Have you ever listened to someone talk about why they don’t like to fly in an airplane? I, for one, kind of enjoy it—I feel like I get to sit back and relax while I’m travelling somewhere. But I know a lot of people really don’t enjoy flying, and they have a lot of different reasons for that opinion. For some people, it might be the fact that they’re afraid of heights—they don’t like to think about being thousands of feet up in the air. Other people just feel too confined when they’re in a plane—they don’t like sharing an armrest with the person next to them or going into those tiny restrooms on the plane.
But one reason that I’ve heard from people a number of times is that they don’t like to fly because they’re not in control of the plane. They feel much safer in a car because they’re in control of the vehicle. But in a plane, they don’t know what’s going on in the cockpit; they don’t know what all of those strange noises are; they don’t know if the pilot is actually paying attention!
So for people who feel this way, the feel uneasy because they are not in control of the plane. You know, sometimes I think life can make us feel the same way. Life offers us many, many reminders that we are not in control. We are not in control of the people around us, we are not in control of the economy or the stock market or the weather or the future or even the present day, and these reminders can make us feel very uneasy. We feel unsettled because we can start to feel helpless in the face of all of these things, and when we realize that we are not in control of all of these things, deep down we want to know that someone is. We know we’re not in control, but if we have the reassurance that someone is, it can go a long way toward bringing rest to our souls.
The word we are going to study today teaches us that God is in control of all things. Today we are going to study the word “sovereignty.” We’ll take a look first of all at what the word “sovereignty” means and then we’ll look at a couple of aspects of God’s sovereignty.
I. What does the word “sovereignty” mean? Dan. 4
The word “sovereignty” refers to the power or authority that someone exercises over a certain area, like a kingdom or a nation. This is illustrated well in Daniel 4—why don’t you turn there with me? In Dan. 4, King Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has an unusual dream about a large and mighty tree. In the dream, this tree was cut down and stripped of all of its foliage and fruit, but its stump was still left in the ground. Eventually, King Nebuchadnezzar had Daniel interpret this dream, and Daniel revealed that the tree represented the king. The fact that it was cut down meant that Nebuchadnezzar was going to lose his power for a while, but the remnant of the stump meant that the king would regain his power after a period of time.
The fulfillment of this dream is recorded beginning in v. 28 [READ Dan. 4:28–32]. So we see here in v. 32 that the king’s sovereignty was removed from him, and we can see exactly what that means—his authority and power was taken away from him. And in this case, his reason was, too, because he started acting like an animal!
But then we have the rest of the story beginning in v. 34 [READ Dan. 4:34–36]. So now the king’s sovereignty has returned—he has lost his sovereignty at first, but then he regained it, and its not hard for us to see what that means: he lost his power (when he went insane) and then he got it back. During that period he didn’t have authority over the kingdom, but eventually he regained his authority.
So the word “sovereignty” is not a difficult word to define. Again, it refers to the power or authority that someone exercises over a certain area. Now when we read the Bible, we read over and over again that it is God who exercises sovereignty over all of creation. God is pictured as a majestic and glorious king over all of the universe. Let’s take a moment to see how God is pictured in His sovereignty.
II. How is God pictured in His sovereignty? Ps. 103:19–22
A. God’s sovereignty is a settled fact
Verse 19 says [READ v. 19]. Just a few verses prior to this, David mentioned how quickly we as men pass away [READ vv. 15–16]. But God and His sovereignty stand in contrast to this; His throne is established in the heavens. You know, sometimes when you walk into a building you’ll see a cornerstone or a plaque that says, “Built: 1932,” or “Est. 1932.” Well, if God’s throne had a plaque like that it would say, “Est.—eternity past!”
God’s position of authority in the universe is established; it is set, fixed, and it includes all things. There have been religions in the past that have taught that our universe is ruled by two gods—one that is good and one that is evil, and these two gods are in constant competition with one another. But the Bible won’t allow us to believe any notion like that, because it clearly declares that God’s sovereignty is over all. There isn’t a corner in this universe where God doesn’t have control, and there isn’t a being in this universe over whom God doesn’t have control. His sovereignty rules over all!
B. God’s sovereign will is carried out by mighty angels
Look at vv. 20–21 again [READ vv. 20–21]. Here King David mentions a group of beings that carry out the Lord’s commands. Like any king, God has servants in His presence who wait to carry out His every command. They are at His beck and call, and David says they are mighty in strength. Apparently, they are strong enough to carry out whatever it is that God asks of them.
In fact, the word “hosts” is a military term that pictures these angels as warriors. Whenever you see God called “Lord of hosts” in the Old Testament, the idea is that God is the commander of a vast and mighty army that stands ready to carry out his orders.
Think about this in human terms for a moment—a king really doesn’t have much power unless he has control of an army. Kings and presidents get overthrown all the time when the army turns against them. But with an army under his command, a king’s authority is reinforced.
So it is with God—He has authority, He has sovereignty and His sovereignty can be seen among the ranks of angels who stand ready to do His will.
