God is Real

00:02 Amen. Praise the Lord. It's good to be in the house of the Lord this morning and see each one here. Welcome to Living Water. And we. Okay. I have a few lessons this morning for the children. The Bible says that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. 00:24 Jesus is the image of the invisible God. How many of you have seen God? Any children here seen God? Seen God? Anybody? Any adults seen God? Then how do you know that He's real? How do you know that God is real if you can't see Him? 00:45 Well, how do you know that a lot of things are real? I want you to think with me this morning, children, about some things that are real that you can't see, or at least you can't see easily. You can't just look at it and say, "Oh, there's Leon. I see him. I know he's real," or something like that. Or, "There's a chair. I see it. 01:03 I know that it's real." What are some things that you can't see that are real? Anybody, children? Youth? Okay. 01:11 Airy. 01:12 Ants. 01:13 I said air. 01:14 Oh, air. Okay. Okay. Air. Yes, you're right. Air. Can't see it, but you better have it, or you're not going to be doing very well. So air, you can't see. Okay. Yes. What? Love. Boy, you guys are right on the ball this morning. 01:34 Love. You can't see love. You can see the effects of love. So if you give me a hug, you can see that effect of love. But you can't see love in the heart because it's an emotion. It's a feeling. Okay. What else is real but you can't see it? Okay. 01:57 How many of you have seen the virus, COVID-19? Anybody? Well, we see the effects of the virus. And if you had the right instrument, you had a microscope, maybe you could see it. But you can't just look at, "Oh, you have COVID," or, "You're carrying COVID." That'd make a lot easier, 02:16 wouldn't it, this whole mess that we're in? Okay. But you can't see it. You can't see germs. You can't see bacteria. If you had a microscope, you could. But just with the naked eye, you can't see it. Today is a very hot day, and it's going to have a lot of something in the air. 02:37 Humidity. 02:37 Humidity. Can you see humidity? No, not really. If it's foggy, that's humidity. You can see that. Or maybe some clouds, but you can't see, "Oh, I think there's a lot of I think it's 75% humidity out there right now." You can't see it, but you can feel it. You know it's real. How about electricity? Anybody ever seen electricity? 03:01 No. 03:02 Well, you spark it, ground it out, you might be able to see some sparks from the electricity. But you can't see electricity. How about a cell phone signal? Anybody ever seen a cell phone signal? Is it real? How about memories? 03:25 Can you see memories? Well, if you see a picture or a photograph, you might be able to trigger a memory. But you can't see a memory. But you know it's real because you remember it, that it happened. How about if I took a ball and I threw it up in the air, 03:45 and what would happen with that ball then? Okay. 03:49 It would fall down. 03:50 It would fall down. Why? 03:53 Gravity. 03:54 Gravity. Gravity. That's a law of gravity. Can you see gravity? Or you can see the effects of gravity, but you can't see gravity. What if you go out today and your hair starts blowing around? 04:08 What would you say is happening that you can't see? Wind. You would say it's windy outside. You say, "Well, I can't see the wind." Well, but I can see the effects of the wind, but I can't see the wind. You can say, "Well, I can see the trees." No, that's the effects of the wind. And if you were out in a place where there was no trees and no grass, 04:30 you couldn't see anything blowing, it would still be windy, and you wouldn't be able to see it. So the wind is real, right? In fact, Jesus used that as an illustration when He said that everyone is born of the Spirit is like the wind. The wind. You can see the effects. You can know that it's real, but you can't see it. 04:51 Let's see some other things. Anybody ever seen an angel? Probably not. Probably not. Are angels real? Yep. Angels are real. How do you know? Because the Bible tells us that they're real. And because sometimes you can just sense a holy presence. And that's the presence of God as well. 05:12 Some people believe that things are real that aren't. Those people are what we call hallucinating. They think that there's something out there that isn't real. That's kind of different than what we're talking about. Or some people might see a mirage in a really hot desert where they think that there's lush palm trees and water out there in the distance. 05:33 And they get there, and it's not there because it's in their imagination. That's not what we're talking about. We're not talking about believing things are real that aren't. We're talking about believing things that are real that you can't see. And God is real this morning. The reason I bring this up this morning is because we're going to talk about God. 05:52 And we're talking about God being real, even though you can't see Him. And some very, very important things in life are real that you can't see. 06:06 You can't see wind. You can't see germs. You can't see radiation. Sometimes things will kill you that you can't see. 06:12 Radiation is poison in the air from different nuclear kinds of things and poisonous things. You can't see Him, but they're real. So it is with God. God is real. Now, there's one way that we really, really, really know that God is real. 06:31 And that's somebody that you can see. Who do you think you could see? Yeah, we can't see Him right now. But in the Bible it says they touched Him. They heard Him. They saw Him. They looked on Him. They handled Him. And that's who? 06:48 Jesus. 