Humanity and Sovereignty

Context

Continuing our Proverbs series

Verse by verse through chapters 1-9

Looking at chapters 10-29 thematically—studying the 9 most prominent themes in these collections of Proverbs

So far:

Pride and Humility

The Tongue and Speech

Today:

The Sovereignty of God

How humans should think about His majestic rule over all things

Introduction

These are big things to think about.

It make you feel like your brain is about to ooze out of your ear.

We are attempting to humbly climb the tree of theology and stick our heads in the clouds of God’s kingly rule

The air is thin up there

But we have God’s Word to guide us and there is much to learn

Here is how we will do it:

Structure Explained

We have three teaching points this morning—each building on the next.

By the time we get to Point 3, we will really arrive at what the wisdom of Proverbs calls us to surrender to regarding God’s sovereignty and humanity.

Outline

1. God is sovereign over all creation and circumstances.

2. God is sovereign over all human hearts and happenings.

3. God is sovereign over all and you should trust all things to Him.

1. God is sovereign over all creation and circumstances.

Defining God’s Sovereignty in Proverbs

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

There are a lot of great theologians who could give us definitions, but before we do that—let’s see if Proverbs can define things for us

Everything for Its Purpose

Proverbs 16:4 ESV

The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.

There are no loose ends in the seen or unseen realm

God has made every particle for its purpose

Every molecule is on His agenda

The Lot is From the Lord

Proverbs 16:33 ESV

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.

The casting of lots was the equivalent of a modern dice roll

It was used to determine things like land allotments and appoint priestly duties

We may view it as a game of chance, but Solomon does not.

Solomon understands that the roll of the dice is determined by the Lord and reveals His decreed will

Things in the world may seem random, but in truth, they are not

Nothing Stands Against the Lord

Proverbs 21:30 ESV

No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the Lord.

Take the best plots and plans that humanity has to offer...

Take the most perfectly composed counsel that a man or a woman could muster...

...It will come to nothing in the face of the Lord’s will.

God’s hand will not be thwarted.

Proverbs’ Definition (And Piper’s)

So then—if we are seeking to define God’s sovereignty from these verses in Proverbs, maybe we would end up with something like this:

God’s sovereignty is His absolute rule over everything.

There is simply nothing that is outside of His will, His control or His decree.

To quote one of those great theologians, John Piper, says it like this:

When we say God is sovereign, we mean He is powerful and authoritative to the extent of being able to override all other powers and authorities.

John Piper

Piper’s definition is right in line with what Proverbs is showing us.

No other power can successfully compete with God or contend with Him.

He alone is the Sovereign, Majestic Ruler over the heavens and the earth.

Seeing Sovereignty in the Scriptures

What Proverbs teaches us about God’s sovereignty can be found throughout the Scriptures.

End From the Beginning

Isaiah 46:9–10 ESV

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,’

God has decreed His will—the end from the beginning.

And all of that which He purposes—end from the beginning—WILL be accomplished.

This a big overarching statement about God’s sovereignty

About His majestic purposes and His plan...

But as you read Scripture, you see how His sovereignty plays out in different spheres of existence

Sovereign Over Nature

For example—He is sovereign over nature.

Psalm 135:6–7 ESV

Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.

From the outermost layer of our atmosphere down into the darkest parts of the ocean, God is in control.

From the gathering clouds to the raging thunderstorm—it is God who rules it all.

Sovereign Over Animals

But not only that—He is sovereign over what is IN nature.

Matthew 10:29 ESV

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.

A sparrow was nothing in the ancient world.

It was the cheapest food you could buy.

It was sold to the poorest of the poor who could not afford a dove or a pigeon.

It had no ceremonial function in the temple.

If there were ever an animal to be forgotten, it was the sparrow.

And yet, even the flight of the meaningless sparrow is in the hand of God.

If He rules over the sparrow—the smallest, forgettable thing of the animal kingdom—then He certainly cares enough to rule everything else in the realm of nature as well.

Sovereign Over Time

And keep in mind that these things that God rules all exist IN time by a God who stands OUTSIDE of time and is not BOUND by time.

So not only does God rule creation—He rules the clock of creation.

