The Sovereignty of God

Gods Sovereignty

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. – Isaiah 46:8-10

God’s Sovereignty over Natural Phenomena

Lot (modern exp. - every random falling of the dice) – Pro. 16:33

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

 Death of a Sparrow (the lifespan of every bird, and every aninmal, in the world) – Mt. 10:29

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

 Worms in the Ground – Jonah 4:7

 “But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered.”

 Plants – Jonah 4:6

 “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.”

 Stars – Isa. 40:26

 “Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.”

 Weather and Natural Disasters

 Psalm 147:15–18 (ESV): 15 He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. 16 He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. 17 He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold? 18 He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.

 Job 37:11–13 (ESV): 11 He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning. 12 They turn around and around by his guidance, to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world. 13 Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen.

 Psalm 105:16 (ESV): 16 When he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread,

 Mark 4:41 (ESV): 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

 Psalm 104:4 (ESV): 4 he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire.

 Psalm 135:7 (ESV): 7 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.

 Psalm 148:8 (ESV): 8 fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word!

 Psalm 78:26 (ESV): 26 He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens, and by his power he led out the south wind;

 Destructive Animals

 2 Kings 17:25 (ESV): 25 And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the Lord. Therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them.

 Daniel 6:22 (ESV): 22 My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.”

 All Other Types of Calamity

 Isaiah 45:7 (ESV): 7 I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.

 Amos 3:6 (ESV): 6 Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?

 Job 42:2 (ESV): 2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

 Daniel 4:34–35 (ESV): 34 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, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; 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?”

 Ephesians 1:11 (ESV): 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,

 Disease and Disability

 Exodus 4:11 (ESV): 11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

 Job 2:7–10 (ESV): 7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. 8 And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes. 9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” 10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

 God had a good purpose in Job’s affliction.

 James 5:11 (ESV): 11 Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

 Life and Death

 Job 1:21 (ESV): 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

 How we know Job was right in what he said:

 Job 1:22 (ESV): 22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

 Deuteronomy 32:39 (ESV): 39 “ ‘See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

 2 Samuel 12:15–18 (ESV): 15 Then Nathan went to his house. And the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and he became sick. 16 David therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. 17 And the elders of his house stood beside him, to raise him from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. 18 On the seventh day the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us. How then can we say to him the child is dead? He may do himself some harm.”

 James 4:14–15 (ESV): 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

 1 Samuel 2:6 (ESV): 6 The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up.

God’s Sovereignty over the Supernatural: Angel, Demons, and Satan

 Angels

 2 Samuel 24:16 (ESV): 16 And when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was working destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

 Luke 1:26 (ESV): 26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,

 Psalm 91:11 (ESV): 11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

 Demons

 Matthew 8:16 (ESV): 16 That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.

 Mark 1:27 (ESV): 27 And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”

 Luke 4:36 (ESV): 36 And they were all amazed and said to one another, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!”

 Satan

 Job 1:9–12 (ESV): 9 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? 10 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. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12 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.

 Job 2:4–6 (ESV): 4 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. 5 But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” 6 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”

 Matthew 4:10–11 (ESV): 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ” 11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

 2 Corinthians 12:7 (ESV): 7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

 Luke 22:31 (ESV): 31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat,

 Romans 16:20 (ESV): 20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

God’s Sovereignty over Human Affairs

 Politics and Nations

 Kings (modern exp. – Presidential Elections)

 Daniel 2:21 (ESV): 21 He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding;

 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.

 Foreign Affairs

 Psalm 33:10–11 (ESV): 10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. 11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.

 Human Decisions

 Proverbs 20:24 (ESV): 24 A man’s steps are from the Lord; how then can man understand his way?

 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.

 Jeremiah 10:23 (ESV): 23 I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.

God’s Sovereignty over Moral Evil

 Genesis 20:6 (ESV): 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her.

 Genesis 50:20 (ESV): 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.

 Psalm 105:16–19 (ESV): 16 When he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread, 17 he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. 18 His feet were hurt with fetters; his neck was put in a collar of iron; 19 until what he had said came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.

 The worst sin of all: The Crucifixion of God’s Son

• Acts 4:27–28 (ESV): 27 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, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

• Isaiah 53:10 (ESV): 10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

How does God exercise His Sovereignty?

 With Love, Justice, and Righteousness

 Jeremiah 9:23–24 (ESV): 23 Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

 Psalm 9:7–8 (ESV): 7 But the Lord sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice, 8 and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness.