Sermon Tone Analysis

*Sovereignty of God.*

At the tender age of six, not having long been in this country, we went down south.

Dad was speaking at a Vic Hudson camp at Gunn’s Bush.

After the camp, seeing we hadn’t seen much of New Zealand yet, we did a little bit of a tour around and stayed at Duntroon, right next the mighty Waitaki.

The locals said you must see the dams, because they are in flood.

Avimore dam had not long been completed.

We saw Benmore dam with the water rushing down the spillway and shooting high into the air – a spectacular sight!

Ever since then I thought that is the way they were, and was most disappointed to see them later.

But I think it was there that was initiated a life-long fascination with dams.

If ever we are at a river, I will get down and start building a dam *[P]* – that is the Waipara, at Stringer’s Bridge.

But that is what man does; he diverts a river and channels it to his own use, he CONTROLS it.

It says in [*Proverbs 21:1*/ The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of יְהוָה; He turns it wherever He wishes./]

If you travel south of Ashburton towards the Rangitata you see this irrigation channel running alongside the road – all the farmer has to do is lift a gate and the water runs from the channel and into his paddock.

It is not that difficult.

We can direct water wherever we want – and God can just as easily direct the heart of the most powerful ruler just wherever He wants.

He is in control – He is SOVEREIGN!

*[P]* And I would like to have a look at this most fundamental aspect of the nature of God.

Derek Prince stated God’s sovereignty like this: *[P]* “/God does what He pleases, when He pleases, how He pleases; and He doesn’t have to ask your opinion/!”

The dictionary definition has three parts to it: “*a~/:* supreme power; *b~/* freedom from external control; *c~/ *controlling influence.”

Here is what the Bible says: *[P]* [*Psalm 115:2-3*/ Why should the nations say, “Where, now, is their God?”

But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases./]

I have a friend who went to be with the LORD recently – her favourite saying was: “/God is GOD/!”

As God He is in absolute control over all things, He does just as He chooses and is subject to none.

Sovereignty, for some peculiar reason, tends to be contentious – the idea of God being in absolute control makes people uneasy – they like to think that they are in control, that they have a free will and God directing things makes them seem like mere pawns with no say.

It offends our pride and sense of self importance and self actualising: “It is my life and I am in control of it.”

God being sovereign seems to contradict the notion of free will.

The Bible teaches both the sovereignty of God and the free will of man.

But to us it seems like a paradox.

It causes great debates and division, as men try to comprehend with their rational mind – and I have no wish to be contentious.

Rather, I want to have a look at the sovereignty of God because it gives Him glory, shows Him in His surpassing greatness, causes us to stand in awe of Him and prompt us to praise Him as is His due.

He takes His rightful place, His Name is hallowed.

So let’s have a look at sovereignty – here is a sovereign, *[P]* a gold sovereign, and a fairly recent one – it’s worth about $500.

And there is a picture of our sovereign on it – not that she exercises much sovereignty, the monarch has become more of a figurehead than an actual ruler; but it used to be that the King ruled, what he said, went!

But this is a picture of a gold sovereign, it is not the real thing – and there is a big difference between it and the real thing – with the picture you can see the sovereign, the “heads”; and also see the reverse side, St George fighting the dragon, the “tails” – and you can’t do that with the real coin – unless you use a mirror.

You may not have a gold sovereign but try it with a 20 cent piece – you cannot see the head of the coin and the tail at the same time *[P]*.

Both sides of coin exist but you can only see one side at a time – and that is how it is with man's choice, his free-will and God's sovereignty.

Both exist but you cannot see them both at the same time.

It all depends upon your point of view.

If you look from man’s point of view, from here on earth, you see man’s choice, his free will; but if you look from God’s perspective, from a heavenly spiritual perspective all you see is God’s sovereignty.

The Bible is a spiritual book, God wrote it, it is from His perspective, so it is little wonder that when you read it you see shot through all of it the sovereignty of God.

But it does depend upon how you read it.

Last time I spoke, I attempted to alert to the danger of taking a mere rational, intellectual approach to God’s Word.

What you get from God’s Word depends upon your point of view.

There are men who know God’s Word a lot more thoroughly than any of us here, who have made it their life-long study – but they don’t know God, they have not come to faith.

You can look at God’s Word from a human perspective or from a spiritual perspective.

Let’s take an example, a story we all know well, that of Joseph.

I have seen people who have analysed the story of Joseph, treating it as a story of family conflict – there is a favoured spoiled son.

They analyse it psychologically: Joseph being favoured makes his brothers jealous.

Joseph is up-himself and proud, immature and unwise.

He brags about his dreams, rubs his brothers’ noses in the dirt.

