How This Should Affect Our Lives

Introduction and Sermon Series Overview

0:00 I neglected to mention when making the announcements that we do have at least a few titles on our book table at the rear of the church and also some tracks. The tracks are for distribution as you have opportunity to bear witness to others. There's no charge for those. The church makes those available.

0:19 This little track, This Is It, is one of the better little three or four page leaflet type tracks. And we don't want to get out of the habit of using these discreetly and prayerfully. And if you need some, there are three or four different titles available. The one by A.W. Pink called Practical Godliness is a track particularly directed to Christians and one that I trust all of us will take and read if we've not done so prior to tonight.

0:47 And then there are several other books that we have made available. If you've not purchased John Murray's Redemption Accomplished and Applied, I would. Hardly recommend the purchase and the serious reading and rereading of this book. Mr. Murray was one of the other key speakers at the conference at Leicester.

1:05 And what a joy it was again to sit at the feet of this dear man of God who for the years past 30, 35 years has given his life to this matter of opening up the scriptures and seeking to lead God's people into an understanding of the truth of the word of God. So if you have just a few moments as you leave tonight, stop by. Book table. And Mr. Warner has asked that from here on in, in order to make his bookkeeping a little more simple, we deal everything on a cash basis.

1:36 So if there's a book there you'd like and you don't have the pennies, you save them up this week. It'll be there for you next week. Now, today is the day of beginnings and endings. This morning, we began a series of studies in Paul's letter to the church at Thessalonica.

1:54 As we looked at the birth of that church. An introduction to our studies commencing the Lord willing next Lord's Day morning with the first chapter in the first verse of this letter of Paul to that church. And I trust a letter in which we will find much for our profit. So this morning was the beginning of a new series of studies.

2:15 And tonight is going to be the concluding study in our series of considerations on the general theme of the sovereignty of God. So I want to, in the space. Of a few minutes to cover the whole sweep and compass of what we have considered catching the high points and then seek to bring all of this to a very practical conclusion as we try to answer the question, what effect should this doctrine that we've considered for some 15 or 16 Sunday nights? What effect should the understanding of this doctrine have upon our own personal lives?

Review of God's Sovereignty and Objections

2:54 What do we mean by the sovereignty of God? We have. A. Asserted from Sunday to Sunday that when we speak of the sovereignty of God, we are speaking of that aspect of truth found in the scriptures, which declares God's absolute rule in the world that he has made as we approach this study.

3:12 We must come prepared to go wherever the scripture leads us. We must come to this subject in an attitude of faith, ever recognizing that faith may swim where reason and understanding may only. Wait. And then we must come with that disposition of little children ever willing for our thoughts to be judged by the word and never making our thoughts a judge of the word.

3:39 We've considered the three basic areas in which God's rule is exerted in his world. He is sovereign in creation. Revelation 411. He is sovereign in Providence.

3:51 Psalm 115. Three. Our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he pleased.

3:56 And he is. Sovereign in the realm of grace. That in his great work of saving men, God acts as an absolute sovereign. Now, it's in this third area that men confront the greatest difficulties.

4:10 And so it's this area that we have spent the most time with seeking to lay out from the scriptures this very clear teaching and to answer some of the natural and frequent objections to the doctrine of God's sovereignty in the realm of grace. As we've sought to see this teaching established from the scriptures, we've tried to clear away some of the caricatures whenever you state that God is sovereign in grace, that he saves according to his purpose, immediately people throw up the caricature, the distorted image of a reluctant God, a God who somehow stands in heaven with a very narrow heart and poor sinners banging at the gates of mercy, seeking to be saved. And God looks down and says, well, I'm sorry, you're not one of my elects. I can't save you. Now, that's a far cry from the scriptural teaching of the sovereignty of God in grace. And then there's the caricature of a neutral man, as though man is not really fit for the pit of burning and certainly not quite fit for heaven.

5:13 And so sort of a neutral creature hung up between heaven and hell. God arbitrarily says, well, I'll save you, but I won't save you. That's a caricature. That's not the picture of the Bible.

5:24 The picture of the Bible is that all of mankind. Mankind is in that carload of humanity heading at breakneck speed into the pit. And the doctrine of God's sovereignty and grace is that though God could have allowed the entire human race to perish for reasons known only to him and locked up in his heart, he has reached into that carload of humanity and his purpose to take out of it a people for himself to be the objects of his grace. Where is this doctrine established?

5:55 We've looked at the key words. The word elect, election, chosen, chose, teaching that God is the one who takes the initiative in selecting and electing and choosing a people for himself. We studied the word predestinate. We looked at the word foreknowledge and the word called.

