You take your Bibles and turn along with me to Genesis chapter 25. Genesis 25. Genesis chapter 25. I love roller coasters. I guess that should encourage me that I'm still young enough that I still enjoy those things. But I can't stand the teacups. You know the teacup ride, right? Every amusement park is a little different, but basically it's the same thing. You're in this terrible contraption of torture, and it spins around, and sometimes you can kind of control the spinning, sometimes you can't. Either way, it's too much spinning for me. So the teacup is spinning. The platform on which the teacup rests is spinning. The platform on which the platform is set is spinning. Everything is spinning. And my world is spinning. And when the ride comes to a full and complete stop, my head is spinning. And it won't stop for a long time. And I feel like I'm gonna be sick. I wanna say, stop the ride, I wanna get off. Well, the world at times can feel just like that. Like a dizzyingly chaotic place. Like the world itself is spinning out of control. Crime, political scandal, and wars, and injustice. It all seems like things are out of control. Stop the world, I wanna get off. Our personal lives can feel that way too, like we're hurtling toward an uncertain future with no one at the controls. We may be experiencing financial challenges, deep, sorrowful, personal losses, a health crisis, a relational conflict. These things can leave us feeling like life truly is out of control. But what we're gonna see this morning from Genesis chapter 25 is that this is most certainly not the case. Life, the world, your life, your world is not spinning out of control. God is always on the throne. He is always in control. Even when we feel like things are dizzyingly out of control. So let's look at Genesis 25 together. I'm going to read through verse 1 through verse 23. And let's look at God's sovereignty in Genesis 25. Genesis 25 verse 1. Now Abraham took another wife whose name was Keturah. She bore to him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Midan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. Jokshan became the father of Sheba and Dedan, and the sons of Dedan were Ashurim, and Letushim, and Leumin. The sons of Midian were Ephah and Epher and Hanak and Abida and Eldah. All these were the sons of Keturah. Now Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac, but to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts while he was still living and sent them away from his son Isaac eastward to the land of the east. These are all the years of Abraham's life that he lived, 175 years. Abraham breathed his last and died in a ripe old age, an old man and satisfied with life. And he was gathered to his people. Then his sons, Isaac and Ishmael, buried him in the cave at Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, son of Zohar the Hittite, facing Mamre. The field which Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth, there Abraham was buried with Sarah his wife. It came about after the death of Abraham that God blessed his son Isaac, and Isaac lived by Be'er Lehiroi. Now these are the records of the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar, the Egyptian, Sarah's maid, bore to Abraham. And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael by their names in the order of their birth. Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael, and Kedar, and Abdeel, and Mibsam, and Mishma, and Duma, and Masa, Hadad, and Tima, Jetur, Nafish, and Kedema. These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names by their villages and by their camps, twelve princes according to their tribes. These are the years of the life of Ishmael, 137 years, and he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people. They settled from Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt, as one goes toward Assyria. He settled in defiance of all his relatives. Now these are the records of the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham became the father of Isaac, and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the Aramean, of Paddan Aram. the sister of Laban, the Aramean, to be his wife. Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord answered him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. But the children struggled within her. And she said, If it is so, why then am I this way? So she went to inquire of the Lord. The Lord said to her, Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples will be separated from your body. And one people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger. Hear the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we ask that you would give us ears to hear this morning. Open our eyes that we may see the truth of your word. Encourage us by it. Strengthen our faith. Our faith in your sovereignty over all things. Our assurance that things are not spiraling out of control. Teach us, Lord, how you are sovereignly working all things together for our good and for your glory. Help us to trust you, we ask today in Jesus' name, amen. This morning we're gonna see from Genesis 25, four proofs of God's sovereignty over all things. Is God in control or isn't he? Is the world spinning out of control or are all things going according to God's perfect, all wise, good and righteous plans? Four proofs of God's sovereignty over all things. First of all, we see God is sovereign over life and death. That's the first proof that we see from this passage. Verses 1 through 8. God is sovereign over life and over death. Now Abraham in chapter 25 is coming very near to the end of his life upon this earth. His wife Sarah has already preceded him in death, and she