06:49 Jesus. Jesus is the image of the invisible God. And so we know that God is real because He sent Jesus into the world. And that really made it real for us. Okay. Well, we thank the Lord this morning for God. We're thankful that we know God and that God is not just a mystery to us, 07:10 although we don't understand everything about God. But we recognize that there is a God, and we believe in Him. And we believe that He has spoken, and we believe that He sent His Son. And so for us this morning, would you turn in your Bibles to the book of 1 Chronicles, 1 Chronicles chapter 29? 07:30 I want to share with you on the sovereignty of God this morning and its implications. What do we mean when we talk about the sovereignty of God? What do we mean when we talk that God is in control? 07:43 When we look at the dictionary, the dictionary says that sovereignty means a supreme and independent power and authority. Supreme and independent power and authority. So supreme in the sense that it is the ultimate power and authority. 08:03 And independent means that it's not dependent on anybody. It's not created. It's not sustained by anything. It is independent. 08:15 It doesn't require a renewed subscription. It doesn't require anything except just itself. And so when we think about a sovereign, we think about a king in natural terms. We think about a king. A king is called a sovereign. He is at the top. He's the head. 08:34 And this comes with status and dominion and complete control to accomplish whatever the king pleases. And that's the way it is with God. He is at the top. He is independent. He has status. He has dominion. He has complete control to accomplish whatever He pleases. 08:56 And we find this morning that there is great comfort in the sovereignty of God, knowing that God is in control, knowing that God can be trusted, knowing that God is the supreme authority, and we are His children. Wow. That's an awesome thought this morning. 09:15 The sovereignty of God refers to His absolute right to do all things according to His own good pleasure. He doesn't need advice. He doesn't need counsel. He doesn't need somebody to give Him His opinion, their opinion. 09:29 He just does things in the goodest way in the best way to do that which is good and right according to His own will. It also means that God brought this world into being and guides creation to a meaningful end. And He was in the process of bringing all creation into harmony with Himself. 09:50 One of these days, all creation will be in harmony with God and in fellowship with God when Christ returns. It is not chance or randomness, but a divine design that is moving us forward. And that which is true of the nations and is true of the world and true of the universe is also true of His children and of people's lives, 10:12 that God is in control. God is in control. And David in 1 Chronicles chapter 29 recognized this when he was preparing to build the temple. Now, 1 Chronicles 29 tells us the account of David's prayer when he had accumulated all of the supplies to build the temple. 10:32 And he had made the plans. He had gotten a lot of people ready. He was taking offerings for the building of the temple. And then they had a pre-temple service where David gathered the people together, told them what the plans were, and then blessed the Lord, verse 10, before all the assembly. 10:51 And David said, speaking under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, David proclaimed these truths: "Blessed are You, Lord God of Israel, our Father forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, and the glory, the victory, and the majesty, 11:11 for all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might. 11:30 In Your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all." And God, this invisible God, I'll just add this, this invisible God who is in authority, who is in control, who is in command, who is the sovereign of the universe, invisible but very, 11:47 very real and working in real things around us to accomplish His purposes. Verse 13: "Now therefore, our God, we thank You and praise Your glorious name. But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from You, 12:06 and of all Your own have we given You. For we are aliens and pilgrims before You, as were all our fathers. Our days on earth are as a shadow and without hope." In other words, David is saying, "Here we are. We're just creatures, and we're giving back to You what belongs to You." And that's what we do on Sunday morning, 12:28 what we do when we give. We give back to the Lord what belongs to Him. And it's already His. And He's given it to us as a steward to take care of and to give it back to Him for His glory. Now, this is a powerful passage of Scripture. If you're a little bit unsure what to pray for each morning in your devotional time, 12:49 pray this. Pray this about getting ourselves in proper order with who God is. Then verse 16, he says, "O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build You a house for Your holy name is from Your hand and is all Your own. I know also, my God, 13:08 that You test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart, I have willingly offered all these things. And now with joy I have seen Your people who are present here to offer willingly to You. O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, 13:27 keep this forever in the intent of the thoughts of the heart of Your people and fix their heart toward You. And give my son Solomon a loyal heart to keep Your commandments and Your testimonies and Your statutes to do all these things and to build the temple for which I have made provision." Then David said to all the assembly, 13:46 "Now bless the Lord your God." So all the assembly blessed the Lord God of their fathers and bowed their heads and prostrated themselves before the Lord and the king. What David is doing here is giving us a glimpse, a glimpse among many other Scriptures of the sovereignty of God. 14:06 Here's some key Scriptures that refer to the sovereignty of God, what we call the sovereignty of God. 14:11 Now, if you go to the Concordance and you try to find the word sovereignty or sovereign God, it may not be there because it's a term that we attach to try to describe God and take a lot of different concepts and put them together in a term that communicates 14:30 something of the authority and headship and power and divine ability of God. But this is what we're talking about this morning. Isaiah 66:1: "Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool." Psalm 24:1: "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, 14:51 the world and they that dwell therein." Ephesians chapter 1, verse 11, it says that He has predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own will, the counsel of His own will. God is so much in charge and so good at it. 15:10 Amen. God is good at being in charge that He needs no advice. He does everything according to the counsel of His own will, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, speaking together to establish their will, which is reality and truth, and to get advice from themselves, 15:33 as it were, to God giving Himself advice, if you could put it in that term. Doesn't need our advice. Doesn't need our input. Yes, we can give Him our requests. We can give Him our thoughts. We can pray for things. But we want to pray within the will of God that God's will would be accomplished. But He does things according to the counsel of His own will. 15:54 Abraham spoke of God in Genesis 14, the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth. Nehemiah spoke about Him in Nehemiah 9:6: "Thou, even thou art Lord alone. Thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, and all their hosts, the earth and all things that are therein, 16:15 the seas and all that is therein. And thou preservest them all, and the hosts of heaven worship You." And so these are some Scriptures that refer to God being in charge, being head, being sovereign, being in control. Psalm 115:3: "But our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases." Yes, 16:37 He does. Isaiah 40:13 and 14: "Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord or as His counselor has taught Him?" God doesn't need a teacher. God doesn't need an instructor. God doesn't need somebody to give Him more information. 16:52 "With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him?" Daniel 4:35: "He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. 17:03 No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, 'What have you done?'" Sometimes there are people looking over our shoulders, people looking over our shoulders that are in charge, in charge. And sometimes they come to us and say, "What have you done? 17:22 What did you do? Why did you do it? Why did you do it that way?" And depending on how much control that person has over our lives, it can be a fearful thing. But God has nobody over Him who says, "What have you done?" You know, God came to Adam and Eve and said, "What have you done? 17:43 Where are you? What did you do?" And they had to confess and fess up because they had sinned. They had disobeyed. We know that. But there's nobody that says that to God. God does not have anybody looking over His shoulders saying, "What did you do? Why did you do it? And what are you going to do about it?" He is sovereign. 18:03 He is sovereign over the nations. Psalm 47 says, "For the Lord Most High is awesome. He is a great king over all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us and the nations under His feet." He is sovereign over the nations. All this stuff that's going on in the nations, the Bible says, in the last days, 18:23 the nations will be like the sea, churning, churning, churning, churning and churning. And God is in control. He's still in control. He has not lost His way. He has not lost His ability. He has not lost His power. 18:41 He is still able and will be able to subdue the people under us and the nations under our feet. He is sovereign over the rulers. Daniel 2: He changes the times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding. 19:01 Daniel 4:17: "The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever He will and setteth up over it the basis of men." God is in control of elections. God is in control of coups, government coups, when the government gets overthrown and someone else takes the throne. 19:21 God is in control of that. It is not outside of His realm. He knows and understands and even ordains these things. God is sovereign over the decisions of kings and politicians. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water, He turns it whithersoever He will. 19:43 Yes, this invisible God is very much influencing the nations. He is in charge over our enemies. He talks about putting hooks in their jaws. 19:54 He says to the nations, "I will put a hook in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way which thou camest." Sometimes man thinks that he's in charge. Many times man thinks he's in charge. Actually, God's in charge, and man is accomplishing through his own sinful will and desires, 20:15 still accomplishing the purposes of God. We don't understand that. I feel this morning in talking about the sovereignty of God that we're like in over our head, way over our head. Because who can understand the sovereignty of God? Who can understand the sovereignty of God in relation to the free will of man? We know both are real. Both are real. 20:35 God is in control. Man makes decisions. God is in control, but man is responsible for his decisions. Someone said that the sovereignty of God and the free will of man is like a pulley. You pull on one side and you fall down. You pull on the other side and you fall down. You pull both at the same time. You get them in balance. 20:54 There are two different ditches that we see today when it comes to the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. One ditch is what we call, I call, hypersovereignty, hypersovereignty, which is that God is in control of everything. Even when you lift your fork to your mouth, God is in control. 21:14 And I heard one hypersovereignty teacher, I call it hypersovereignty. His teaching went like this: When I'm playing Scrabble with my wife and I put my hand in the bag to pull out a letter, God sovereignly determines which letter I should pull out of the bag. That's hypersovereignty. 21:34 There are some things that God just allows you to do. And quite frankly, there's just a certain amount of chance involved. I don't think God is in picking the letters for you out of the Scrabble bag. He actually said that. 21:47 But the other side of it is that there are those who are on the other pulley, emphasize the free will of man so much that God isn't in charge at all. In fact, there are those who believe it's called open theism or openness, the openness of God, that God doesn't know everything that's going to happen in the future. 22:07 God knows everything that happened in the past. God knows everything that's happening in the present. But He doesn't know what's happening in the future because you're not there yet. And you are so important in this realm of earth that God can't know what you're going to decide until you get there and decide it. 22:26 God can't know what you're going to do until you get there and do it. And so this makes God a servant of your decisions in the future. I find no comfort in that, brothers and sisters, no comfort at all. 22:41 Oh, this has been designed to help people feel that God is 22:47 not in control and that He's close and He's loving. And He will bend over backwards to allow you to have your way. And then He'll make decisions based on what you decide. That's a very real and growing belief of God, about God. 23:08 It's wrong. It doesn't have scriptural basis. They have scriptural proof text that they use. But I'm here to tell you this morning that God knows everything, past, present, future. He knows what you're going to do before you do it. "There is not a word in my tongue," the psalmist said in 1:39. "There is not a word in my tongue, 23:28 but Thou, O Lord, knowest it altogether. Thou understandest my thought from afar, a distance and time." Far off, God knows without determining what your decision will be. Now, that's where it gets confusing. He knows what you're going to decide but doesn't determine what you're going to decide. 23:49 But based on His impeccable, perfect foreknowledge, sees down the corridors of time and knows what you will be, where you will be, how you will do it, and yet gives you the opportunity to decide to be there. And so you have the two ropes on the pulley. 24:10 One, the free will of man. You pull on that when you end up in open theism. The other is the sovereignty of God. You pull that one and you end up with hypersovereignty, God controlling what you eat for breakfast. You pull them both and you have the balance between the free will of man and the sovereignty of God. 24:32 I'll give you an illustration to that in just a few minutes. 24:35 David's prayer at this pre-temple service shows us some things about God's sovereignty that must be emphasized. Number one, that God's sovereignty or that there is none like unto our God. Verse 11: "Yours, O Lord, 24:55 is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty. For all that is heaven and in earth is Yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord. And You are exalted as head over all." He is head over all. There is none like unto our God. Isaiah 44 says, 25:14 "Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel and His Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: I am the first and I am the last, and beside Me there is no God." He is the one and only. If you look at those words, the power has to do with God's ability. The glory has to do with His ornamentation. 25:33 He is beautiful. His beauty outshines all other beauty. The word victory has to do with the goal. He will reach His goal. And the word majesty has to do, again, with the beauty of God. "And all that is in heaven and earth is Thine." This is the next point that David brings out in that this all belongs to God. 25:54 It all belongs to God. We think that we're so smart to figure out life. We think we're so smart to discover things that God has already created. We think we're so smart as to be good, shrewd businessmen and women who can make all kinds of profit and get gain. And the Bible says that it is God that giveth you the power to get gain, to get wealth. 