6:17 And I might say, frankly, by way of testimony, that up until I did these word studies, I might have admitted that there was still some possibility that maybe this was not. The truth clearly taught in the scriptures. But after looking at all of the passages, almost 50 in the New Testament, using the word elect and election and the other words predestinate, foreknowledge and called, you'd have to tear out page after page of my Bible to ever make we relinquish the truth that God is sovereign in the realm of grace. For these words can mean nothing other than what they obviously mean in their context and in their usage in the scriptures.

6:56 That God. Acts sovereignly in the realm of grace. Then we studied the key passages in the teaching of our Lord. John chapter three.

7:05 The fact that spiritual life is likened to birth and that God acts sovereignly in bringing about this birth. The spirit blows where it listed. So is everyone of the wind bloweth where it listed. So is everyone that is born of the spirit.

7:22 Just as the wind acts sovereignly. So God in bringing men. So God in bringing men. So the life moves across the hearts of men according to his own purpose.

7:32 Our Lord's teaching in John six. No man can come to me except the father draw him and other passages. Our Lord's teaching in Matthew 11. And then we looked at the key passages in the teaching of the Apostle Paul.

7:45 Romans nine and Ephesians one. And there is no way to honestly handle those passages, but to handle them in their natural sense. And when they speak of God loving Jacob. And when they speak of God loving Jacob and hating Esau, the conclusion is obvious that God is acting sovereignly for the children being not having been not yet born and having done neither good nor evil that the purpose of God, according to election might stand.

8:11 It was said the elder shall serve the younger. Then we sought to clear away some of the natural objections. If this is true, God is sovereign in the realm of grace. Why preach and witness?

8:24 This is an objection commonly offered. And we found out that we must preach and witness because God commands us to. And if he said in his word, no one would be saved. The fact that he commands us is reason enough.

8:36 That's what he told Isaiah. He said, Isaiah, you're to preach and your preaching is going to harden men in their sins. And all Isaiah could say was, oh, Lord, how long? He didn't say why.

8:47 He just said, how long? But God has promised that he'll bless his word and has commanded us to preach that word. Love impels us. Not only does.

8:57 God command us, but we must witness and bear testimony because love impels us. The love of Christ constrains us. The apostle declared. And then God who ordains the end has ordained the means and election is not salvation, but is unto salvation.

9:14 God's purpose is bound up in election. But God's plan of bringing men to himself is bound up in the preaching of the gospel. Second Thessalonians two and verse 13. Then the comment.

9:27 An objection. Why pray if everything is determined by a sovereign God, why pray? Well, again, we pray because God commands men ought always to pray and not to faint. Luke 18 one.

9:39 And if God commands us to pray, we pray. But not only does God reveal that he's commanded us to pray, but the scripture reveals that woven into the very fabric of God's decrees and God's purposes are the prayers of his people right into the fabric of his eternal purposes. And then we considered the objection. What about the whosoever passages?

10:02 Doesn't the Bible say whosoever will may come? Doesn't the scripture say whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord should be saved? And we saw that these pose no problem to the doctrine of election and God's sovereignty and grace for election doesn't cramp the whosoever. It just assures us that there'll be some of the whosoever who will come.

10:23 That's all. For you see, man is so bound in his sin and blind. And so. And dead in death that if God had not purpose to cause men to respond, the whosoever will would go out.

10:36 The invitation to Christ would be given and there would be no saving response for men are dead in trespasses and sins. And it's only as God quickens them to life and election is the foundation of that quickening work. And then we concluded our last study by answering the objection. What about man's free will?

10:59 If God is sovereign, how can man be a responsible creature? And we sought to see that these two truths are revealed with equal clarity in the scripture. They are what Mr. Packer calls an antinomy.

11:13 God is sovereign. Man is responsible. And we must learn to live with the tension of these two things. God is sovereign, clearly revealed in the scripture.

11:23 Man is responsible, but we must never think of man as free. In the sense that sin has not affected his will. His mind is darkened. His affections are perverted.

11:33 His will is enslaved. And so as God in his grace is pleased to illuminate the mind and to change the affection. He releases the will from the enslavement to sin. So that sinners come freely to Christ being made willing by his grace and his power.

The Natural Attitude Towards Divine Sovereignty

11:52 Now in about eight or nine minutes. I've tried to cover about. 16 hours of teaching. I trust you at least have the main headings and thoughts before you and will think much and often upon.

12:06 Now in the light of all this body of truth that we've considered. What should my attitude be to the truth of divine sovereignty?

12:17 Well, the attitude of every man until God is pleased to reveal this truth is one of absolute distaste and hatred.

12:27 There is no truth in the scriptures. So calculated. To reveal the pride of the human heart and the truth of God's sovereignty in the realm of grace. For it means to the man who's yet in his sins that salvation the key to salvation isn't in his pocket.

