether male or female, you are to present before the Lord an animal without defect.”
Deuteronomy 28:1
“If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all His commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.”
1 Samuel 7:3
“So Samuel said to all the Israelites, ‘If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve Him only, and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.’”
2 Chronicles 7:19-20a
“But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot Israel from My land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name.”
Mark 9:43
“If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.”
Romans 10:9-10 (NLT)
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
“For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.”
1 Corinthians 15:2
“By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.”
Wow! This “if you” statement seems to be extremely important and it seems to put the weight of the decisions squarely on our shoulders!
So, how does all of this balance out? Is God in control or are we?
When we were created God created us in His our spirits in His image.
Adam and Eve were not forced to give in to the serpent and his lies. They could have broken his scrawny little neck and been fine. There was no law against killing snakes then and there should be no such law now!
But, they chose of their own free will and they sinned! And, from that point on we’ve had a choice; either we can choose to do evil and sin or with the help of God (grace) we can choose to live a righteous life.
Here’s the thing. In the Bible we can see the hand of God working in spite of human choices.
Evil King Ahab being killed by a “random” arrow in battle.
(Be familiar with the story and tell it in your own words.)
Good King Josiah being killed by a “random” arrow in battle with the emphasis that God was removing him from the kingship not because of sin but because He was going to bring judgment on Judah.
(Be familiar with the story and tell it in your own words.)
So, regardless of our choices God may choose to act in a way that may even seem deadly to us but it works for His purposes.
And … if our lives are fully given to God that should be OK with us.
As Job said in Job 13:15a NKJV
“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”
Why could Job say this? Because he had this trust in God!
Job 19:23-27
“Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever!
“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes - I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”
Now, Job was a righteous man who was being tested just because He WAS righteous. He was blameless in all his ways. That’s what the Bible says! When the “if you” situations came into His life he relied on the Lord and the Lord enabled him to choose the right path!
What about if you’ve chosen the right path and you go off from it, what then?
Recount briefly the story of David:
Dancing before the Lord as the ark was returned to Jerusalem-good choice
Adultery with Bathsheba - bad choice
The murder of Uriah the Hittite - bad choice
Accusation by Nathan the prophet - “if you moment”
Repentance - good choice
Just imagine this, King David is a man whom the Lord Himself describes in the Word of God as “a man after God’s own heart.”
In many of the Psalms you can heart the rejoicing he experienced when he was obedient to the Lord.
Now, during the time between when he decided in his heart and made the willful choice that he would commit adultery that joy was gone.
Just try to imagine the empty hollow space in his heart.
Many people who have never known God as their Lord feel and emptiness but it is not the same as it is for someone who has know the incredible joy of knowing the indwelling presence of God and then the emptiness of having consciously rejected Him over some sin.
Oh, the emptiness that dragged down his soul, day after day.
Knowing that all of the people in the palace knew of the adultery.
They all knew of the murder of Uriah, trying to cover up his sin.
They knew that the joy of the Lord was absent from the palace.
There were no joyful psalms being written.
There were no lamenting psalms being written.
Then came Nathan the prophet with his parable about the poor man and his one sheep that he loved so much.
2 Samuel 12:7-14
“Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms.
“I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in His eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own.
“You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised Me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own. This is what the Lord says:
“Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.
“Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’
“Nathan replied, ‘The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.’”
Choices! We make choices! Choices have consequences!
So, circling back to the beginning when I blew the corn starch into the air and wondered if God was controlling each particle. Is that really important or something just to discuss?
What is more important is all of the 400+ “if you” verses in the Bible.
Each and every one indicates a choice.
Where have the choices in your life taken you?
Have you made the choice to surrender your life to Jesus for salvation?
If you have, have you made the choice to make your life a living sacrifice?
When temptation confronts you do you run to Jesus for strength in overcoming the temptation?
Are you even now living with unconfessed sin in your heart; and unconfessed, unrepented sin that is leaving a hollow space in the middle of your chest?
If so, we have a gracious and loving and forgiving God.
In the very thought of Jesus His presence can be found
He's as close as the mention of His Name
There is never any distance between my Lord and me
He's as close as the mention of His Name
In my hour of struggle so many times I've found
He's as close as the mention of His Name
Just to breathe the Name of Jesus can turn ev'rything around
He's as close as the mention of His Name
He’s as close as the mention of His Name - Jesus … Jesus
He’s as close as the mention of His Name - Jesus … Jesus
© 1978 Jensen Music (Admin. by Brentwood-Benson Music Pub, Inc.) CCLI License # 1718450