He is the Ruler over time.

Psalm 104:19 ESV

He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting.

Time exists because He made it exist.

He made the celestial bodies that rotate and cycle and orbit—the very bodies that we have used to determine how time works

This is all from God’s hand and in God’s hand

Sovereign Over Circumstances

And God is sovereign over all of the circumstances that take place within the realm of the created universe.

One of the greatest examples of this is found in the book of Jonah.

As Jonah begins, the prophet runs from God’s calling to preach repentance to the Ninevites, due to prejudice in his heart.

He tries to jump on a ship and go to the other side the map.

But you can’t outrun a Sovereign God who has written the end from the beginning and who controls the sea.

Jonah 1:4 ESV

But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.

In the middle of Jonah’s account, he is swallowed up by a great fish.

Jonah 1:17 ESV

And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Notice...God appointed a great fish...

At the end of Jonah, Jonah preaches and the Ninevites repent.

But Jonah still has prejudice in his heart.

So God teaches him a lesson by giving him a plant to shade his head and then taking it away.

God’s point is, “If you care about a plant for shade that comes and goes, can’t I care about an entire city of people who are lost?”

But notice how the plant gets there...

Jonah 4:6 ESV

Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.

Do you see how throughout Jonah, God’s sovereignty over creation and circumstances is on display?

From the sea, to a fish, to a plant’s birth and death—God is absolutely ruling according to His sovereign hand and sovereign plan.

A Truth Opposed to Humanity

This concept of the sovereignty of God presented to us by Proverbs and the rest of Scripture is not loved by the fallen human heart.

Humans want to be in control.

We want to feel that we are calling the shots.

Our first parents, Adam and Eve, challenged God’s sovereignty in the Garden and they broke His law and ate from the tree that was forbidden...

...Ever since then, we have been trying to do the same thing.

Whether it is trying to rule the world or trying to rule our little lives, the human heart claws for power.

We fight to be able to have our say.

We shout for our say to be the loudest.

But then, here comes the Bible saying, “God is sovereign.”

He has written the end from the beginning

Nothing and no one can stand against His purposes

They will all be accomplished

Humanity wants to have a vote in these things.

But they don’t get a vote.

God’s decree is absolute—not the will of human beings.

The hip-hop artist Nas once famously asked, “Whose world is this?”

The answer to the question—whether we like it or not—is God.

That has always been the answer and it always will be.

Transition to Point #2

But God does not just rule nature and animals...God rules humanity.

2. God is sovereign over all human hearts and happenings.

Sovereignty and Humanity in Proverbs

God’s sovereignty over humanity is a clear theological truth from Proverbs.

In many ways, this is where the rubber meets the road for our hearts.

We tend to be fine with the idea that the Lord does whatever He pleases in a rainforest in South America or in a crater on the moon...

...But when we start talking about our lives—the human heart has a tendency to shrink back.

We like to think we are in complete control.

But Proverbs teaches us some things, along with the rest of Scripture, that pushes back on that myth.

Man Proposes, God Disposes

Proverbs 16:1 ESV

The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.

Explaining this verse, Derek Kidner says: Man proposes, God disposes.

In other words, for all of the freedom humans have to think and plan and strategize—God is going to have the last word.

And what they do will only serve to advance His decree.

God is in control and His control is never in peril.

He is never taken by surprise.

Establishes His Steps

Proverbs 16:9 ESV

The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

This is the same idea.

We map out the way we are going to go.

But as we start to move, it is God who directs and determines our steps.

This gives us an idea of the limitations of human freedom.

We talk a lot of about free will.

But in truth, that freedom has boundaries.

And those boundaries are the towering walls of God’s sovereign plan.

We think we are driving the car of our lives—and that is true—we are.

But God has His hands on the wheel.

We are not the completely autonomous creatures that we imagine ourselves to be.

We live in God’s world, under God’s rule, and according to God’s sovereign plan.

Purpose Will Stand

Proverbs 19:21 ESV

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

This is a very similar to the principles we’ve just seen in Chapter 16.

Humanity will plot and plan.

They may plot good.

They may plot evil.

They may plan to enrich.

They may plan to endanger.

