God is Sovereign

Introduction

We all have certain tendencies

Even when we try to change our behavior or thinking and even when we meet with some sort of success, we often find ourselves reverting back to those same natural tendencies

Think about all the diets that you did not see through to the end.

Think of all the New Year resolutions that fizzled out by valentine’s day

One tendency that every single fallen human being has, without exception, is the tendency toward self-worship

It is the most natural thing in the world that human beings think themselves divine

Not that we would ever say it out loud. Or even think it out loud.

But it is the way we live our lives.

We think ourselves the center of all things. We think we deserve our own adoration and we are not a little bit miffed when we don’t receive the adoration and attention from others that we know we deserve.

This is why you’re so easily offended. This is why you think the smallest inconvenience is a major injustice. Because we think ourselves divine.

The greatest distinction between regenerate man and unregenerate man is that the unregenerate man desires to be God, while the regenerate man desires to be with God.

We must always be reminding ourselves that we are not God.

We have not created all things.

We do not control all things.

No one owes us worship and adoration

We do not have a right to direct and move and govern all things.

We do not, but God does.

The best way to remind oneself of this vitally important truth is through worship.

God, through severe and miraculous means brought Nebuchadnezzar to worship Him

And in his worship, Nebuchadnezzar was able to confess the truth of God’s greatness

Read Dan. 4:34-35

Thesis: God alone governs, controls, and guides all things according to His own will

God’s Dominion is Unending

God’s Sovereignty is Unlimited

Recap

Israel in Exile

Remember what is happening in this moment in history

Because of Israel’s continual rebellion and idolatry, even in the face of many warnings, God sent the pagan nations to destroy them

First, in 722 B.C. the great Assyrian empire overthrew the Northern Kingdom of Israel and killed and enslaved and exiled the majority of her people

Then, in 605 B.C. the newly risen Babylonian empire came and did the same to the Southern kingdom, Judah

Daniel was a citizen of Judah and he was carted off to Babylon with the first deportation of exiles from the land

This was a dark time in the history of God’s people

They were without a land, without a temple, without a king, without protection. Or so they thought.

Nebuchadnezzar Humbled

While in exile in Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, the king, threatened their way of life, and at times, their very lives

He almost killed Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Ch. 2 when his wise men couldn’t interpret his dream

He tried put them to death again in Ch. 3 when they refused to bow down to His golden image that he had set up

And he had slain many of their families and friends in his initial conquest of the land

But last time, we saw in chapter 4, God humbled him

First, God gave him a dream foretelling his future humiliation if he would not repent

Lycanthropy

After a year without repentance, God finally cursed him

But when 7 years had passed, God relented and he restored Nebuchadnezzar’s reason to him

Nebuchadnezzar’s Praise

And what we read here in vv. 34-35 is Nebuchadnezzars thanksgiving and response in praise

God had first rescued him from his pride, and then he rescued him from his curse.

At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever,

God’s Dominion

First he confesses that, though his kingdom is great, it is God’s kingdom that is everlasting

Daniel 4:34 his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;”

Throughout the book of Daniel a contest of kingdoms has been presented to us.

There are the kingdoms of men, represented by Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon

And there is the kingdom of God, which in some ways is signified by Israel

We have two realities presented to us.

First, The historical, earthly, and temporal realities

Those things which Daniel and the other exiles experience “on the ground” as it were

But then, there are the heavenly realities which pervade and permeate and supersede the historical reality

Daniel holds these temporal and heavenly realities in juxtaposition throughout the book

On the one hand

God’s people have been decimated and the forces of YHWH have been defeated by the forces of Marduke

On the other hand, the kingdom of God comes crashing into the great and glorious kingdoms of men and demolishes them

Then it grows until it covers the whole earth.

On the one hand God’s king, David’s Son has been humiliated and taken into captivity

On the other hand, God’s dominion is an everlasting dominion and His kingdom endures to all generations

Daniel is reminding God’s people that the things you see with your eyes are not always the most real things

The kingdoms and governments of this world seem to hold so much power

They control all things and there is no power above them. All things must, in the end, bow their will to the governments of nations.

