The Sovereignty of God: “My Counsel Shall Stand, and I Will Accomplish All My Purpose”

let's pray father as we gather as a church now in Lakeville and at the north campus and downtown would you cause us to Humble ourselves under your Mighty hand put our hands upon our our mouths if objections rise to your sovereignty and fill us with a song about your Supremacy and cause us to find in your power our meaning and our security our Salvation Our Hope and our food Lord teach us now be our teacher grant me to be faithful to your word and put a rock underneath those who feel like they're sinking in quicksand

I ask this in Jesus name amen one of the most foundational of of the 30-year theological trademarks which is what we're working through is the sovereignty of god so let's go to the text lest I say too much even from the beginning and import something into the meaning of that word phrase sovereignty of God that's not from the Bible it is so loaded it is so so serious it is so touching on so many painful things in life that we dare not trust ourselves with this definition you you dare not bring your ideas to this

we must simply listen to God when it comes to the sovereignty of God we must have God tell us what it means for him to be Sovereign lest we import limitations or possibilities into God that he doesn't find in himself Isaiah 46:9 I am God and there is no other I am God and there is none like me so the issue here is the uniqueness of God I am God there's nobody else like me one of a kind in a class by myself that's the point here the issue here is the godness of God the

uniqueness of God when something is happening or something is being said or thought to which God responds I'm God then you know that what was happening or what was being said or what was being thought is happening or being said or being thought as though we didn't know what it was like for him to be God and so he's responding by saying I'm God meaning you're not acting as though you understood what it meant for me to be God and now he's going to tell us what it means for him to be God in this

text that's the the spirit of this text is I am God verse n there is no other no one like me and you're acting like I'm not and or that you don't know what it means for me to be God now verse 10 is where he does that what does it mean for God to be God I declare the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done so two statements I declare how things are going to turn out way before they happen that's the first statement and the second statement at the

front of verse 10 is I not only declare how natural events are going to turn out I declare how doings doings are going to turn out long before the doings are done I declare from ancient times things not yet done so events in nature I've got all that predicted and doings by beings that do I declare that ahead of time as well so that's what it means for me to be God to which you should respond I thought this was a sermon about the sovereignty of God and all you've done is show us that he

has forn knowledge and that's right that is all I've done so far now what does he do next in verse 10 the next half of verse 10 God tells us how he knows what is going to be before it happens and what is going to be done before it happens and here's his his way of knowing I declare the end from the beginning from ancient times things not yet done saying so when I declare that this is what I say saying my councel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose so when he declares

the end from the beginning when he declares things not yet done he says something what does he say he says my counsel shall stand and he says I will accomplish all my purpose so the way he declares his for knowledge is by declaring his for counsel and his for purpose not only that he declares my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish my purpose so the reason God knows the future is because he pled the future and accomplishes the future that's what it means to be God the future is the counsel of God being established

by God the future is the purpose of God being accomplished by God that's what the text says and now he confirms it even more clearly at the end of verse 11 I have spoken I will bring it to pass I have purposed I will do it so the reason he makes predictions is because he controls the future he knows the future because he runs the future he accomplishes the future God is not a fortune teller God is not a zeuser God does not have a crystal ball he doesn't just know the future he accomplishes the

future and thus he knows the future because he knows what he's going to do in the future that's what the end of verse 11 says with Crystal Clarity so verse 10 at the end my counsel shall stand so I have counsel I'm I'm advising the future what to be and it will stand because my Council stands and I will accomplish all my purpose I have a purpose for the future then I go up there and I do it in the future and I know what I'm going to do and that's how I know the future

so here's my definition of the sovereignty of God on the basis of those verses the sovereignty of God is God God has the the rightful Authority and the freedom and the wisdom and the power to bring about everything he intends to happen he has the authority and the freedom and the wisdom and the power to bring about everything he intends to happen and therefore everything he intends to happen happens or say it another way whatever comes about he intended to come about that's why it came about that's what it means for God to be sovereign

press on that for just a minute when he says I will accomplish my purpose I will accomplish I will I will do it I will do my purpose he means nothing happens except what I purpose you may not think that follows but think of this if something happened that God did not purpose to happen he would say I didn't intend for that to happen and we would say back to him well what did what did you intend to happen and he would say well not that that and we would say well so that didn't happen

