The Sovereignty of God in Salvation

PRAY

Lord willing in three weeks I’m going to be starting an exposition of the book of Hebrews. I’m planning to go fairly slowly through that book so we’ll likely be in there for a while.

In Two weeks, Pastor Chuck Vuolo is scheduled to preach for us here. I’ll be attending a preaching seminar that week and so Pastor Chuck kindly agreed to come and preach for me. It will be good to have him with us again.

So, as I cast about to think of what I should preach on for these two weeks, I decided it would be good to preach on the doctrine of the Sovereignty of God. This will be something of a primer, or a quick review.

But it is vitally important to everything that we do and we know God as he is. So, I thought this would be a good reminder for these times. To remember the God RULES.

A. W. Pink in the introduction of his book The Sovereignty of God says that when thinking about the sovereignty of God…

"We mean the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the godhood of God. To say that God is sovereign is to declare that God is God. To say that God is sovereign is to declare that He is the Most High, doing according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, so that none can stay His hand or say unto him what doest Thou?" Pink, 19

When we think of the Sovereignty of God, we are thinking bout the GOD-NESS of GOD.

Psalm 115:3 (ESV) — 3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.

God is the ultimate sovereign – he rules over all. This week I’d like us to focus on God’s Sovereignty over Salvation, next week, Lord willing we’ll look at God’s Sovereignty in suffering.

GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY IN SALVATION

When we understand this correctly this should stabilize our faith and fuel our evangelism. If this dulls our zeal or fills us with fear, we haven’t thought about this correctly. So those are my goals for today! FAITH and ZEAL!

For some in the Christian world, this doctrine is controversial, for some this is abhorrent. Reducing humanity to robotic automatons and God as a cold and distant, bitter being, arbitrarily and indifferently causing misery and suffering and randomly giving some salvation while casting others into hell.

This doctrine is mysterious, and we should not try to force answers when they are not given. But we can learn clear truth for the Bible so we should approach the Bible openly and honestly, to learn. But to get this study right, we MUST start with the CHARACTER of GOD. If we get that wrong, we get the whole thing wrong.

I. GOD IS LOVE

God is Holy, Just and Good. He only and always does good and he is the ONLY one who only and always does good. Those are important and vital attributes to understand.

But in some sense those might be easier to get. His righteousness and goodness and holiness separates him from sinful humanity. We can understand that is right. It is harder to understand the LOVE that brings him back towards humanity.

But that is what we must get right if we are to understand it rightly! And when we understand God’s sovereignty rightly, it is a comfort and a joy to us. If not for his LOVE, his rule would be a horror to us all.

1 John 4:8 (ESV) — 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

God is love. And his love is so powerful and potent when you receive it you are changed.. and you love!

1 John 4:19 (ESV) — 19 We love because he first loved us.

God was motivated by love to provide a way for salvation! To exercise his sovereign power for our good!

John 3:16 (ESV) — 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

And while it is hard to get our heads fully around this the Bible also says.

1 Timothy 2:4 (ESV) — 4 [God] desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

That doesn’t mean God will save everyone, in fact we know that so many are not saved, but there is not bitterness is God, no evil intent, not cruelty.

God is love. His ways are far above our ways, they are past finding out, we cannot remove all the mystery, but we can rest in what is true.

The one who is sovereign, the one who rules, HE IS LOVE. There is no one, NO ONE, better to rule, not me, not you. Only God is the one who can rule over all in perfect love. So, we must begin there.

God is Love. That is who he is, so it is a marvelous good that he rules over all. We can rest in that.

II. The Doctrine of God’s Sovereignty in Salvation

A. Sovereign Choice

This is often called the doctrine of election. God chose, before the foundation of the world those whom he would save.

Ephesians 1:3–5 (ESV) — 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

Or Romans 8

Romans 8:29 (ESV) — 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

This takes the Old Covenant language of God choosing the people of Israel for himself—which was not ultimately about salvation—and it is applying it personally to his people whom he does save in Christ.

The New Covenant takes that corporate language –language about a people – to be God’s people for his purpose and their blessing—is now applying it to individual. The New Covenant is clearer, where the Old Covenant was less clear.

Just look back at that language. In Ephesians… God chose us before the foundation of the world for a purpose – so we would be holy and blameless.

Or from Romans, God chose us, he PREDESTINED US – that means choosing the end before the beginning FOR A PURPOSE so that we would be conformed to the image of his Son.

And just like Israel as a nation was chosen not because they were mighty – or good - they certainly didn’t choose God, but only out of God’s mercy, so too, now individually God’s people are chosen because God is Love and nothing else. We’ll expand on that in a bit.

So God freely chooses those he means to save. And his reasons are his own, and we do not have access to that list. That is not for us, nor should we fixate on that, except to give thanks to God!!

