| HISTORIC BAPTIST DOCTRINE ________________ The Sovereignty Of God |
| We should not under estimate the ability of God nor his greatness in all that encompasses who He is. Can finite man totally understand infinite God? No. Can man over estimate the ability of God? No, for there is no limit to God. We could spend the next 100,000,000, years studying God, His ways and who He is and we would only scratch the surface of what there is to know about all that encompasses God and who He is.
God does what He pleases and if He sets out to do something, it gets done. I do not deny that man has a will, but there is a higher will in the Universe. The will of God. If theses two wills collide then who is going to win out? If the Lord has all power, all knowledge, all ability and if He really does rule the Universe, then nothing happen outside the will of God or His providence. That would mean that there is a reason for everything that happens. God created Man and put him in the Garden of Eden and put the tree of Knowledge of Good and evil in there as well. God, knowing full well that Man would disobey and eat the fruit that God forbid for them to eat. This did not take God by surprise. God had a plan of salvation before the foundation of the world was laid. It is a hard thing for some people to think that their lives have all been planned out and that a sovereign God is running the show here on Earth and throughout the Universe. The Almighty God is not sitting in Heaven on the throne ringing His hands hoping that if He could get just one man to believe or do something for Him. God is not dependent on man for anything, but rather man is totally dependent on God for everything, including the next beat of their heart or their next breath, sinner or saint. Those that were involved with the crucifixion of Jesus did it willingly out of their own sinful desires. Who knew that it was the plan of our Heavenly Father from the beginning? "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:" (Acts 2:23) "There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God�s Sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that Sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules them, and that Sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children ought more earnestly to contend than the doctrine of their Master over all creation�the Kingship of God over all the works of His own hands�the Throne of God and His right to sit upon that Throne. On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldings, no truth of which they have made such a football, as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the Sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah. Men will allow God to be everywhere except on His throne. They will allow Him to be in His workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow Him to be in His almonry to dispense His alms and bestow His bounties. They will allow Him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof, or light the lamps of heaven, or rule the waves of the ever-moving ocean; but when God ascends His throne, His creatures then gnash their teeth, and we proclaim an enthroned God, and His right to do as He wills with His own, to dispose of His creatures as He thinks well, without consulting them in the matter; then it is that we are hissed and execrated, and then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us, for God on His throne is not the God they love. But it is God upon the throne that we love to preach. It is God upon His throne whom we trust." - C. H. Spurgeon "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" (Numbers 23:19) "And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?" (Daniel 4:35) "But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth." (Job 23:13) "I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee." (Job 42:2) "By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast. The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations." (Psalms 33:6-11) "But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased." (Psalms 115:3) "Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places." (Psalms 135:6) "Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: 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 honour 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." (1 Chronicles 29:11-12) "The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will." (Proverbs 21:1) "Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it." (Isaiah 46:9-11) "But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26) "And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible." (Mark 10:27) "For with God nothing shall be impossible." (Luke 1:37) "And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God." (Luke 18:27) "For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?" (Romans 9:17-24) "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:" (Ephesians 1:11) Posted: Jan 4th 2005, 08:00 PM |