12:45 But it's in God's hands and man loves to think that it's in his pocket. You see the first appeal of the devil to our first parents was be like God's in this area. It was knowing good from evil, but you want to have the prerogative of God and that's the continual pitch of the enemy to our soul. That's his sales pitch.

13:07 Be like God to be the determiner of things.

13:13 And so the pride of the unregenerate heart is struck and you touch a sensitive nerve when you tell the sinner salvation is not in his hands, but in the hands of a sovereign God and the remaining areas of pride in the heart of the Saint are struck when he is instructed from the scriptures that though his coming to Christ was his. Coming and we're conscious that we repented and we believe that back of our repenting in our believing was the working of God's grace in planting life in the mysterious operations of regeneration so that we were unable to repent and to believe so that we fall at the footstool of free grace and acknowledge that our salvation is 100% the working of our God as Ephesians 2 10 says. We are his workmanship plus nothing else created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Now by nature our attitude to this truth is one of open hostility or perhaps it's one of suspicion or resentment. But what should our attitude be when the Holy Spirit has enabled us to perceive this truth and to embrace it from the heart?

Effect 1: Deep Humility in God's Presence

14:33 What should that attitude be? Well, first of all, it should be. An attitude of deep humility in the presence of God as we are unable to embrace the truth of Divine Sovereignty. It should produce an attitude of deep humility as we stand in the presence of God.

14:57 What is pride pride is one of the effects of the blinding power of sin. We have a false estimation of ourselves. The only reason any of us can ever struck. Or think we're something is because we're blinded to the facts as they are.

15:17 We're living in a fool's Paradise sin blinds us to what we are and who God is and what is pride. But one of the effects of the blinding power of sin here. We are little creatures of the dust here. Not by any choice of our own utterly dependent upon God for the very breath.

15:39 We breathe for the scripture says that in him we live and move and have our being we can't even. Say with certainty what will be five minutes from now we might be cast off into oblivion. Little frail creatures dependent upon a muscle the size of our hand. Pulsing blood through our physical frame and can be stopped at any moment.

16:05 Yet we strut around like we own the world and we're somebody. Anything we have that is legitimately an occasion of Thanksgiving. We have received what has found without it's not received. But you see sin so blinds us that we have a false estimation of ourselves.

16:22 We treat ourselves as little self-governing gods to whom some praise and some thanks and some honor belongs. Rather than little creatures bowing in the dust and ascribing all honor and praise and glory to him. From whom we've come and to whom we owe all that we are and have. What is humility?

16:46 Humility is just the opposite of this when you get a right view of God and of yourself. And humility is just the natural response to that pulling off of that blinding veil. What is humility? You see humility is not convincing yourself you're nothing when you really are half something.

17:04 Humility is simply the acknowledgement of what you really are in the light of what God is. Isn't that humility? Humility is simply moral sanity. That's all.

17:15 Anyone who's not graced with humility is living in moral insanity. He's got all kinds of twisted ideas of what he is and who he is. You see the humble man, the humble woman is simply the one who sees that God is all and in all. I'm but a little creature of the dust.

17:41 Added to that I'm a sinful, fallen son of Adam. Who but for infinite condescending grace would be a faggot in the fires of hell. And what is humility? It's simply the added.

17:55 The attitude of mind, the disposition of heart, the inner character and spirit of a man who has come to moral sanity and realizes who God is and what he is. Now when the truth of divine sovereignty breaks upon the heart of a man by the Holy Spirit and I see that God is the governor of the world and God is also the judge of the world and then realizes well how can he be bold? I see that God can be a governor of his world and rule his world. And I can see how he can be a judge and judge his world.

18:33 But how can he be the governor and the judge at the same time? That's the great problem of Romans chapter nine. How can God rule his creatures so that all that happens is according to his sovereign purpose and at the same time judges creatures as responsible creatures? How can these two things be?

18:53 Oh when a man sees who God is. What he is. He's willing to put his hand upon his mouth and say God though I cannot understand. Who am I?

19:02 Little creature of the dust. Thou art God, infinite, transcendent, above me, beyond me. Who am I to bring the mighty God and compress him down to the size of my size seven hat? What moral insanity to compress the mighty God to the confines of my little pea brain.

19:27 And isn't that exactly what Paul says? In Romans nine. Isn't that exactly what he says? Listen.

19:32 When he has asserted that God is sovereign in his world and at the same time that man is responsible. Notice the cry that comes from the would-be objector and no doubt when Paul preached this doctrine. He knew what the objection at Rome would be because he probably heard it everywhere else. He preached it.

19:53 Which by the way, this is a little aside. This is a doctrine to be preached. Paul put it in his first letter to the church. He preached at Rome as an integral part of his understanding of the gospel.

20:04 Now notice the objection. Verse fourteen. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?

