“God’s Sovereignty and Greatness”
 
Last week, we saw how the Church, the divine Habitation upon the earth, is blessed with His divine anointing through which it functions.

It is through the anointing that its direction and purpose continues according to God’s intentions and claims.

It is also the vehicle of ‘the mystery of godliness’ which it is to transmit throughout the history of salvation.

We also saw that the opposite, ‘the mystery of lawlessness’ tries to lay claim to it by usurping God’s intentions and falsifying the witness of the divine Son of God for its own intentions.

Tonight we will go on to connect ‘God’s anointing’ to ‘God’s Sovereignty’, for it is through His Sovereignty that there is a greater understanding of His anointing, an understanding that should place upon us a great sense of awe. 

We will be looking at a number of Scriptures that, I hope, will be lasting verifications that are planted deep within us.

Let me start by saying that some things we have learned down through the years are like precious jewels to us that we keep safely hidden in the recesses of our hearts.

We have put them there simply because they are ours and we see the Lord’s polishing them from time to time so they become even more valuable to us as we move on in Him.

However, there are other things that we have learned that are more general and that seem to light up our hearts in such a way that each time we go back to them, they are deeper, more enlarged, and more beyond our depth of understanding and grasp.

This kind of learning gives us a different perspective that strikes into our beings and wraps itself around us and touches us in every way conceivable.

Of this second aspect of truth is the truth of God’s Sovereignty and Greatness.

It all condenses to one thing: unless God had been first - the whole human race, in general, and each one of us, in particular, never would have been at all.

We are what we are because of what He is: God, the Sovereign over all things.

John, as seen in 1.John 4:19, had learned this from Jesus: “...we love because He first loved us...”

Here it is: the truth of the Sovereignty of God, the truth that before everything is God.

Everywhere God is first; and man, coming afterward, enters into Him and finds in God the setting and the background and the foundation of life.

What John learned in mind and soul from Jesus was that that is true.

John could love only because Jesus loved first.

Everything which we do or think or are is because of what is true of the Sovereign God.

Everything we do, God has first made it possible for us to do.

Every act of ours, as soon as it is done, is grasped into a great world of activity which comes from Him; and there the influence and the effect of our action is determined.

Everything that we know is true already before our 
knowledge of it.

Our knowing it is only the opening of our intelligence to receive what is and always has been a part of His Being Who is the universal Truth.

Man makes certain ‘discoveries’ in his scientific pursuits and tends to lay claim on them as his own creation.

This is the modern temper of mind which exalts man’s place in the scheme of things.

Actually, all man’s inventions are simply discoveries of what has already been implanted in nature by God’s Sovereignty.

Man has created nothing material: he has merely found out God’s secrets, has only been given ‘...the treasures of darkness (or, that are hidden in darkness), and the hidden wealth of secret places...’. (Isa.45:3)

And, he was not sent into the world first, and then expected to evolve of his own being into the condition into which he was to live. 

Always something is before him. 

As it is written in verse 18 of that same chapter of Isa.45, “For thus saith the Lord, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it in a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited,) I am the Lord, and there is none else.”

And in verse 19 it goes on: “I have not spoken in secret,  in some dark land (Lit. a place of a land of darkness); I did not say...‘Seek Me in a waste place’;...”

All the depth of Truth out of which man’s ideas and opinions have shaped themselves and from which he is to draw spiritual sustenance is solely out from Him Who is and was before everything.

When once that truth has dawned upon us, then all the interest of life centers in and radiates from this admission.

Let me read you some other powerful Scriptures that back all of this up.

Let us start in Dan.4:35: “And 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 the earth; and no one can ward off (Lit. strike against) His hand or say to Him, ‘What hast Thou done?’”

Then go over to Dan.7:14: “And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom (or, sovereignty), that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language (Lit. tongue) might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.”

2.Chron.20:6: “and he said, ‘O Lord, the God of our fathers, art Thou not God in the heavens? And art Thou not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Thy hand so that no one can stand against Thee?’”

Deut.4:39: “Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.”

1.Chron.29:12: “Both riches and honor come from Thee, and Thou dost rule over all, and in Thy hand is power and might; and it lies in Thy hand to make great, and to strengthen everyone.”

Psalm 22:28: “For the kingdom is the Lord’s, and He rules over the nations.”

Psalm 93:1: “The Lord reigns (or, has assumed kingship), He is clothed with majesty; the Lord has clothed and girded Himself with strength; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved.”