26:16 And David says it again. He said, "When we give this stuff to You, God, we're just giving it. We're giving back what's already Yours. It's not ours. We are just stewards." Job 41:11: "Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is Mine," God said. He is in authority, verse 11. 26:36 He is in authority. "Yours is the kingdom, and You are head over all." Yours is the kingdom. You're exalted as head over all. 26:48 He does everything according to His own will. We already talked about that. He reigns over all. Verse 12: "You reign over all." Jeremiah 18:6 says, "O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter?" God took Jeremiah to a potter and He showed him a potter. 27:04 And this potter would make something and then throw it away and discard it and make something else of great beauty and value. God said, "Can I not do with you and this world like this potter? Behold, as clay is in the hand of the potter and the potter's hand, so are ye in My hand, O house of Israel." And so God is able to create a vessel for honor, 27:27 a vessel for dishonor, and know what that vessel of honor is going to do and know what that vessel of dishonor is going to do without influencing that decision and without holding them morally responsible and accountable. 27:47 The sovereignty of God reminds us that things are done for His pleasure, His pleasure. Verse 17: "I know also My God that You test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness." You have pleasure in uprightness. "All things were created by Him and for Him and for His pleasure, 28:07 His pleasure." And Psalm 115:3: "He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. For I know that the Lord is great and that our God is above all gods. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven and in earth and the seas and all deep places." And Revelation 4:11: "Thou art worthy, 28:27 O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things. And for Thy pleasure they are and were created." Now you say, what kind of a monster God is this? Well, He would be a monster were it not for the fact that He is good. He is good. 28:46 Can you imagine a bad God having ultimate power and authority? Can you imagine a bad God doing all things for the pleasure of Himself? Can you imagine a bad God taking counsel and input from no one but only from Himself? Can you imagine a bad God who is head over all things and in authority? 29:06 But we don't have to imagine that God because our God is a good God. He is good. Listen to some scriptures about the goodness of God. Psalm 34:8: "O taste and see that the Lord is what?" Good. He is good. 29:21 "Blessed is the man who trusts in Him." Psalm 100:5: "For the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting and His truth endures to all generations." Psalm 135: "Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good. Sing praises to His name, for it is pleasant. 29:40 For the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His special treasure. For I know that the Lord is great and our God is above all gods. Whatever the Lord pleases, He does in heaven and in earth and the seas and in all deep places. The Lord is good. And like Abraham said of God, 'Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?' Yes, 30:00 He will do right because His ways are upright and His nature is goodness. The Lord is good to all and His tender mercies are over all His works." Naaman 1:7: "The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who trust in Him." God is good. 30:20 And you say all the time, God is good. All the time. Amen. And so what does this have to do with one more point here before we move into the practical application? He does what is right. "Therefore there is henceforth laid up for Me a crown of life which the Lord, 30:41 the righteous judge," the righteous judge, emphasis on right. "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. 30:54 For Thou," Psalm 67:4 says, "For Thou shalt judge the people righteously and govern the nations upon earth." Psalm 96:10: "He shall judge the people righteously." Psalm 96:13: "He shall judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with His truth." You see, 31:13 so we've got a sovereign God who is in control. He's all-knowing. He's all-powerful. He does according to His own will for His own pleasure. But He does what is right and He is good in His essence. Now, what does this have to do with man's free will? Does he have one? 31:35 Well, we also mentioned a little bit ago that he does. There are many scriptures that emphasize the free will of man. You have scriptures that emphasize the sovereignty of God in man's decisions. You have scriptures that emphasize the free will of man. How do you put those things together? How do you balance out? 31:53 How do you pull the rope on the pulley at the same time so you don't fall into the ditch? 32:01 I'd like you to turn to help answer that question to Luke 22. 32:10 Luke 22: "Man has a free will." Yes, he does. Adam and Eve were given a choice. Love is only love if there is a choice involved. Otherwise, you have robots. And God did not make robots. 