20:13 And then he answers that objection. And then we have the objection in verse nineteen. Thou wilt then say unto me. Why doth he yet find fault?

20:23 How can he be a judge? If he governs everything and Pharaoh's raised up according to his sovereign purpose. He loves a Jacob, rejects an Esau. How can he find fault?

20:33 If he's such a governor of the world that everything comes to pass by his sovereign will. How can he be a judge and a governor at the same time? For who hath resisted his will? Everything's determined by the will of God.

20:46 How can he find fault? If I'm a sinner, I must be a sinner by the purpose of his will. That's the objection. Now how does Paul answer?

20:54 Notice. Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replyest against God?

21:05 Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Here's the two key words. O man, against God. That's the key to it.

21:21 That's the key. Paul says just remember who you are. And remember who he is. And all your objections will be swallowed before they ever spew out of your mouth.

21:38 Now what is that but humility? That's moral sanity. Why, of course. If God is God, then all his ways must be incomprehensible to me.

21:49 We're willing to let his love be incomprehensible, are we not? Who can understand the love of God? Why, we say no one can. We can't understand it.

21:58 His love is incomprehensible. It can't be squeezed into the confines of our little minds. We're willing for the truth of God's omniscience to be incomprehensible. How can God, all of God, be everywhere present at the same time, and yet God is everywhere, fills heaven and earth?

22:15 Can you understand that? No, you say, but I'm willing to just believe it. And so his omniscience is incomprehensible. His omnipresence, that he knows all things, that he is in all places.

22:28 And yet when we come to God's justice and his judgment, we want to bring that to the bar of our understanding. Isn't that the problem? We're willing for God's love to be incomprehensible. We're willing for God's immensity, God's knowledge, God's power.

22:44 And yet when it comes to God's justice, we want to say, wait a minute, God, this doesn't seem right to me. Who are you? Who are you? You, to bring Almighty God down to the little two-by-four bar of your judgment.

23:02 That's the whole thrust of Paul's answer. But nay, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? And I tell you, beloved, at times it makes my heart tremble that God didn't chastise me. And for five or six years, I've tried to bend God to the little two-by-four bar of my judgment as I fought him in my heart on the truth of his absolute sovereignty.

23:36 Oh, the first great effect of this truth to our heart should be one of humility in his presence. Acknowledging that God is God and his judgments and his justice are incomprehensible. Have you come to that moral sanity of falling down in humility in the presence of such a God and saying, God, though I cannot comprehend, it's only right that thy ways should be above my ways and thy thoughts above my thoughts. Has that been one of the blessed fruits of the doctrine of divine sovereignty to your heart? Oh, I trust it has. And if it hasn't, we shall continue to pray that God will, in his mercy and his grace, pressure, pressure your heart until you come to that moral sanity that stops trying to bring the almighty transcendent God to the bar of human judgment. That should be the first effect upon our hearts, one of deep humility in the presence of God.

Effect 2: Unqualified Submission to God's Dealings

24:51 Secondly, it should have this effect upon us, of bringing us to a place of unqualified submission to the dealings of God. Not only deep humility in the presence of God, but unqualified submission to the dealings of God. No one is a Christian for any length of time before he realizes that God's dealings at times are strange with us. God's ways with us seem to lack any sense.

25:26 They seem to lack any coherence. It looks at times as though our lives are like that glass dropped on a tile floor and nothing but shivers in a hundred pieces. Nothing seems to hang together with any order or any sense. If you're a child of God and you've been that for any length of time, you know what I'm talking about.

25:46 When it seems that the providence of God with us utterly contradicts the promises of God. When the ways of God with us, in fact, seem to contradict the promises of God in His Word. What are we going to do? Well, the Scripture records what some have done, and the history of the Church and the history of my life and your life reveals what we sometimes do.

26:09 We murmur. We ask a word that should never be on the lips of a Christian. God forgive us, it's there too often. Why?

26:25 We murmur. We chafe. We blame the devil. We suspect God's love.

26:33 We question the truth of His Word. He promises. You ever done that? Come on, be honest, have you?

26:39 Sure you have. Oh, you haven't done it open. You know, that would bring a quick visit from your pastor. But how about in the heart?

26:50 Why, God? It isn't fair. Here I've worked hard. Lord, I've given you my tithe.

26:58 And even a little bit beyond that. And I've been faithful in, Lord, being this, this, this, and doing that, that, and that. Why, Lord, this is what I ought to have. And instead of blessing, blight, sickness, problems.

27:12 Lord, why? Doesn't seem fair. Doesn't seem right. Does God really love me?

27:19 Are His promises really true? You know what the problem is? It's a failure either to understand the doctrine of divine sovereignty or a failure to relate it to the present circumstance. For when this truth is understood and applied to the life by the Spirit, it will produce in the child of God unqualified submission to the dealings of God.