The jealousy festers, so that they hate Joseph and maltreat him.

The whole thing is looked at in human terms.

There is competent Joseph, a neglected wife vents her fury when she is spurned –it’s just plain psychology.

The husband wants to keep peace with his wife and so has Joseph imprisoned – all the way it is humans carrying out their agendas.

It makes the story out to be mean and nasty; and I think they miss the whole point.

If you flip the coin and look at the other side – God is in control right the way through, directing every step.

He was in control – there was going to be a famine, He had covenanted to preserve His people – He arranged for Joseph to be in Egypt, the only place with food, and to be in control of the entire grain-stock.

When the famine hits and his brothers come to Egypt what does Joseph say when he reveals himself to his brothers?: [*Genesis 45:5*/ “Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life./

In verse 7 it Joseph says: [*Genesis 45:7*/ “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance./]

and in [*Genesis 45:8*/ “Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, *but God*; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt/] And seventeen years later, time to  get perspective on what took place, after Jacob died and the brothers were worried that Joseph might retaliate, Joseph said: [*Genesis 50:20*/ “As for you, you meant evil against me, /(that is the “tails” – the human perspective) /but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive./

(that is the “heads” – God is in control)] There are the two sides of the coin *[P]* – the human side: “you meant evil against me” – that was man doing his thing; but God is sovereign!

Hallelujah!

He is in control!

He is working out His plan and purpose; even working the evil of man to accomplish His purpose: “/but God,/ (Hallelujah!) /meant it for good, in order to bring about this present result/ (His plan and purpose), /to preserve many people alive/.”

Praise His Name! Man was intent on destroying life; God was intent on preserving it!

Hallelujah!

And what was the end result?

Was life destroyed or saved?

God’s sovereign purpose was accomplished.

It is totally amazing – He used the brothers’ intention to destroy life to be the means of preserving life; not only that of the Joseph who they sought to kill, but also their own lives, those seeking to destroy life!

*Amazing grace, wonderful sovereignty!

Praise God that He is in control!*

That He is sovereign even when we intend evil.

You see the same thing with Judas – satan actually possessed him, intent on destroying the Messiah, ruining God’s plan forever.

But God is sovereign, and by that evil, He brought about His eternal plan of redemption!

Doesn’t it leave you amazed and the power, wisdom, the absolute control of God, as He exercises His sovereignty over all that takes place?!

It all depends upon which side of the coin you are looking at.

You can do the same with any Bible story: God is not even mentioned in the book of Esther but He is in complete control of all that takes place right throughout the whole course of what takes place.

I have seen people do this: they analyse Bible stories from human perspective, look at the cultural and historical setting, analyse the politics, the customs, the context, the psychology of what was going on but they miss the whole point!

They need to turn the coin over!

Now both sides of the coin exist – but we look so much from the human perspective, because that is what we are; we forget that “our lives are hidden in God with Christ Jesus” [*Colossians 3:1-3*/ Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God./].

Because we tend to look at the “tails” rather than the “heads”, I have chosen to attempt redress that balance a bit and look at from God's perspective – to look at the sovereignty of God *[P]*, deliberately overlooking the human side – and it is going to take a few sessions.

We read from Proverbs: [*Proverbs 21:1*/ The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of יְהוָה; He turns it wherever He wishes./],

so let’s look at יְהוָה directing the hearts of a few kings.

I want to take a quick look at three kings this morning *[P]* – they were mighty kings, in fact they were more than kings, they were really emperors: they ruled over entire empires, controlling the majority of the world as it was then known to them.

Let’s start with a king we heard about a couple of weeks back – he was ruler of the Medo-Persian empire – his name was Cyrus *[P]* – he was probably called king, or emperor, your highness – but do you know what God called him?: “/My servant/” – you know, one who does your bidding.

You tell your servant what to do and he does it.

And that is what יְהוָה did.

Let’s read [*Ezra 1:1-2*/ Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfil the word of יְהוָה /(that is His predetermined plan and purpose which He had stated) /by the mouth of Jeremiah, יְהוָה stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying: “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘יְהוָה, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah./]

Now we heard it said that Cyrus read the prophecy about the return to Jerusalem and obeyed God’s word.

Now that may well have been what happened – I don’t know what translation you have, but that is not what my Bible says!

What does it say?

“/יְהוָה stirred up the spirit of Cyrus/!”

He may have done that through Scripture – we don’t know, that is supposition.

But that is the motivation from the human perspective (the “tails”) – and the Bible doesn’t give us that point of view.

It gives us the ‘heads” perspective.

It was a spiritual work – יְהוָה stirred his spirit!

Who stirred his spirit?