John 18:37: “Pilate therefore said to Him[Jesus], ‘So You are a King?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say correctly that I am a King. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.’”

1.Cor.15:28: “For He [Jesus] must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.”  

From these and other countless Scriptures, and from the context of Scriptures as a whole, we can very adamantly   affirm that God is the One Who is over everything in this entire universe.

We can see from these readings, that God is the One Who created the world and everything in it. 

He is the One Who devised the structure to set the world on its course and is able to cause it to work perfectly in His systematic order of things.

He is Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth, Who is ‘...stretching out the heavens by Himself, and spreading out the earth all alone. (Isa.44:24; Job 9:8)

He is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made with hands, nor is He dependent for His existence upon anything He created.

He is Sovereign God! - None is like Him!

He is the Potentate of potentates!

He is the Source of Life and breath, and everything else humanity possesses.

He is all-knowing, all powerful, absolutely free over and from all things. 

Isa.40:28: “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable (or, His understanding is past finding out).”

Were He lacking in one infinitesimal grain of truth, or wanting in one ounce of power, He would not be absolutely Sovereign.

If one iota of anything He is in power, truth, or authority belonged to someone else, He would have limitations and not be Sovereign.

His Sovereign rule so decrees that nothing can hinder Him or compel Him or stop Him.

He alone can do what He pleases to do always and everywhere for He alone possesses universal authority.

“He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth;...”, Dan.4:35 states.

And, it goes on to say that ‘no one can challenge Him, stop Him, nor strike against His hand or say to Him’, ‘What hast Thou done?’.  

Job 9:12: “Were He to snatch away, who could restrain Him? Who could say to Him, ‘What art Thou doing?’”

Isa.43:13: “Even from eternity I am He; and there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?”

In other words, He does not need to request permission from anyone nor does He need to go to a higher authority to apply for anything.  

Job 21:22: “Can anyone teach God knowledge, in that He judges those on high?”

To whom would He go to ask for permission?

Who is higher than the Highest?

Who is mightier than the Almighty?

At whose throne would God kneel?

To think of His greatness, His Sovereignty, of His Most Exalted Place in the entire cosmos, of His going before all things is staggering, beyond the bounds of thoughts.

All belongs to God and is obedient to His ordering.

A thunderstorm in the mountains is an awe-inspiring thing: it speaks of overwhelming might before which man is helpless indeed. 

If the creature can be so devastated in its power, what must the Creator of it be in His irresistable power?

The majesty behind the storm is an ascription to the Lord of His glory and strength.

We often sing the song that has the phrase in it, ‘You are worthy of OUR praise, and we praise You.’

In the light of Who He is and His Greatness, and His Sovereignty, His Glory and His Strength, the phrase ‘You are worthy of OUR praise’ is somehow bothersome.

We have put ourselves in position of being the judge of whether or not He deserves praises from us.

If God is Who He is and is Great above all greatness, the Highest of the high, then who is man that he should be the judge of whether or not the Almighty deserves OUR praise?

I would rather sing it, ‘You are worthy of all praise!’, not only from those He has created but from everything else in the cosmos that can utter its faint voice of praise.

It leads us to the ‘beyondness of God’, the ‘high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity.’ (Isa.57:15)
Part of the reason for the divorce of the scientific mind from acknowledging the Sovereignty of God lies in man’s habit of an-thro-po-mor-phic thinking.

We seem to suggest that God is made in man’s image, and that we can easily grasp the conception of God intellectually.

The best we can do is to ‘behold His glory...’, albeit with our dimmed eyesight, ‘as we look into the face of His Son...’.

As we do, we can only stand in silent awe before Him.

When we freely acknowledge the Superlative, the Unexcelled, the Unsurpassed Sovereignty of our God, the One Who is the Beyond, the Untouchable Most High, then we are able to see the glorious, lustrous sense of our God’s Incarnation in His Son as the Foundation of Life in  mankind. 

For it is through Jesus Christ Who, in and through His redemption work, is now the Only, Workable Matrix connecting all things and all persons to the Sovereign God.

By ‘matrix’, I am referring to Christ as the One in Whom everything originates, takes form, or develops and Who is so embedded in God’s sovereign design that He is perfectly suited to be the Mediary between the creation of the Sovereign God and the Sovereign God Himself.

By His very Person, in the completion of His work upon earth, He made it possible to reach the ‘Beyondness’ of the Sovereign God.

