As we turn our attention now to the preaching of God's word, we're continuing our series through the attributes of God. And this morning, we come to the attribute of God's sovereignty. And as we'll be looking at several passages today, but as we begin, I'm going to read for us from Paul's letter to the Ephesians. We'll be looking specifically in this passage at verse 11, but as we begin this morning I'll read from verse 1 through verse 14 of Ephesians chapter 1. So hear now the word of God. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace. with which he has blessed us in the beloved. In him we have a redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. According to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. And the Lord bless the reading of his word and now the preaching and hearing of his word as well. So as we consider the topic of God's sovereignty this morning, and we look at how it impacts our lives, I want to begin by saying that in this sermon this morning, we're not going to be covering all the various nuances of how God's sovereignty might impact our lives. And I think that's something that would be very exhaustive. It could probably take a year's worth of a series in and of itself. But this morning we're going to be looking at the effect of the overall concept of God's sovereignty should have on us. and our response to the fact that God is sovereign, that he is in control, and how that is to impact us on its most basic and foundational level. And so the theme we're going to be looking at this morning, and that I hope we all come away with, is to be comforted as we think about God's sovereignty. To take comfort that our God is sovereign. For you and I, as his children, to find comfort in the fact that our God is sovereign. And we'll be looking at His sovereignty in three ways. First of all, to take comfort in God's sovereignty over all things, and to take comfort in God's sovereignty being absolute, and to take comfort in God's sovereignty over all men. So first of all, take comfort in God's sovereignty over all things. Now as I was reading in Ephesians as we began, in verse 11, we read, and we read, in him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. Now in conjunction with this, if we consider also Revelation chapter four, verse 11, There, God has given glory and honor, and He's proclaimed as being worthy of receiving this honor and glory, because He is the one who has created all things. He has created everything, and He is working everything according to the counsel of His will. So when you think of, first of all, all creation, A couple of illustrations here. Whenever my family comes into town, especially my sisters, we like to find a hike somewhere and to walk along the trail. And this past Friday, we went to a hike we found up on Fidalgo Island in Washington Park. It has beautiful scenery. I highly recommend it on a beautiful day. And it's known for its eagles, although we just have seen one eagle in the two weeks that we've been up there. But it's supposedly known for its eagles. But as we were eating lunch, You know, if any of you follow us on Facebook, you saw that as we're eating lunch, this eagle swooped in over us and came to perch on this dead tree that was just, you know, maybe 50 yards from us. And it was beautiful. And then it took off again and went out over the sound and tried to get a fish, but came up empty-handed and flew by us again. And it was just wonderful for us to enjoy. And as I began thinking about it, you know, God knows that eagle. I mean, to us, it's a random eagle that kind of comes in and swoops down. God knows that eagle. He knows when that eagle was born. He knows how that eagle was born. He knows where that eagle was born. He knows where that eagle's nest is. He knows if that eagle has a mate or eagle chicks of its own. He knows that it's hungry. And although a fish was not provided for it at that moment, he'll provide a fish for it at some point. God knows that eagle. God knows every single aspect of His creation. And as we grow in our understanding of His creation, as I've mentioned before, that's our knowledge and understanding of God and our awe of Him should grow with it. As we consider the vastness of the universe and how God knows every corner of it. As we consider and we look at a microscope going farther and farther down into the smaller building blocks of life, God knows all of that, and even those things that maybe we haven't been able to see yet, because our technology isn't there. He knows all of this, and He is sovereign over it. It obeys His voice, it obeys His command. You know, when I was growing up, I've mentioned before, well, I grew up in Kansas, in a suburb of Kansas City, We've got powerful thunderstorms that come through there during certain times of year. And where I grew up was just down the street from a radio station. So as the tower of that radio station was thrust up in the air just when thunderstorms would come through, it would just get pummeled with lightning. And as a child, I was terrified. I hated thunderstorms. They were the worst thing. If I saw on the news that there was a thunderstorm warning, I would just be in terror the rest of that afternoon. And that day of, when is it gonna come through? And it's just terrifying to me. But as I grew up, I came to love them. And if I saw that there was a tornado warning or a thunderstorm warning, I got kind of excited. It's like, wow, all right, we're gonna get a show today. And that change comes over a maturing and a coming to know of who is in control of those storms. That those storms aren't just