27:42 Now, let me define what I mean by submission. I don't want to play with words, but I believe there's a difference between resignation and submission. When you resign yourself to something, that's sort of fatalistic. You just sort of can't fight City Hall attitude.

27:56 You know what I mean? Well, you've got to pay your income tax so you'll get it, so I'll pay it. I never saw anybody tripping down the road with a smile saying, April 20th or April 15th, I'm going to pay my income tax. No.

28:07 It's sort of resignation to Big Uncle. Isn't that resignation? Just give in to it. Submission involves a matter of an active commitment to a given course or to a given situation.

28:22 You find it in the life of our Lord. When he entered into the garden and in the midst of that terrible something that he faced in Gethsemane, the mystery of which perhaps even eternity will not unfold, our Lord in an active submission says, Not my will but thine be done. And in so saying, he chose deliberately to walk the course that was going to mean death, spiritual death, on behalf of us men in our salvation. And so I've used the term purposefully, not unqualified resignation to the dealings of God, just sort of saying, Well, everything's held in the grip of a vice of unrelenting sovereignty, so I might as well just sink down and can't fight City Hall attitude. No. But one that says in the midst of all the broken pieces, God, I don't see any order. I don't see any sense, but thou art God and thy word reveals that nothing is by accident.

29:23 Lord, I choose the course you've marked for me. Active submission to the dealings of God. I believe there is a difference. Let me mention several particular areas and take some illustrations from Scripture.

29:36 In the midst of our trials, the reason of which the reason of those trials has not been revealed to us. And of course, the classic example is Job. If there's any man who could expect the obvious blessing of God, it was Job. Do you think God would ever say anything like this about you or about me?

29:57 Now, we might sometimes in the poly of our own ignorance of ourselves, say something like this, but notice what God says about it. There was a man in the land of Oz whose name was Job. That man was perfect and upright. One that feared God in the skewed evil.

30:15 Perfect. Upright. He dared to say to Satan when he appeared before him. He said, Hast thou beheld my servant, Job?

30:28 Have you found any man like this? Verse 8, And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job? There is none like him in the earth, but perfect and an upright man, one that fears God and is skewed evil. God could say that of Job.

30:45 And the general principle is that those that honor God, he will honor them. Isn't that what the Scripture says? Doesn't the Scripture say that? The Scripture says that he gives long life and blessing to those that fear him.

30:54 That's the general tenor of the will of God, of the revealed will of God. And now in the midst of all this prosperity, suddenly in a day, he's stripped of all of his possessions. He's stripped of his own children. He's left childless.

31:08 He's left possessionless. In a short time, he's stripped of health and strength and everything but life itself. Any of you ever been in a situation like that? I don't think so.

31:21 Some of us may have been suddenly, stripped of some loved one, but were you stripped of all of them in a day? We may have been stripped of some possessions or some part of our health, but we still had our loved ones. It seems as though God took all the trials that may be spread over a great company of God's people and heaped them all up and allowed them all to come upon one of his servants. And in the midst of that trial, what does Job say?

31:46 Verse 21 of chapter 1. Verse 20. Then Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground and worshipped. Worshipped.

31:58 Worshipped. Not groaned, not moaned, not complained, not whimpered, not whined. But it says he worshipped and he said, naked came I out of my mother's womb. Naked shall I return thither.

32:14 The Lord gave according to his own sovereign purpose. He gave. The Lord has taken away according to that same sovereign purpose. He's allowed all to be stripped, blessed be the name of the Lord.

32:29 And in all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly. I've had people infer, Oh, this doctrine of divine sovereignty, that's just something for the theologians, let's get on with the more practical things. Can you think of anything more practical than that? And do you know, as I have opportunity to do pastoral counseling, visit with people in the midst of trials, the person who's aglow with the reality of the presence of God in the midst of the trial, trial for which I have to say at times, even as a pastor, I don't understand what God's doing.

33:03 I can't even give them any help from the Word to say, well, maybe God's trying to show you this, or maybe God's trying to do this. The person who is received from the Word into the heart by the Spirit, the truth of the absolute sovereignty of God, that's the person who can, through burning tears, seeing everything go to pieces around him, say, the Lord gave, the Lord has taken. He has a right to do both. Blessed be the name of the Lord. This is a most practical pastoral doctrine. I refuse to have anyone say it's just an impractical source of debate for theologians. No, no. And I say to you, dear child of God, you better pray this truth in, for when all comes dashing to pieces around you, your one stay will be. There's a God upon his throne in the midst of trial. What about chastisement?

