What Is the Sovereignty of God?

00:00:00.000 | [Music]

00:00:05.000 | God's sovereign power over all of his creation and over every one of his creatures is one

00:00:10.280 | of the grandest themes throughout the entire Bible.

00:00:13.760 | We love to celebrate this magnificent reality over and over on the podcast.

00:00:19.180 | So often it may be a little daunting for newcomers to the theme.

00:00:22.300 | For someone looking for a primer into this grand reality, what are the basics of God's

00:00:26.920 | sovereignty?

00:00:27.920 | It's a great question from a listener named Steven, who writes us from China.

00:00:31.200 | "Hello, Pastor John, and thank you for this podcast.

00:00:33.600 | Can you explain to me the sovereignty of God in a very simple way?

00:00:37.400 | What are the big themes to see and grasp and understand first?

00:00:40.760 | I don't know where to start."

00:00:43.040 | Pastor John, what would you say to Steven?

00:00:44.640 | Well, I like to make every effort to keep things clear and simple, and I think one of

00:00:51.200 | the reasons we don't speak with much clarity sometimes is that we don't start with definitions.

00:00:57.120 | So that's where I like to start on almost every conversation I have is let's make sure

00:01:02.640 | we know what we're talking about.

00:01:04.200 | So let me propose some definitions, and then we'll test them with the Bible, and then we'll

00:01:11.360 | end with maybe what he's asking, what are some of the big issues surrounding it?

00:01:16.700 | So as an adjective, sovereign, when we say God is sovereign, we mean powerful and authoritative

00:01:27.100 | to the extent of being able to override all other powers and authorities.

00:01:35.460 | So that's my effort at a definition.

00:01:38.740 | Nothing can successfully stop any act or any event or design or purpose which God intends

00:01:49.060 | to certainly bring about.

00:01:52.100 | That's my definition.

00:01:53.740 | Is it biblical?

00:01:55.100 | That's the question, because what I think really doesn't matter if it's a reflection

00:01:59.580 | of what the Bible says.

00:02:00.760 | It matters a lot.

00:02:02.740 | So nothing, I'm arguing, nothing can thwart, stop His purposes.

00:02:11.220 | Job 42.2, when all is said and done, Job says, "I know that you can do all things, and no

00:02:20.020 | purpose of yours can be thwarted."

00:02:21.900 | I think that's just about the best definition of sovereignty in the Bible.

00:02:26.780 | Daniel 4.35, "He does according to His will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants

00:02:34.340 | of the earth, and none can stay His hand or say to Him, 'What are you doing?'"

00:02:43.820 | Or positively, that's—nobody can stop it.

00:02:47.300 | Here's the positive way of saying that He will accomplish all His will.

00:02:52.140 | Isaiah 46.9, "I am God, and there is none like Me, saying," so you hear what God says

00:03:00.160 | about His godness, "My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all My purpose."

00:03:10.040 | So there's nothing that He purposes that He does not accomplish.

00:03:14.380 | Nothing can stop Him, and He does it all.

00:03:16.780 | Or Ephesians 1.11, one of the most sweeping statements of sovereignty in the Bible, "He

00:03:22.660 | works all things according to the counsel of His will."

00:03:29.780 | So whatever happens, it accords with the counsel of God's will.

00:03:35.600 | Then you can test those general statements about God's sovereignty with lots and lots—I'm

00:03:42.300 | working on a book on this, so there's hundreds of places I could have gone—so lots of examples

00:03:49.140 | of kinds of details that the Bible talks about.

00:03:53.100 | Like He's sovereign over random events, seemingly random events.

00:03:58.700 | Like Proverbs 6.33, "The lot," or the dice, "are cast in the lap, but every decision

00:04:08.360 | is from the Lord."

00:04:10.180 | Something as random as rolling dice or casting a lot.

00:04:12.920 | Or sovereign over nature, Psalm 135.6, "Whatever the Lord pleases, He does in heaven and on

00:04:19.140 | earth, in the seas and all deeps.

00:04:21.300 | He it is who makes clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the

00:04:26.420 | rain, who brings forth wind from its storehouses."

00:04:30.740 | Or Matthew 8.27, Jesus, "Even winds and sea obey Jesus."

00:04:38.540 | So winds and sea, they do His bidding.

00:04:41.780 | Sovereign over animals, Matthew 10.29, "Not one sparrow will fall to the ground apart

00:04:48.820 | from your Father."

00:04:49.820 | I think that's Jesus' way of reaching for the most minute, seemingly insignificant

00:04:55.380 | thing in the world, is a little bird dropping out of a tree in the midst of some jungle

00:05:00.620 | somewhere that nobody knows about but Him, and He decides when it will fall.

00:05:06.780 | Or over nations at the other end of magnitude, 2 Chronicles 26, "You rule over the kingdoms

00:05:14.660 | of the nations.

