Sermon Tone Analysis

*Sovereignty 2.*

Did anybody manage to catch the weather forecast this morning?

What did they say?

What do you reckon?

Did they get it right?

I don’t know if you knew, but when I left university I seriously considered becoming a meteorologist.

I sometimes think that I should have – I mean, they get paid for what they do!

If I put out results from the lab with the accuracy they do, I would have been given my marching orders years ago!

It would be easier to have a job with that kind of accountability.

I sometimes wonder why I bother to listen to what they predict.

Do you think God listens to the weather forecast?

I think there is a verse that might suggest He does: [*Psalm 2:4*/ He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them./]

Man attempts to predict what is going to happen in the weather; but he doesn’t always get it right.

But we shouldn’t malign them, it’s not hocus-pocus, or guess work – it is real science with observations and measurements.

With satellites and computer modelling they can often give you a fairly good idea of what is coming up *[P]*.

They make observations and take measurements of certain variables – they observe a high pressure system, it will cause fine weather.

El Niño and la Niña cause certain weather patterns.

Our weather is determined by measurable physical factors: barometric pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction, temperature etc.

That is what causes weather, right?

But what does the Bible say? [*Leviticus 26:4*/ then I shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit./]

Hang on a minute, יְהוָה is making* *it sound like He controls the rain!

Who is in control?

*[P]* Is it just natural forces and phenomena?

[*Deuteronomy 11:14*/ He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early and late rain, that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil./]

again in [*Deuteronomy 28:12*/ יְהוָה will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand/.]

It wasn’t a slip of the pen, or whatever they wrote with – it sounds like it means it; that יְהוָה controls the weather.

In fact the Bible is quite consistent, and insistent, that He does.

I could multiply examples and keep you here all morning.

Just a couple from the New Testament to show that it wasn’t just some Old Testament thing.

Jesus said: [*Matthew 5:45*/ so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous./]

Jesus said that the Heavenly Father sends rain – do you believe what He said, or was He mistaken?

Of course we know a lot more now, don’t we?

More than Jesus?! Never! [*Acts 14:17*/ and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”/]

– the Bible is quite clear and adamant: יְהוָה controls the weather!

Have you ever prayed for fine weather for the Sunday School picnic?

Maybe it’s a bit of a selfish prayer, but nonetheless if you have prayed to God concerning the weather, maybe the farmer rain for his crops; you, by implication, are expressing your belief that God has control over the weather – why pray if He can’t do anything about it?!

Is it silly to pray about the weather?

It is, unless God actually controls it.

But it isn’t vain to pray about the weather: [*James 5:17-18 */Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.

Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit./]

It wasn’t Elijah that controlled the rain, but the God to whom he prayed!

Praying about the weather, or anything else for that matter, is an admission that God is sovereign over it!

Prayer is a confession of the sovereignty of God, or otherwise it is complete futility and merely hot air.

Last time I gave an introduction to the subject of the sovereignty of God *[P]*.

We are deliberately looking at things from the Divine perspective – from the “heads” view-point, not from man’s point of view.

I said that some people are uneasy with the concept because they feel it violates their free will.

So in discussing the sovereignty of God, I thought that I would start with something easier – inanimate things *[P]* – they have no life, so they have no will, there is no problem with God being sovereign over them; they can’t answer back or exercise their choice or will.

But, getting back to the weather, that inanimate phenomenon with no will – does God control it?

The Bible clearly says so; but surely that rain was caused by a deep depression off the east coast bringing a southerly blast?

Who is right the meteorologist or the Bible?

It depends which side of the coin you look at – the human perspective or the Divine.

With the accuracy of weather forecasts, I know where my money lies!

But our science, which we revere and worship, says that it knows the cause – we have studied, measured and found out – it is just physics.

To try and help understand this dilemma may I first try and explain an expression we use in our family?

I sometimes say: “Who is driving the car?” *[P]* Hannah knows what I mean, but it has nothing to do with cars.

Here is our car *[P]*, do you recognize where it is?

– right outside this building!

Now how did 1400Kg of metal get to be there?

– it wasn’t there yesterday.

But science has the answer to all things.

You observe, and reason and explain.

Careful observation will reveal that that great heap of metal is resting on 4 round black pieces of rubber, further observation has shown that they can rotate, hence moving the car.

So our car is here because of the rotation of the wheels.

But we don’t stop there with our observation – science explores to the limits, it knows no bounds.

Further study reveals that those wheels rotate due to the movement of complex set of cogs and shafts.

But science goes further – we trace that rotation to the front of the car to a large block of metal in which a fire burns.

So that car is there because of petrol burning inside a block of metal.

Further specialists are called in, men like Alex, whose interest is in electronics – this is no mere fire, it is finely and precisely controlled by finely tuned electrical impulses.

That is why the car is there!

Others study different causes and find out that the front two wheels can move out of alignment, enabling the movement to be directed.

You can study further and further back as to why that car is there – you start at the end result and trace the causes back.

But you know why the car is there, don’t you?

Rhoda got in it this morning and decided to drive it here!

There was an intelligence and a will behind what took place!

The mechanism of how it got here tells you nothing about why it is here.

*[P]* And the “Why?” is the really important question; that is the real reason.

So when I say: “Who is driving the car?” – Hannah knows that I am talking about prime cause as opposed to the mechanistic reason.

Man tries to find out causes starting with the end result and looking at the mechanistic reason, tracing it back – what is called the teleological cause.

But to find the real reason you have to start at the start!

– the/ a priori /cause.

*[P]* The meteorologist can look at the low pressure system that causes the rain, the wind, the temperature – but he will never by that means find out who is driving the car!

God controls the weather; His is the will that determines what takes place with the pressure, temperature and whatever other parameters there maybe.

The mechanism is of no significance – what matters is the will that is behind it, driving all that takes place.

What is life all about?

– the reason I am here?

The “how” reason is that my Dad and Mum got together; but the “why” reason is what matters: that God had a purpose and a plan for my life, a tiny part to play in His awesome drama!

Without a Motivator, that intelligence with a will and a purpose, someone driving the car; without a sovereign God in control, there is no purpose.

There are some who don’t believe in any god; some believe in a god with limited power or influence; others have the vague concept that god kind of started things but no longer has any direct influence – everything takes place according to natural material processes – there is no supernatural intervention.

Science has removed God from the sphere of active influence, materialistic causes are the only ones admitted.

But God is sovereign, in control of all that takes place.

We are not the product of endless chance, natural happenings – there is a purpose in ALL that takes place.

God is directing it, driving the car – even the natural processes.

If God directs the minds of kings like man does the water brooks *[P]*, how much more easily the brooks themselves, the physical processes.

*[P]* יְהוָה’s sovereignty goes all the way back, before creation – but in creation, the fact is that all exists because He called it into being.

[*Revelation 4:11*/ “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honour and power; for You created all things, and *because of Your will they existed*, and were created.”/]

Why do they exist – because of the will of יְהוָה!

That is why they exist – the why, as well as the how.

יְהוָה is driving the car!

Nothing exists apart from Him, and in fact is dependent upon Him for His continual sustaining: [*Hebrews 1:3*/  /(speaking of Jesus) …. /He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power./]

He made everything, and made it for a purpose and is in control of it.