Why the Sovereignty of God Is Good News
00:00:00.000 | Well, how is the gospel connected to God's absolute sovereignty?
00:00:09.400 | Are they connected?
00:00:10.480 | They are connected, inseparably so.
00:00:13.400 | And millions of people in the United States and around the globe over the past few decades
00:00:17.000 | have been waking up to this incredible connection.
00:00:19.520 | As Pastor John explained in his 2019 Gospel Coalition National Conference message delivered
00:00:25.920 | just over a year ago, I wanted to revisit this message on Mark 8, verses 31 to 38.
00:00:32.240 | Here's Pastor John in Indianapolis to explain.
00:00:36.680 | Now something has been happening in the last 50 years that's amazing in the world in relation
00:00:44.740 | to this text.
00:00:46.480 | The Gospel Coalition, for example, has come into existence along with hundreds and hundreds.
00:00:53.960 | I first wrote thousands, but thought I'd stay with hundreds just because I could probably
00:00:57.960 | find them.
00:00:58.960 | I think it's probably thousands, but hundreds and hundreds of ministries, churches, schools,
00:01:06.600 | mission agencies, publishing houses, websites, spiritual movements in dozens of countries
00:01:13.440 | around the world, millions of people have been waking up to the beautiful interweaving
00:01:24.240 | of the sovereignty of God with the gospel.
00:01:28.440 | More and more people are coming to see and cherish that the ultimate control of God over
00:01:35.760 | all things is different than they thought it was.
00:01:40.740 | Millions of people are discovering that the sovereignty of God is not peripheral, it's
00:01:46.960 | not troublesome, it's not academic for debate or argument.
00:01:54.040 | It is a glorious divine reality and is the very stitching that holds the gospel together.
00:02:06.340 | When Jesus says, verse 31, "The Son of Man must suffer, must be rejected, must be killed,
00:02:17.200 | must rise because God has spoken, God performs His Word, God has planned this for an invincible
00:02:27.680 | purpose."
00:02:28.680 | He is saying there is no gospel apart from the sovereignty of God, the all-controlling
00:02:39.840 | sovereignty of God.
00:02:43.400 | There isn't.
00:02:44.400 | It doesn't exist.
00:02:45.920 | Let's be more specific.
00:02:50.120 | The sovereign control of God over the innocent suffering of Christ, the sovereign control
00:02:57.920 | of God over the sinful rejection of Christ, the sovereign control of God over the wicked
00:03:04.520 | murder of the Son of Man.
00:03:09.440 | Without those sovereign acts over that suffering, that rejection, that death, there would be
00:03:17.120 | no gospel.
00:03:19.460 | It would be random.
00:03:21.840 | Random death saves nobody.
00:03:25.480 | Unplanned, unprophesied, unperformed, unpurposed suffering, rejection, murder saves nobody.
00:03:37.480 | They save precisely to the degree that they are woven together by God.
00:03:45.720 | It's His work for us and He sought to it at every level, in every minute detail that it
00:03:53.640 | would be successful.
00:03:56.600 | No gospel without the sovereignty of God.
00:04:00.480 | And I'm not saying that there are not people who make the effort to disconnect the all-controlling
00:04:11.240 | sovereignty of God from the innocent suffering, the sinful rejection, the wicked murder of
00:04:18.480 | Jesus.
00:04:20.240 | There are millions of them, lay people, pastors, seminary teachers who make the effort to disconnect
00:04:32.040 | the all-controlling sovereignty of God from the gospel.
00:04:35.320 | I'm not saying they don't exist.
00:04:37.480 | I'm saying that in the last 50 years, millions of people around the world are seeing that
00:04:48.360 | that effort is futile, unbiblical, undesirable.
00:04:58.880 | It is a rending of the precious fabric of the gospel because they see over and over
00:05:07.720 | again in Scripture, the sovereignty of God is the stitching that holds the gospel together.
00:05:17.400 | They see a beautiful interweaving of the gospel of Christ with the sovereignty of God.
00:05:23.520 | They read Mark 8.31, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected and must
00:05:33.680 | be killed and must rise again."
00:05:36.960 | And without any long exegesis, without any long exegesis, millions are seeing it.
00:05:47.640 | But you see it.
00:05:51.640 | Must suffer, must be rejected, must be murdered by lawless men.
00:06:01.920 | And they find themselves worshiping, singing.
00:06:09.880 | They say, "This was your son.
00:06:15.080 | This was your son.
00:06:16.840 | This was your plan.
00:06:19.680 | This was your work.
00:06:21.760 | This was your hand, innocent suffering, your hand, sinful rejection, your hand, wicked
00:06:29.240 | murder for me, for my forgiveness, for my everlasting happiness, the greatest gift at
00:06:38.960 | the greatest cost to the least deserving."
00:06:43.080 | And millions of people find themselves bowing down and saying, "I love you.
00:06:51.960 | I love you."
00:06:55.280 | That's what's happening.
00:06:57.000 | You know, debates being won.
00:07:00.480 | God is opening eyes to the stitching.
00:07:05.840 | So the reality of the sovereignty of God has been sweetened in the minds of millions, sweetened.
00:07:12.480 | It's a sweet thing.
00:07:16.520 | As they come to see, it is the golden stitching that holds the fabric of the gospel together.
00:07:22.760 | Amen.
00:07:24.040 | You can listen to or watch this entire 2019 Gospel Coalition National Conference message
00:07:29.720 | online at DesiringGod.org.
00:07:32.920 | The message is titled "The Golden Stitches of Sovereignty," preached a little over a
00:07:37.240 | year ago on April 1st, 2019.
00:07:41.160 | Thanks for listening.
00:07:42.160 | If you haven't done so, you can get the latest episodes by subscribing to Ask Pastor John
00:07:45.920 | in your favorite podcast app, in Spotify, or by subscribing to DG's YouTube channel.
00:07:51.520 | And to find other episodes in our archive or to submit a question of your own, go online
00:07:55.440 | to DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:08:00.600 | We return on Good Friday, and we return to talk about Easter, my favorite holiday of
00:08:05.800 | the entire year.
00:08:07.040 | So why do we celebrate Easter in the first place?
00:08:10.200 | It's a great question that returns us to the very foundations and roots of our faith.
00:08:15.240 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:08:16.720 | We'll see you back here on Friday to talk more about Easter.
00:08:19.760 | [END]
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00:08:21.320 | What is Easter?
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00:08:23.320 | What is Easter?
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00:08:25.320 | What is Easter?
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00:08:27.320 | What is Easter?
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