and you just said I accomplished all my purpose and that one didn't happen and he would say no that would happen if it were my purpose and anything that happened is my purpose otherwise I couldn't say I will accomplish all my purpose I would only say I will accomplish some of my purposes and the rest they fall down my word falls down and that's not what it is for God to be God everything that happens has happened is happening at this moment will happen is purposed by God to happen now that's complicated what I just

said so let me let me make it simpler let's go to the Bible let's go all over the Bible and just quote Bible right let's not reason out this let's just listen that would be the simpler thing to do right instead of taking a sentence and kind of work out the logic of its implications and get all mixed up let's just listen now before I I do that two two preliminary observations number one or maybe three I I want you to um hear the Elder affirmation of Faith because I'm I'm not intending to preach these

sermons to say that's the way it's been I don't have any idea what's coming next that's not my mindset in this series my mindset in this series is to preach things that we as Elders believe so I'm going to read you the doctrine of the sovereignty of God from the Elder affirmation of Faith so that you know that at least 44 people in the church give heartfelt Ascent to what I'm saying and probably a few thousand more section three we believe that God from all eternity in order to display the full extent of his glory

for the Eternal and ever increasing enjoyment of those who love him did by the most wise and holy counsel of his will freely and unchangeably ordain and Forno whatever comes to pass we believe that God upholds and governs all things from galaxies to subatomic subatomic particles from forces of nature to movements of Nations from public plans of politicians to the secret acts of solitary persons all in accord with his eternal all-wise purposes to glorify himself yet in such a way that he never sins nor ever condemns a person unjustly but that his ordaining and governing

all things is compatible with the moral accountability of all persons created in His image we believe that God's election is unconditional an act of free Grace which was given through his son Jesus Christ before the world began by this act God chose before the foundation of the world those who would be delivered from bondage to sin and brought to repentance and saving faith in his son Jesus Christ close quote so the sovereignty of God is expressed like that in the Elder affirmation of Faith which all of those who lead you and teach you in this

church believe and here's another preliminary observation before we do the texts when I come to the end of this survey some of you will may feel overwhelmed overwhelmed at the extent of God's sovereignty it will take your breath away at least it does mine and you will face a choice some just going to get you ready for this so you're not caught off guard you will face a choice having heard so much Bible with regard to the sovereignty of God will I silence any objections that are rising in my heart and put my hand over

my objecting mouth will I Ascend in praise to God's wisdom and God's power and God's freedom and God's Authority and God's grace and will I bow with glad submission to his absolute s sovereignty or will I stiffen my neck and say I won't have it so I won't let there be a god like that in this world will we see the sovereignty of God as our Only Hope For Life in deadness will we see the sovereignty of God as our Only Hope For answers to prayers for the impossible got anybody you love will we see

the sovereignty of God as our only hope for success in evangelism Among The Walking Dead will we see the sovereignty of God as our only hope for meaning in suffering or will we just give way to chaos and absurdity or will we in sist there's got to be a better hope than the sovereignty of God or no hope that's the question you'll be facing last preliminary observation some of you will hear what I say and you will conclude that cannot be compatible with my moral responsibility if that's true I'm not responsible that's what some of

you will feel and I'm pleading with you in the outset don't go there we are attempting as a church to be more biblical than we are systematic if the Bible says God is absolutely Sovereign over your willing and you think that that makes your willing negligible or meaningless you're wrong just because the Bible says so not because I say so your willing matters infinitely your eternity hangs on it choose ye this day whom You Shall Serve Christ or non- Christ so I have said that and therefore let it not be said that the rest of

this sermon contradicts that which some of you will say it does but it doesn't and it doesn't matter whether you can see how it doesn't that's what it means to submit to the Bible we're going to divide the Bible up now on its address to the sovereignty of God into natural phenomena and human Affairs okay these involve God ruling natural processes and these involve God ruling human choices okay that's the two Hales and we'll just take texts and let him let him talk to us now for the rest of this rest of this message and

I'm going to close with seven reasons for why this is precious to us at Bethlehem and I hope it's precious to you and I'll turn those into exhortation sovereignty over nature God is Sovereign over the most random things you can imagine Proverbs 16:33 the lot is cast in the lap and every decision is from the Lord now well how would we say that today we would say the dice is rolled in Vegas and every stopping of the dice with those numbers up is from God all of them or if you're uh playing Scrabble at home

and stick your hand into the bag and pull out your letters God decides what letters you get you play Uno God decides and L you think that's trifling try this are not Two Sparrows this is Jesus talking are not Two Sparrows sold for a penny in other words they are utterly insignificant and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father even the hairs of your head are all numbered the roll of the dice in Vegas every one of them or in your board game at home and the Tiny Bird dying

in a thousand forests are governed by God that's Jesus way and the Proverbs way of saying there aren't any details too small for his control that's his way of saying it if you were today he'd talk in terms of molecules he'd say with RC Sproul there's not one Maverick molecule in the universe from worms in the ground to stars in the galaxy God governs take the Book of Jonah all right you got a very big fish and the Bible says that he commanded this fish to swallow Jonah and the fish obeyed so fish do God's

bidding if he says them to do this they do it and and he commanded a plant to grow up to give Jonah some shade plant grow up it obeyed plants do the bidding of God then he commanded a worm to kill the plant to make Jonah hot and scold him for his bad attitude about Nineveh so the worm obeyed I take this totally seriously bacteria tsy fly murderous viruses do God's bidding they're not free any more than the worm or the whale or the plant just happened to grow up God sees everything and if anything

is about to happen that he doesn't want to happen he just says stop and it obeys and if it didn't stop he didn't tell it to stop which means he's got a plan for it or the Stars lift up your eyes and see who created these he who brings out their host by number calling them all by name by the greatness of his might and because he is wrong in power not one of them is missing Why are stars where they are doing what they do he is mighty in power that's why I'm totally not

a naturalist I see fingers of God in the atom and in the galaxies all the time every millisecond of History controlling everything I don't know what kind of God that you have who Maybe folding his arm sitting back doing nothing letting the world run rampant that's just not the biblical God and therefore not our God if the stars how much more the weather disasters disease disability death Psalm 147 verse 15 he sends out his command to the Earth his word bird runs swiftly he gives snow like wool they had 40 Ines last week in the

in the in the Smoky Mountains God did that he hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs who can stand before his cold I love living in Minnesota is that cold that's God you haven't felt Cold Yet all you Californians just arrived he sends out his word and he melts them he makes his wind blow and Waters Flow that's Psalm 47 here's job 37 he loads the thick clouds with moisture the clouds scatter his lightning they turn Round and Round by his guidance to accomplish all his commands He commands them and on the face of

the inhabitable world he does his bidding whether for correction or for his land or for love he causes it to happen I love how clear the Bible is about the sovereignty of God over the natural world snow rain cold heat wind are the work of God and when Jesus finds himself in the middle of a life-threatening raging Storm STM he stands up and speaks two words be still and the wind stops and the waves go flat and he could have done it last Monday in New York and if you say he couldn't have I don't

know what kind of Jesus you have is he alive is he reigning is he the same Jes Jesus today of course he is which means anytime anywhere on the planet any wind can be stopped with two words from Heaven stop and it would obey and if he doesn't say it he has purposes there there is no wind there is no storm there is no hurricane there is no Cyclone there's no typhoon there is no Monsoon there's no tornado over which Jesus cannot say Be Still without getting off his throne and it will obey him and

if it blows he intends it to blow and he has purposes for it that are better than avoiding it that's what I'd preach if I were in the middle of New York right now with the long six-hour lines at the guestline and 98 plus people dead and new bodies being found everywhere I wouldn't preach my God is helpless I would not I would not take away the hope of these people by saying you don't have a God who can help you because he's just too weak to stop a storm how could he control the storms

of your life how could he help you at all if he can't speak what Jesus spoke I wouldn't preach that way I don't preach that way we don't believe that way and so it is with all the sufferings of life and all the losses and pains and groans of Life the Lord said to Moses and before I read this verse I want to invite you to that conference on Thursday at the north campus on disability The Works of God God's good design and disability and that that kind of language get you shot in some places

God's good design and disability how dare we how dare we have a conference with such a title come and find out so here's the verse that the conference one of them is built on the Lord said to Moses this is Exodus 4:1 the Lord said to Moses when Moses got all uppity about being unable to speak good enough the Lord said to Moses who made man's mouth who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind is it not I the Lord the person whom I've heard quote that verse most often is John Knight Blessed

John who has a blind son born blind no eyes that's not easy it wasn't easy it isn't easy we're not saying disability is easy life is not easy first Peter four let those who suffer according to God's Will and trust their souls to a faithful Creator 1 Peter 3:17 it is better to suffer for doing good if that should be God's will than for doing evil suffering for doing good God's will really yes so whether we suffer from disability or whether we suffer from the evil of others persecution God ultimately decides whether we suffer or

whether we live or whether we die listen to Deuteronomy 32:39 there is no God besides me says says the Lord I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal and none can deliver out of my hand or James 4:13 come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there and make a profit you don't know what tomorrow will bring what is your life you're a Mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes instead you ought to say if the Lord

Wills we will live and do this or that you got a plan to go to duth on Monday you may not get there and if you don't it wasn't his plan you may not live till Monday and if you don't that wasn't his plan it was his plan for you to go home if the Lord Wills we will live I will finish this sermon if the Lord Wills if a wacko walks through the door shoots me between the eyes it was God's will so be sure you don't say wrong things at the funeral my wife

will stand up and correct you the roll of the dice the fall of a bird the crawl of a worm the movement of the Stars the falling of snow the blowing of wind the loss of sight the suffering of the Saints and the death of everybody these are included in the word I will accomplish all my purpose enough on natural phenomena let's go to human Affairs vote on Tuesday that's a pastoral exhortation not a demand from God but pretty strongly felt sense that that's God's will as I discern our role in a democratic order that

you should do that I know many of you and including myself or not and excited about the options in front of us I don't care about whether or not they are ideal options I just know somebody's going to be president and you should not abdicate the impossibility of discerning who over the next four years would incrementally bring the greater blessing to this nation who can know well God can know alone but humans are being called upon to make that choice and if all the people who pray most and think most biblically bow out of that

decision-making process then we have less cause to think that the best will come so I say to you vote on the candidates and vote on the Amendments and let their be no man exalting illusion that you will be decisive in who becomes president nobody on the planet will be decisive in who becomes president God will be decisive in who becomes president Daniel 2 verse 21 he changes times and Seasons he removes Kings and sets up Kings the most high rules the kingdom of men and gives it to to whom he will God will reign on

Tuesday as he has reigned every Tuesday and in all generations and whoever the next president is he will not be Sovereign he will be governed he will be ruled and we should pray for him that he would know that and bow his neck Under The Sovereign hand of Jesus Christ Lord of all king of kings and Lord of lords every every president and every King on the planet should bow before Jesus that's what we should if you wonder what to pray politically pray that may Obama and Romney bow before King Jesus of the Bible that's

what they need more than anything but they're not sovereign because the Bible says the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord he turns it wherever he will and when the president engages in foreign affairs he should have no illusion that he will be decisive in foreign affairs because God said in Psalm 33 the Lord brings the councils of the Nations to nothing he frustrates the plans of the peoples the Council of the Lord stands forever the plans of his heart to all generations oh that the rulers of the world

would be humbled lest they be made to eat grass like an ox and grow feathers like an eagle and nails like a claw of a ospry when Nations gather gathered together to do their absolute worst namely murder the Son of God had they slipped out of God's control no they were at their worst more firmly in God's control than anywhere and God in the moment of their greatest sin thereby destroyed sin I'll read this to you I love these verses and when people ask me how important do you think believing in the sovereignty of God

is these are the verses that I read this is acts chap 4: 27 and 28 truly in this city Jerusalem where gathered together against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed Herod Pontius Pilate along with the Gentiles that probably be the soldiers and and the peoples of Israel crying crucify him crucify him so Herod Pontius Pilate the Gentile soldiers and all the crowds to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place all of it was sin killing the Son of God is the worst sin there is you need a category in

your brain for God willing that sin be without sinning say that again you need a Biblical category in your brain for God willing that that sin happen without himself being a sinner or sinning if you don't have that category this text will make no sense the bottom line reason for me why the sovereignty of God is so precious and there are many lines besides the bottom one is that I'd have no savior without the sovereignty of God no savior sent by the father with an infallible purpose to endure the worst sin against him and thereby