33:58 God brings his stroke upon us in chastisement, and it will come for whom the Lord loves. He chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. If he are without chastening, the writer of the Hebrews tells us, then are ye illegitimate children and not sons. Now, what are we going to do when chastisement comes? The writer of the Hebrews says, if ye endure chastisement, then God dealeth with you as sons. What does it mean to endure chastisement? Turn to 2 Samuel for a moment, will please. We could look at an example in 1 Samuel 3 in Eli's case. Let's look at it just briefly. Then we'll look at one in the life of David. 1 Samuel chapter 3, you remember how God appeared to Samuel in the night, revealed to him that judgment was to come upon Eli's sons and upon Eli's household because of their sin. And the next day when Samuel goes out and faces Eli, Eli says, now tell me the truth, Samuel.

35:00 Nothing back from me. Tell me what God's revealed to you. And so Samuel told him, verse 18 of 1 Samuel 3, Samuel told him every wit and hid nothing from him. What did he have to tell him? He had to tell him that his sons were going to be slain, cut off in their state of sinfulness. He told him that the priesthood would be taken from Eli's house. All of this God revealed. Now, what was Eli's response to this announcement of divine chastisement?

35:30 Notice the latter part of verse 18. And he, Eli said, it is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. You know what he was saying? He's saying, if my own sons, the darlings of my heart, must be snuffed out before my eyes, let God do what seemeth good. Is that your God? Worthy of that kind of submission to his chastening rod? Eli's conscience smote him. No doubt Eli knew that judgment was around the corner because he

36:16 restrained not his own sons. But here's a picture of submission to the chastening rod. And then in 2 Samuel chapter 12, we have the illustration or the incident. King David's sin with Bathsheba has brought forth this child. The prophet has come and said to David, Thou art the son of the Lord. And he said to David, Thou art the son of the Lord. And he said to David, Thou art the son of the Lord. And he said to David, Thou art the son of the Lord. And he said to David, Thou art the son of the Lord. And he said to David, Thou art the son of the Lord. And he said to then the news comes and the servants see that the son is dead and they dare not come to david and tell him they dare not tell him they say my if he wept and fasted when the child was still alive

37:23 what will he do if we now tell him that the child is dead they feared that david's mind might snap then we see the surprising thing that david did notice verse 21 then said his servants unto him what thing is this that thou hast done thou didst fast and weep for the child while it was alive and when the child was dead thou didst rise and eat bread and he said while the child was yet alive i fasted and wept for i said who can tell whether god be gracious that the child may live but he is dead wherefore should i fast can i bring him again i shall go to him but he shall not return to me what did he do that surprised them verse 20 then david arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his appearance and came into the house of the lord and complained and asked why and murmured and groaned no he came into the house of the lord and he worshiped that's what they couldn't understand why he cries he fasts he pleads he prays now the child is dead and he goes into the house of the lord and he worships what was this a beautiful picture of submission to the chastening life god has a right god has

38:47 a right to do as he did and so if this truth has been burnt into our hearts by the spirit it will produce in us not only deep humility in the presence of god but unqualified submission to the dealings of god in the midst of trials in chastisement and i want to mention a third area that's so practical in the plans that we make it's not wrong to make plans we've got to plan ahead paul says in many of his letters i purpose to come unto you but i was hindered i have prayed that i might see you in the will of god i plan to come to you by winter or by such and such a time there's nothing wrong with plans if they're made in the proper biblical perspective and james tells us in chapter 4 verses 13 to 15 how they should be made go to now ye that say tomorrow we will go into such and such a city and buy and sell and get gain whereas thou knowest not what shall be on the morrow for what is your life it is but a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away for that ye ought to say if the lord will we shall do this and that you see when that's your attitude you don't go all to pieces when your plans get frustrating i've seen some people everything's fine until their plans get frustrated maybe they get their heart set on going to a certain place on a vacation and something comes

40:11 up and they can't their whole world goes to pieces goes to pieces why because their heart was set on it in a wrong way they had their heart set on it in this way if this is the will of god fine but if providence indicates it's not the will of god wonderful god has something better nothing on this side of eternity is worth getting your heart set on it's bad english but it's good theology there's nothing nothing this side of eternity worth setting your heart on nothing your children become little idols you make your plans for them god may allow some crippling sickness you'll die a bitter fruitless going to your grave muttering why isn't worth it isn't worth it any plans if they're made with that recognition of divine sovereignty there'll be no frustration then when the plans we make are frustrated and those plans that we have formed

Effect 3: Unshakable Confidence in God's Purposes

41:30 are thwarted in the providence of god now very briefly may i just suggest one or two other things tonight these two these first two are the key issues and so i've spent the most time on them the third effect that this doctrine of divine sovereignty should have upon us is one of giving us unshakable confidence in the purposes of god it's one thing to be gripped with deep humility in the presence of god gladly acknowledging that his ways transcend ours another to be in a place of unqualified submission to the dealings of god but oh how blessed is the christian who has unshakable confidence in the purposes of god job says in job 42 2 this is the asv marginal reading where he speaks of god as the one concerning whom no purpose of his can be restrained no purpose of thine can be restrained if you and i take seriously the teaching of the bible concerning the devil it ought to scare us to death the scripture says the whole world lieth in the wicked one he is the spirit at work amongst the sons of disobedience it says that he goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour if we take seriously what the bible teaches