random lightning strikes of a tower. They're not just random workings of the wind in our atmosphere. It's the divine decree of God in His hand at work. And we get to see that. He is in control of these things. And so when we consider the various aspects of the created world, whether it's to deal with outer space in an asteroid or a comet that's flying by, or the rotation of the Earth, or the planets moving, or the way that our subatomic particles are held together, or a storm that's passing through, or an earthquake that hits, or a hurricane that hits, a flood, all of these things are under the direct control of our God. And that should give us a measure of comfort. You know, we can look out at the created world and just think this is just some random happening of events. But in reality, we're seeing unfold the will of God in His creation. And when it seems like this earth is out of control in the natural order, we can take comfort in knowing, well, no, actually, God is in control. He is working behind the scenes and His hand is guiding us. And this also has implications for our life's situations. Not only in the created world as we see nature unfolding, but in our life situation as our life is unfolding. We sometimes have difficult, hard things to go through. Many of us here are going through hard and difficult things. But we can take comfort in knowing that these things are too controlled by God. and under his direction. When I was a young child, up until about the age of four, I was a sickly kid. I think my mom, well the weight gets lower and lower, but I think when I was growing up, my mom used to say I weighed about 28 pounds when I was four years old. And the reason was is that I had a constant recurring tonsillitis. And it was bad, and I couldn't keep things down. And when it would flare up, you could see my neck bulging from the bumps that were there. Until round four, the doctors finally decided, OK, we need to take these out. These are just causing problems. We need to have them out. And so I took them out. And my mom likes to say, I began eating after that and never really stopped. I was terrified, I can still remember, it's some of my earliest memories, I was terrified of that surgery. I still remember being wheeled down the hall watching the lights pass by. I remember the gas mask that was put over my face as I was crying into it, trying to follow their directions of taking deep breaths and counting backwards from 99. Then I remember waking up in the recovery room Now, I needed that, although I was terrified, I had to go through that. It was something that I had to go through as a child to be healthy, to come out on the other end, to be stronger, to have good health. That was something that I had to go through and endure. Now, as we consider our own life circumstances, as we have things that we go through that are hard, that are difficult, that terrify us, We can take comfort in knowing that our God is sovereign and He is putting that before us, not as someone who is angry and wants to punish us and just to see us suffer, but as a loving Heavenly Father who knows what is good for us. And although at times we don't want to hear the verses from the latter part of Romans chapter eight about how God works all things for the good of His people, Yet we need to hear those words because, in fact, all things are working for the good of His people. All things. Everything. Every turmoil that the world is facing, every trial that we face or suffering that we face in our own life. Everything. All the peaks and the mountaintop experiences of joy that we have, as well as the valleys. Every moment of our life, God is working sovereignly in control for our good, to build us up, to draw us closer to Him, that we might rely more upon Him, to strengthen our faith, to refine us. So as we look out at the created world and its seemingly random happenings, as we look at our own life and the valleys and the peaks that we have, We can take comfort in knowing that God is sovereign over all these things. They aren't random happenings, but they are the outworking of the sovereign will of God as he does everything according to the counsel of his own will. So brothers and sisters, take comfort that God is sovereign over all things. Secondly, we can take comfort in God's sovereignty being absolute. In Psalm 115, verse 3, we see that God does as He pleases. In Proverbs 21, verse 1, we see that the Lord is the one directing the king's heart, so the rulers of the earth. God is the one who is directing the kings and the rulers of the earth. In Matthew 20 verse 15, this is the parable of the landowner who goes out at various times of the day and he agrees to pay people a certain amount. And then at the end of the day, he pays the same amount to those that he had just hired as those that he had hired at the beginning of the day. And so those that were hired at the beginning of the day complained to the landowner in the parable of, hey, we've been working in your field throughout the heat of the day, and you've paid us this amount, and you've paid them the same amount. And the response of the landowner, who is representing God in this parable, is that, I haven't wronged you, I paid you exactly what I agreed to pay you. Like, why are you angry at me for doing what I will with what is mine? I wanted to show grace to these workers that came later in the day. And what we can learn from that is all things are God's. And He can do all things, He can do whatever He wants with everything that is His. His sovereignty is absolute. All of creation is His. And as that, He has the right and the