The God of Unrivaled Sovereignty

Driving home: He wills what He performs, and He performs what He wills. He wills constrained and coerced by none, and He performs restrained or hindered by none.

Unlike the US President, who must consult cabinet, compromise with Congress, and check constitutionality, God has no oval room, no cabinet, no congress. His unilateral exercise of power is total.

And when we turn to the Word of God asking the question, What is the God of the Bible like? We will find from Genesis to Revelation the picture of an enthroned God, and a God who sits upon a throne which is shared with no one else. Hence we not only find a God of sovereignty, but a God of unrivaled and exclusive sovereignty. In other words, to put it in contemporary language, God has no oval room into which he goes to consult with his cabinet before he makes decisions.

8:11 - 8:51 Read in full sermon

Picture a mother pulling back her toddler's hand from grabbing the apple on the counter — that's the frustration of a purpose. God asks who will grab His wrist and pull it back when He stretches out His hand to judge Babylon.

The President of the universe has made a decision. Who shall veto his purpose? the Lord of hosts hath purposed who shall annul it his hand is stretched out who shall turn it back now you kids know what that picture is some of you can remember maybe if you can't remember for yourself you remember when your brother or sister was just beginning to toddle around and they started to reach up to take something they shouldn't it was a no-no and you remember mommy or daddy took their hand and pulled it back and what did mommy and daddy do in pulling back their hand and frustrated the purpose of your l...

18:23 - 19:05 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Even the devil is God's devil at the end of God's chain, and he doesn't blink his eyes without the permission of the Almighty.

A pastor forced out of his church for preaching sovereignty explained it to an unsaved banker: 'If you made the world, would you run it or let somebody else do it?' The banker replied, 'If I made the world, nobody else would run it but me.' 'That's what all the fuss is about.'

He said, now, Mr. Jones, let me put it to you this way. If you were God and had made the world, would you run it or let somebody else do it? And the banker looked at him and he said, well, preacher, if I made the world, nobody else would run it but me.

24:45 - 25:01 Read in full sermon

Romans 11:33-36 is like a musical composition coming to a crescendo where 'the timpani are pounding away and everyone's playing with five Fs in front of every note' — not like compositions that peter out.

So unlike some musical compositions that sort of, you know, peter out, this one comes to the crescendo where all the stops are out and the timpani are pounding away and everyone's playing with five F's in front of every note. You get something of the feel of this thing. Christian, can you feel when you read the Bible? Or do you read it like some kind of a computer with eyes?

29:30 - 29:55 Read in full sermon

The sweeping concept 'of Him, through Him, unto Him' is like trying to carry twenty bags of flour at once in a pea-brain — Martin keeps dropping them. So he finds it helpful to think in three realms: creation, providence, grace.

That's the witness of the Old and the New Testament. And these are only specimen examples. Now, the people of God have found it helpful in trying to have a more concrete concept of this sweeping statement that God is an enthroned God. it's been helpful to God's people to think of God as being sovereign in creation, what he brings into being providence what he does with what he brought into being and in grace what he does with sinful mankind which has revolted against him And I found that helpful so that the sweeping concept of him through him unto him all things That's so big, my little pea br...

30:16 - 31:07 Read in full sermon

The point: When providence seems incomprehensible, we know all things work together for good not because we can see the good in the all things, but because we know the God who controls all things and wills nothing but good for His …

Martin recounts finding a little bird on his driveway, still warm, dead for only minutes. He doesn't know why. 'That bird did not fall without the sovereign providential control of my Father.'

That is, without the sovereign control and concern and care of your Father. Yesterday, after coming back from taking the kids for ice cream cones, we noticed a little bird on the side of our driveway.

39:02 - 39:15 Read in full sermon

The point: When providence seems incomprehensible, we know all things work together for good not because we can see the good in the all things, but because we know the God who controls all things and wills nothing but good for His …

The Bible says a soldier pulled his bow 'and shot at a venture' — the man had no clue he was fulfilling a prophecy about Ahab's death. God controls even the 'irrational chance impulses' of a soldier in battle.

The Bible says, a certain man took his bow and shot at a venture.

43:21 - 43:26 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God.

Psalm 7 pictures God wetting His sword like a hunter sharpens his knife before going for his prey, bending His bow, making the arrows ready — and every day the impenitent sinner lives, the edge becomes sharper.

Think of the picture. God is standing by His own wetting stone, and He's wetting His sword like the hunter who wets his knife before he goes out for his prey. He hath wet his sword. He hath bent His bow.

54:20 - 54:35 Read in full sermon

The same wetted sword of God plunged into the bosom of His own Son at Calvary — so heavy was the weight of judgment that had the Father not upheld Him, He would have been crushed beneath it.

The Son of God said in the language of Psalm 22, My soul is poured out within me. The wetted sword of God plunged into the bosom of His Son. Justice broke upon the head of the Son of God And my friend it held no light stroke It was only Christ supported by the omnipotence of His Father That sustained Him through the agonies of Golgotha My beloved, whom I uphold And so heavy was the weight of the Father upon the Son in judgment that had the Father not upheld him to bear it

57:59 - 58:45 Read in full sermon