42:54 about the devil being the prince of the power of the air the god of this world the spirit working in men if we take seriously what the scripture teaches about fallen man that he's blind that he hates the light that his will is in rebellion against god it is not object to god in the face of these things lead to realistic attitudes are one of despair and spirit for a scriptural confidence in the sovereign god any person who thinks it off and take seriously with the bible teaches about the devil fallen man and this whole world under the trouble all should be a man filled with desp meat filled with the confidence from variants who about before the sovereign god and there's no middle place between these two no middle place if anything good has come out of the prevailing climate of our generation it's that man at least is a little more realistic as he's gripped in despair i read something on the bulletin board of the room in which i stayed at the lester college it was a room in a girl's dormitory apparently this was the in fact i know it was their uh it was their spring vacation so the rooms were vacated and we had them and i meant to copy the poem down i've kicked myself a number of times since for not doing it but whether this girl wrote the poem or copied it it was the saddest

44:22 thing the essence of it was this i look out into this world and i see nothing to give me hope so i smile a little and i laugh a little but my smiles and my laughs turn around and mock me and fill me with fear that was the whole substance of it despair despair no hope no answers oh we can know is that we can know nothing and that's the way we ought to be if we take seriously the situation of the world and what the bible teaches about the devil and fallen man the only other position that is a sane position is that position of unshakable confidence in the purposes of god who is absolutely sovereign his purposes in our own lives romans 8 28 is just a lot of pretty talk unless the god of whom it speaks is sovereign and we know that all things work together for good for those who walked up to those who are the call which only one reason there is a sovereign going to look wait for all these four everyone it is true according to his own unshakable contents in the purpose of god is one of the wonderful truths of a deep seated conviction of the absolute sovereignty of god which%

45:43 god let's not try to draw comfort from romans 8 28 that all things are working together for good unless we have a god who's over all things controlling all things ordering all things to the ends that he himself has prescribed and so this will have its effect upon our personal lives it will have an effect upon our interest in the spread of the gospel as we hear the reports of the population explosion and they're staggering as we hear the reports of despair that come from land after land and mission field after mission field even where we hear such glowing reports of what's going on in south america of thousands supposedly converted i talked with a missionary who said of many of these thousands you go back three years later and all the churches that were started are gone just a flash in the pan many of them your heart sinks you just say lord what can we do the only place of confidence is in a sovereign god who has said concerning his son in isaiah 53 that the pleasure of the lord shall prosper in his hand he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied oh i love those words of luther let me see if i can find them i'm afraid i won't quote them perfectly because they catch the spirit of what i'm trying to convey to you now

47:11 found them listen who's talking now here's a little monk standing up to all the mighty power of rome with pope and bishops and armies and authorities and what does he say listen a mighty fortress is our god of bulwark never failing our helper he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing was still our ancient foe that seek to work us woe his craft and power are great and armed with Christ and his power are great and armed with Christ and his power are great and armed with Christ and his power are great and armed with Christ and his power are great and armed with Christ and his power are great and armed with Christ on earth is not his equal did we in our own strength confide our striving would be losing we're not the right man on our side the man of god's own choosing just ask who that may be christ jesus it is he lord savvy of his name from age to age the same and he must win the battle now here's the stanza and though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear. Why? For God hath willed his truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure. One little

48:32 word shall fell him. That's what caused the monk to stand up against the whole towering strength of Rome. What was it? It was this unshakable confidence in the purpose of God. And oh, beloved, we face not just Rome, but a thousand other mighty forces in our day.

48:53 I somehow believe that God is seeking to rally his people around this great banner of his absolute sovereignty. Not that we might sit in the corner and rejoice in its truth, but go out into a world filled with confusion and opposition and all kinds of forces that would militate against the spread of the gospel and say with Martin Luther, we will not fear for God. His truth to triumph through us in this generation.

49:22 And I wouldn't even be angry if you said amen. Do we have that confidence? Oh, let's be realists. Let's face the problem.

49:33 Face all the difficulties. But let us never allow this to cloud the face of the God who has said concerning His Son, He shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.

Effect 4: Adoring Worship Before God's Throne

49:47 And one of the great fruits of that truth of the sovereignty of God will be unshakable confidence in His purpose. And then last of all, it will be an attitude of adoring worship before the throne of God. I challenge you sometime to take a little time. I don't have time to do it tonight.

