And let's look at verse 13. James chapter 1 verse 13. Let's read it together. The Word of God says, Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the truth. We ask you that you would give me the words to say as I'm discussing high and lofty ideas and concepts and doctrines, but just in a few minutes giving an overview, so help me say what would be profitable. Help me answer questions without causing more. And Lord, give us deeper understanding into these truths, we pray in Christ's name, amen. All right, you may be seated. So we talked this morning about the sovereignty of God. We talked about the verses, Psalm 135, verses five and six. I love those verses. It says, For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, and in the seas, and in the deep places. And so God is sovereign. God's in control. To hear the message, I recommend you go back and take a quick listen. We talked about some of the prevailing themes among atheists, the godless concepts, but they all lead to this thing called nihilism, which is just a deep, dark hole of despair and meaninglessness, and you don't want to walk that path. But we can take comfort in everything falling apart around us in the fact that there is someone who's in control of it all. And that is the Creator, the Almighty God, the Lord of Heaven. And He has revealed Himself to us in different ways, telling us who He is. And we talked about all that this morning. But the idea that God is sovereign, God can do what He wants, when He wants, why He wants, how He wants, and He answers to no one. We talked about taking God off trial and submitting to the way God wants to do things. in our lives. The sovereignty of God is the biblical teaching that God possesses all power and is the ruler of all things. Boy, you can take comfort in that. God's in control. When someone says God's in control, that's not just a cliche, that's an absolute fact. God is in control. And even as we see the world today, it seems like things are falling apart. They're really falling into place. And we talked about that just to give you a quick overview of this morning. And then we talked about how Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is sovereign. He's not only the creator, He's the judge, and so he's sitting now in control of everything, and one of these days, he's going to judge everyone by his word, and so God is certainly sovereign. We can see God's sovereignty easily in three areas. Number one, creation. God rules in the creation of everything. We could take time to study that. That'd probably be a whole other sermon, but it was all part of my sermon this morning. Aren't you glad that I didn't preach all three sermons in one this morning? I mean, we could still be here from this morning talking about the sovereignty of God. But God, certainly we see His hand in creation and He is the Lord. in creation. He rules in creation. Next, we see God rules in the chronicles of mankind. God rules in human history according to His purpose from the events in the ordinary lives of individuals. So not only does God rule in creation, He rules in the chronicles of man, the history of man. God is a personal God. This idea of deism where God started it all and He's just up there watching it all happen, that's a falsehood. We have a personal God. God knows your name. God knows your name. He knows your address. He knows the very thoughts of your head. He knows how many hairs are on your head. He knows what's in your heart. We have a personal God who's involved in our lives. And we could preach about that for a while. Next, we see the sovereignty of God in the conversion of sinners. God rules in the conversion of sinners. And we could talk about that for a while. But tonight, I want to Just kind of take an overview, kind of a 30,000-foot view. If we were to back up and look at this idea of the sovereignty of God from an overview, we see that the concept of the sovereignty of God seems to clash in five different areas of our lives. Now, volumes have been written on this idea of the sovereignty of God and how it intersects with other doctrines in the Bible. And so I'm not going to attempt to go down way deep tonight, especially talking about five different ones. I just want to kind of give you an overview of how the sovereignty of God and these five issues, I'm going to show you how they don't contradict, but they actually fall in place according to the scriptures, and they work together in unison. So there's five issues that seem to be at odds with the assertion of God's absolute rule. The first is God's sovereignty and evil in the world. Sovereignty and evil. Atheists and agnostics struggle mightily with this question. Think about it. Have you ever heard someone say, if God is good and all-powerful, why does He allow evil in the world? Heard someone say that? We all have. And it's an honest question. If God's all-powerful, why would He let this happen? So they'd say, well, maybe God's all-powerful, but He's not good. But if God's good and all-powerful, how could he let these things happen? And they can't seem to wrap their brains around that. I was listening to an apologist who, someone who defends biblical doctrine, they had spent a lifetime going around to colleges and Harvard and Oxford and Yale, and they would debate atheists and different things, and they would give a speech on college campus and then have these students, ask them any question, and they'd done this for decades. And one day he was talking about his ministry and he said, you know, we really get asked about 20 questions. And he said, there's really only about 20 questions that atheists and agnostics have that they can't get their brain wrapped around in the scripture. And he said, so we've spent all these years answering basically 20 questions. Now, they're asked in different ways from different angles, really only about 20 things. And he said the number one question we get asked is about sovereignty and evil. How could a good, all-powerful God allow evil in the world? And