THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD

Sovereignty is a big word. We hear it much we when speak about the Lord and the implications are beyond what our minds can fully conceive. When we say that the Lord is sovereign we mean that He is in absolute control of everything and knows everything from before it was, to how it will process as well as to when and how it will end. This is an implication of God being the "I am" as revealed to Moses (Exodus 3:14) and also describing Himself this way:

I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come,

the Almighty (Revelation 1:8 - ESV)

Both passages reveal this one, amazingly complex, truth that must govern the faithful in how we should see the Lord: He is the God who exists before and above time and, therefore, in not subject to the boundaries of time or space that limit, confine or produce decay. He is sovereign.

We know this...or at least we speak this way about the Lord, but it is not the definition of the term itself that is the key. It is understanding, embracing and living under the implications of what it means to know and serve this sovereign Lord. If we affirm the opening paragraph we are doing more than assenting to theological truth. We are saying that, while we may not fully understand everything about His sovereignty, we are pledging our allegiance and trust in Him to demonstrate this belief in our everyday lives.

The sovereignty of God means that there is nothing in this world, indeed the universe, that God is not in complete control of. If there were something or someone that operated outside of this authority and control of God, God would not - indeed He could not - be God. The late theologian, R.C. Sproul is known to have said that if even a particle of dust existed and moved without or outside of the Lord's sovereignty, God would not be sovereign. If sovereignty implies full control all things then everything, logically, must be under His control. EVERYTHING! I am laboring on this fact because I think that when we actually this truth to all of our circumstances in life people begin to scratch their heads or begin to seek to redefine sovereignty. Yet, the Lord does not need our help in this way.

He does not need us to qualify His authority simply because it imposes itself, with supreme authority, on the ideas and thoughts of others. We need not qualify His authority but always remember that His ways are above our ways and His thoughts above our thoughts. When we cannot understand God, it is not the fault of the Lord. It is not that He is not or has not been clear. It is not that He needs to accommodate His words to meet our wishes. No, this is never the case. The problem, always, is with us. It is our limited and finite ability to comprehend the infinite that causes the rift. Yet, men seek to change the meaning of divine things in order to accommodate our unwillingness to surrender to or trust, the Holy One.

The Lord loves His people and everything He reveals to us is, not only for our good and joy, but also a call to trust Him implicitly and completely. This is what should be our response to the Lord when we do not understand or cannot comprehend what He is saying. We should not deny or seek to modify His words. We should trust Him.

To that end I want to lay out some of the implications of the sovereignty of God to our life and to our thoughts about circumstances and events in the world. I will give thoughts to the following aspects of the Lord's lordship:

1. The Sovereignty of God and salvation

2. The Sovereignty of God as it relates to evangelism

3. The Sovereignty of God as it relates to suffering and world events

4. The Sovereignty of God as it relates to your daily actions and lifestyle

If He is in control of all things - and He is - this means that for all of the points above, He is in control of every aspect. Our first point of understanding these things is not to seek to figure them out. Our first posture must be, again, one of trust. Trust in the authority of His Word and trust that His way is always a way towards His glory and our joy since understanding this truth about the Lord is designed to produce joy, not confusion.

Know this thought and hold tight to it as we journey, though briefly, in this mind-blowing territory of the sovereignty of God:

While we cannot know things about God, fully, we can know the same things truly.