The Goodness of God's Sovreignty

Intro

Teh Bible is unequivocal about God’s power and authority.

It is absolutley clear.

It does not hide it.

The Scriptures clearly proclaim “God is Sovreign over everything”

Now to what extent is God sovereign? What does it mean that God is sovereign?

Is he sovereign like King Charles? Who is realy sovreign in name only?

Is he sovreign like I’m sovereign over my garden bed? In theory I can do lots of things with it, but forces like weather and weeds diminish my effectiveness at growing anything?

Is he sovereign like a School teacher who’s power and authority is limited by ringing bells and the school gate?

You see the poweful people and institutions we know are still very much limited. Our experiences of sovreighty are always boxed in by limits and external forces. So, it is hard for us to wrap our heads around the limitless sovreighty of our Creator. This is especially hard for us in a world where evil exists, and bad things happen.

To try and reconcile the apprent problem people try and misrepresent God’s sovreignty to fit into a particular box, they either try to limit God’s sovreignty, or they accuse God of being the author of evil.

The Bible clearly teaches us that neither of those things are true. God is not the author of evil, neither is there anything outside his power and influence.

Understanding how both of these things can be true at the same time has been a struggle of centuries, millenia.

It would be a particular struggle when you are part of the covenant people of God, in the promised land, hearing the prophecies that God is going to use a foreign nation to wipe your city off the face of the map. Yet God also assures Judah that he loves them, that he will save them and he will be worshipped by the whole earth.

Our passage, ch 45 of Isaiah today of the goodness and breadth of God’s soverign plans. What could be confusion or despair is counteracted with God revealing and expressing his power and plans.

As we look at this word and hear it ourselves, we might not be in the same situation as the ancient Israelite, but we need just as much to hear the timless truths of God’s nature and plans.

I have identified 3 segments in the text.

God’s Sovreignty Glorifies Himself (v1-7)

Cyrus introduced last chapter.

God knows the future, so he can name future people.

God would use Cyrus to “fulfill all my purpose”

Cyrus would be the conquerer of Babylon and ruler over the MedoPersian empire in the mid 500s BC.

Isaiah was wiriting over a Century earlier in the mid to late 700s BC.

Our passage starts with a stunning promise to this Gentile king that he would equip him and bless him and work for him.

Isaiah 45:1–2 ESV

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: “I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron,

This is stunning - this is no decendant of David, this is not even an Israelite, yet God in his providence and sovreigty desires to raise up and use Cyrus.

Cyrus isn’t even a beleiver, at least not at first!

Isaiah 45:4 ESV

I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me.

But he’s not doing it for fun, The Lord does this for his greater plans and purposes, for his people Israel and his own glory.

Isaiah 45:5–6 ESV

I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.

The expansiveness of God’s plans

Uses foriegn kings to spread true faith.

So that ll may know the LORD alone as God.

God finishes this section by stating his sovereign power.

Isaiah 45:7 ESV

I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.

God’s Sovreignty isn’t Debatable (v8-13)

The Lord has created everything and he is the true ruler over it, even if others have presumptously taken up bad leadership over it.

God manages the weather, but his authorship and control over the earth is a great image of his authporship over Salvation.

Isaiah 45:8 ESV

“Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I the Lord have created it.

But all of this makes anyone who opposes God, or would argue with him about his intentions to be the fool.

Isaiah 45:9–10 ESV

“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’? Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’ or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’ ”

We can plead with God, we can ask him why, but it is not for us to tell him what to do.

Paul would pick up this refrain in Romans where he argues that it is not proper for us to

Isaiah 45:11 ESV

Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him: “Ask me of things to come; will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands?

Isaiah 45:12–13 ESV

I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host. I have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways level; he shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price or reward,” says the Lord of hosts.

God’s Sovreignty leads to Salvation (v14-25)

Isaiah 45:18–19 ESV

For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the Lord, and there is no other. I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I the Lord speak the truth; I declare what is right.

Isaiah 45:22–23 ESV

“Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.’

Isaiah 45:24–25 ESV

“Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength; to him shall come and be ashamed all who were incensed against him. In the Lord all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory.”

So What?