has been laid to rest in the cave of Machpelah, which Abraham had purchased from the Hittites, the first deeded land in Abraham's name of the promised land. He owns it. It just happens to be a burial site where his wife is now laid to rest. And very soon, Abraham is going to join her. But for now, Abraham has some further living to do. For starters, he remarries and has more kids. Verse one explains to us that after the death of Sarah, Abraham took another wife, Keturah. From that marriage, six more children were born. So including Ishmael, who was his son by Hagar, and Isaac, who was his son by Sarah, Abraham had a total of eight children. Verse three and four list Abraham's grandchildren that came through this marriage, the line of Keturah and Abraham. From this branch of Abraham's family tree came various Arab tribes that came to live east of the land of Canaan, the promised land. Now before Abraham died, he was careful to plan out his estate. He took wise steps to ensure that things would be left in the order he wanted them left in. Abraham, as we know, was a man of great wealth. God had blessed Abraham greatly throughout his life so that he came to have much wealth. This was all part of God's promise to Abraham to bless him greatly. Part of that great blessing was the accumulation of great wealth. Genesis 13.2 says, Abraham was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold. That's almost a hundred years earlier. Abraham was already a wealthy man because of God's blessing. that was promised to him in chapter 12. By chapter 13, he's very rich in livestock and silver and in gold. And now by Genesis 25, a whole hundred years has passed. Abraham's wealth has multiplied and probably exponentially multiplied. So much so that Abraham's servant, you remember this from Genesis 24, Abraham's servant who went to arrange and secure a bride for Isaac, described his master's wealth in this way. In Genesis 24, 35, he says, the Lord has greatly blessed my master, Abraham, so that he has become rich and God has given him flocks and herds and silver and gold and servants and maids and camels and donkeys. Significant wealth given to Abraham, blessed of God. Now knowing that God's covenant promise was to be realized only through the lineage of Isaac, Abraham took steps to protect Isaac's position as sole heir to God's promises. Look at verses 5 and 6 of chapter 25. Now Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac, but to the sons of his concubines, his other wives, Abraham gave gifts while he was still living and sent them away from his son Isaac eastward to the land of the east. Abraham makes Isaac the sole heir of his possessions. He strategically gives gifts, probably substantial gifts, probably monetary gifts to his other children, sends them east of the land of Canaan, sends them away well-equipped, you know, ready to face life with resources given to them by Abraham, sends them away. And by doing so, Abraham is intentionally protecting Isaac's inheritance of the land. This was God's plan for Abraham's life. That the promises of God that had been made to Abraham would be inherited solely by his son Isaac. Now look with me at verses seven and eight. These are all the years of Abraham's life that he lived, 175 years. Abraham breathed his last and died in a ripe old age, an old man and satisfied with life and he was gathered to his people. Having set things in order, Abraham breathed his last. He died at the age of 175. Now Abraham was 75 years old back in chapter 12 when God called him to leave his homeland of Ur and his father and his brothers and travel to the place that God would show him. God didn't even tell him where he was sending him. He just says, when you get there, I'll tell you to stop. Abraham spent a hundred years in the wilderness. From that point on, following the Lord. A hundred years of waiting for the fulfillment of God's promises. A hundred years of walking with the Lord. Some days following closely in faith and other days overcome by his own fears and veering into disobedience. During those hundred years, we see Abraham exercising great faith in being willing to sacrifice his son, his beloved son, Isaac, in obedience to God's command. And yet, in that same hundred years, we also see Abraham's fear and unbelief in his twice lying about Sarah being his sister and not his wife, all to save his own skin. We see him in fear and uncertainty and unbelief marrying Hagar, his servant, and having a child with her because he failed to believe God's promise that he and Sarah would have a child together of their own. You see, Abraham's life is a mix of both faith and fear, of faithfulness and failure. Does that sound familiar? Does that sound like your life? It sounds like mine. A mix of faith and fear, a mix of faithfulness and failure. That's our life as Christians, too, if we're honest with ourselves. There's no perfect Christians here. If you're perfect, you should leave. Because we will just mess you up. We trust the Lord and we obey Him at some moments, while at other times our faith falters and we find ourselves wandering off course into disobedience. But you know what? God's sovereignty is not threatened at the least by either our faith or our faithlessness. God's covenant promises to us are never imperiled by our failure. even as they are never made any more secure or certain by our faithfulness. Do you realize that? God's not counting on you. His whole plan is not contingent on you. One way or the other, through faith or faithlessness. So it was for Abraham. God's covenant promise to Abraham was unilateral and irrevocable, unconditional. That's because God's covenant promise was rooted and grounded in His