But at the end of the day, their plots and plans will not thwart God’s purpose.

God has no problems, only plans.

Corrie Ten Boom

His plans will come to pass.

His purpose will prevail.

Turns the Human Heart

Proverbs 21:1 ESV

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.

This is one of the strongest statements about God’s sovereignty that we find in the Scriptures.

When the Proverb says “Stream of Water,” it is referring to a farmer’s irrigation canals.

In the same way that the farmer directs rainfall and river water into his field, God can take the heart of a ruler and use it to flood the field of His sovereign plan.

We see God do this time and time again in the Scriptures with the King of Assyria, Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus the Persian, Artaxerxes in Ezra.

But surely there is no greater example than Pharaoh in the book of Exodus.

God says what He is doing to do:

Exodus 4:21 ESV

And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.

And so, as you read through Exodus, at first you mostly see Pharaoh hardening his own heart against God...

...But then, as you get to the final plagues that God cast down upon Egypt in chapters 10-14, it is God hardening Pharaoh’s heart again and again.

Even after the death of the firstborn sons of Egypt swept through the country—the Bible reads:

Exodus 14:8 ESV

And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly.

You may even wonder—WHY? Why would God do this?

Well Paul helps us understand in Romans:

Romans 9:17–18 ESV

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

God made Pharaoh a vessel of wrath, so that as he is defeated, God’s power would be displayed and God’s name would be famous in all the earth.

Paul is just explaining to us what we have seen in Proverbs—God’s sovereignty is a hard boundary for the free will of humanity.

Sovereignty and Humanity in the Scriptures

There are other places in the Scriptures that we can really see God’s sovereignty over humanity and our happenings.

Two stand out in the OT.

Daniel 4:35

Daniel 4:35 ESV

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?”

He does according to His will among the host of heaven—that is the angels; celestial beings.

But He also does according to his will among the inhabitants of the earth—that’s us.

And as He does His will—none can stay His hand.

None can challenge His wisdom and knowledge and say, “What have you done?”

These words come from Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar who swelled his chest out pridefully at God and God humbled him and made him like an animal for a considerable length of time.

He was out in the field chewing grass like an ox. His body was wet with the dew. His hair grew out long like an eagle’s feathers.

The most powerful man in the world was brought to his knees and his sanity was taken from him.

And then God restored his mind.

These are the words that he uttered in the aftermath.

He learned what we all must learn—God is the Potter and we are the Clay.

He is the Creator and we are the created.

He is the King and we are not.

He is sovereign and we are subjects.

Genesis 50:20

Another famous instance of God’s sovereign plan unfolding through humanity’s happenings is found in Genesis 50.

Joseph’s brothers are jealous of him when he is young.

They sell him into slavery as a teenager.

Through a bunch of events, that are all under God’s control, Joseph ends up 2nd in command in Egypt.

When famine struck back home, Joseph’s brother come to him seeking grain and they don’t know it is him.

They reconcile—but when their father Jacob dies, they get scared because they think Joseph will finally take revenge on them.

Instead, Joseph says this:

Genesis 50:20 ESV

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.

Do you see how the brothers made a choice and took action, but their purposes are overruled by the purposes of God?

Do you see how they are driving, but God’s hands are on the wheel?

Still Responsible

Now you might be led to think, “If God is sovereign over all human actions, then humans are not actually responsible for the actions they commit.”

But this is not so.

The fact that our choices and actions are all a part of God’s sovereign plan does not mean that the choices and actions are not real.

God’s limitless sovereignty doesn’t cancel out your participation with your limited free will.

God’s rule and our choices are compatible with one another, even if we don’t always understand it in the moment.

Here is a simple way for us to understand this with our finite brains:

Your will is real—but it is not the ultimate cause of everything.

God’s active hand in history and creation is the ultimate Cause of everything.

If I go to the new Chick-Fil-A tomorrow and I am choosing between an Original Chicken Sandwich or a Spicy Chicken Sandwich, I am making a real choice.

If I choose Spicy, I choose it because that is my strongest desire.

No one pulled my arm.

I am not a puppet ordering a Spicy chicken against my will with someone else moving my mouth.

