Sovereignty of God

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Sukkot day 2 — There are more than 7 billion souls on earth now, yet only a very, very small number are keeping the Festivals of God. Why did God call you to this truth? Because you’re so special? Because of your righteousness? No. It’s because God is in charge.

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What is the sovereignty of God? What does that mean? Theologian Arthur Pink’s definition is apropos for this discussion:

“We mean the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the god-hood of God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that God is God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the Most High, doing according to His will in the army of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, so that one can stay His hand or say unto Him , ‘What doest Thou?’”

Pink’s definition largely comes from the mouth of Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 4:34-35):

“But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”

Pink continues:

“To say that God is sovereign is to declare that he is the Almighty, the Possessor of all power in Heaven and earth, so that none can defeat His counsels, thwart His purpose, or resist His will.”

Other verses that reinforce this point include Psa. 115:3; Psa. 22:28 and 1st Tim. 6:15-16.

Pink concludes:

“To say that God is sovereign is to declare that He so the only potentate, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Such is the God of the Bible.”

God is calling a significant number of Seventh-day Adventists to the truth of the Feasts. Some of them are so excited about learning the truth of God’s Feasts and Holy Days. But they are finding that their pastors and church families are not happy about their newfound truth and sometimes will fight against the truth to the point of persecuting those who keep the Feasts. The best way is to provoke thoughts, not arguments.

“So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.” (Col. 3:12-13)

There are some who read the Bible and yet, left to their own understanding, never find this truth. Human beings, by our nature, are not only blind to this truth but also — such is our fallen state — strongly adverse to it. A doctrine so diametrically opposite to the mature pride of the human heart can’t but arouse objection.

“’It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. And He was saying, ‘For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless bit has been granted him from the Father.’ As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.” (John 6:63-66)

We can conclude that only the Holy Spirit can reveal the sovereignty of God. The more you know about God’s sovereignty, the more peace and assurance it will bring to you. As Pink says:

“It should bring more calmness and peace onto our daily Christian walk. And it should lead us to look with confident assurance for the coming of that day when heaven shall resound with the shout from multitude which no man can number.”

Who is in charge of planet Earth?

It used to be that the masses of mainstream Christianity, including many theologians, would talk about the battle between God and Satan for human souls. I was somewhat amused by the fundraising solicitation emails I received from them, telling me of the urgency to get to the people of Asia before it was loo late and these people never got to hear the name of Jesus and be saved.

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:2)

Scenarios like this give the impression that God is utterly dependent on human endeavor as He does his best to save souls but the billions who never hear the name of Jesus will simply be lost forever. Worse yet, some teach that those lost souls will burn in hell for all eternity. You can go into any Christian bookstore and find books on the shelf that still teach this nonsense.

But on the brighter side, I will say that it appears that using hellfire as a fear tactic is not as common as it used be among preachers. Today, unless they teach smooth and pleasant things, many preachers fear they will lose their audiences and their incomes.

They also teach that somehow God was taken aback by the events in Eden and that He is now attempting to remedy an unforeseen calamity. This degrades the Most High to a level of a finite erring mortal. To argue that man is a free moral agent and the determiner of his own destiny and that, therefore, he has the power to checkmate his Maker is to strip God of the attribute of omnipotence.

We forget that God is the potter and we are the clay, as Isaiah says in Isa. 29:16 and here by Paul in Rom. 9:19-24:

“You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’ On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?

“What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory. even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.”

Pink also said:

“We affirm that He is under no rule or law outside of His own will and nature, that God is a law unto Himself, that he is under no obligation to give an account of His matters to any.”

Sovereignty characterizes the whole being of God. He is sovereign in all His attributes. He is sovereign in the exercise of His power.

God is sovereign in the delegation of His power to others. Why did God endow Methuselah with vitality with enabled him to outlive all his contemporaries? Why did God impart to Samson physical strength that no other human has possessed before or since?

“But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.” (Deut. 8:18)

God does not bestow his power and blessings on everyone all alike?

God is sovereign in the exercise of mercy. Mercy is directed by the will of Him Who shows mercy. Mercy is not a right to which man is entitled. Mercy is that adorable attribute of God by which He pities and relieves the wretched. To speak of “deserving mercy” is a contradiction in terms.

For example, God records in the TaNaKh (Torah, Prophets and Writings) a story of two different men who had a sentence of death placed upon them. One was granted a reprieve, the other was not.

The first example is Moses. God gave a sentence of death on Moses for one act of obedience, and he sought God for a reprieve and God said no (Deut. 3:23-26).

The second example is Hezekiah, king of Judah. He was also sick unto death and asked God for healing from God and God granted Hezekiah an additional 15 years of life.

We see this truth amplified in Rom. 9:14-16:

“What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.”

God’s sovereign mercy is displayed when God became flesh and “tabernacled” among men. When Yeshua was on earth He came to the pool of Bethesda and Yeshua found one man to heal, out of the many who were there waiting for healing. Why did He single one man out instead of healing them all? Rom. 9:15, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”

God even exercises His love in a sovereign manner.

“A man can receive nothing except it be given him from Heaven.” (John 3:27)

Even the manner of the Savior’s birth was an exercise of Divine grace, as it was revealed to Bethlehem shepherds (who were simple folk) and the wise men of the East (who were foreigners and gentiles outside of the promise). These were the most unlikely classes of men for God to reveal the birth of His Son on earth. No angel appeared to the Sanhedrin to announce the birth of Israel’s Messiah. The lawyers and scribes who were reading the scriptures trying to find out when the Messiah would be born missed out on seeing His birth in favor of simple illiterate shepherds and foreigners.

God is also sovereign in the exercise of His power. God shapes the destinies of nations and controls the course of empires and determines the limits of dynasties. Pink says:

“Let us assume that God has delivered over the helm into the hand of His creatures and see where such a supposition leads us. For the sake of argument, we will say that every man enters this world endowed with a will that is absolutely free and that is impossible to compel or even coerce him without destroying his freedom. Let us say that every man possesses a knowledge or right and wrong, that he has the power to choose between them and that he is left entirely free to make his own choice and go in his own way. Then what? Then it follows that man is sovereign, for he does as he pleases and is the architect of his own fortune. But in such a case we can have no assurance that ere long every man will reject the good and chose the evil. In such a case, we have no guaranty against the entire human race committing moral suicide.

“Let all divine restraints be removed and man be left absolutely free and all ethical distinctions would immediately disappear, the spirit of barbarism would prevail universally, and pandemonium would reign supreme. Why not? If one nation deposes its rules and repudiates its constitution, what is there to prevent all nations from doing the same? If little more than a century ago the streets of Paris ran with the blood of rioters, what assurance have we that before the present century closes, every city throughout the world will not witness a similar sight? What is there to hinder worldwide lawlessness and universal anarchy? Thus we have sought to show the need, the imperative need for God to occupy the Throne, take the government upon His shoulder, and control the activities and destinies of His creatures.”

Pink wrote this in the early part of the 20th century, but we can bring this to our time. Somalia lacks a central government. It is a lawless nation with pirates, militias and Islamic gangs fighting to control the area. Libya, despite their great material wealth, is also ruled by regional militias and Islamic gangs. Muslim countries such as Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and Afghanistan are either in civil war or in danger of collapse.

The nations can rage all they want. Their rage will be in vain. Not even their fearsome nuclear bombs will cause God to blink. We have seen that nothing will thwart the establishment of God’s purposes. The world has plenty to fear in the times ahead, but the elect have nothing to fear.