defeat sin and save Sinners Like Me it would not be because he said I'll read it again Herod Pontius Pilate the Gentiles the peoples of Israel gathered together to do whatever your hand and your plan predestined to take place if that had not been done according to God's Perfect Design prophesied in the the Old Testament and worked out in its detail down to whether they tear this garment or don't tear this garment I would not be saved this is a big deal and so our Salvation was secured by the sovereignty of God and if you're

a Christian if your heart has been humbled and you have loved Christ and trusted Christ and received received Christ and banked on Christ and put your hope in Christ as your savior and your Lord You Have Not only been secured through the blood of Jesus according to the perfect Sovereign plan of God but you have also been awakened by that plan he has granted you repentance 2 Timothy 2: 24 he drew you to Christ some of you kicking and screaming John 6:44 he revealed the Son of God compellingly to you Matthew 11:27 he granted you

the gift of faith Ephesians 2:8 and9 by Grace you have been saved through faith this is not your own doing it is the gift of God not of Works lest anyone should boast God God has saved us in a way to exclude all boasting boasting about how smart I am or how spiritually Resolute I am or how Discerning I am in spiritual things blah blah blah none of it there will be no boasting he did it he gave it to me and you there may have been a hundred horrible things in your life to this

point there may have been a hundred horrible things in your life and if today you are moved to treasure Christ as your savior and Lord you may write over all 100 of those horrible things that have come into your life to make life so horrible times you may write over it Satan this is Genesis 50:20 Satan you meant all that for evil God meant all that for good and I now from this day forward aim to see as much of what he's done in and through my life and all the horrible things that have happened

to me I aim no longer to devote myself to murmuring and critic iism and and anger and bitterness but rather I aim to listen to his voice and learn God what do you want to make of this broken life God meant it for good so I close with Ephesians 1:11 which Brian quoted in his prayer God works all things according to the counsel of his will from the roll of the dice to the circuits of the Stars to the rise of presidence to the death of Jesus to the gift of repentance and Faith he accomplish

it he accomplishes it according to his will which leaves me just these closing seven statements about why this is so precious to us and I'm going to put them in terms of exhortations instead of just statements number one let us stand in awe of The Sovereign Authority Freedom wisdom and power of God let this be occasion an occasion for worship number two Let Us never trifle with life as though it were a small or Light Affair the sovereignty of God makes me serious I mean if every time you reach into the bag play and Scrabble

you know he's going to decide what letters you get everything is Ultimate that's true three let us Marvel at our own salvation God bought it and God wrought it with Sovereign power and you are not your own number four let us groan over the god belittling man centeredness of our culture and much of the church number five let us be bold at the throne of grace in prayer knowing that now since we have a sovereign God nothing is too hard for him and we may ask for the ire impossible I don't know how people pray

who don't believe in the sovereignty of God to do the impossible because all the things I want to happen are impossible if they're possible I'll do them I need help with what I can't do because no human can save the people I love number six let us rejoice that our evangelism will not be in vain because there's no sin or so hard The Sovereign Grace of God can't break through you want success in evangelism Bank in the sovereignty of God he's the only one who can save number seven and finally be thrilled let us be

thrilled and let us be calm in these days of upheaval knowing Victory belongs to God and none of the purposes that he intends to accomplish can be thwarted let's pray Father in Heaven I bow with my brothers and sisters here I bow and submit to your sovereignty you are God and I am not I bow with gratitude that you have used your sovereignty to come into the world to save Sinners and that you haven't just come in Jesus to put him in our place but you have come by the Holy Spirit to rip open our

dead hearts and raise us from the dead and incline us to your testimonies and you have taken out the Heart of Stone and put in the heart of Flesh and made us to rejoice in you and for this we are stunned with gratitude we did not save ourselves and I pray now that in this great confidence we would be calm in these days of a evil and in this calmness we would sew seeds of Truth and Love and righteousness throughout this city and throughout the world and we would not be among the number who panic

but among the number who are peaceful that our God is in control and when everything is crashing down we can still love people our leaves remain green the fruit still grows on our branches when there's desert everywhere cuz you're Sovereign and we praise you in Jesus name amen