C. God’s sovereignty is displayed in His creation
In verse 22, David reminds us of God’s power as creator [READ v. 22]. What a powerful reminder for us of our place in this universe! No matter how great we might think we are, we are still simply the works of God’s hands. We didn’t bring ourselves into existence—God did! Nor are we the product of any process of evolution. We were designed and we were brought to life by God, and we are still dependent upon Him for the necessities of life at every moment.
Oh, we can curse God and speak against Him, but the breath that we use will be a breath that He has allowed us to take! We can oppose Him or run from Him, but the energy we use will be energy that He has allowed us to have. Lest we ever be tempted to think that God is not Lord of all, we need only to remember that God is the creator of all things, and He sustains us in this world according to His good pleasure.
So this picture of God in His sovereignty should keep us from ever thinking that we are on the same level as God. We should never be so foolish as to think—as Satan did!—that we can ascend to the same level of power and authority as God, because as David said, “His sovereignty rules over all.” God created all things and He rules over them according to His will.
So God is sovereign, but how does God exercise His sovereignty? What does that look like in our world?
III. How does God exercise His sovereignty? 1 Tim. 6:15
A. By controlling and ordering the events of history
Let’s start reading back at v. 13 so we can get the complete thought here [READ vv. 13–15]. The important idea for us to focus on is at the end of v. 14 going into v. 15, where Paul says that God will bring about the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ at the proper time. Paul is talking about the moment that Jesus will return to this world, and he is affirming that God is in control of the timing of that event. The New American Standard translation says God will bring that event about “at the proper time.” I think the NIV has a better translation here—it says that God will bring it about “in His own time.” Or if we really want to bring this into everyday language we could say that God will bring it about when He is good and ready! It’s God’s decision, because He is in control of how history plays out!
Now there is a teaching in some Christian churches today that says that God doesn’t really know what’s going to happen in the future. Those who teach from this perspective would say, “God knows everything that might happen tomorrow, but He doesn’t know what actually will happen tomorrow; He knows all of the possibilities, but He doesn’t know which possibility will actually play itself out.” I think this teaching is a misguided attempt to answer questions about how our choices play into God’s plan, because it seems clear that this verse here tells us that God is in full control of everything that will happen in the future. Let us never reject that truth simply because we cannot understand it!
Now lest we be tempted to think that God’s plans for the future might actually be bad and harmful, Paul tells us something very important in v. 15 when he says that God is “blessed.” Now sometimes when we say that someone is blessed, what we mean is that they are fortunate or lucky. But the word that Paul uses here actually carries the idea of being happy or contented. So, as one of professors in college loved to say, God is a happy God. He is not grumpy or angry or vengeful as many people tend to think He is. It is true that He shows wrath toward sin, but that is not His basic frame of mind. God is a happy God, and so we can be encouraged to know that such a God controls the events of history. We can rest assured that God’s plan is a good plan—it is not based on evil motives or intentions, but instead it flows out of a heart of love.
B. By ruling over those who have power within history
In the last part of v. 15, Paul describes God as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. His meaning is very clear—with respect to anyone who can be called a king, God is their king; or with respect to anyone who can be called a lord, God is their lord. Anyone in human history who has held power has received only because God has allowed them to have it.
This is the consistent teaching of Scripture with respect to those who are in power. In Romans 13:1 Paul said, “There is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.” When Jesus was on trial before Pontius Pilate, He told Pilate, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above.” Even King Nebuchadnezzar back in Daniel 4 had to acknowledge “that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whom He wishes and sets over it the lowliest of men” (Dan. 4:17).
So what this tells us is that every ruler in this world, whether good or evil, is under the sovereign power and control of God. It may puzzle us why God allows certain leaders to come to power, but they can never—not for a single moment!—act in a way over which God has no control. Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes.”
So once again we can rest assured that our happy God, who controls the events of history, also rules over the movers and shakers of history—those who rule over tribes or nations or kingdoms. Even though such leaders might reject God, they cannot change the fact that God is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, who orders all things for our good and for His glory.
So how are we to respond to all of this? I think Ravi Zacharias said it well in an illustration from his autobiography. Allow me to read it for you in closing:
"If you travel to the north of India, you will see the most magnificent saris ever made, and Varanasi is where the wedding saris are handwoven. The gold, the silver, the reds, the blues, - all the marvelous colors threaded together are spectacular. These saris are usually made by just two people- a father who sits on a platform and a son who sits two steps down from him. That father has all the spools of silk threads around him. As he begins to pull the threads together, he nods, and the son responds by moving the shuttle from one side to another. Then the process begins again, with the dad nodding and the son responding. Everything is done with a simple nod of the father. It's a long, tedious process to watch. But if you come back in two or three weeks, you'll see the magnificent pattern emerging.
This is an image I always remind myself of: we may be moving the shuttle, but the design is in the mind of the Father. The son has no idea what pattern is emerging. He just responds to the father's nod.”*
And so it should be with us. Since we know that God is in control, our response should one of humble obedience to His will. Even though we can’t see the whole plan that he has for our lives, we know that He is good, and the plan that unfolds will be beautiful if we simply do what He has called us to do in His word.
*Ravi Zacharias, Walking from East to West, (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2006) 27.
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