grace. And grace, by its very definition, cannot be earned or deserved. Grace is a gift. It's given freely. It's not a paycheck. Your salvation is not a paycheck for being a great guy or a great gal. No. And if salvation and God's blessing through covenant can't be earned or deserved, then it can never be lost. Thank the Lord for that. What great comfort there is in God's sovereign, gracious covenant of salvation that has come to us in Jesus Christ. Now look at verse 8. It says, Abraham breathed his last and died in a ripe old age, an old man and satisfied with life and he was gathered to his people. All of us would love for verse 8 to be a summary of our lives. To live to a ripe old age, a good old age. He was an old man when he died. And I'd say 175 qualifies as old. And this too, his age, his long life was a fulfillment of God's covenant promise to him. Genesis 15, 15 says, as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried at a good old age. That's part of God's covenant promise to Abraham. Covenant promise fulfilled, Genesis 25. 175 years old. That's a good old age. But he wasn't just old. God hadn't just granted to Abraham length of years, but also satisfaction in life. Literally, it says he lived a full life. Abraham did not live a perfect life. We've already seen that, right? But he did live a full life. That's an expression we still use today. We say, oh man, they lived a full life. And someone lives to a good old age of 70, 80, 90 years old, and they had a good career and a nice family. We say, wow, they lived a full life. So it was for Abraham. a full life, a full life of faith in God, a life in which his failures and his faithlessness were covered by God's grace and mercy and forgiveness, and the covenant of God to Abraham never waned, even in the midst of his most faithless moment. And here we have Abraham breathing his last, and it says he was gathered to his people. This is one of the earliest indications in the Bible of a belief in the afterlife. That this life isn't all that there is. That there is a life beyond this life. That our existence continues even when our bodies die. Our souls, our spirits continue on. So it was for Abraham. Abraham was gathered to his people, reunited with Sarah and other believers who preceded him in death. and Abraham now joined them. Paul says that to be absent from the body for the Christian is to be present with the Lord. The moment we die, our bodies die, our spirits, our souls are joined together with the Lord, reunited with believers who've gone before us. There's a great reunion. we see from Abraham's life is that God was sovereign over Abraham's living and over Abraham's dying. God was sovereign over Abraham's life and sovereign over Abraham's death. God had so worked in Abraham's life that God's will was completed through Abraham's life, both his good days and his bad days. Even through Abraham's failures and faithlessness, God's will, his purposes were still completed. Such is God's sovereignty. And the same is true for you and I. God is sovereign over our living and over our dying. God is sovereign over all our days, the good ones, the bad ones. God is sovereign when we remain faithful and when we are faithless. Through it all, he remains faithful. Psalm 31, 15 says, my times are in your hand. God, my times are in your hand. What are my times? It's the sum and substance of life itself. All my days from beginning to end and each moment, they're all in your hand. It's an acknowledgement of God's sovereignty over all things in life. God is sovereign over our conception and birth. Psalm 139 makes that clear. For you, God, formed my inward parts. You wove me together in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to you. I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. God sovereignly arranged the circumstances of your conception and birth. You're not an accident. You were planned from before the foundations of the earth. God is sovereign over our conception and birth. God is sovereign over every day that we live. Psalm 139 again, verse 16 says, in your book were written the days that were ordained for me when as yet there was not one of them. Your life was planned out, mapped out by God himself before you ever existed. Before there was yet one day of your life, all your days were written out by the Lord himself. That's sovereignty. Not only that, God is sovereign not only over our conception and birth and over every day that we live, God is sovereign over the length of our life and the time of our death. Job 14.5 says, since everyone's days are determined, the number of our months is with you, God, and our limits you have set so that no one can pass them. Whatever your efforts may be to stay healthy, which are good, It's part of stewardship, whatever your efforts are to to keep disease at bay. None of us will be able to extend our life by a single moment beyond what God has ordained. The day has been set. The time of our life has been determined. None of us will go beyond our expiration date. God is sovereign over life and death. And that could be a scary truth if you thought that God was distant and uncaring or cruel or capricious or evil. But God is none of those things. In fact, in his perfections, he is all loving. He is all wise. He is long suffering and kind and patient and good in everything that he does. He is infinitely and perfectly good. God is near to us all if we will but reach out to Him and find Him. That's what Paul says in Acts 17. He's right there. He is in control and He is near. He's not distant. He's not removed. He cares and He's present. All of this put together means that we can trust Him with whatever happens. He's sovereign. He's