00:05:16.760 | In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you."

00:05:23.620 | So no nation does anything that God does not purpose.

00:05:28.060 | Or Psalm 33.10, "The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing.

00:05:34.220 | He frustrates the plans of the peoples.

00:05:37.060 | The counsel of the Lord stands."

00:05:40.060 | I love these sentences!

00:05:43.020 | The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart, to all generations.

00:05:48.860 | Or over every single human decision.

00:05:53.540 | Proverbs 16.1, "The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue"—that

00:06:00.220 | is, what actually happens—"is from the Lord."

00:06:03.780 | Or Proverbs 16.9, "The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps."

00:06:12.700 | So we have all kinds of thinking that we do, but in the end, the Lord decides.

00:06:18.060 | Proverbs 19.21, "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the

00:06:24.420 | Lord that will stand."

00:06:25.860 | Or Proverbs 21.1, "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord.

00:06:31.580 | He turns it wherever he wills."

00:06:35.020 | Or Genesis 50.20, this sentence ought to be written like a banner over every evil and

00:06:40.740 | sin that's ever committed.

00:06:42.260 | "As for you," Joseph says to his brothers who sold him into slavery, "as for you, you

00:06:48.460 | meant evil against me, but God meant it."

00:06:54.420 | So the very same thing—evil in your intention, the same event—good.

00:07:01.100 | God meant it for good to bring about many people that they should be kept alive as they

00:07:07.980 | are today.

00:07:10.060 | And then you could go to Psalm 115.3 and just overall, "Our God is in the heavens.

00:07:17.180 | He does all that He pleases."

00:07:20.300 | So my answer is, yes, it is biblical to say that God is sovereign and to mean by that

00:07:27.660 | that He has such power and such authority that nothing can successfully stop any act

00:07:35.600 | or purpose which God intends to certainly bring about.

00:07:40.380 | Now Stephen asked, "What are the big things to see and grasp?"

00:07:46.980 | So let me just mention two, two big things.

00:07:50.220 | Number one, the sovereignty of God is governed by His wisdom.

00:07:55.860 | "Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God!

00:07:59.980 | How unsearchable are His judgments!

00:08:02.340 | How inscrutable are His ways!"

00:08:05.100 | Romans 11.33.

00:08:07.300 | Everything that is unsearchable and inscrutable to us is governed by the deepest divine wisdom.

00:08:17.220 | God never does anything or allows anything whimsically that is as meaningless or random

00:08:25.300 | or without an infinitely wise purpose.

00:08:28.660 | That's huge.

00:08:29.660 | That is a big thing that we must come to terms with when we think about God's sovereignty.

00:08:34.460 | And here's the other one.

00:08:35.980 | His sovereignty is governed by His justice and His mercy.

00:08:42.100 | Isaiah 30.18, "The Lord is a God of justice.

00:08:47.780 | Blessed are all those who wait for Him."

00:08:49.820 | Or Romans 9.14, "Is there then injustice on God's part?

00:08:55.900 | By no means!"

00:08:57.700 | God never, never wrongs anyone.

00:09:02.620 | All that He does is righteous and just.

00:09:07.140 | But even justice is not the final and highest aim of God's wisdom.

00:09:15.180 | The ultimate aim is that He be glorified for His mercy, His grace toward undeserving rebels.

00:09:25.220 | He sovereignly planned and accomplished salvation for sinners by the death of His Son so that—now,

00:09:34.340 | this is a quote from Romans 15.9—so that the nations would glorify God for His mercy.

00:09:43.140 | Or as Ephesians 1.6 says, "To the praise of the glory of His grace."

00:09:52.140 | So those, it seems to me, are the big things to grasp about God's sovereignty.

00:09:57.460 | Number one, it is unstoppable power and authority over all things, including the human will.

00:10:05.380 | And two, it is all in accord with infinite wisdom, infinite justice, infinite mercy through

00:10:14.340 | Jesus Christ.

00:10:15.340 | Wonderful.

00:10:16.340 | Yeah, I cannot wait for that book on sovereignty, which you began in 2018, and will be completing

00:10:21.020 | this summer, Lord willing.

00:10:23.780 | We'll talk more about that project later.

00:10:25.460 | Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to the podcast.

00:10:28.340 | To find our archives, to read transcripts of our past episodes, or to send us a question

00:10:33.300 | of your own, go to our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

00:10:39.420 | While does Jesus condemn the comforts of the middle-class American life?

00:10:44.480 | Some texts suggest so, particularly Luke chapter 6.

00:10:47.340 | This is one of those really important questions we get all the time.

00:10:51.020 | Next time, we'll look at the woe texts as they relate to our lives today.

00:10:55.340 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:10:57.140 | We'll see you on Wednesday.

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What Is the Sovereignty of God?

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