But the kingdom of God is more real still than all these fleeting powers and despots and governments

There may be times in which it seems they have thwarted God’s designs and have gained victory over God’s people

But each one will, in succession, fall into obscurity and oblivion while God’s kingdom yet stands and His people with it

Even as the Jews in Babylon stood and would outlive Babylon itself.

The kingdom of God, though it seemed defeated, would be established and it would grow and it would bring an end to all the kingdoms of the Earth

The destruction of Jerusalem did not mark the end of God’s kingdom

It was not even a setback for God

It was merely a part of God’s plan in further establishing and growing His kingdom

The Jews in Exile needed to be reminded as we often do, that the kingdoms of this world rise and fall, but the kingdom of God remains forever

God’s dominion is an everlasting dominion and it endures from generation to generation

The Rise and Fall of Nations

Christians throughout the ages have tended to place too much importance in God’s redemptive plan upon their own nation

Martin Luther

The goodness of patriotism

We ought to love our own nations, we ought to be patriotic, we ought to seek the welfare of our people

Patriotism is loyalty to one’s people, not one’s government

This is merely obedience to the command to love one’s neighbor

But our nation can never hold our ultimate allegiance

The Kingdom of God will Continue Long after America falls

And this is a good thing because we are first and foremost citizens of the kingdom of God

We look back on the history of nations and tremble at the violent destruction of some of them

Carthage, Assyria, Imperial Japan

Unless the Lord intervenes, our nation will suffer a similar fate

The evils we currently perpetrate are as wicked as that of any other nation

Even today, in our own town, our city shook its fists in rebellion against God as we celebrated all manner of sexual degeneracy

This type of rebellion will not go unpunished forever

Pray that the Lord would be merciful and that He would grant us repentance

But if He does not, we need not be afraid of our own national collapse because ours is a kingdom which cannot be shaken

And no matter how bad things appear to be, there are deeper realities than the things we can merely see with our eyes

God’s Sovereignty

Nebuchadnezzar goes on to extoll the sovereignty of God

Daniel 4:35 “all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?””

Definition

What do we mean when we say that God is sovereign?

Everything that takes place in history happens because God has determined that it should happen

This is the doctrine of the Divine Decree

LBCF 3:1 From all eternity God decreed everything that occurs, without reference to anything outside himself.

And when we say everything, we mean everything.

God has planned out every single detail of everything that happens

From the movements of planets and galaxies

To the movement of the dust particles in the air around us

From the legislation of the laws of nations

To the choice you made regarding what you would have for dinner tonight

His decree is comprehensive. It encompasses all that comes to pass

Isaiah 46:8–11 ““Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.”

Ephesians 1:11 “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,”

Nothing happens which is outside of the purposes or control of God

He has decreed all of those seemingly random events

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

He decreed the most significant events

Even the salvation of individual souls is determined and accomplished according to God’s will

2 Timothy 1:9 “[He] saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,”

His decree must come to pass

Psalm 33:11 “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.”

None Can Stay His Hand V. 35

The Natural Human Heart lives in Denial that it Can Stay His Hand. consider Pharaoh

He Does According to His Will V. 35

Very Many Christians believe that God does not do everything according to His own will but rather, according to the will of others

Some Christians insist that God peers into the future and sees what mankind will do and then He determines what He will do based upon the foreseen choices of men.

But of course, this would mean that God does not do according to His will, but rather, He does according to our will.

It makes God dependent on us. It makes His will subordinate to our will

Just the way we like it.

Because, again, we have a tendency to self-worship. We cannot stand that our will would not be ultimate

The Scripture states that He does According to His will

And that the inhabitants of the Earth are accounted as nothing.

That is, He does not confer with anyone. In His decision making, He does not take into account the opinions and the actions and the will of men

Many propose this faulty view of God’s sovereignty because of a perceived logical problem

The full throated, biblical picture of the complete sovereignty of God seems to be illogical in their minds.

So they attempt to adjust the biblical doctrine to fit their logic

The problem is this

If God has sovereign control over all things, and since evil things happen in the world, then God must be guilty of committing evil

They want to exonerate God. Get Him off the hook

Does the complete sovereignty of God make Him the Author and Creator of Evil?

