God The Sovereign Creator

Verse 26, that's rather taking it a little out of context, but because of time I have to do this, perhaps you'd like to read the whole chapter when you get home later this evening. Romans 9, 14. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.

For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory, and the vessels of mercy which he had before prepared unto glory? Even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles, as he saith also in Hosea, I will call them my people which were not my people, and her beloved which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there shall they be called the children of the living God.

Amen. Perhaps just before I begin this study I should also add one other word by way of apologies should something rather untoward happen. I've managed to injure my bottom lip quite badly and I'm hoping that it won't start to bleed profusely through talking this evening, but if it does, I apologize in advance.

I shall be all right, I shall hope to continue, but I hope the sight won't put you off too much. So that's an apology in advance and I hope it won't even be warranted. Now then, we come to the sixth study in our series on the doctrine of God, and you will have gathered from the notes that have been issued to you that this evening I want us to consider specifically the topic of God as the sovereign creator.

God as the sovereign creator. Now we'll take this title and split it up and approach these concepts very simply so that I hope that all of you shall understand and appreciate the reason why we have to study this particular facet of the doctrine. Let's take the word sovereign to start with, shall we? What does it mean when you employ such an adjective as, for example, a sovereign king? Well, if you were to turn the clock back in history a little while, the history of this country, there was a time when the monarch in England had absolute power.

To some extent that power has waned during the last few decades and power is invested in parliament and the queen is, she has authority, but the authority, really, the sovereign power of the state is in parliament and the queen goes along with the dictates of parliament. She signs the laws, as you are aware. Well, it wasn't always like that.

Before parliament came about, the sovereign had absolute power and some of the monarchs in England exercised that power in a remarkable fashion and were remarkable men and women. They had all authority invested in them. Now as far as the Bible is concerned, it takes the word sovereign and without any qualification, without any apology at all, it applies it to the Lord God.

And on every page of the Bible, is underlined the concept of the sovereignty of the Lord. He is the one in whom all power is found. He is the one from which all power is derived.

For example, in the 135th Psalm, we read the psalmist saying this about the power of the Lord and his ability to do whatever he wanted. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he and in earth and in the seas and all deep places. And then if you were to read through the book of Proverbs, you would come across the statement that it is by God that kings reign.

All human authority is ultimately traced back to the divine source. This is simply what the Lord Jesus was saying when Pontius Pilate made that boast that he had authority to, he had the power to release the Saviour. And Jesus said to him, giving him a prompt reminder, a pertinent reminder, you would have no power, no power at all unless God in his sovereignty allowed you to exercise your power.

Again, the same argument is developed by the Apostle Paul when he's writing in the later chapters of the Roman Epistle and he refers to civil authorities, civil administration. All their power ultimately comes from the Lord. So then the Bible has a worldview.

It approaches the world with a philosophy that is, that is adequate, that covers all the creative power and all the power that men and women exercise and it says ultimately this derives from, this comes from the great God of glory. Well that's what we mean then when we talk about the sovereignty of God. He has all power on every stage of existence whether you're thinking of the created world in terms of the universes, in terms of the planets or whether you're thinking about men and women or animals.

God has all power. He is in control. As we used to sing in my old Sunday school back in Yorkshire, God is still on the throne and although I don't go to Sunday school I still believe that chorus that God is all powerful.

Well earlier in our series we we studied certain scriptures, we sifted the evidence of the Bible to find out what sort of God this is who contains all power and we were driven to the conclusion that he is a personal God. He's not remote, he's not cut off from us, he's not divorced from the world that's made, that he has made, but rather as I try to bring out in my prayer, our God is near. He is nigh unto them who call upon him.

And more than just the person of God we discover in the Bible, the doctrine of God is developed to such an extent that there are certain features of the personality of God that are revealed to us. We are told that God is a holy God, we are told that God is a loving God, and you remember how we have gone through certain parts of the Old Testament and the New Testament to find out what the Bible means when it speaks of the the love of the Lord God and the holiness of the Lord God. Well now, following this logical approach to the doctrine of God, having thought about the love of God and the holiness of God and God's involvement with the world, we've got to relate the whole concept of his sovereignty to you and to me.

