A Sovereign God

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Revelation says this, I am the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning, and the end, the first, and the last. I trust we've gathered this morning because of that. We worship the I Am. That's what I would like to have my subject on, the I Am. [00:00:34] I almost trembled this morning to talk about our God. But I've titled this message, Restoring the Vision of a Sovereign God. I know those are some words that you talk about sovereignty to me and I have to grab the dictionary and figure out what sovereignty actually means and what it entails. But maybe we can study this together for a little bit. The dictionary says this, one definition is this, independent, self-governing, and not ruled by any other state, sovereign. [00:01:06] Another one is this, with complete power, having supreme authority or power. And I don't know about you, but the second one more closely matches my idea of the God that we serve. And I'll read it again. Having supreme authority and power. Not only does he have authority, he has power to go with it. He's independent. And it has been said about God, You cannot have two independent beings like that, lest they would be on a collision course, it would never work. [00:01:41] But we have one God, and I think all of us here understand that, that concept, that idea. And how do we know that we have a sovereign God? I think Brother Glenn already gave us a basis for that. We have the Word, it's right here, the Bible tells us much about the sovereignty of God. and what we should believe or how we should feel about that sovereignty. The sovereignty of God is also an attribute of God. [00:02:13] And there are many different attributes that we talk about sometimes, but probably in my mind in studying this, the sovereignty of God is the most one of the most important attributes that we have to get in our minds in order to serve him better. But, it's hard not to get these other things mixed in. He's a holy God, He's omniscient, He's omnipresent, He's omnipotent, He's a God of love, He's a God of mercy. All of these describe our God. [00:02:46] And it just, there was a song we sang this morning, the chorus of the song went something like this. I can't get the words now, but it's hard to frame our God with words. And so that's why I struggled with this a little bit this morning. I hope you understand. We will not get past the surface of a sovereign God this morning. Maybe as a text this morning, there's so much scripture that points to a sovereign God [00:03:22] that I didn't know where to start, where to go. But I think I'll be reading 1 Chronicles 29, starting at verse 11. Why don't we stand to our feet as we read this scripture, if you don't mind. This was King David, and he was blessing the Lord as he uttered these words. 1 Chronicles 29, verse 11, read from 11 to 13. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty. [00:03:55] For all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest over all. And in thine hand is power and might, and in thine hand it is to make great and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank thee and praise thy glorious name. You may be seated. In just a few words, King David summed up a lot. [00:04:32] I just like that passage. I just came across that last night. In thine hand is power and might. In thine hand it is to make great and give strength unto all. That's our God. Now we could spend a lot of time looking at how a sovereign God operates. operates. And I know I don't think anybody here and I'm sure that nobody has seen in person a sovereign God. But I think that all of us, if we have been looking and watching, we have seen a sovereign God at work. We have seen his hand move. Let's start. And this is just random thoughts that went through my head thinking about the sovereignty of God. Let's start with the physical or the things that we see. [00:05:19] You think about somebody that is in control and then think about the creation around you and think about the control that God has over the creation and think of some passages and I'm not going to turn to all these we could spend all morning looking at the creation alone just to see the control that God has over creation You think about Joshua out fighting the Amorites and he was in trouble He needed the sun to stand still. Who caused that to happen? I think all of us know. There's a God that's able to make the sun stand still. And not only that, read further, and he made the hailstone come just at the right time. And he killed more by the hailstone than he did by just allowing the sun to stand still. That's our God. We, of course, could think of the creation story. I could get so involved in this thing that I would get off course even. [00:06:24] The stars that hang out there, the earth hanging, and the way everything orbits, and how this works, I can't describe it. We were at the seashore a little bit in Florida. I'd never seen the ocean before while I flew over it. I asked my son this morning, why do you think when I have a cup of coffee sitting on the table here, it's not doing this? The water at the seashore is. Those are things that we could ponder about. [00:06:55] We