The Scriptures are clear that He is not

God is righteous and cannot sin

1 John 1:5 “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”

James 1:13 “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.”

God cannot be tempted, nor does He tempt anyone

LBCF 3:1 God decreed all things in such a way that He is neither the author of sin, nor does he have fellowship with any in their sin

How can He decree all things yet not be held guilty for the wickedness that takes place?

This is a great mystery

Concurrence

In the actions of men there are two wills working concurrently

God’s and man’s

It is God’s will that you should be sitting here listening to this sermon. This does not mean God is performing the act of listening for you, you are listening. And your will is active, you have intended to listen to this sermon. You have not been forced.

So there is one actor; you. And there are two wills; yours and God’s.

In sinful actions there is one human actor, one sinful action, and two wills operating

That is, when a man sins, the man is sinning, not God, and the man is the being who performs the action, not God.

Yet there are two wills which move the man to perform the action

The will of the man, and the will of God

The man does not perform it against his will, but according to his will.

Whereas the will of the man is evil, the will of God is always good

There are several places we see this in scripture

Genesis 50:20 “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

Joseph’s brothers performed a sinful action in selling their brother into slavery. They intended to do a wicked thing in their action.

God did not sell Jospeh into slavery and so is guilty of performing no sinful action. Yet even so, the sale of Joseph into slavery was the will and intention of God. But He meant it for good, not for evil, like Joseph’s brothers.

Isaiah 10:5–11 “Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few.

The same action, two different wills intending different things in the actions.

Acts 2:22–23 ““Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”

God did not put an innocent man to death, the Jews and the Romans did that. But it happened according to His definite plan and according to His will, and it would not have happened had it not been according to His Will

But as the Jews meant the murder of Jesus for evil, God meant it for good. He meant it for the redemption of mankind and the glorification of His Son.

And indeed, the grace and glory and beauty of God is more clearly displayed in this one wicked act than at any other point in history.

This doctrine of concurrence does not answer all our questions

It does not demystify the sovereignty of God

But it does at least help us to see that there is no logical problem presented by God’s sovereignty

None Can Say, What Have You Done V. 35

For some, people, accepting the radical and complete sovereignty of God over all things is difficult because of the perceived logical problems

For others, the problem is not the logic of it all, the problem is emotional.

If God is sovereign over all things, then He has in some sense caused my pain

When we experience pain, we will respond to God in one of three ways

Deny God’s Sovereignty

God does not want me to face pain and difficulty. So this pain must be outside the realm of His control

If God could help it, He would never allow me to have cancer

He would never allow bad things to happen to me

God becomes impotent and incapable of caring for His own

If God is not sovereign over all things, then we are all at the mercy of merciless and brutish forces

There is no comfort in denying God’s complete sovereignty

Deny God’s Goodness

God does control all things, yet He is not good because He allows so many bad things to happen

What have you done? v. 35

How could you smite me with this disease?

How could you foreordain my abuse?

How could you allow such pain into my life?

How could you take my spouse from me?

How could you take my child from me?

God, what have you done?

We demand that God give an accounting for His behavior

We elevate ourselves over God and demand that He answer to us

We question God’s goodness

Hope in God

We are not to accuse God of wrong-doing

Though our minds race, and we do not understand why He does what He does

Though we may never understand why He does what He does

We may carry our pain and grief and confusion to the grave

We know that God is good, and God is sovereign

And this is the best news possible

Conclusion

We confess with Job

Though He slay me, I will hope in Him

Though he slay everything I love most dearly, I will hope in Him

Why?

Because He has slain that which was most dear to Him in order to bestow upon us His goodness

He has smitten His Son and sent Him to the grave so that we would know His love, His grace, and His fellowship.

Rom. 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

That is God’s decree

God is Good

All of His ways are good

Though He brings us much pain

And though we do not understand the purpose of the pain

We cannot see with our minds or our eyes how God can be good in giving us such hardship

We can see with the eyes of faith that God has given us the pain because He loves us

Indeed, He has decreed all that happens for our good and for His glory