32:30 He didn't make robot angels. He didn't make robot people. Love is only love if it has a choice not to love. Obedience is only obedience if it has a choice not to obey. And forced love is rape. 32:52 And God doesn't rape people. God doesn't demand that people do things contrary to their will. But He uses their will and allows them to do things and still accomplish His purposes. 33:12 Wow. Now we're getting in deep. Now we're getting in deep. Let me ask you this question. Well, let's just think a little bit more about man's free will. Joshua 24:15 says, "Choose you this day whom you will serve." There's a choice involved. 33:30 Deuteronomy 30:9: "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. 33:37 Therefore choose life that both Thou and Thy seed may live." Israel was always confronted with a choice: to choose God, to choose life, to choose to serve and worship God as opposed to the nations' idols around them. But yet God knew that they would not choose to follow Him, 33:59 that they would choose to not follow Him. But He did not cause them to not follow Him. He left that choice to them. The freedom to act contrary to God's will is very much a part of man's gift from God. John 5:40, 34:18 Jesus says, "And I know that you will not come to Me that you might have life." He knew it. He was not going to overrule and override their choice. But He gave them the opportunity to choose to obey or not obey. Now, how do we understand that, 34:39 for instance, in relation to the crucifixion? I think what we need to do is we need to think about things on a three-level tier. 34:53 In verse 53, Jesus is talking about His betrayal and arrest in Gethsemane. And they've just come out into the garden of Gethsemane to arrest Him. And He says this: "When I was with you daily in the temple, you did not try to seize Me. 35:14 But this is your hour and the power of darkness." I think I like to explain the sovereignty of God. It's an imperfect illustration. One of the best things that I can ways I can explain it is that there are three levels of decision-making. 35:34 One level has to do with us little 35:38 ants running around down here thinking we're in charge, thinking we're in control, exercising our free will to accomplish our purposes. That's what man in his sinfulness is. He's an ant throwing up, 35:58 raising his fist and his voice against the almighty sovereign God of the universe. God says that all the nations put together like a drop in a bucket of dust on a scale. And you've got these little ants running around thinking they're in charge and making decisions to advance and accomplish what they want to advance and accomplish. And such it was when Jesus said, 36:18 "This is your hour." In other words, you're going to get to participate in destroying or attempting to destroy the Son of Man, Son of God. And if you could say who was responsible for the death of Jesus Christ, you would immediately think the Jews, the Romans, people, us. 36:40 But that's not all that was going on. On another tier, an unseen level, you had Satan and his power. So you have your hour and the power of darkness, the power of darkness, the power of darkness, principalities, powers, 37:00 rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high places, Satan and all his minions who wanted to destroy God and the Son of God and set themselves up as the authority and as the sovereign of the universe. 37:17 So while man and his little ant is running around down here putting to death the Son of God, they are being influenced, not controlled. Well, they may have been controlled in the sense that they gave themselves to Satan. Satan can control people when they allow him to. But nevertheless, 37:37 exercising their free will and Satan influencing that situation, setting up the scene, the situation so that it played right into man's hands, influencing man to exercise his choices for which God holds him morally responsible. 37:55 And Satan is behind the scenes orchestrating this destruction of the Son of God. But then there is the third level. And all of these are played out in the heavens, yes, but also down here on earth. 38:13 That third level is the sovereign God of the universe who is still in control, who is still on the throne, and who is still advancing His purposes, His purposes. 38:31 John 19:11, "Jesus told Pilate, 'Thou couldest have no power at all against Me except it were given you from above.'" In other words, God gave man the ability to turn over the Son of God at the appointed time. 38:49 Jesus said, "Why didn't you do this earlier? You tried. I was here. You couldn't do it because God had not yet given you the authority to do it." Then God gave them the authority. 39:03 Acts 2:23 says, "Of Jesus being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God," the determinate counsel of God. In other words, God decided to allow Satan and man to do their little dog-and-pony show, 39:22 to think that they were in charge of their big stuff. 39:26 And all the while, God is allowing that and foreknowing exactly what the outcome would be without alleviating them of their responsibility. 39:41 So Jesus said, "This is your hour and the power of darkness." But we know from other scriptures that God was orchestrating all of this. Free will, better hang on to that one. 39:55 Sovereignty, better hang on to that one to get it in balance and to see it for what it really was. I would submit to you this morning that that same thing is happening in our lives and in our world around us. 40:12 Man, this little ant down here thinking he's controlling things. We know we're not. But we try to control our little world. But then there are people that believe that there's a big conspiracy to control the world. There may or may not be. And there probably is an influence by Satan, but actually given authority to do it by God. 40:35 Hang on to free will because if you abolish free will, then God can't hold people responsible for what they do as His puppets. 