could think about it for a long time and maybe you know the answer right off hand. But it's interesting to think about it. There's a God that has a plan for all this and he is in control, absolute control of what happens. If there's a tsunami, there's somebody in control. That's our God. God is in control of the universe. Consider with me, and I'm again not turning to this, but think about the story of Jonah. Now I know we don't, I don't normally look at the story or the account of Jonah to look at what God did. But think about it. Here Jonah was running from God. He was running away, one man. The sea just rocked that boat. There was just no getting away from it. God was in control. God was stopping that man. And then they had to throw him overboard and there was the whale just at the right time. And we could talk about that for a long time. [00:08:00] Well, we know the story He went and preached And finally he was up on the hill outside the city And I'm not sure, I didn't study this a whole lot But there again, there was God, made that plant grow And gave him some shade That's really nice But wasn't God even in control of that worm that ate the plant That made it wither You know, we could just go on and on about the control our God has over creation, over the universe. [00:08:37] Things that just are beyond my comprehension, outer space, and as far as we can see, as far as we can go, and there's still just so much more out there that we just cannot get a hold of. And I'll just leave it at that. He is in complete control of each one Every one of us that is sitting right here He knows you intimately, He knows all about you And He is in control, whether we recognize it or not [00:09:07] Even the hair on our head are numbered And He has everything in His hand Our health, when we're born, when we die He knows all about us I think if we're honest, we would agree that we would be totally destitute without a sovereign God. I think at least a born-again believer will admit to that. Job said it this way, [00:09:40] Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. I think that's the New King James Version. Notice one word, the Lord has. It's not that he just let it happen, but he did it. He did it. We are controlled by an almighty God. God is in complete control of the governments, kings, and even ungodly governments, [00:10:12] even men that are ungodly that are running the government are in place because of God. We don't understand it, but God is in control. Now, let's shift a little bit. We could talk for a long time about this. But I would like for the thrust of this message to be about our view of a sovereign God. What is our view? And what should be our view of a sovereign God, I guess, would be the question I would like to explore. [00:10:48] But I would like to have this somehow be practical so that when the last amen is said, we don't just walk off and we've heard it, but that somehow this view, our view of God would be so high that it would change our lives and the way that we think. It has been said that you can fairly accurately predict the spiritual future of an individual and a church by their view of God. [00:11:20] And I think that's true. I really do. I think we understand that what my view is of God will influence the way that I respond, how I act. We cannot, as a church or as individuals, we cannot produce something higher than what we have ourselves. It's impossible. Our outreach in this community will not produce anything higher than what we have. [00:11:56] Let's remember that. We cannot produce someone with a higher view. Well, I shouldn't say that. We can introduce someone to the word and they can, it's possible. I want to be careful. But more than likely, if we send missionaries abroad, if we send youth to service, we send children to school, they will very likely have about the same view of God that I have or we have as a congregation. More than likely, that's, I think we understand that. [00:12:27] If we have a low or half-hearted view of God in our lives, very likely that's what we're going to reproduce. And I know those are some heavy words that I haven't attained. I don't know. I'm sure that I could do better. Let's just put it that way. I would like to look at some characters in the Bible that got a glimpse of a sovereign God. Where they were, all of a sudden they felt the presence of God and they were in His presence [00:12:59] And how they responded to that And I'm sure you could think of some things I'm going to look first in Isaiah chapter 6 verse 1 I think we are all familiar with this passage But it again reminded me of something that happens when we see a sovereign God the way that we should And I'll just read the first eight verses, I believe, of Isaiah 6. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up. [00:13:33] And his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet. And with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory, and the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried. And the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips. [00:14:07] And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me having a live coal in his hand which he had taken with the tongues off the altar and laid it upon my mouth and said Lo this has touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying whom shall I send and who will go for us Then said I here am I send me We could say we could look at a lot in this passage [00:14:41] I think the first several verses Isaiah simply saw the holiness of God and who God was. He was lifted up and I think all of us need a vision like that when we get before our God. But then I noticed something else, his response. All of a sudden Isaiah didn't only see God in his holy temple, but he saw himself. And what was his response? What is my response when I'm before a holy God and he lays a finger on something that I have done? [00:15:17] He said, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. I don't know if any of us have ever gotten a clear view of God or a clear vision like Isaiah had that time. And I know it was a vision. I don't put a lot of stock in dreams in our day. But there's something that this has to say to us. Somehow we need to see our position compared to God's position. And when he speaks, when he speaks to us through his word, we don't have much choice, I would say, if we want to be a follower. [00:15:52] We have, there's only one good choice, I should say. It brought humility. Suddenly he was aware of how powerless and how inadequate he actually was on his own. And he could do nothing of any value on his own Not only did he notice his own state But he said, I'm among a people that are like that He was looking around He noticed other people with the same problem But there's something else in this humility [00:16:24] That I would like to point out All of a sudden Isaiah was willing He was willing When God asked who should go He said, I will go In Acts 9 we see kind of the same thing with Paul. And I don't think, well, I think we all are aware of the Damascus Road experience that Paul had. I think I'm just going to skip over that as far as reading. Paul was a man that was headed in the wrong direction when God met him. [00:17:00] He was boldly persecuting the church. He was, he was, well I think we all know what he was doing. He was the early Christian church. He was after them. He was trying to stamp it out. And he was knocked down by God with a bright light from heaven. And I don't know if any of us that have experienced the new birth have come to the point where we feel like we've been knocked down by God. We've come to the end of what we can do ourselves. But I think it's important that we we come to the end of ourselves and we just allow God to do with us whatever he wants to do with us. [00:17:39] There's something else I would like to notice here. And maybe this should be said later on in this message, but I want to point it out while I'm here. Paul wrongly assumed that he was on the right path. Paul was zealous. He was after these Christians, and he thought he was serving God, but he was not. Paul was still on the throne. And I think we can do the same thing. We can get so zealous about things, we can express our own desire, and somehow we feel that because I desire that, that's what God wants. [00:18:13] But we have to be very careful. We have to measure it up and make sure that we're on the right track. But again, I would like to notice the response that Paul had. All of a sudden, he realized that he was up against something that was in control, a sovereign God. And he was knocked down. But let's look at his response when he got up. Lord, what wilt thou have me do? Isn't that proper response before an almighty God? [00:18:47] Lord, what do you want me to do? It was no longer what I can do or how I can get this thing done, but what do you want me to do? I think we can learn a lot from that. I can, personally. Daniel had the same experience, and he was again in a vision before God. And in Daniel 10, there are several verses we read about this, but I would like to again notice his response. He said, My comeliness was turned into corruption and I retained no strength. [00:19:20] And I think if you read it, you see that Daniel fell face down on the ground before God. It was his response. Job had this to say. At one point, I think Job covered his mouth and refused to speak because he sensed God's presence. But at another point, he said, I abhor myself and I repent in dust and ashes. I don't know how we feel about that, but I think it teaches us something. [00:19:53] Now all of these men, and there would be more, Ezekiel was another one that had the same experience, and I can't give you all the references, but he fell flat on his face in the presence of God. Now let's look at the opposite response here in Jeremiah 36, and I know this is kind of different. this is not a vision Jeremiah 36 from verse 20 to 25 maybe this is more of a message from God that came to a man [00:20:23] to King Jehoiakim and they went in to the king and this, by the way, I'll just give some background the scribe had written these words this was a message from Jeremiah to King Jehoiakim and it was read to someone else and they thought the king should read it I believe if I have my story straight here and let's see what happens and they went in to the king into the court but they laid up the roll in the chamber [00:20:53] of Elishema the scribe and told all the words in the ears of the king and so the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll and he took it out of Elishema the scribe's chamber and Jehudi read it in the ears of the king and in the ears of all the princes Now the king sat in the winter house in the ninth month, and there was a fire in the hearth burning before him. And it came to pass that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. [00:21:31] Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king nor any of his servants that heard all these words. Nevertheless, Elnathan and Deliah and Gamaria had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll, but he would not hear them. Terrible. Arrogance. Arrogance. Here was a word from the Lord, and I didn't read the whole thing, I understand, but Jehoiakim had absolutely no respect for God's word. [00:22:03] You may be seated if you wish. In fact, he was so, he was, it had quite the opposite effect on him. Instead of changing his ways and conforming to the message or changing, he would rather kill the messenger. And you can read it if you read further there. But what really made an impression on me was simply this, in verse 24, it says, there's a phrase there, they were not afraid, they were not afraid. [00:22:35] They had no fear. They had no fear. These men had lost the vision of a sovereign God. A God that is in control of all. Absolute control. And this tells me something else. Our God is in absolute control. It doesn't matter how I perceive things or how we perceive things. Our God is in control. And He will have the last word. He will have. it doesn't matter we can disregard God all our lives [00:23:10] and I don't think well let me just say this we can go our own way we can do our own thing we can walk the way we want to we can conduct our lives the way we want to but there is a day coming when every knee will bow I think at the name of Jesus it says and there will be no recourse for the man that has not bowed to God before this What I would like to speak about here is no fear. The burden on my heart this morning is that we have people that have no fear today. [00:23:44] No fear. Or that our God is made into something so small and so casual that we just approach Him in just a casual way. And I recognize that we are in a land where that is condoned. That is normal. Have we learned the ways of the world? I would ask the question, have we learned the ways of the world? I think if you study your Bible, you will see that faithful men of old in the Bible always came to God with a reverence. [00:24:22] They responded with respect or fear. it was not something casual Proverbs 14.27 says simply this the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death and another version says this respect for the Lord gives life it is like a fountain that can save people from death this fear, this respect maybe respect is the 21st century word we would put in for fear [00:24:52] For God brings healing to churches, to families, to lives. It changes things. There's probably a hundred temporal things in our lives that have changed or did change at our new birth experience, but they should continue to change as we hold God on a high standard here. As we get a glimpse or we restore that vision of a sovereign God, The focus changes when we see that God is in control. [00:25:26] It's no longer what I can do or what I would like to do. But we have a respect for God and His principle. I know, this is probably a lopsided message in the fact that in our day we are so used to hearing about a God of love and mercy. And He is that. I understand that. But let's not forget, he is sovereign. He has absolute control. And he takes our sin very seriously. And so we must take his holiness, his highness very seriously as well. [00:26:04] We were instructed at our minister's meetings not to preach ourselves, our own experience. But I just have to say this, this morning, that one of the most profound changes that I experienced in my life was when I recognized that there is a sovereign God and that I will answer to him. and I will have no recourse if I don't make things right here. [00:26:35] If I don't change the way of where I'm going. You know, I got to the point where I recognized I was not going to make it to heaven if I didn't change. And I don't know if that's your experience or not, but it changed my life. It changed the way that I felt about the people around me. It changed everything for me. And I know that's operating out of a fear factor. We look at God as a God of love. [00:27:06] And He is that. He is that. But He is also a God to be feared. He's a God of judgment. And many times in the Bible it talks about the wrath of God upon man. Now there's just, I just need to wrap this up quickly here. There's just a number of things that I thought of that in our day affect us. When we have a high view of God, or we have a vision of a sovereign God, [00:27:42] the first thing I thought of was our prayer life. We could talk a whole message about prayer, and it's very important. We need to be a praying people, and I don't get it done off or enough. We need to pray daily. But there's one thing I would like to notice in