in control. And he's good. And therefore trustworthy. Second proof of God's sovereignty is that God is sovereign over his blessings. Verses 9 through 18. He's sovereign over his blessings. In verse 9 we have a solemn and beautiful picture of two brothers laying to rest their father. Two brothers who've been separated in life, who are now brought together by the death of their beloved father, Abraham. Isaac and Ishmael. To Isaac, Ishmael was literally a brother from another mother. These two brothers had been separated from each other, There was tension in the families, but now at the death of their father, they are reunited, however briefly. Funerals have a way of doing that, bringing together formerly separated people. People separated by geography come together at funerals, and people separated because of conflict and hurt and pain find themselves sharing a roof for a time. These two brothers shared the same father and so they shared together in laying him to rest. Now God had blessed Abraham greatly. Genesis 24-1 says that Abraham was old, he was advanced in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in every way. Every category, every aspect of Abraham's life had experienced the blessing of God. And one of the ways God had blessed Abraham greatly was in giving him children and descendants. grandchildren and great-grandchildren. God had promised Abraham that he would make his descendants as numerous as the sand on the seashore, as numerous as the dust of the earth, and as numerous as the stars in the sky. And in this chapter, we see the beginnings of the fulfillment of God's promise to make Abraham's descendants innumerable. We see it in the descendants of Ishmael in verses 13 through 15. We see it in the descendants of Abraham through his wife Keturah in verses two through four. God's blessing of Abraham with many descendants, with great wealth, all of it was solely according to God's grace. It was God's sovereign and gracious choice that resulted in God's covenant blessing coming to Abraham. And in the same way, it was God's sovereign and gracious choice that resulted in God's covenant blessing passing on to Isaac. There were other options. There were other choices, but they weren't what God had chosen. The blessing of God to Abraham would be passed on to Isaac and to no one else. Look at verse 11. Came about after the death of Abraham that God blessed his son Isaac in keeping with his word, in keeping with his prophecy, In keeping with his promise, even before Isaac was born or conceived, God had chosen Isaac to be the one who would receive the inheritance of the promise. It was not passed on to Ishmael, who was older than Isaac. Genesis 17, go back just a couple chapters. Look at Genesis 17. Genesis 17, God reiterates his covenant promises, and he assures Abraham that those promises are gonna be passed on to the next generation. And Abraham says, amen. God, please bless my son Ishmael, who's already living at this point. Isaac doesn't even exist yet. Yeah, Lord, I'm all for you passing on these blessings to the next generation. Please bless my son Ishmael. Verse 18 of chapter 17. But God replies to this in verse 19. God said no, no to Ishmael. But Sarah, your wife, will bear you a son. And you shall call his name Isaac. And I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. As for Ishmael, I've heard you. Behold, I will bless him and will make him fruitful and multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of 12 princes. That is fulfilled in chapter 25. And specifically it says 12 princes in chapter 25 and verse 16 for Ishmael. God does bless Ishmael, but not with the covenant promises God specifically gave to Abraham. Those would be reserved for Isaac and for Isaac alone. Verse 21 of chapter 17 says, My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year. Isaac who hasn't even been conceived yet. This special blessing of Isaac with these covenant promises was according to God's sovereign choice. God's covenant blessing is never earned, never deserved, but is bestowed according and solely to God's gracious and sovereign choice. We can never pat ourselves on the back for our salvation. We can never pat ourselves on the back and say, God is blessing me because I am, I'm a Jim Dandy. Doesn't work that way. It's always according to His sovereign, gracious choice. Not according to what we have done or not done. Thirdly, God is sovereign over our life circumstances. Verses 19 through 21. Now here at verse 19, the focus of the whole book shifts. It shifts from the life of Abraham to the life of Isaac. Abraham is dead and buried. Isaac, who married Rebecca when he was 40 years old, as we saw in chapter 24, God's providence was all over that. At work, in the servant going and finding a suitable wife for Isaac, God's providence is rich in chapter 24. We see that God is sovereign over the life circumstances of all those who are involved in chapter 24. But we see this important lesson once again right here in this chapter. Look at verse 21. Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife. Why? Because she was barren. Uh-oh, the covenant promises of God are in jeopardy, or at least it seems so from a human perspective. God had promised to bless Abraham through his son Isaac. Those blessings would continue and they would be forever promised to the descendants of Abraham and Isaac, but uh-oh, this new wife for Isaac can't have children. She's barren. Now, if this sounds familiar, it should because Abraham faced the same challenge. Sarah was barren. What did Abraham do? In the midst of his wife's barrenness, Did he go to the Lord in prayer? No. He tried to solve it his own way, took matters into his own hands, marries his servant Hagar, has a son by her, Ishmael. Isaac takes a very different route, which just goes to show that the sins of the father don't have to be passed to the sons. Sons, you have a choice. You don't have to act like your daddy did. You can live differently. You can make different decisions. You can set new patterns and new habits. And so what does Isaac do? Faced with this dilemma, he doesn't try to solve it himself, but he goes to the Lord. Isaac prayed to the Lord, verse 21, on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord answered him, and Rebekah, his wife, conceived. We see Isaac taking Rebekah's barrenness to the Lord. He takes his concern, his burden to the Lord, and the Lord answers his prayer. The more we believe in God's sovereign control over all things, the more we will pray. We tend to think it's the opposite of that. Well, God's got everything in control. He's got it all planned out. Why pray? Wrong. In fact, since God is in control, and since God has told us to pray, and since God has told us that prayer is effective, and since He's told us that often we have not because we ask not, we should definitely bring our needs and our burdens to the Lord. And it's because He's in control, because He's sovereign, because He's all-powerful, that it gives us reason to pray. If God were not sovereign over all things, then there would be no reason to pray. For God would be powerless to act and answer our prayers. But since God is sovereign over all things, this means prayer is powerful and effective. And so the Lord answered Isaac's prayer, Rebekah conceived. And as we'll see, Rebekah conceived not just one child, but two. She went from barrenness to a bumper crop. Now we know it's not always God's will to grant us children. Some of you are painfully aware of that. You have prayed and you have prayed, but the Lord has not seen fit. Just like it's not always God's will to grant healing. It's not always God's will to bring relief from a severe trial. You see, God answers our prayers, but he always answers our prayers according to his will. And that's what we want anyway. That's what we should want. because the Lord is all wise, he's all good, and he has the vantage point of seeing everything all at once. We can only see what's right before us. We're so limited. I've quoted it before, but John Piper said, in everything that happens in life, God is doing a thousand different things, and we may be aware of one or two of them. You see, He has a perspective as the God of all the universe, the God of all knowledge, the God of all power, to see what needs to be done and what needs to accomplish His purposes and His will. And that means that our prayers aren't always in accord with His will. And that's why Jesus in the garden, as He's facing the specter of the cross and bearing our sins, as the sinless Lamb of God says, Lord, if there's any other way, let it be so. Let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will be done, but your will be done. What is absolutely clear in the Bible and in this passage is that God is in control over all of our life circumstances. that he lovingly and sovereignly arranges all these circumstances for our good and for his glorious purposes. I love what Jesus says in Matthew 10, 29. He reminds those listening to him that, he says, are not two sparrows sold for a cent? In other words, sparrows are worthless creatures. They're not very valuable. And yet, he says, not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. Again, a strong statement of sovereignty. God is in control, not only of the circumstances of your life, but of the circumstances of all creation. There's not a single sparrow that falls to the ground, but that God has ordained it, that God sees it, and that God arranges it. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. In other words, God takes particular care and concern over your lives. So do not fear, he says, you are more valuable than many sparrows. It's an argument from the lesser to the greater. If God exercises such great care and sovereignty over the sparrows, you can bet he exercises even more so over your life because he cares for you. God is sovereign over our every life circumstance. And we can trust him. Fourthly and finally, proof of God's salvation or of God's sovereignty rather. God is sovereign over salvation. Verses 22 and 23. So Rebecca is now pregnant. In answer to Isaac's prayer. What she doesn't know, because she doesn't have an ultrasound, is that she's actually pregnant with twins until God reveals it to her. The fact that she learns later that she is pregnant with twins may not have come as a surprise to her because of the amount of activity she was experiencing in the womb. Look at verse 22, children struggled within her and she said, if it is so, why then am I this way? So she went to inquire of the Lord. The children inside her were struggling. The term used here is a term that speaks of a violent struggle. A sense of what she says in this verse is that if this is what it's going to be like, then I'm not sure I want to be pregnant. Any ladies relate to that? Pregnancy is not easy, so I'm told. So I've observed. What mother has not had at least a fleeting thought similar to this at some point during pregnancy? This is hard. And for some women, it's excruciating, and it was for Rebecca. There was a civil war going on inside her womb. So Rebecca goes to the Lord with her concern. Interesting that she follows the example of her husband in this. A reminder to us husbands that we lead by example. And the faith that we demonstrate will often be a faith that is followed in our home. Well, the Lord reveals to her