it's a good question. But what they often overlook is the fact that the question itself admits the existence of evil. Think about that. What do you call evil? How do you know anything's evil? If there's no absolute truth, is anything really evil? Is it evil when the lion eats the lamb? Or is he just doing what lions do? Is it evil when you're Walking through the woods and you step on a viper and he bites you. You're walking through the desert and the scorpion stings you, is that evil? Of course not. Doing what those animals do. Why do humans have the concept of evil at all? Think about that. And the very idea that they are willing to admit there's evil must mean that somewhere there is good. If they're willing to admit there's a wrong, that must mean somewhere there's a right. But if there's a right and wrong, that means somebody somewhere had to decide what right is and what wrong is and what good is and what evil is. Now we're right back to God. Right? And they would say, well, we decide. Nowadays they would say crazy things like, these things are just a construct of the patriarchy and the patriarchy has constructed these things and it's meaningless. It's just like word salads. You ever hear these people talk and it's like, they just said a bunch of words but didn't say anything. Blame that on toxic masculinity. You know, and it's like, what's he saying? Now where it comes down to is somebody somewhere has to decide what is right and wrong, and that's either going to be you sir, you ma'am, or it's going to be someone higher than you. And of course we know that's God. So the very question that they ask as a way to disprove the existence of God, proves the existence of God because they're willing to admit in something called evil. You have a hard time There's a new brand of atheists who are trying to find morality outside of God. And that's a hard sell. A real hard sell. Because we know morality comes from God. Atheists can be moral, but the very act of being moral means that they are living according to the rules of a higher power. Interesting? I mean, we could go down deep in this thing. I just want to give you an overview. But this idea of sovereignty and evil, the relationship of God's sovereignty versus evil and with evil is an age-old problem. We start out tonight in James chapter one because let's look at what the Bible says about God's sovereignty and evil. First, we learn that God neither does evil nor approves of evil. God does not commit evil. He doesn't do evil, nor does he approve of evil. So our text verse tonight, let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. This is an important verse because it tells us God never tries to get us to sin. That's good news. God tries to keep us from sinning, but God will never try to get you to sin. And that's good news, and the fact that he doesn't sin himself, and he's not tempted with sin. We also see in Habakkuk 113, thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue, when thou wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he. One time, someone trying to disprove the fact of God says, is it true that God can't look at evil? And he quoted this verse. And he said, well, if there's a God and he sees everything, how can he look at the evil today? I said, well, this verse doesn't mean that he can't see it. What this verse means doesn't mean that God just can't, oh no, there's evil, I can't look at it. It means he won't stomach it. He's not gonna, he's aware of it. He's just not gonna put up with it. He's not gonna look at it and let it go. And you see that, and by the end of the verse, then the prophet asks the question, why are you holding your tongue when the wicked devoureth man? Lord, I know you can't stomach evil, I know you don't put up with evil, so why are you allowing this evil to go on? The age-old question. If there's a sovereign God who's good, why do we see evil in the world? And the answer's very simple, and so simple that it's easy to overlook God could have created robotic humans that followed his every whim. Think about that. He could have created you and I to just obey his commandments without question. But the problem is, if we were robots, we could never choose to love him. We could never choose to follow him. Oftentimes people ask, well, if God knew what was going to happen, why did he put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden? And the answer is very simple, because he wanted Adam and Eve to have a choice. If there was no sin available, they couldn't choose him. If there was no way to disobey, they couldn't choose to obey. If there was no other option, they couldn't choose him. And so God said, I've got to give you a choice, Adam, because I want you to choose me. I want you to love me. I want you to follow me. I want you to obey me. That means God couldn't make people as robots. God's going to give people the choice to do wrong. And they do wrong, and that hurts people. Do you know what that's called? Evil. Evil. So God allows evil in the world because He allows mankind to choose. But God also restrains evil, judges evil, uses evil for the good of His people, and even uses evil for the fulfillment of His purposes. Now, I have verses for each one of those. We're not going to go through that this evening. But you have got to understand, why would God allow evil? Because he wanted you to have a free will. And you can't have both. I said it this morning. Out of one side of the mouth, people say, well, why doesn't God stop all this evil? And on the other side of their mouth, they're like, God's too strict. God's too controlling. And you can't have it both ways. If God gives free will, then he has to allow people to choose poorly. and those poor choices hurt us. And that leads us to the second thing. So number one, we see the intersection between sovereignty and evil. Number two, we see the intersection between sovereignty and free will. Here's another thought. If God is sovereign, if he's in control of everything, then how can man also have a