B. Sovereign Action

IN Time God sovereignly moves to bring new life to sinners. Romans 8 continues...

Romans 8:30 (ESV) —30 And those whom he predestined [in time] he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Before God created the world, God set his love on a people. For his own glory. And in time, God calls those people God justifies – makes them righteous – and God glorifies them!

Do you see how Paul emphasizes this is all God’s doing? But God accomplishes this by means.

Romans 10:17 (ESV) — 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

When the word of God goes out, his spirit convicts and brings new life, and those people respond with faith.

An example of this is found in the book of Acts. The Apostle Paul was preaching the gospel in Antioch and it says…

Acts 13:48 (ESV) — 48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

Everyone who was appointed to eternal life, all God chose, believed. Here we see God’s appointment, and the effect is they hear the gospel and believe.

Or as Jesus said in John 6:

John 6:37–39 (ESV) — 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

God chooses whom he will save, God gives those to Christ, and all God chose, believe. Or As Jesus puts it negatively a little later in John.

John 10:26 (ESV) — 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.

There is human agency, to be saved you must believe, but there is a reality of God’s working to enable that belief.

And the New Life changes you so that you love God and ultimately God keeps working in you so that you keep loving him to the end. From the beginning to the end, it is God’s doing, working in his people so they live the life he proposed for them. From calling to glory. That is what is meant by God’s sovereignty.

That is the bare doctrine of God’s Sovereignty over salvation. But to really understand this doctrine, we need to come at this a different way.

III. God’s Sovereignty in Application

The Bible universally presents the true and living God as the one being who has all power and can do whatever he pleases. IF we could do whatever we pleased we would be monsters. But God is love, so this power is safe in his hands, in fact his are the only hands in which this power is not only safe but good, it is a blessing.

And the Bible applies God’s unstoppable power to everything he does, creation, judgement, helping, directing, and saving. And to really get a sense of God’s loving sovereignty in salvation we need to understand the PROBLEM.

A. The Problem: Sin

The problem in short is sin. God created mankind male and female – Adam and Eve. They were made without sin. they were given but one rule, and God in his sovereignty allowed them freedom to choose to disobey God.

There is mystery there, but in God’s good and secret purposes he allowed humanity to do what we wanted and to sin. You can read all about that In Gen. 1-3.

God is perfectly holy, sin is the perversion, it is rejecting good, love, peace and harmony for evil, greed selfishness and harm. In that moment humanity was cut off from the hope of life with God.

Romans 5:12 (ESV) — 12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

Sin came into the world through Adam and death through sin... and that spread to all people, because we all sinned with Adam. Adam stood as our representative, and he was a faithful representative in that he did what we all would have done, we all sinned in him.

So, the effects of that sin is death…

Ephesians 2:1–2 (ESV) — 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

Dead in sins. Dead people can’t do things. They are helpless. Bound by the devil, just like all the other sons of disobedience.

This is the Biblical assessment of the problem. When Adam sinned spiritual death spread to all men.

We cannot save ourselves on our own. Because of sin we do not want to, we are blind and deluded.

Titus 1:15 (ESV) — 15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

The mind of the natural person is defiled. Nothing is pure because in our sinful state our freedom always chooses sin, and never chooses God.

1 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV) — 14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

The need is desperate. If salvation were left to us, even our choosing, no one would be saved. We are dead in sin, with impure minds, we reject the things of the spirit.

Romans 3:10–11 (ESV) — 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.

That is the problem. The problem is universal – all of humanity.

B. The Solution: Grace

Ephesians 2:4–6,8 (ESV) — 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,… 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

Grace is the unmerited favor of God. you cannot earn God’s salvation, and in our sinful state we cannot chose that salvation. So it is not enough for God to make Salvation possible. If left to ourselves we would never chose life. we are dead in our sins. So God had to act.

He sent his Son into the world to accomplish salvation. Not the possibility, but to actually accomplish it. if we could do something it wouldn’t be grace. He did it all.

1. Salvation Accomplished

2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) — 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Christ became sin for his people, so his people could become the righteousness of God in him. That transaction is very important. That was a complete salvation. Sin is paid for, righteousness given!

Hebrews 9:26 (ESV) — 26 … he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

He put away sin by his sacrifice. He accomplished actual, real salvation. Sin was paid for, sin was put away. Jesus’ words on the cross, IT IS FINISHED!

So, now, we have either a universalism – where everyone is saved, which the Bible clearly teaches is NOT the case. Or we have a GRACE saturated salvation effected for God’s chosen people through the death of His Son Jesus Christ on the cross!

God did that, he sent his Son into the world, he orchestrated the events so that men in their freely chosen evil, wickedly executed Jesus, and on the cross, God poured out the wrath due every sin for every sinner until the cup ran dry.

GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY - means above all he did it all, he paid the price, he bore the cost, he suffered the harm.

That is God’s Sovereign love. We often misinterpret this to focus on man’s inability, we focus on some sense of perceived injustice – and we’ll talk about that at the end, but what we should focus on is the fact that God saves helpless people by sending his son to die for them – and giving them life! when they could not save themselves!!!!

2. Salvation Applied

1 Corinthians 1:26–30 (ESV) — 26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

In time, God takes the lowly, underserving dead sinners and unites them to Christ.

Colossians 2:13–14 (ESV) — 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

God makes us alive in Christ. God does that through the preaching of the gospel and the response of faith and even that is a gift.

Ephesians 2:8 (ESV) — 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

You see, once we see the reality of our fallen condition, and the desperation of our need, then the SOVEREIGNTY of GOD makes perfect sense, in fact it is the only possible way.

Romans 8:30 (ESV) —30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

So you have two perspectives, God’s perspective, he accomplishes salvation, the Spirit gives life and faith is the result. And then our perspective We hear the gospel and believe and are united with Christ and life.

John 1:12 (ESV) — 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

Everyone who believe is given the RIGHT to become children of God. it is your right! That is absolutely true!

God’s sovereignty is so complete, he orders the ends and the means, he order the salvation and the faith that brings salvation, he brings the gospel to each of his children and gives them hearts to believe.

Apart from him we could do nothing. So there is no boasting, all glory ALL GLORY goes to GOD! and that, my brothers and sisters is the glorious and wonderful truth! Glory be to God!

So before we close, let’s consider three problems that can arise. We’ve touched on them, but let’s make sure we’re clear on these…

1) the PROBLEM of FREE WILL

What about free will? Are we just robots? Perhaps you can answer that question already, but the Bible does indeed teach that we are made in the image of God and have freedom. But that freedom is limited by our own nature. Rom. 6 teaches that we are BOUND by sin.

Romans 6:17–18 (ESV) — 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

This teaches us that our nature directs our freedom.

In our sin-bound hearts no one forces you to be greedy or self-focused. No one teaches a child to be selfish. We naturally choose that. The problem is we will never choose God. We are blinded by sin so powerfully that we cannot perceive spiritual things.

So we are FREE, but we are Blind, and Bound by sin. We need to be set free, then we are slaves of righteousness. No longer bound by sin, but now bound by righteousness. Hearts of Stone need to be replaced with hearts of flesh.

There is nuance here – being bound by sin doesn’t mean you will always chose the worst thing, only that you will never freely choose God.

And being bound by righteousness does not mean you will never choose to sin, but it does mean your heart is changed so you will freely choose God and keep choosing God. You will keep repenting and believing. you have a new heart, new life.

We are free to follow our own wills, and that is a problem because our wills are dead in sin.

2) The Problem of JUSTICE

Is God just to save some and to reject others? There is mystery here, mystery that we cannot fully remove. But the Apostle Paul answer this question directly in Romans 9.

Romans 9:14–15 (ESV) — 14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

Here is the simple but profound truth. Justice is that we all go to hell. We all deserve hell. We have all sinned. That is plain Justice. That God saves some, that is plain mercy.

We cannot fully understand all of this, what we can do, is be profoundly grateful for the life we have in Christ.

The Bible does not shy away from these hard questions, it answers them plainly, by pointing us to God.

Romans 9:19–22 (ESV) — 19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,

This is not to say this is easy, but it is clear. we must rest here.

And I think this is why it is so important that God is love. We cannot let our incomplete perceptions give us a jaded perception of God, we must bring God’s being of love and perfection into our understanding and rest in that mystery.

3) The problem of INDIFFERENCE

If God’s going to save his people, why do anything? Why share the gospel? There are many way to answer this problem but I think the most profound is to think big picture. Salvation is a real change in heart.

The Gospel makes lovers of self into lovers of God and others. That love propels us to share the gospel with the lost because we believe that faith comes only through hearing!

We don’t know who God has chosen, we DO know if people don’t believe they will go to Hell and the only hope that have is Jesus. so love moves us to live out the gospel…

1 John 4:8 (ESV) — 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

And Jesus our king, who gave us life when we deserved death gives us our work…

Matthew 28:18–20 (ESV) — 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The sovereignty of God does not remove our responsibility. Our responsibility to repent and believe and our responsibility to live for Christ in the love of the Gospel.

The sovereignty of God means that he gives all that he requires, he pays all the cost and he gives all the power. So look not to yourself weary Christian, look to Christ and live.

And look not to yourself unbeliever look to Christ, and live! Believe on Christ, not because you’ve earned it but only because you see your need that you cannot save yourself, and here offered to you is the one, the only one who can save you. come today, believe on him and live!

PRAY

Sing – Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery

2 Corinthians 13:14 (NASB95) — 14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. AMEN