50:05 And look at all the pictures of the worshiping creatures in heaven. Revelation 4.10, 5.13, 7.10, and 11.16 and 17.

50:16 Revelation 4.10, 5.13, 7.10.

50:20 And every picture of the worshiping creatures in heaven. The worshiping creatures, whether they be the redeemed, the elders, the angels. You find all of those sections that speak of the creatures worshiping God. They worship Him from a position of prostration before His throne or standing about His throne.

50:41 Every picture of God where His people or creatures are found worshiping Him are in the context of a throne. For you see, there's no worship of God. There's no worship of God apart from the God on a throne.

50:56 And until the Spirit of God breaks through to our hearts that our God is upon a throne. The symbol of sovereignty and majestic might and triumphant rule. I doubt we've truly worshipped. For you see, a God who's not on a throne is a God who needs our aid and our sympathy and our pity.

51:15 But He's certainly not a God who can elicit our worship. But a God who has ascended up to a throne of absolute sovereignty and majesty. He's the God before whom we can fall with the Apostle and cry for of Him and through Him and unto Him be all, are all things to whom be glory forever and forever.

Pastoral Longing and Prayer

51:39 I must be perfectly honest with you and say that it's one of the deep longings of my heart that as a church we shall be a people firmly established in the wonderful truth of divine sovereignty. I trust if someone asked you, do you believe that dread doctrine? Of election? You'll be able to smile and say, oh, it's a precious doctrine.

51:59 Oh, where do you find that in the Bible? Well, if you've got an hour, I'd like to show you. And I hope you'd be able to sit down, open up, and show them how the word called and elect and chosen are used. Take them to Romans 9, Ephesians 1.

52:13 This would be my hope. This is what I'm labeling for. Be easier to teach more popular themes. Would it not?

52:23 Sure. And steer clear of those that may raise the pen. Of unregenerate hearts.

52:31 But, oh, beloved, I would not be satisfied if we simply were articulate in the understanding of the truth. It's the longing of my heart for you as God's people that we live in the flush and the glow of the practical import of those truths upon our lives. That they produce in us those four things that we've touched tonight. That they produce in us that submission to the dispositions.

53:03 And dealings of God with us. That this truth produce in us that unshakable confidence in the purpose of God. Adoring worship before his throne. And they'll produce in us that deep humility in his presence.

53:21 If God is pleased to bathe our hearts and minds as an assembly in this truth and in its practical implication. And I shall feel that perhaps our ministry has not been in vain. May God grant us. Leave this subject in the way of formal focused study.

53:39 We shall not leave it in the meditation of our hearts and in the fruit of it in our lives. Let us pray.

53:50 Oh, Lord, our God, forgive us. We pray for the moral insanity of our pride in which so many of us have lived for years.

54:10 Oh, God, forgive us for those years when we strutted about this little self-determining. Self-sustaining gods. Not realizing that our very lives were held in the thin thread of thy sovereignty. And that any moment we could have been cut off and plunged into the darkness of eternal night.

54:35 Oh, God, we thank thee for thy mercy to us. And we bow tonight at the footstool of sovereign distinguishing mercy that has sought us and found us. And brought us.

54:51 To the Savior. Oh, God, be pleased to bless these meditations in your word. That there may be produced in the life of this assembly. The graces of humility.

55:05 Of submission. Of confidence. Of adoring worship. Oh, Lord, for those in our midst.

55:14 Who've never fallen before your throne. In true repentance. Seeking mercy from Jesus Christ. The only Savior.

55:22 The only Savior of sinners. Oh, show them their creaturehood. And show them their sinfulness. That they may desperately feel their need of thy grace.

55:33 For any of thy children. Who are wrestling with the truth of your sovereignty. Who are still playing folly and seeking to compress the mighty God. To the limits of their own judgment.

55:46 Oh, Lord, have mercy upon them. And be pleased to grant them grace. To place their hand upon them. And to cry out the Lord, he is God.

55:59 Oh, Father, we plead that you will never allow us as an assembly. To take this glorious truth and let it become a cloak for indifference or inactivity. Grant that it shall never become an occasion of pride or a club with which we should beat others. But may it be a delightful cordial to our own souls.

56:21 Pouring in continual strength and comfort. And then. Giving us that confidence to go out into our generation. And proclaim the gospel with absolute certainty.

56:33 That you have willed your truth to triumph through us. And that nothing can hinder thy purpose from being accomplished. Oh, God, hear us in our cry tonight. And answer our prayer.

56:47 For the honor and praise of our Lord Jesus Christ. And now unto him who is able to keep you from falling. And to present you faultless before his presence with exceeding joy. To the only wise God our Savior.

57:05 Be glory, majesty, and power both now and forever.

57:12 Amen.