You say, what do you mean? Well look, it's simple really. If God is all-powerful, as the Bible says he is, and if God has authority over every created being, which obviously includes you and me, then in what sense does the sovereignty of God affect me? How does the sovereignty of God affect my power, affect my freedom? How does God exercise the authority and the control that is invested in him? Now that's a very, very interesting subject to explore from the Word of God. So interesting and so controversial that you'll find down the centuries people have argued it through.

The relationship, the conflict between the concepts of the doctrine of the sovereignty of God and the freedom of men and women, the freedom of the will. And we must recognize the fact that when we start to explore this particular avenue of biblical teaching that we're treading on very, very difficult ground indeed. And as I say, historians over the centuries, or theologians rather, over the centuries have been in conflict about these two particular aspects of biblical teaching.

And sometimes their thinking is polarized and they've taken up extreme positions. Some, because of one position that they have adopted, have have acquired a defective doctrine of God. And they have not recognized that God is all-powerful and that God is indeed sovereign.

And other people who have recognized the sovereignty of God have allowed such a concept of freesom as far as evangelism is concerned. And they have no hunger, or so it would seem to, to reach men and women with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, these are two extreme positions and that can be adopted.

And we must note this warning that as people have fallen into pitfalls when studying this particular aspect of bible teaching, when studying the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, so we must watch that we don't fall into any holes at all, or become extreme in our thinking. But rather, let the bible itself teach us on these particular topics and keep us from emphasizing one position over against another. Now, there is hardly time within 20 or 25 minutes for me to go through the whole doctrine of the sovereignty of God and the so-called freedom of man.

And it would be presumptuous of me to suggest that I could in in any way provide a synthesis, provide a solution to the conflict that theologians have been engaged in for so many years. What is my intention this evening, if God enables me so to do, is to provide pointers, stepping stones that will help you as you try and think through these teachings from the word of God, so that in your own mind you will know which way that you are to go and what are the particular stones that that you should be stepping across as you traverse the bible's teaching on this particular aspect of Christian doctrine. And if you should want to read it up further, then let me suggest to you two books which have been of great help to me when dealing with this subject some time ago as a student.

I remember reading, at least going through parts of Martin Luther's book, The Bondage of the Will, and I recommend it to you. Or a paperback book produced by the InterVarsity Fellowship by a man called Dr. Packer, and the book there is entitled Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. Well, let's look at the idea then of God's sovereignty over man.

What does all this add up to? Well, the first verse of the bible tells us that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and Christian theology, as we've already noted, starts with God. It is God who creates. The Apostle Paul, when he is preaching at Athens, quotes one of the the pagan philosophers and endorses what he has to say about God, that in him we move and live and have our being.

We exist because of God. The whole of life, as I've tried to show you, is contingent, is dependent upon God. And so we can make a number of deductions from these opening statements.

We can say that because man is dependent upon God, it is right to accept what the bible teaches when it clearly says God created man. God created man. You say, well, that's an obvious thing.

We haven't come here on a Thursday evening to be reminded of that. We know that it's in the first couple of chapters in the bible. Yes, my friend, but it's very easy to say those words, God created man, and not realize what you are saying.

You're speaking volumes when you utter that bible text. God. What God? What is this God like? Well, he is the personal God, the holy God, the God of love whose character we have been studying.

It is this God, this creator of the world. Yes, but this personal God who is nigh to all who call upon him. It is this one who has created man.

And what is man? He's not an ordinary animal. He's not to be equated with your cat or your dog or any other animal. Man is unique.

What is the uniqueness of man? Well, you see, he is born, he has been made in the image of God. He has this quality that no other creature has, a capacity to enjoy a relationship with God. The stamp of God is upon man.

Oh yes, that stamp's been marred, virtually erased by sin, but there are still fragments of it there. There is still within the hearts of men and women a desire which the Holy Spirit activates for God, for a knowledge of the Lord. So I say God created man.

That is something that you deduce from the concept of God's sovereignty over the world. And then something else that we must add to this. A good God created man.

And you will remember that in studying the doctrine of the love of God, we were driven inexorably to the conclusion that God is a good God. Not any God, but a good God. A God who is so good that he wants to relate to men and women.

A God who is so good that he's made it possible for his created beings to have a relationship with him. As one theologian has expressed it, no one faith, no religious faith compares at all with the Christian in the clearness and force with which the connection between the origin of man and the goodness of God is affirmed. And there's something else that we can deduce from the idea of the sovereignty of God and the fact that God is a good God.