the Lord's Prayer. How do we address God? It says, hallowed be thy name. You know, we get to the point nowadays where prayer just becomes a casual thing and we don't... [00:28:15] Let's be careful. We are conversing with a holy God and He expects our reverence in prayer. It's different. May I say it's different to speak to God than it is to my wife or my fellow man or whoever. We are before a holy God and therefore it's very important, very important. It doesn't hardly seem right to approach God in a half-hearted, casual manner. [00:28:46] May I just say further, somehow it doesn't seem right when we're at a ball game and all of a sudden we have a prayer and then five minutes later the person said, The prayer is just yelling and cheering for the ballgame. Somehow that just, I'll just leave it, but it somehow doesn't feel right. But we are accustomed to those things in our society. And it just makes sense that we've addressed God, now we go do our own thing. Somehow it doesn't seem like we're hallowing his name. How do we pray? [00:29:19] When we are before a holy God and we have a vision of a high God, a sovereign God, we no longer pray selfishly. And I know I've been guilty of this. And maybe if we're honest, we've all been guilty of this. But we're no longer praying that I would win the ball game or that I would have some huge financial windfall where I won't have to work anymore. It's no longer that. We're not praying for an easy life anymore, I don't think. [00:29:51] James says this, You ask and receive not because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts. God simply doesn't tolerate us asking for something that is unscriptural or that would bring ruin on my life, on my spiritual walk. I don't think, I don't think that God is going to answer a prayer prayed against a scriptural principle any more than what the prophet Baal answered the prophets when they were cutting themselves. [00:30:26] I think we have to make sure we are praying within the will of God. Maybe I've taken it a little too far, but somehow we have to pray in harmony with God. It's not wrong to ask God or to pray or lift up an individual, but if we are doing it for personal gain, then I think we have already overstepped that. There's another thing. It brings us to the point of obedience when we have a high view of God. [00:30:57] It brings us to a point of obedience and ultimately obedience to God. Obedience. It's of utmost concern. I think our level of obedience to God is directly linked with our view of God and what he stands for. It shows up in every area of life. My view of God shows up wherever I go, wherever I go. It shows up in the way I speak to my wife and my children. It shows up in how I come dressed for church, how I dress on the job, what I say. [00:31:32] It shows up. Our view of God shows up by our level of obedience. And we could look at some scriptures again and Exodus, well, this comes back to fear or respect of God. Exodus, there are several examples here. Exodus 121, I think, I'm not sure of the reference, talks about the midwives, wives under Pharaoh. and their fear their their fear of God was greater than their fear of the ruler they were [00:32:08] supposed to kill the babies and I don't know I can't quote the verse I'm not I don't think I should turn to it but they the verse says there that God gave them families because of their fear of God rather than their fear of man Acts 4 18 to 20 says the same thing after Peter and John had been harshly scolded before the consul, and they were sent off and said, don't talk about God anymore. But you know what? Their view of God was so high, they said, we can't be quiet. [00:32:41] We can't. We have to say it. We have no choice. How are we? Our level of obedience shows our view of God. When we have a high view of God, the glory of God is in our church, in our families. He's no longer, and I know I've made the same comment, He's no longer just the man upstairs or we just make some casual remark. But when we have a high view of God, we give glory to God. [00:33:12] We give all glory to God for everything that happens. The last thing that came to mind here about our view of God, God, and I know we're looking to have revival meetings here before long, and it has been said, I think I've heard this somewhere in revival meetings, that in order for a revival to start anywhere, there have to be just several people that become completely right with God, thoroughly right. [00:33:45] and I don't know if that says anything to you or what that means but that's true but in order for us to have revival we have to have a high view of God that what God says through his word is the ultimate authority otherwise there will be no change and there will be no lasting revival it will just be a passing emotion that goes through in closing I would just like to say this I would like to ask the question, what is our view of God? And how do we know what our view of God is? And I don't know, I thought about this this morning, I don't know if we could gauge our view of God by what we're producing. [00:34:32] Our children, our outreach effort, I don't know. I'll leave it as a question to you, but may God help us to give Him the glory that He is due.