Understanding The Sovereignty Of God
Isaiah 46:1-10
See: Vs.9-10 God clearly states that He is the only true God and none other. He also informs us that His counsel shall stand and will do all His pleasure.
One of the most misunderstood doctrines in the Bible is “The sovereignty Of God”. There is several reasons perhaps for this but the one reason that the Bible gives is certainly sufficient and that is God’s ways and His thoughts are higher than ours. Ref. Isaiah 55:9
Mention: Romans 11:33 His ways are past finding out.
Sovereign: This simply means that God rules the entire universe and nothing happens without His knowledge.
Question: How is it that we can understand the sovereignty of God without misrepresenting Him?
There are some that say if God is sovereign then why doesn’t He prevent certain things from happening?
There are others that say God is to be blamed for everything that happens.
Though we cannot completely explain God I believe there are several things that we can understand concerning His sovereignty.
1. In His Sovereignty The Events Of This World Will Be According To His Plan
Mention: Isaiah 46:10 He has declared the end at the beginning
I am confident that there will be a rapture of the Church, a tribulation period, a millennial reign and every soul will spend eternity in either heaven or hell despite the plan of mankind.
See: Lamentations 3:37 Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not.
Mention: Daniel 4:35 Nebuchadnezzar tells us that God does according to His will and none can stay His hand.
The sovereignty of God sends a clear message to all that God, He is God and we are not!
Understanding His sovereignty also gives the proper exalting view of Him because oftentimes there is the tendency to have a small view of Him especially in our crisis of life.
Mention: Isaiah 6 Isaiah saw God in the mist of a major national crisis high and lifted up.
Point: We are seeing some things happening in our nation that is disturbing but may I say God has not relinquish His position.
2. In His Sovereignty His Justice And His Love Is Not Forfeited
See: Psalms 115:3 He hath done whatever He hath pleased
In His sovereignty God is absolutely free to do as He pleases and to demonstrate His absolute control over the actions of all His creatures. Or, to put it another way, He permits, for reasons known only to Himself people to act contrary to His revealed will, but He never allows them to act against His sovereign will.
Statement: In God’s sovereignty the attributes of God such as He is just and a loving God is never violated.
Example: We should not create a theology that says the sovereign God of the universe can be unjust if He chooses to. This would be equivalent to saying God can lie if He chooses to.
Point: The sovereignty of God allows the free will of mankind and expresses His love in His sovereignty.
I know that there are some that perhaps would disagree with me here but there is no way a sovereign God could be also just if He forfeited a man’s free will to choose Him for salvation.
Mention: 1 Tim. 2:6 A ransom for all
Also: 2 Peter 3:9 He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
1 John 2:2 He died for the whole world
In the book Romans where many created this unjust doctrine of Calvinism concerning God’s sovereignty in my opinion by overlooking the obvious and misinterpreting of scripture Romans 5:18 says by the righteousness of one (Jesus) the free gift came upon “all men” unto justification of life.
That does not sound like limited atonement to me!
Obviously the Bible is written to believers and when you read the letters it contains, it should say unto every believer you have been chosen, elect or whatever else that pertains to believers in Christ.
Point: Nowhere in the Bible it says that God has chosen a selected people to eternal damnation. The word predestinate is never used for unbelievers.
In God’s sovereignty His love allows us to choose and there is also in our fallen world the pain and suffering that sin brings.
3. In His Sovereignty Rest Our Confidence
See: Prov. 19:21 The counsel of the LORD, that shall stand
The sovereignty of God teaches us that there is no such thing as luck, chance, fate or coincidence.
Point: We can be absolute confident that in God because He is sovereign.