40:44 But hang on to sovereignty or you'll lose your mind and you'll worry yourself to death. And that's what's happening with a lot of people today. They're worried to death. They're living in fear. They're afraid. They're worried. They're deeply concerned. They don't know where this all is going. 41:04 And we don't. But what gives us comfort to lay our heads on the pillow at night is the fact that God has not been dethroned. He's still very much in charge of this world. A.W. Tozer described it like this. He said, 41:26 "An ocean liner leaves New York bound for Liverpool. Its destination has been determined by proper authorities. Nothing can change it. On board the liner are scores of passengers. These are not in chains. Neither are their activities determined for them by decree. 41:47 They're completely free to move about as they will. They eat, sleep, play, lounge about on the deck, read, talk altogether as they please. But all the while, the great liner is carrying them steadily onward toward a predetermined mark or port. Both freedom and sovereignty are present here. And they do not contradict. 42:07 So it is, I believe," Tozer said, "with man's freedom and sovereignty of God, the mighty liner of God's sovereign design keeps its steady course over the sea of history." And may I add to that the sea of prophecy, not just what has happened, but what is going to happen. 42:29 This gives us six things that I would suggest to you. These are not original with me. They come from a man by the name of Enns. In writing on the sovereignty of God, number one, we should stand in awe of a great God who is wise, powerful, and loving. Stand in awe. 42:49 Let Him be God. Trust Him, which is the second point. We can entrust our lives to this almighty God. You can trust Him. Why? Because He's good. Like that famous saying that somebody wrote, "He is not safe, 43:11 but He is good." Number three, we can rejoice in the wonder of salvation, that we were the choice of God in eternity past, that God chose people to be a part of His family, that God chose Christ and foreknew Him and predestined that all who would be in Christ would be saved. 43:33 Number four, we should rest in peace as we observe the tumultuous world events, knowing that God is sovereignly controlling all things. And this does not imply indifference. This does not imply that we don't care. This does not imply that we have no responsibility. 43:56 But what it does mean is that we can rest at the end of the day, having done what we were to do, we can rest in the midst of a world that looks like it's out of control. 44:08 Number five, God holds people responsible for sin, although sin does not frustrate the plan of God. Neither is He the author of it. God is not the author of sin any more than the fact that God set it up that man has a choice. 44:31 And by virtue of His goodness, it also means that there is badness. God is good, that by definition implies that anything that is not with God is bad. So in that sense, God created sin and God created evil by definition. 44:52 But God is not the author of sin. Neither does He choose to cause people to sin. And number six, this teaching on the sovereignty of God militates against the pride of man. Man in his pride desires to run his own life. 45:13 And the recognition that God is sovereign is humbling. 45:20 There's really not that much about our lives that we do control. How many of you had anything to say about the day you were born? How many of us had anything to say about what color our skin would be or where we would be born or who our parents would be? 45:39 How many of us had anything to say about the time period in which we would live? How many of us had anything to say about the gifts that God would give who are given severally according to His will? How many of us have anything to say about a lot of things that happen to us? 46:00 Bad things that happen because of the choices of other people are out of our control. Someone could leave here today and be hit by a drunk driver. Someone who could leave here today and in a tragic accident have their car overturned and burst into flames. Someone who could leave here today and drop dead of a heart attack. 46:19 We really have no control over the day that we are born. We have very little control over the day that we die unless we hasten that day ourselves, which is sin itself. So we really don't know much. And we really can't do much. But what we can do, 46:39 God holds us responsible to do. And what we can do is to trust in Christ and to let God be God and come under the authority of our good God and trust Him, for He is in control. Let's pray. 46:59 Lord, we know not what else to pray except let God be God 47:08 and let us be Your servants by choice, with our free will, having chosen to come and surrender our will to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. To that end, we pray that You would create faith in us. 47:29 You would renew faith in us. You would help us to trust and not be afraid. For we know who holds the future. And we know who holds our hand. In Jesus' name, Amen. Brother Jayden, would you lead us in a closing song?