And He made it possible for man to do so without having to fear God’s awesomeness in approaching Him.
Persons have tried to reach Him without coming to Him through His Son and have been stymied and halted in their attempts.

Many have tried, and some, perhaps, still do, to make the approach to Him with various sorts of appeasements.

Just recently, the news reported the findings of three Inca children mummies who, it seems, had probably been offered as human sacrifices to their gods.

On the burial platform were also other items - gold, silver, textiles, pottery - which were all apparently a part of this appeasement offering to find favor with their gods.

But, God, in His Sovereign thought, made a better provision to bring His ‘Beyondness’ to His own creation so that that creation can come to Him with no fear and no need to appease Him, - the Most High, Lofty, and Terrible God.

Yes, He is the God Who is far ‘Beyond’ us in every way.

But, how we marvel - yes, we must marvel - that He has gone before man, sought man out according to the pre-determined council of His will, and has set His heart upon man to do man only good.

Long before man cared, He already cared.  -  Marvel of marvels!

So that, now, when we see man having been reconciled to Him through Jesus Christ, and walking in the white garment of new life, we marvel at the Sovereignty of God, from Whom the impulse of man’s regeneration came, Who could take man in His divine hands and lift him up to press him to His bosom of love! 

How can it be?  -  We truly marvel!

Oh how we marvel that He ever thought of preparing everything that was necessary for the bringing of man into Himself through Jesus Christ!.

While man floundered about in carelessness and in flagrant sin, God’s eye was always upon him, always waiting for the moment when His hand could touch him and He could whisper into the prepared heart; ‘Come -  follow Me.’

We marvel at the pouring out upon man of His power, Who also stands and walks beside man, and in man.

We marvel that it is God’s work being done there, God’s life being channeled through man.

We marvel - that as He does with the individual, He does also with His Church.

His bringing together, under His mighty hand, those whose hearts match His, merged together in one absolute 
simplicity is a wonder of wonders!

And - most of all - we marvel in absolute astonishment - that He would trust Himself to the Church, - first - entrust the Church with His Gift of His Anointed in its midst, and then, to sanction His anointing in the Church.

This is ‘grace upon grace’ (John1:16).

As high, as lofty, as Almighty, as Great, and as Beyond that He is in His Sovereignty, yet He emanates His graciousness to the Church in conferring upon it His anointing favor. 

And, lastly, we marvel in the confidence He has placed in the Church to move it along in His great design and intention through the means of His anointing.

What a glorious, resplendent stroke of His Sovereignty and Greatness!

Just this humbling, very limited glimpse of our God’s Sovereignty causes us to stand before Him in awe! 

It is His Sovereignty, the governing force of the universe, that touches us, His own, in such a divinely-special way.

Marvel of all marvels it most certainly is!

Lord willing, we shall continue next Sunday.

Rom.16:24-27: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Sciptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever.’
                                    Amen.

  

Continuation:

We are currently contemplating “God’s Sovereignty and Greatness”.

Last Sunday we went on to connect ‘God’s anointing’ to ‘God’s Sovereignty’, and I stated that it is through His Sovereignty, that there is a greater understanding of His anointing, an understanding that should place upon us a great sense of awe.

We read numerous Scriptures from both the Old as well as the New Testaments, to back up all that we brought into view, and to affirm that God is the One Who is over everything in this entire universe, that God is the One Who created the world and everything in it.

We continue to marvel in absolute astonishment - that He would trust Himself to the Church, - first - entrust the Church with His Gift of His Anointed in its midst, - and then, to sanction His anointing in the Church.

What a glorious, replendent stroke of His Sovereignty and  Greatness!

It is His Sovereignty, the governing force of the universe, that touches us, His own, in such a divinely-special way.

We now shall continue.

Tonight, we will look at ‘the Sovereignty of God’ from man’s viewpoint of it and see the difference.

It may be that it will cause us to see the Lord a little more clearly.

Without a doubt, this world is in a crushing crisis that is causing much alarm.

In some instances, there is even the threat of general panic in which problem after problem, opinion after opinon, sin upon sin is digging the chasm even deeper.

What a scene of confusion and chaos we are facing!

I think we, as the Lord’s people, can acknowledge that life seems to have become a profound problem and is becoming even more so every step of the way.

We have the tendency to get so caught up in the problem, that in all of our philosophizings, our pop psychology theories, and our theorizings, we relegate God to the background of things.

And, instead of beginning with Him, and working down to man, we make the mistake of beginning with the world and work back to God.