ability to do whatever he wants with it. And this is, again, kind of exemplified in Job chapter 33, verse 13. Here, this is the portion of Job where Job's three friends have been giving him some advice or counsel. Some of it not all that great, And then at the end there's a young man who's been watching all of this and seeing it unfold and he's been patient as these older gentlemen are discussing and interacting. And then finally he comes in and he speaks. And he speaks well to Job. And in his speech to Job he says in 33 verse 13, why do you contend against him, that is God, saying he will answer none of man's words? And it's kind of in the ESV as a question. Really, if you look at a better translation of this verse, would be something along the lines of what we, if you have a King James version, that you might read in there, which says something along these lines, why contend with him, that is why contend with God, for all his deeds, he will not answer. Meaning that he will not have to give an account for what he does. And so Elihu is showing Job and asking him, why are you contending with the Almighty? Why are you trying to set up a case against him? He doesn't have to answer to you. He doesn't have to answer to anyone for what he does. Because his sovereignty is absolute. Nebuchadnezzar, King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter four, learned this in a very hard and real way. as he looked out upon his kingdom and gloried in what he had built up. And the Lord punished him by sending him out into the wilderness to live like an animal for seven years. And at the end of that time, as the Lord brings him back to his senses and restores him to his place as king of Babylon, he gives praise to God and rejoices in God. But he says basically that all the nations are as nothing to him. And who can tell him, what have you done? Who can hold Him account? The teaching of Scripture is that His sovereignty is absolute. There is not a point in time, not a point in history, where God is not sovereign over His creation and all that dwell in it. This is why Psalm 2 opens and asks, why do the Gentile nations rage? Why are they raging against God? It's pointless. They can't overthrow him. And God's response in Psalm 2 is he who sits in heaven laughs. He not just kind of chuckles, but it's a word there where he ridicules the thought that these nations are gonna actually overthrow him. It's ridiculous because he is sovereign over all things. Well, how does this bring us comfort? Well, as I was riding the bus last week, I was riding the bus home, I was just reminded, and I mean, nothing happened, but I just realized and remembered that I'm not wearing a seatbelt. I'm sitting here, you know, I've been trained, okay, you get in a car, you put on your seatbelt, and you drive. Or you're riding in a car, you put on your seatbelt, and you're taken somewhere. That's how you're safe. But when you're riding a bus, all that goes out the window. and you just plop yourself in the seat, and you trust that everything is going to be fine. Now, we do that, as I began thinking about it, like, why do I do that? Like, well, on a certain level, I'm trusting that the driver has control of this vehicle, that he knows how to use this bus, and he knows how to drive safely. and that he's not going to go flying down the road at an unsafe speed, and he's not going to take corners in an unsafe way, and he's not going to hit someone, but that he has a control over that vehicle that keeps us safe. Now, ultimately, you know, my trust rests in God and that he is the one in control. But the Iuzis illustration as a means to show us of why can we find comfort in the fact that God is sovereign over all things, that His sovereignty is absolute. The bus driver's sovereignty is very limited, yet in some way it gives me comfort. Well, God's sovereignty over all of His creation gives us comfort in knowing, once again, that He is in control over everything. And nothing is going to raise up and take that sovereignty away from Him. He is in control. over everything, and sovereign over everything, and His sovereignty is absolute. And so again, in a similar way to point one, as we see the world around us, we can take comfort in knowing that our God's sovereignty isn't limited. It is total. It is absolute. And this brings us to the third point, that God's sovereignty, we can take comfort in His sovereignty over all men. If you turn with me in your Bibles first of all to Genesis chapter 50 and beginning in verse 15 and reading to verse 21. Here we read, When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him. So they sent a message to Joseph saying, your father gave this command before he died. Say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of your brothers in their sin because they did evil to you. And now please forgive the transgressions of the servant of the God of your father. Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, behold, we are your servants. But Joseph said to them, do not fear. for am I in the place of God. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones. Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. That is this situation with Joseph is It really points us to, and mirrors in many ways, the experiences of our own Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We read in Acts chapter 2, verse 23, that as Peter is giving his sermon in Pentecost, beginning in verse 22, we read, Men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst. As you yourselves know, This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pains of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. So in verse 23 there, Peter says, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. you killed and crucified by the hands of lawless men." So when we say that we can take comfort in God's sovereignty over all men, what we need to realize is that includes the fact that God is sovereign even over the evil actions and sinful actions of mankind. The life of Joseph the evil that his brothers did to him, that was according to the plan of God, to save many people throughout the land of Egypt, through the ministry of Joseph. The crucifixion of our Lord and Savior, the most evil and vile of human actions in all of human history, was a part of the plan of God, part of his decree. to save us, to redeem his people, that our sins might be forgiven and we be reconciled to him. Now, one of the questions that this raises is, is God then culpable? If he is sovereign over even the evil actions and sinful actions of humanity, does that make him responsible? Maybe a way to illustrate this on some level is to say that from time to time, not every day, but from time to time, we give our kids some iPad time or some iPhone time. We have some kids' games on there. And so they have a little bit of time where they can play that. But they also know that they're not to do that unless they come and ask us for that time. Now, Elisha and I know that. So if I leave and I put, knowing that, if I put my iPad or my iPhone on the coffee table where my children can have easy access to it, that in a sense will be a temptation to them. If they come along and they start playing with the iPad and iPhone without first asking me, does that make me responsible for the disobedience of my children? No. It doesn't. But in that situation, if they should be disobedient, they can take the opportunity to hopefully do them some good. Teach them. Instruct them. And build them up. So that next time, they might be strengthened against that temptation. And that's just on a small level. But God is not in any way responsible for the sinful actions of men. even though He is sovereign over our actions. As one commentator put it, as we think about the relationship between the two, I mean, really, our responsibility for our own actions is built upon the sovereignty of God. You know, God has given us laws to follow, decrees to follow, and He has done that based upon His sovereignty. He is the sovereign creator of heaven and earth, and so He has decreed what should and should not be done. And we're told that had the law not come through the Apostle Paul, that we would not know what sin was. I would not know what it is to covet unless the law said thou shalt not covet. And so God's sovereign decrees make us responsible for following those decrees. In all honesty, as we think about this, and this is the conclusion I came to, would we want it any other way? Think about a world where the evil of humanity is not under the restraint of the sovereign God and creator of the universe. That's a terrifying world. People say, how can a good God let evil happen? Well, we don't know how evil the world could be. Because God, in his goodness, in his sovereignty, has not let it get as evil as it could be. He, in his mercy, and in his goodness, and in his sovereign care over this world, in humanity has lovingly restrained the evil of humanity for his purpose, for his goodwill, so that his gospel would go forth in a society that has laws and order. Our God is sovereign even over all men in our actions. And we can take comfort in knowing that God is sovereign over all men. The beginning of Job also teaches us this, as not only is God sovereign over all men, he is also sovereign over Satan and his demons. As Satan must come to God and seek permission. And this gives me great comfort in knowing that God is in control. And so, brothers and sisters, as we've considered God's sovereignty in a few ways, the fact that He has created all things and is working all things out to His glorious purpose and will, the fact that it is absolute, it is not hindered in any way, and there is not a part of His creation in which God does not have control over and sovereignty over even the sinfulness of humanity. as He has restrained us by what we call, for lack of a better term, His common grace. He has restrained the evil of this world that it wouldn't fall apart through His glory, honor, and praise. And so my hope as we close today that you and I will find comfort in this. It doesn't make the trials, the tribulations, the hard things we have to go through any easier. that we can find comfort in knowing that it's not beyond the control of our Savior, and that God is sovereign over all things. Amen. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, we do give you thanks that you are sovereign. Lord, we, oftentimes when we think about how just your sovereignty affects our lives, Lord, we don't stop and really think about how every aspect of your creation is under your control. Everything is working out according to the counsel of your will, and no one could ever say to you, what have you done? Lord, we praise you that you are sovereign over all things, especially, Lord, in our salvation, that according to your will, according to your plan, Jesus of Nazareth was delivered up to the hands of evil men and crucified on the cross, where he bore your wrath for our sins. And by your grace and your power, you raised him from the dead. And by your grace, you have taken our sins from us through his shed blood. We pray, Lord, that we would find comfort and rejoice in your sovereign care. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.