God's Sovereign Authority
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The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the Lord’s house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it.
Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore.
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
These verses deal with the sovereignty and omnipotency of God. These two attributes go hand-in-hand.
A.W. Tozer said, “To reign, God must have power, and to reign sovereignly, He must have all power. “
God has delegated power to His creation. Yet, He has relinquished nothing.
When God rule son Earth and there is total surrender to His will, it will not be accomplished by military might but simply by His desire.
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Furthermore, the omnipotence of God is not simply a sum of all power. It is an attribute of God.
Because He possesses all power it can never diminish.
From the creation of the universe. Miracles of the Old and New Testament, the bearing of our sins, and holding all time in His hand, He has not diminished in power a micro amount.
We seem to view power as rising and falling again like the tides of the sea. We gain strength, expend it and then must restore or power once again.
However, this could not be further from the truth of God.
Tozer provides three demands for God’s sovereignty.
First, the demand that He knows all. Any sliver of information that He does not know would cause a break in His sovereignty. Second, He must be all-powerful. Anything He does not have power over would be controlled by something/someone else. This breakdown would threaten His kingdom. Finally, He must be absolutely free. He must be free to do His will without interference.[1]
Tozer also addresses the divisive subjects of Calvinism and Arminianism. To this point, Tozer seeks to unify the two ends by neither denying God’s sovereignty nor man’s free will. Instead, Tozer states that only a sovereign God would be fearless enough to bestow free will upon His creation. Furthermore, man only has free will because a fully sovereign God could will such freedom.
Isaiah 2.10
Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust, From the terror of the Lord And the glory of His majesty.
The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, The haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
For the day of the Lord of hosts Shall come upon everything proud and lofty, Upon everything lifted up— And it shall be brought low—
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;
and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.
“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, ‘These things says He who is holy, He who is true, “He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens”:
“I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.
Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.