the reason for her great prenatal discomfort. Two nations were in her womb. Her sons to be born, Jacob and Esau, would be the source of these two nations. From these two individuals, two nations would come. Two nations which would be in continual conflict, Israel and Edom. One of these two children would be stronger than the other and the older will serve the younger. Now that really stands out culturally. Culturally, it was normal for the eldest son to be in a superior position to any younger siblings and to receive a double portion of the inheritance. But in this case, it would be the younger son who would receive the double portion, the younger son who would be in the position of superiority over the older. As we'll see, it will be the younger son, Jacob, and not the older son, Esau, who is the chosen seed, who will be heir to God's covenant promises in accord with God's gracious and sovereign choice. Jacob would be the recipient of God's mercy and grace and salvation, while Esau was passed over. What this teaches us is that God is sovereign not only over life and death, not only over his blessings, and not only over life's circumstances, but that God is also sovereign over salvation. Paul gives us some extended commentary on these verses in Romans chapter nine, and I want you to turn there. It's the last place I'll have you turn. Romans chapter nine. Romans chapter nine. This story of Jacob and Esau ends up serving as a paradigm of God's sovereign choice in salvation. Romans 9, verse 10. Paul says in Romans 9, 10, And not only this, but there was Rebekah, referring to Isaac's wife Rebekah. There was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac. For though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, they're still in the womb. so that God's purpose, according to His choice, would stand. Not because of works, but because of Him who calls. It was said to her, the older will serve the younger, just as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated or rejected. What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be. Or he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. Verse 16, so then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. Salvation does not depend on what you or I do or don't do. The effort we expend doesn't depend on any of that, but on God who has mercy. This teaches us that God is sovereign over all things, including the salvation of individuals. Jacob was chosen, Esau was passed over as the recipient of covenant blessings. Some people say that's not fair. That's unjust. And Paul says, may it never be. Do not accuse God of injustice. You're thinking of this in terms of humanity, in terms of human fairness. God does not answer to us. God is the judge of all the earth. He always does what is right. You see, God's sovereign election of individuals is a sign, not of His injustice, but of His great mercy. For without His sovereign election, no one would ever come to Christ. No one would ever be saved. For we all, like sheep, had gone astray. Each one of us was going his own way. But God, in His mercy and grace, in eternity past, before we had done anything good or bad, chose a people for Himself and sent His only Son to purchase their redemption and secure their salvation. Now there's mystery involved here. You see, God doesn't reveal to us who is elect and who is not. He doesn't show us the list. We're clueless of all that. What he does reveal to us is that he loves the world. He loves all people. And He proved that love by sending His own Son Jesus Christ into the world. That whoever believes on Him might not perish, but have everlasting life. And so the offer of salvation goes to all. God's love goes to all. God's electing choice ensures that some will come. Ensures that some will believe and receive. Sure is some that some will escape eternal judgment and be trophies of his grace and mercy for all eternity. So the question for all of us this morning is not, am I elect? Am I among the chosen? But rather, do I believe in Jesus, God's only son, sent Because of God's love. That's the great question before all of us today. Do I believe in Jesus Christ? Am I trusting in Jesus Christ and in him alone for salvation and for eternal life and for forgiveness? He's the only way of salvation, the only way that we can be forgiven. Beloved, rest assured today and every day that things are not spinning out of control. God is sovereign and has all things under his control, under his rule. Our God is sovereign, he is on the throne. And that includes every aspect of our lives. We can rest in Him because our times are in His hands, and His hands are strong, and His hands are good, and His hands are wise, and His hands are kind. Trust Him. Rest in Him. Praise His name, for He is our sovereign God. Let's pray. Our sovereign God, we confess we don't understand all of this. It hurts our brains to think about it in some respects. But like a child who simply trusts the word of Father, we trust your word. And when you say you are in control of all things, We take you at your word and trust you. Even though we may not understand it all, even though we may struggle at times with aspects of it, we trust you. Help us to trust you more. We believe, help our unbelief. Lord, thank you that life is not spinning out of control, that you are at the controls, that you are ordering all things according to your will, for our good and for your glorious purposes. Help us to submit our wills to yours. And help us to have confidence for each and every day that our times are in your hands. Thank you, good, gracious, kind, loving, merciful, and sovereign Father. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.