God's Sovereignty & Man's Responsibility

Prop: Trust God for ALL THINGS because He is sovereign

Intro: (5 min)

Tonight we dive into something really controversial - that is “God’s sovereignty and human responsibility”

We’re answering the questions - Is it salvation PRIMARLIY dependent on humans to initiate OR God to initiate.

Criticisms of the position I am about to contend for: - the only difference between God and Satan is that Satan wants everyone to go to hell and God wants only the majority to go to hell.

- I figure anything so divisive has to be in error.

This means that God causes sin

This means that man has NO FREE WILL

this belief promotes a false gospel/ religion

the most revolting Christian doctrine ever evolved!

Now why is this such a HOT TOPIC/ DEBATE - well I think it is primarliy for ONE REASON

We live in MAN centered culture.

Culture says:

Your inherently a good person deserving a good life

Your life’s purpose is primarily to be happy at all costs

Your emotions are ALWAYS valid

Bible says:

You inherintly evil

Your purpose is to bring glory to God at all costs

Truth trumps your feelings

So tonight - I hope to not just give you a doctrine BUT totally shift your thinking to be GOD centered. To take God at His word. And really We should all leave TRUSTING GOD FOR ALL THINGS BECAUSE HE IS IN CONTROL OF ALL THINGS

Disclaimers:

1. It would be foolish of me to think that I can really do a thorough job of explaining all this in 30 minutes, SO I intend to scratch the surface, do a quick fly bye and give you a foundation. I’d imagine that in this group I may spark more questions than I answer and for that reason we will have a quick Q&A after this.

2. This should cause you to love God more. If you hear all this and your brain gets bigger but your heart doesn’t BEAT harder fro god than you’ve missed the point entirely

3. This takes time and study - please don’t walk out tonight thinking you’ve got it all figured out. Most HS students will say they understand this but after questioning prove that their understanding is shallow. Let this spark you to go study more.

Transition: Okay so for the remainder of our time were gonna look at 2 points - The Biblical Position, Common Misconceptions - in hopes that we leave here FULLY submitting and trusting in the soverign God.

Biblical Understanding (10 min)

God’s Sovereignty (general)

When we speak about God being sovereign we are saying that God has the authority, freedom and ability to make everything He desires happen.

Isaiah 46:10 “10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;”

God is the FIRST and PRIMARY cause for EVERYTHING - everything that happens is part of God’s purpose and the reason that it happened is because God accomplished it.

God chooses the END result of all things and the means by which He will achieve that result.

Let me just briefly show you how the Bible explains the comprehensive sovereignty of God

Sovereign over Nature

Proverbs 16:33 “33 The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the Lord.”

Even the most “random” seeming event in the world was decided by God

Matthew 10:29 “29 “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.”

There are 1.6 billion sparrows in the world andA sparrows heart weighs 15 grams. Not one of them stops beating UNLESS God MAKES it stop beating

Psalm 147:15–18 - describes the way that God DETERMINES the weather

Job 37 - describes how he commands the movement of clouds

Mark 4 - Jesus tells a storm to be still and it obeys

Exodus 4:11 “11 The Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?”

God decides who will and won’t have physical and mental disabilities in life

1 Peter 4:19 “19 Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.”

If you suffer evil from other people IT IS BECAUSE God determined for that to happen

Deuteronomy 32:39 “39 ‘there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, And there is no one who can deliver from My hand.”

Whether we live or die is all up to God

Genesis 50:20 “20 “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”

Even the EVIL deeds which people do are ORDAINED by God

TRANSITION: So if these things are true about God’s soveriegnty GENERALLY then they must also be true about God sovereignty SPECIFICALLY in regards to SALVATION

God’s Sovereignty in Salvation

Now God’s sovereignty in salvation is BEST seen in His ELECTION - that means - God, in eternity past, chose whom He would save from an eternity in Hell as punishment for their sin

Ephesians 1:4–5 “4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,”

Romans 8:29–30 “29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son,

Romans 9:11–13 “11 for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, 12 it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.””

2 Thessalonians 2:13 “13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.”

Can we JUST pause and consider this truth - before you (christian) existed - God had already determined that He would LOVE you intimately and cause everything in your life to happen for your best interest.

BUT WHY? Why did God choose to save some people and not others?

Deuteronomy 7:7–8 “7 “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but because the Lord loved you ...

Paraphrase - God chose to love you, not because of anything you did BUT BECAUSE He loves you

So Stepping back - what do we have here? - Simply this - God is completely in control and causing all things that happen to happen - this means that God chooses who He will save NOT on the basis of the person but according to His good pleasure.

Man’s Responsibility in Salvation

The only thing that WE contribute to salvation is our NEED for it.

Misconceptions (10 min)

“If God controls everything than we really have no freedom to do what we want”

But people are free to act according to their nature

Illus: If a human says “I want to fly” and they jump off a building and don’t fly - is it because they didn’t have the freedom to do so? No it is because it is not in their nature to do so.

Every single human - is BY NATURE sinful - Psalm 51:5 “5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.”

So like a lion will always choose meat over lettuce, a sinner will always choose sin over righteousness - UNLESS God gives them the ability to choose righteousness - which is exactly what He does in salvation

“If God determines everything then He is the cause of evil in the world”

Now (in a sense) you can say God is the reason BLANK exists and ALWAYS be correct because without God nothing exists. He is the ULTIMATE CAUSE of everything - however this does not mean He is the effectual cause of all things

We should get comfortable saying “God ordains evil without being morally responsible for evil”

God ordains the evil choices of free moral agents, he does not coerce them; rather, they act according to their own freedom of inclination. Because God is never the efficient cause of evil and because he always ordains evil for good, he incurs no guilt.

Evangelism doesn’t matter bc God has already determined who He will save

God not only chooses whom He will save but the means by which he will save them.

Romans 10:14–15 “14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?

God saves people through the evangelism of His people - we should be MORE confident in our evangelism BC it is not dependent on how convincing we are but bc of the sovereignty of God

How is it fair that God chooses some people and not others

“The marvel of marvels is not that God, in His infinite love and justice, has not elected all of this guilty race to be saved, but that He has elected any. When we consider, on the one hand, what a heinous thing sin is, together with its desert of punishment, and on the other, what holiness is, together with God’s perfect hatred for sin, the marvel is that God could get the consent of His holy nature to save a single sinner

Application (5 min)

Stand in Awe of the sovereignty of God

Consider why God has brought about the current circumstances in your life

View life as God centered

Believe! If you wonder if God has chosen you - it simple - Romans 10:9–11 “9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.””

The very fact that God saved means there is hope and so there is no sense wondering am I chosen? If a building is burning and the fire fighters out the window say “JUMP” - will you say “what if I am not predestined to jump?” - no you just JUMP. Thats what the gospel demands - Jesus’ died to atone for sin and his atonement was sufficient TO SAVE ANY AND ALL who come to him. He rose from the dead to provide us with a NEW LIFE in Him!

JUMP! Before its too late