This formula has developed the problems of the world to where they are now - in chaos, confusion, and near panic - in short, with disaster where everything seems to show that God has no connection with the world at all.

Man leans to think only in materialistic terms, to the point of denying that God created everything and is well able to regulate the works of His own Hands.

Scientific ‘findings’ have ordered everything according to the ‘laws of nature’, the ‘physical laws’, and give the Creator of them no credit.

And this seems to have thrown everything ‘out of joint’.

It is just as 2.Tim.3:1-13 depicts: sin is rampant, lawlessness seems to be the norm these days, and evil men and seducers are “...waxing worse and worse”.

Unrest, discontent, perplexities, and countless struggles are causing men’s hearts to “...fail them for fear, and looking after those things which are coming on earth”. (Luke 21:26)

They all seemingly speak of one thing: that God is not in full control over the affairs of the world.

The inference is drawn that the devil has gained the upper hand and God is more to be pitied than to be adored and worshipped.

But - is there “anything new under the sun”?

The Psalmist in Psalm 2 had faced this self-same dilemma.

I would like to read this first, and - if you have your Bibles with you, feel free to follow along.

We will be referring to it as we go along, so you may want to keep it open at this passage.

Psalm 2:1-6: “Why are the nations in an uproar, and the peoples devising a vain thing?  The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed:  ‘Let us tear their fetters apart, and cast away their cords from us!’
He who sits (Or is enthroned) in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them.  Then he will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in fury: ‘but as for Me, I have installed (Or consecrated) My King upon Zion, My holy mountain’.” 

God, here sees men shunning the truth and fact of God’s mastery in history and in the affairs of the nations.

And he pointedly asked the question: “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?”

It was a question that opened wide the field of humanity’s folly, noise, and sin in its vain imaginations.

Why, indeed, are there these vain imaginations?

Is the reason simply for self-enhancement that drives men to such foolishness or does it go deeper - deep into the blindness toward the Sovereignty of God in all things?

The Psalmist gave the answer when from the court of heaven the answer came, “It is against the Lord and against His Anointed”. (verse 2)

That is, it is against God’s Sovereignty that has appointed His Anointed One to reconcile all things back to Himself. 

But before the answer came to the question of ‘Why are 
the nations in an uproar, and peoples devising a vain thing?’ there is given the big picture of man’s vain imaginings first.

It is in verses 2 and 3. - “The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed: let us tear their fetters apart, and cast away their cords from us!”

There we hear the sounds of restlessness, of agitation in the earth among men. 

It is a raucous noise of hissing and scorn in the words of ‘break’ and ‘cast away their cords from us’. 

It is the tone of conspiracy with the view of grasping power, taking over, disregarding God and His thought altogether!

Of course, it is the general picture of a godless humanity in the position of temporary eminence wanting to hold its position over its opponent.

And what are they saying?

What is the big commotion?

‘Let us tear their fetters apart! - Let us be free to do what we want to do, - Let us be our own gods!

Let us get rid of all of these restraints and cast off these binding cords of religious checks!’

What is the reason for this outburst of rebellion?

It is simply that the acknowledgment of the Sovereignty of God curbs and crosses their carnal, limited wisdom!

This is man working from his vantage point alone.

And these rulers represent the rebellious human will that is demanding to be ‘number one’, to be in charge.

It is a struggle that is going on between human pride and ambition on one side and the Sovereignty of God Who has appointed His Anointed, on the other.
Man prides himself in his success against God’s Anointed, against His government, and man has no compunctions about quarreling against Him.

Spurgeon wrote in this regard, [and I quote]: ‘Earth loves not her rightful Monarch but clings to the usurper’s sway: the terrible conflicts of the last days will illustrate both the world’s love of sin and Jehovah’s power to give the Kingdom to His only Begotten’. [end of quote].

It is in verses 4-6 that we are carried into the heavenly scene where we are shown the need to start with God and work down to man.

It is here that we see God’s reaction to this pandemonium of the rebels upon the earth who insist on doing things their way and leaving Him out altogether.

Verses 4-6: “He who sits (i.e., enthroned) in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury: ‘but as for Me, I have installed (i.e.consecrated) My King upon Zion, My holy mountain’.”

God is sitting upon His throne, watching and seeing their folly.

The real significance of their ridiculous devices and foolish attempts is measured by the laughter of the Most High God.

He knows how absurd, how irrational, how futile their attempts against His Anointed are.
After He exposes and brings their foolish and mad purpose to light, He manifests His own mind and “shall speak to them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure”. 
(verse 5)

Then, in terrifying displeasure, He sets about to show Who really is in charge.

And He makes His announcement that He has already set His King on His holy mountain - Zion, the Church, the very One they are trying to prevent from becoming King.

“I have installed (or consecrated) My King upon Zion, My holy mountain”, God reminds them. (verse 6)

What a contrast this is to the implied self-importance of the conspirators on earth!

It is in verse 6 that God exerts His divine Sovereignty in declaring the inevitability of His will in the setting up of the Kingdom of His Christ to Whom He has given world-wide dominion with free exercise of authority.

‘In the realm of rule, there is no other King but Jesus’ is His strong declaration.

‘And I have already done what you seek to prevent being done - the King is already in His place of highest authority, and He has authority far higher than the authority you are seeking to exert’.

Starting with God and His Sovereign thought, the Psalmist brings the scene back to the earth in which the King has been given His rightful place in complete ascendancy in power, if any should stand out against Him.

This irresistable might of God caused Paul in 2.Cor.5:11 to write: “...knowing...the terror of the Lord, we persuade men”.

Left to ourselves, we tend to reduce God to managable terms.

We want to get Him to be where we can use Him, convince Him to serve us on our terms.

We want a God Whom we can control in some measure.

There is always that straining effort of heart and mind to bring Him down to our finite understanding.

“Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? They are high as the heavens (Lit. the heights of heaven), what can you do? Deeper than Shoel (i.e. the nether world), what can you do?” is Zophar’s statement to Job in Job 11:7-8, as he tried to show Job how God is so far above men.

Jesus stressed the helplessness of the man to grasp the greatness of God when He said: “nor does any man know (Lit. fully know) the Father, except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him”. (Matt.11:27)

Men are called, therefore, to be wise, to consider God’s Sovereignty, in that His righteousness prevails over man’s puny might first of all.

It is faith, - that characteristic that is occupied with God, - that recognizes that all things come from His Hand since He is Sovereign Lord and King.

But, if, instead of bowing to the testimony of His written Word, and if, instead of walking by faith, we walk by sight, by the opinions of others, by the quagmire of problems and struggles that challenge only the senses, then we bow to the world’s vain imaginings.
We, too, are standing ‘against the Lord and against His Anointed’.

There may be much in this world that saddens, that threatens, that startles and staggers, yet that is no reason why the Church nor individual believers need to give way to the unbelieving rebels of earth.

For unbelief is of the world.

It judges everything by worldly standards, views everything from the standpoint of time, sense, feelings, circumstances, and weighs everything in the balances of its carnal makings.

Faith brings in God and His Sovereignty, looks at everything from His viewpoint first.

It estimates values by spiritual standards first.

It views life in the light of eternity and in the light of the King of kings under whose rule it operates first.

Because God is God, Sovereign of the universe, the Almighty, the Possessor of all power in heaven and on earth, there is none who can defeat Him, overpower His counsels, thwart His purposes, or resist His will. (Psa.115:3)

To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is “The Governor among nations” (Psa.22:28), setting up kingdoms, overthrowing empires, and determining the course of history as it pleases Him and His ultimate purpose.

To say that He is Sovereign is to declare that He is the only “King of Kings, and Lord of Lords”. (1.Tim.6:15)

To declare Him as otherwise is man’s vain conceits and imaginings and dethrones Him of His Sovereignty.

We may judge ourselves by this: do we welcome Christ as Sovereign Lord over all things, or do we wish to ‘cast away the cords from us’?

Oh, how I pray that everyone of our hearts will respond to the inner assurance that He is the Lord God Almighty Who is omnipotent, (Rev.19:6) that He has ‘set His Anointed’ in our midst, in the midst of His Church, and that the Church can confidently trust Him to lead us onward.

Let me close with reading the remainder of Psalm 2:

verses 7-12: “I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee.
‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Thine inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Thy possession.  Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, Thou shalt shatter them like earthenware’.  Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; take warning, O judges (Or leaders) of the earth.  Worship (Or, serve) the Lord with reverence, and rejoice with trembling.  Do homage to the Son, lest He become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon (Or, suddenly) be kindled. 
How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!”

Songs: “To Him Who sits on the throne and unto the Lamb. (twice). Be blessing and glory and honor and power forever. (twice). Forever, forever, forever.”

“To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen!”