I did it. I wanted it. I am accountable for the decision.

But underneath that choice, God’s sovereign plan is at work because He has already ordained it.

The man plans in his heart, but the answer is from the Lord.

But did God yank my arm?

No—but He is governing all of reality that my my free choice and His sovereign plan are the same event.

I am free. I am doing what I want to do.

But I am not so free that I can go outside of the plan of God.

This is how the human will and the sovereignty of God are harmonious.

Does This Mean God is the Author of Evil?

Some have wondered—doesn’t this make God the author of evil?

The answer—of course—is no.

God cannot be evil. It is contrary to His nature.

1 John 1:5 ESV

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.

To say that the Bible’s depiction of the Sovereign God makes Him the Author of Evil is a false assumption.

This is where we take the Chick-Fil-A illustration and apply it to evil in the world.

People are born in sin.

They make real choices out of their fallenness and depravity.

And yet, God is still in control, using the evil for His ultimate purpose.

Most famously we see this in the book of Job:

Job 1:9–12 ESV

Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

Satan wants to stretch Job’s skin, betting on the fact that it will make him curse God.

God permits Satan.

Notice Satan is not God’s equal. He is bound by God’s plan and permission just like the rest of Creation.

Then you keeping reading:

Job 1:13–15 ESV

Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

So then, we have Satan and Sabeans inflicting evil on Job, but we have God fully in control.

God’s sovereignty and the evil choices of created beings are once more compatible, not contradictory.

John Piper says that this makes God like the chemist in a lab.

He is able to handle the toxic chemicals, but He is not contaminated by them.

In fact, the toxicity is subject to the overriding power of the Chemist.

This means that there are always two actors in play.

God is the ultimate Cause of events because He is in control and working out His plan and purposes.

And yet humans or even demonic beings supply the evil in the events

Same events—Two Actors:

One holy

One guilty

But Why?

But this may compel you to ask— “But Why?”

Why are things the way they are sometimes?

Why do things seem inexplicably awful sometimes?

Why does God allow anything bad to happen?

Why did He let Adam and Eve fall in the first place?

Why was the tree even in the Garden?

You would not be the first person to feel perplexed.

This leads us to our final point today...

3. God is sovereign over all and you should trust all things to Him.

We have seen that God is the Ruling King over all of creation and everything in it.

He is the Majestic Sovereign over human hearts and plans and actions.

He is indeed Sovereign over all, working out His eternal plan in time.

But what is the point of all of it?

Why does He allow what He allows?

Why has He decreed what He has decreed?

God Has a Grand Plan

Well—it is not purposeless.

That is the good news.

This is not a world of blind, pitiless indifference.

God is governing the Universe and He is doing it all toward a certain end.

Scriptures reveals to us the goal of God’s sovereignty.

Ephesians 1:11-12

Ephesians 1:11–12 ESV

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, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

Paul is giving us one continuous flow of logic here in these two verses.

God has a purpose

God works everything according to that purpose

God’s purpose culminates in the praise of His glory

This includes the inheritance of our salvation that was predestined before time

A salvation predestined (determined beforehand) according to what?

Not the will of man

According to the counsel of the will of God.

These verses are revealing to us God’s grand plan.

The Praise of His Glory Through His Son Jesus Christ

Understanding the End

This has always been God’s plan.

To rule creation through a Man to the praise of His glory

First He ruled through Adam, who failed.

But now there is a Second Adam—the Lord Jesus Christ.

He has lived, died and resurrected and secured the salvation of every Kingdom citizen

And one day, this world will pass away.

God’s enemies will be defeated.

Sin and suffering will be no more.

They will be cast out because the Christ has conquered.

And with the enemy of death defeated, there will be a new creation.

But it is even better than the Paradise that Adam lost.

Because in this new creation, there is no threat of death.

There is no Serpent to slither in.

Eden was certainly a very good world—a model world whose primal substance will soon to be restored—but it has not the grandeur of the fallen but soon-to-be-fully-restored world that is coming.

Scott Christensen, Defeating Evil

And fully and finally, the Kingdom will be realized as God rules the fully restored world through the God-Man, Jesus Christ.

And all the Kingdom citizens will be His co-heirs, reigning with Him.

And we will serve our God.

And we will see our God.

And we will praise our God.

This is the conclusion that everything is moving toward.

This is the grand purpose of the Sovereign God.

We Don’t Always Understand

But here is the reality—we don’t always understand.

We are not always able to perceive how the things happening in our lives are helping to move God’s plan along.

We don’t always understand how He is glorifying Himself in what He permits and allows.

But just because you cannot perceive something, it doesn’t mean it is not there.

Tim Keller used the famous example of a St. Bernard and a gnat.

If I told you a St. Bernard was in your tent, you would expect to see it. It would be obvious.

If I told you gnats were in your tent, you may look and not see them, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t there.

Sometimes the happenings of our lives are like St. Bernard’s and we can see God’s purpose in it all.

But then...at other times...We do not. It is more like the No-See-Um gnats that escape the eye, but will still bite you.

And yet, we should expect that this is the way it is on some level.

Proverbs certainly tells us this is the way it is:

Proverbs 20:24 ESV

A man’s steps are from the Lord; how then can man understand his way?

Solomon confirms what we have seen throughout Proverbs and the whole of Scripture—God orders and establishes the steps of man.

His hands are on the wheel.

If this is the case, which of us could even try to pretend to understand everything that is happening in our lives?

Listen—there is so much in your life that you did not choose.

You did not choose your parents

You did not choose your name

You did not choose your skin color

You did not choose to be born in a land of religious freedom and light

You did not choose to be bald or not bald

You did not choose the income level you were born into

You did not choose the level of health you would have at your birth

You did not choose the family line that you were born into

ALL OF THIS is out of your control.

And you really can’t explain most of it, other than to say—This is how the sovereign God ordained it to be.

But We Know the End

But what we do know is the ending that God is moving things toward.

He is moving all of creation toward the new creation.

He is moving the fallen universe to a redeemed reality.

The best thing we can do along the way is to entrust all things to Him.

To get on our knees and admit that “He is Sovereign and we are not and we submit to His sovereign plan,” knowing it will glorify Him in the end.

We are sometimes tempted to peak behind the curtain and wonder:

Why does He have mercy on some and not others?

Why has this tragedy come to me and not to others?

Why doesn’t God answer my prayers WHEN and HOW I want Him to?

There comes a time where we have to say, “I believe God and I will leave His decisions to Him—even if I don’t fully understand it.”

There comes a time when we look at what the Word says about Him:

That He is good

That He is just

That He is perfect

That He is kind

That He is merciful

And we say—I trust His character and I submit to His preeminent position.

He is the King and I know His ultimate purpose—even if this isn’t the plan I would choose in order to fulfill it.

Gospel Conclusion (Acts 4:27-28)

And lest we give into Satan and stumble along the way in our faith—there is one place that we can look to and see His trustworthiness, His love and His Sovereign hand all at work.

That place is the Cross.

Consider the words of Peter and John the council in Acts 4.

As they explain how the Crucifixion fulfilled Psalm 2, they say this:

Acts 4:27–28 ESV

for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

It is all here.

Jesus, the 2nd Person of the Godhead entered into creation.

He was anointed to be the Savior of souls.

His righteous life ended because Herod, Pilate, the Romans and the Jewish people conspired together—making real choices in real time

And yet, those choices only moved forward what God’s sovereign HAND AND PLAN has predestined to take place

And what is that God predestined to take place...

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ—where He bore the sins of all types of people from all types of places—and purchased their freedom from destruction and Hell.

How many of those who loved Jesus watched Him die and wondered, “Why would God allow this?”

Not knowing that the very darkness God had predestined and allowed was going to be offering to atone for their sins and give them access to God.

And so—when we are questioning...How is what’s happening serving God’s purpose...Go to the Cross.

For there you two things:

God is indeed loving and good.

For He has given the Son.

And God is indeed working all things together, that He might be eternally praised through His Son Jesus Christ.

One day, all the circumstances of creation and the happenings of humanity, will end in that glorious reality.

Knowing that—trust Him now.

Each moment. Each decision. Each diagnosis.

Each failure. Each success. Each somewhere-in-between.

Trust Him now.