free will? How can they also choose? And while the exact intersection of these two things and how they always intersect is hidden to us, we can understand the relationships and how they work together. So I already said God gave man free will so that man could choose to love God and follow His commandments. But we also know God is all powerful and in full control of the universe. He sets the rules and can step in at any time he chooses. So imagine this. Imagine 10 players on a basketball court playing a game. Their decisions are free and meaningful. They can make any number of choices within the game. But the boundaries are predetermined. The rules are already set. The referees are not on either team. They can only make free decisions within the boundaries and rules of the game. Make sense to you? So God set everything in motion. He gave us rules and boundaries. We have natural laws like gravity. We have spiritual laws like the Ten Commandments. We have moral laws, and so on. We get to make all of these choices, but the choices have real consequences. This is called free will. God says, I'm going to let you choose within the boundaries that I have set, but I'm also going to hold you accountable for your choices. And that's an important fact. Because a lot of people who don't believe in God are getting away from personal responsibility. Have you noticed this? We see it in politics today. We see it in all the craziness of our times. That when you get away from the sovereignty of God, you also get away from human responsibility, which is number three. I could say under number two under that, we see, for example, under sovereignty and free will, It's important for me to say that God allows people to choose their own eternal destiny. Acts 2.23, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. So in the crucifixion, we see both the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. God had decided ahead of time that Christ would die. The men alive at that time chose to crucify Him. That was their choice within the boundaries that God had set. But wait a minute, it didn't have to be those men. Nicodemus wasn't one of those men, although he was a Pharisee. Joseph of Arimathea wasn't one of the men who condemned Christ, although he was part of their number. So although the concept of the crucifixion had been already ordained, the individual choices of men were their own. That's important to understand. Man has a free will, we see, but God can intervene at any time. He can set people up, he can put them in power, he can take them down according to his purposes. One example of that we see in the book of Exodus, God put Pharaoh into power knowing the choices he would make. So watch this, the Bible says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. So some people would point to that and they would say, see, God chose Pharaoh to reject him. God chose Pharaoh to go to hell. That's not what I see at all. God knew through his foreknowledge the choices that Pharaoh would make, and he put him into power knowing that he would never give in to God. Do you see how all this works? The sovereignty of God was there needed to be a Pharaoh that would resist God so God could bring those 10 plagues and show the world his glory. But it didn't have to be him, did it? That was his choice. And we see this idea of the sovereignty of God and free will coming together. All right, the third intersection I've already mentioned is the sovereignty of God and human responsibility. the sovereignty of God and human responsibility. And again, some atheists see a contradiction here. They assert that if God is sovereign, then that must mean that all men are robots and therefore not responsible for their actions. Think about that. Some would say, well, if God is all powerful, then he's already decided everything we were going to do. He already decided what I'd have for lunch today. He already decided, you know, what I was going to wear today. And he decided it all. We're just robots. And what this really is is a form of determinism. Determinism is just a fancy word to say everything's already laid out. All the choices are already made. You are just pawns in the play. You have no choice. But that also means you have no responsibility. So if you murder someone, it's really not your fault. If you beat someone up and take their stuff, it's really not your fault. And we see this loosening in America of human responsibility, especially when it comes to the godless politicians. They really don't believe people should be held responsible for their actions unless you vote for the other party. And that's just wickedness and hypocrisy. I think everybody in here agrees that the law should be applied equally, and that's what we look for. But these atheists misunderstand the relationship between sovereignty and free will. Look at Romans chapter 2. Is this interesting to you tonight? Romans chapter 2. The Bible teaches that though God is sovereign, man is still responsible for his actions due to his free will. So again, God lets us make choices within the boundaries that he has set, but he also holds us accountable. Romans chapter two, and look at verse five. This is a fantastic chapter about a lot of different things. Look at verse five. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart, precious up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his what? Deeds. See, God's like, I'm gonna hold you accountable for what you're doing. The choices you're making, I'm gonna hold you accountable. And I will render to every man according to his deeds, not his situation, not his skin color, not his culture, his deeds. Verse seven, to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek glory and honor and immortality, eternal life. eternal life, but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey in righteousness, indignation, wrath, tribulation, and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile, but glory, honor, and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, also to the Gentile, for God, for there is no respect of persons with God. You see it? God says, I'm gonna judge each one of you based on the choices you make. So although God's sovereign, we're still held responsible for the choices we make with human responsibility. Then we run into the fourth intersection that we'll just mention tonight briefly, sovereignty and evangelism. the sovereignty of God versus trying to help people get saved. And so God is sovereign. And as the sovereign, he set the terms for salvation and damnation, right? Once again, imagine the game, the basketball game. God sets the boundaries. This is out of bounds, this free throw line, three-point line, hash marks, half-court line. These are the rules. These referees are gonna call you and tell you whether you're doing right or wrong. So God has done that with salvation, and he has stated that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, at the appointed time, came, was born of the Virgin, lived a perfect life on this earth, died on the cross in our place to pay for our sins, was buried, rose again the third day, and when you accept him by faith, you can have your sins forgiven. That's God's plan. As the sovereign, he gets to decide that. There's no other way to heaven. We were knocking on doors yesterday, and we met a lady that attends the Unitarian Universalist Church in town. And so this is a church that prides themselves on believing nothing. And I'm not joking. Their slogan, I don't remember how many years ago, but in the paper, they had an ad in the paper. Their slogan was, We believe everything. We believe nothing. And you have to say it with like this wispy kind of voice, you know, because we believe everything. We believe nothing. And it still sounds stupid, no matter what voice you say it in, right? How can you believe everything and nothing? So Unitarian, everything's one. Universalist, everybody's going to heaven. But boy, if everybody's going to heaven, it doesn't really matter what you believe, does it? Because God's just gonna let everybody into heaven. We know that's not God's plan. God set the rules, Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father. Ye must be born again. No other option. No other savior. So God chose his sovereignty in setting the terms for salvation and damnation. Yet God has given mankind a free will to determine whether or not to accept the gift of salvation. It's so important you understand that. Calvinism is a popular belief set, and a lot of times Presbyterians and some other Protestant groups fall into that. Calvin had a lot of good things to say. But one place where he got in trouble is he got this idea that God decided who would go to heaven and God decided who would go to hell. They're called the elect. And if you're not elect, I'm sorry, you can't be saved. And if you are elect, whether you want to be saved or not today, God will make sure you get saved someday because you're elect. But this led to other things like limited atonement. where they would say that Christ only paid for the sins of the elect. You see the problem with that? My Bible says that Christ died for every man. Hebrews 2.9 says that Jesus tasted death for every man. So Jesus died for even those who will never be saved, but he paid their price. But they would say things like limited atonement. They would say things like that mankind is so depraved that he can't choose to be saved. That's why God had to choose him. Because man's so sinful, he can't choose salvation. Well, we got a problem with a lot of Bible verses, if you believe that. And so this idea of Calvinism, or some call, used to be called hyper-Calvinism, now it's just kind of turned into Calvinism. And sometimes people will say, well, you're a Calvinist or an Arminiast. And Arminiasts are known for believing you can lose your salvation. And so, they're like, which one are you? And I say, I'm a Baptist. Right? I'm not a Calvinist, I'm not an Arminiast, I'm a Baptist. I believe the Bible. And so, but this idea, think about how this intersects with the sovereignty of God. So, a Calvinist focuses so much on the sovereignty of God that they remove the concept of the free will of man. This means that God decides who's saved and God decides who'll be lost. It's no wonder that Calvinism kills churches. Why? It removes the soul-winning zeal from the members. Because listen, folks, if everybody that God wants to get saved is just gonna get saved someday, then why would I sacrifice? Why would I be mocked at? Why would I be laughed? Why would I take my Saturday and go out Saturday morning or Friday morning or Thursday night and go out and tell people about Jesus when they're chosen so God's gonna get them there anyway? I talked to a man years ago. He had become an independent Baptist, but he had started as a Calvinist, and he was a Calvinist church planner. I said, tell me how that works. And he said we would literally go into a town, rent a space, put up a sign, open the doors, and wait for the elect. and God was just gonna send in the elect. And so while it's true that God can send people into church, what do you do with the idea, he said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Do you see how, where do these things go? The answer is God proved his sovereignty in setting the terms for salvation and damnation. But within the boundaries of that, God said, I'm going to let sinners choose me. And that goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden, where he wanted Adam and Eve to choose him. We see that all throughout the gospel. Matthew 615, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. So we know that God's sovereignty can't mean that we just sit back and wait for him to send us people. Go into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in. The Apostle Paul expressed his burden for lost Jews in In Romans chapter 9, in Romans chapter 10, the Apostle Paul prayed for the Jews to be saved. In Romans chapter 10, 13, that passage affirms the promise of salvation to everyone who would simply call on the name of the Lord. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. We have a whosoever salvation. Anybody that wants to. I died for everybody. For God so loved the elect. For God so loved the world. That he gave his only begotten son. Whosoever believeth in him, whosoever, whosoever is people in the world. Anybody in the world that believes in Jesus for salvation, they'll not perish, but have everlasting life. Isn't that blessing? Hebrews 2.9, Christ takes death for every man. 2 Peter 3.9, God wants everybody to get saved. Yet he leaves the choice up to the individual. In the last invitation to salvation in the Bible, Revelation chapter 22 verse 17, the word of God says, and the spirit and the bride say, come. And let him that heareth say, come. And let him that is a thirst come. This is so beautiful. Some of the last words of Holy Scripture. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Beautiful. I'm glad we serve a whosoever God. Now you could go deep into this, and there's probably the Calvinist listening that's going, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but. You can go deep into it. And it sounds very technical. and it sounds very intelligent, but I'm glad we have a whosoever will salvation, that anybody can get saved. God leaves the choice up to us. Let me say lastly as we close, we see the intersection between sovereignty and prayer. Do we really need to pray if God already knows what we need? I was talking to a young man one time, And he actually became a pastor. As far as I know, he's still pastoring a church. He was a Baptist. He became a Calvinist. Then he became a hyper-Calvinist. I talked to him one time, and he was kind of laughing at us for going out soul wedding, you know, because you really don't have to do that, because they're elect anyway. And, you know, you can stay home, sleep in on Saturday, put on your long shorts, you know, lay out in the sun, go down to take a long walk. because it's unnecessary. By the way, Calvinism is killing churches in New England, killing churches all around America because the members stop seeking sinners. That's interesting. Charles Spurgeon, who's famous, he was a form of Calvinist, but he was a soul winning Calvinist. And so sometimes people say, well, he was a Calvinist. Yeah, but he's not the kind of Calvinist you are. And so we need to keep all this in perspective. But this young man who became a hyper Calvinist, I was talking to him one day, it's probably one of the last times I talked to him. He said, you know, I've been meditating on this and listen to what God taught me. I said, what's that? He said, God is sovereign. He knows what I need. He's already decided whether or not he's going to give it to me. So I've learned I don't even need to pray anymore. And I said, excuse me? I don't even need to pray anymore. God knows what I need. He's already decided whether or not he's going to give it to me. I don't even need to pray anymore. What do you do with verses like pray without ceasing? So this is where we see these intersections come in, and we have to be solid in Bible doctrine. The sovereignty of God is so vital. It's so important. And I am not diminishing the sovereignty of God at all. God can do whatever He wants, when He wants, how He wants, why He wants, because He wants, and He answers to no one. Let me also teach you something about God. God doesn't break His own rules. So sometimes people ask, can God create a rock that's too big for him to lift? Ever heard that one? If God can do anything, can God create a rock too big for him to lift? You know what the answer is? Yes. Because it's not that he couldn't lift it. He can create a rock and say, I will not lift that rock. because He's sovereign. God has set boundaries in all of our lives. He has given us a book, and He said, I'm going to work within the boundaries of this book. He sets salvation. He doesn't change the plan of salvation. And the sovereignty of God is not in competition with any of these other things. It's the basis for our faith that we serve a God who doesn't change. I am the Lord, I can do anything, but I will not change. Isn't that interesting? And we can have confidence in a God. Aren't you glad God's not moody? You know? Boy, some people, they're moody. You know, you meet them and you're like, what kind of mood are they gonna be in today? God's not moody. He's always the same every day. And because of his sovereignty. We can. Rest in him and have faith. But that also means God gives people. Free will. The sovereign can step into anybody's life anytime and insert himself into their life. Because he's sovereign. Are you OK with that? Are you okay if God steps into your life and says, no, we're not going to go there. We're not going to do that. I'm taking that opportunity away. I'm giving you this opportunity. The Bible says he sets people up. He takes them down. He makes us rich. He makes us poor. Can the clay say to the potter, what are you doing? Of course not, he's the potter, we're the clay, and we can take great comfort in his sovereignty. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the truth this evening. We ask that you would help us to ponder these. I just gave a quick, just a quick summary of these things. And I pray that we'd be good students of the word of God. and help us to know and understand. And none of us fully understand where your sovereignty intersects with all of these things. That's where faith comes in. We know you're a good God. We trust you. Love you. And Lord, you're the Lord. You're the master. We're the servants. You can do whatever you want. And we will strive to humbly follow and obey. Bring you glory. Heads are bowed, eyes are closed. Maybe you have something you want to pray about. Maybe a thought that's been plugging you would be answered tonight. Maybe something you've never thought about that the Lord turned on a light bulb. Maybe something you want to pray about. Maybe you have an atheist or an agnostic or someone that's falling