And that is that he recognizes a responsibility to men and women who he has created. A responsibility that goes beyond their actual creation. You say, what do you mean? Well, I think Peter helps us here because in the first letter which bears his name in the New Testament, the apostle Peter refers to God in these terms, in these words.

He speaks to him of God as being a faithful creator. Let me read the whole verse, wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful creator. Why does Peter use that adjective faithful? Why not just creator? Because implicit in Peter's argument here is the thought that God recognizes a responsibility beyond mere creation.

You say, I don't follow you. All right, let me put it on a human, with a human analogy. When a man and a woman bring a child into the world, is there not a sense in which they are responsible for the care of that child? The young infant's been born.

Is that the end of their responsibility? Of course not. No judge in the country would accept that if they were brought to court for neglecting their child. The very fact of parenthood involves a responsibility beyond the bringing into the world of the child.

You understand that and obviously you concur with what I am saying. Now surely what is true on the human level is also true on the divine level. Here is this great God who of his own volition, of his own will, has determined to bring men and women into this world a unique creation, something in his own image.

Now is there not therefore a necessity on the part of God, because he has of his own free will brought into this world men and women, is there not a necessity for him to go beyond the act of creation and to ensure some benefit for this man, for this woman, in case they are in need of his help as a father might provide his beneficial help to the son that he has been enabled to bring into this world. You see the point that I'm trying to emphasize, God's sovereignty over man as it is taught in the Bible shows us that this good God recognizes a special responsibility towards man. He is a faithful creator, not just a creator, a faithful creator and his faithfulness is seen in terms of well John chapter 3 and verse 16.

God so loved the world, what did he do? He didn't just create it, God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son. Why did he send his son? Well you see the men that he had created they had fallen. Every man, every woman has sinned, fallen short of the standards that God wanted them to attain to, but this faithful creator does not leave them to their own devices.

No, he sends his son into the world to do what? To do a rescue work, to prove the faithfulness of God and this I say is a demonstration of the sovereign power of God. In his love, in his holiness, he sends his only son and commissions him with an evangelistic task to secure the redemption of believing mankind. All right, that's how scripture presents the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, but again we have the problem that I intimated some moments ago.

How does man's freedom come into this? After all, if God has in some arbitrary fashion sent his son into the world to execute a saving work, if God has created the world and created men and women and so on and so forth and he has all power invested in himself, then what about man's freedom? Is the bible's picture of man and his relationship to God akin to an inventor who constructs robots? That's the problem I say. Now let's try and think it through a little bit, not with the hopes of resolving it, but again as I reminded you a little while ago, with the idea of providing stepping stones for us to cross when we are traversing this particular piece of bible teaching. Let's take that phrase, man's freedom, the freedom of the will.

I often hear it bandied about, you know, and it makes me smile when people talk about the freedom of the will, and I often wonder if folks who lightly employ such a term really understand what it means, because I find it very difficult even to even to comprehend what that term in effect is saying, because I have never experienced absolute freedom, and neither have you. It's impossible you see. Freedom is always restricted as far as men and women are concerned.

I give you an obvious example. Did you choose to be born? Of course you did not. Did you choose to be born an Englishman? Now you may be very glad that you were, I most certainly am, and I'm proud to say so, but I didn't choose it.

It just happened on the human level. I arrived and I discovered that I was in the United Kingdom, and even that discovery took a little bit of working out. I probably made it when I was about three or four years of age.

You see the point, I didn't select my environment. I didn't know that my parents would be my parents. I didn't choose them.

You see, it's ridiculous the illustration that I'm giving you, but sometimes you have to appeal to something that is absurd, to make something that seems to be clear, stand out as being not so simple as you thought it was. The idea of free will, we're not so free. You go to the doctors, go to the psychologists, and ask them about the freedom of the will.

And you know psychologists can say some most peculiar things, and there's one brand of psychology in the country today that suggests that man far from being free is completely controlled. He's controlled by his glands, controlled by his thyroid glands. I once heard Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones suggest in a half-hearted fashion that the reason for the Second World War was because Hitler had an overdeveloped thyroid gland.

Well, certainly our glands affect us, and certainly the circumstances in which we find ourselves affect us as we mature, as our personality develops. Now you see, what I'm trying to do is to to put before you, to argue that this this idea that's bandied about so much about the freedom of the will is something that's completely misunderstood, because the will is not absolutely free. And I haven't been speaking about theology, I've been speaking about psychiatry for a moment or two.

But theologically speaking, how can the will be free? I mean, we as evangelical Christians, we recognize, do we not, that the carnal mind is enmity against God. Where is the freedom in the carnal mind? If man is free, what does the Savior mean when he says that the Son will set you free? And when the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed. No, freedom comes to the Christian when he confesses Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and even that is a paradoxical freedom.

In God's service there is perfect freedom. No, the will is not as free as we sometimes believe it to be. But let's continue having said that along our line of discussion, because I want to bring into your vocabulary a word that some of you at any rate may not have come across before, and I apologize for being technical, but it's necessary to to understand the help that we can get from the Bible at this point.

I want to talk to you not just about the phrase free will, but about the word antinomy, an antinomy. Do you know what that is? Well, when you have two opposing ideas that seem to conflict, then you have an antinomy. In the book that I recommended you to buy by Dr. Packer, he gives an illustration from science there.

Now, I'm not a physicist. I don't understand much about science. I must confess my ignorance on the subject.

But I gather that as far as light is concerned, and analysis of light is concerned, then physicists run into a problem. Why? Well, you see, there's certain evidence that suggests that light is made up of particles, and then there's other evidence that clearly suggests that light is made up of waves. Now, it's impossible on the human level for light to be made up of both particles and waves.

It's either one or or so most scientists would think, on a logical plane. But here you are. Science is not always that neat and tidy subject that some people reckon it to be.

And you have to go along with both view points. You don't like it. It's untidy.

It's obnoxious to your own mental standing, because you prefer things always to be tied up in a neat parcel. But nonetheless, as far as science is concerned, here you have this difficulty of explaining light. Is it particles? Is it waves? You've got evidence to underline that it's both, and yet it can't be both, or so it would seem.

Now, that's what I mean by an antinomy. Now, on the theological level, you've got exactly the same sort of thing, a theological antinomy. Here you have the Bible clearly teaching that God is sovereign, and yet the Bible clearly teaches that man has a responsibility to this God.

Now, how can God have absolute power and man still be responsible to him of his own initiative, of his own will? Well, you can't resolve it. You can't resolve it logically. You come back to what I was trying to tell you some while ago, that as, well, let's quote Martin Luther.

There's a bit more authority there. Luther refers to the hidden part of God, and he says that we don't understand all that there is to know about God. And this is precisely the reason why I led off the notes this week with another quotation to indicate that from the book of Job, and you could supplement that from the Old Testament quotation where God says, my ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts.

In the New Testament quotation, our God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever think. We can't understand all that there is to know about God, and therefore, as far as the sovereignty of God is concerned and the responsibility, on the other hand, of man is concerned, though logically they seem to contradict one another, we must accept both these things as being, well, a theological antinomy. We must accept them and rejoice in them, because this is what the Bible teaches.

It tells us that God is absolutely sovereign. There can be no question about that. Listen to the apostle Paul, and he makes a grand statement in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 11, speaking of the work of God.

He talks about the Christian, the believer, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. The election of men and women to the church of Jesus Christ, well, it's all within terms of the predestination of the foreknowledge of God, says the apostle Paul, and he deduces this rightly by the leading of the Spirit and from the doctrine of the sovereignty of the Lord. Take an Old Testament example, a historic one which is perhaps easier to grasp.

Here is Joseph, and he's meeting up with his brothers again. You remember his brothers were responsible for selling him off as a slave and caused him ultimately to land up in in Egypt. Now, Joseph, when he remeets his brothers years later, Joseph having become prime minister of all of all Egypt, he inquires into the events of his life.

He evaluates them, and this is what he has to say about God's hand in his life, speaking to his brothers, that as for you, ye thought evil against me, that God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day, to save much people alive. Did you think that you were selling me off to the Ishmaelites? Did you think that you were selling me to the traders, that it was all of your own initiative, that this was just your evil planning? Oh well, on the human level that may be the case, but says Joseph, on the divine level it was all within the sovereignty of God. He purposed it so that ultimately I might be able to help you and your children and my father and bring you down to Egypt so that you will be preserved as a nation during the days of famine.

And one could give hundreds of other illustrations to underline the stress that scripture lays on the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, but over against that is this idea of the responsibility of man. For example, in John's gospel, we've quoted John chapter three in verse 16. Let me quote verse 18, speaking of the Savior, this is what the evangelist says, he that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Oh yes, God has foreknown, God has predestined, God has predetermined the the composition of his church, but as far as scripture is concerned, a man is to be arrested with the gospel. He is to be compelled to come into the kingdom. Every force on the human level is to be exerted to bring him to to a knowledge of God by the clear presentation of the gospel.

Not that you will ever convert him, of course not, but you are to do everything in your power to make conversion possible. For conversion, salvation, as Jonah deduced, even in the belly of the fish, is of the Lord. Now if you turn to a text like Luke chapter 22 and verse 22, you'll find that both these ideas are expressed together, and the Bible doesn't even apologize for so doing.

Luke 22 verse 22, the context is a reference to the betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Passover meal has just been celebrated, and you remember Jesus has transformed it into the into what really was the the last supper. And this is what the Savior has to say about his betrayal.

I'll read from verse 21. But behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table. He's speaking of course of Judas Iscariot, Judas from Kerioth.

And truly the son of man goeth as it was determined, but woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed. Now you see, the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. The son of man goeth as it was determined.

Determined in the sovereignty of God, but here's the responsibility of man. But woe unto that man, Judas, by whom he is betrayed. Judas is responsible for his diabolical action.

So you see the point, both these thoughts are brought together in terms of one scripture, and the Bible doesn't even blush to do so. You see, the Bible presents to us these two parallel lines of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. And what are you to do? What are you to do with an antinomy? Well, let me read from Dr. Packer's book, the one that I recommended earlier.

What should one do then with an antinomy? Accept it for what it is, and learn to live with it. Refuse to regard the apparent inconsistency as real. Put down the semblance of contradiction to the deficiency of your own understanding.

Think of the two principles as not alternatives, but in some way that at present you do not grasp, complementary to each other. Do you know what Spurgeon's answer was when someone asked him to reconcile God's sovereignty and human responsibility? Spurgeon said, reconcile them? He said, I never reconcile friends. I never reconcile friends.

Well, here we are, the greatness of our God portrayed in Scripture, the one with all authority. We cling to this conception of God. We shall defend it to our deathbed.

But on the other hand, we must be aggressive in our evangelism. We are told to go into all the world and proclaim the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, and we are to implore by the power of the Holy Spirit that men indeed shall come to an understanding of the Savior. Let me spend just my last two minutes then in reviewing the whole position.

I've spoken about sovereignty of God and the alleged free will of man. Let me say that if you want further light on this, if you're troubled about this subject, and you've got to think it through if you're a mature Christian, you've got at least to contemplate it now and again. Let me give you this piece of advice.

Relate it all to the character of God. And this is the reason why I follow this logical progression in dealing with the subject of the doctrine of God. I dealt with His person and with His characteristics first.

Why? Because I wanted to show you clearly from Scripture that God is a moral being. All moral standards come from Him. He is the one who is pure.

He is perfect. And as I say, every decent standard derives from God. And it is to this God that you are to bring all your problems.

All right, I don't understand it all. You're not the first one. The apostle Paul didn't.

He said that he understood some things darkly. And so what do we do? Well, where we do not understand the dealings of our God, where we do not understand theology, then we relate it to the person of God. You know, some people try to be more systematic in their theology than the Bible is.

And where the Bible doesn't dot all the I's and cross all the T's, then don't you try to dot them and cross them yourself. Relate it to the sovereignty of a God. Of what God? Of a God who is holy.

Of a God who is a God of love. You remember when Abraham was battling in his own mind as to the rightness of what God was going to do in a specific situation? What conclusion did Abraham come to? Well, he puts it in the interrogative. He puts it in the question form.

Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? This is what we believe. Our God is ultimately the moral being. He is the epitome of goodness, of purity, of holiness.

And when we do not understand all the teachings of scripture, when they don't seem to relate, when they don't always seem to be reconciled in our own thinking, well we do not understand. We believe God and we accept the teaching of his word. God is sovereign, but man is responsible for his actions.

Therefore let us preach about our sovereign God, our great Father, who has so loved the world that he has sent his Son into the world to come to the help of fallen men and women such as we are. Amen.