It's an opening scripture I'd like to read from the book of Daniel, chapter four, prophet Daniel, fourth chapter, 34th and 35th verse. At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? begin with a story about a king, a great, mighty, wealthy, powerful king that lived very long ago by the name of Nebuchadnezzar. And Nebuchadnezzar was the ruler over the Babylonian Empire at a time when it was the peak empire in all the world. And the Babylonian Empire was renowned and known throughout the world for its wealth, for its majesty, for its powers, for the wonders that were built during its time. This was before the Persian Empire had risen to its prominence under Cyrus the Great. It's before the time when the Greek Empire would rise to its peak under Alexander the Great and the times of the Roman Empire. Before all that, The Babylonian Empire was in many ways the envy of the world, and Nebuchadnezzar was a mighty ruler who reigned over this. And he had, as his position as the king, the emperor of this mighty empire, he had a near absolute power in that monarchy, in that empire. He could tell people what to do, when to do it, how to do it, upon threat of pain of death if they refuse to follow his will. And the Book of Daniel is an incredible book in that it outlines, it describes for us and tells us the story of some of the interaction that the Hebrew captives who were in exile in Babylon head under Nebuchadnezzar's reign. At one point, it describes how he told everybody that they had to bow down to a statue which he had commissioned, and if they refused, they'd be thrown into a hot furnace. He had that kind of power to do that. Well, during Nebuchadnezzar's reign, God humbled him, and God showed him who really was in control, who really was sovereign. I said before that today the message would be about the sovereignty of God, and the word sovereignty is often associated with a king, with a ruler, with someone in a position of authority and power and nebuchadnezzar on the earth, really embodies the meaning of that word, but God humbled him. There came a time when he was out walking, it describes the scene where he's out walking in the midst of his kingdom and he's looking out at all the wealth and greatness of his kingdom. And he says in his heart, he looks out at it and he says, look at this great kingdom that I have made. And in that moment, in that instant, God humbled him in a powerful way. That was a lesson to him and an illustration to us of the sovereignty and the power of God and the humbling of man. God took away his sanity, God took away his kingdom for a season, and I believe for seven years he Without even his sanity, he crawled around on the ground eating grass and licking up the dew of the earth like an animal until God showed him who was really in charge. God often will demonstrate this in powerful ways so that we would come to see and recognize his character, his attributes, and his sovereignty. And so this brings us to this declaration that he makes at the end of this time. God had mercy on him, and he brought him back, and he raised him back up, and he showed him that, no, Nebuchadnezzar, you did not build this great kingdom. You do not make these things, you do not have this power by your own will or your own intention, but by the sovereignty and the sovereign purpose and will of God. And so he makes this acknowledgement after his understanding. is returned to him, he says he blesses the Most High. Before he was praising himself, now he's blessing the Most High that liveth forever and ever. Nebuchadnezzar was just a man. He lived for a season on this earth, which in comparison with God is like the blink of an eye or like the grass, which is here today and gone tomorrow, which withers away, which is one of the ways we are described in comparison to God. And he says he praised and honored him that liveth forever and ever. Catch this, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom from generation to generation. Nebuchadnezzar as a man only ruled for a season. The Babylonian Empire as a kingdom only dominated this earth for a time, but God's kingdom is from generation to generation. God's dominion and his sovereignty, his kingship, is eternal. And that is a great contrast. And then this statement, which we reference in our articles of faith, He says, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can say his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? Now, when the article of faith was written for the Southampton Primitive Baptist Church, it was written in this way. We believe that God is in all respects sovereign. And then it goes on, and the rest of this, notice, is simply a quote directly out of this scripture, that he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven. So among the angels, among the hosts of heaven, God is in charge and he does what he wants. And among the inhabitants of the earth, okay, so among angels, yes, among people, and animals and everything else, but primarily it has man under consideration here, mankind. God does what he wants, he does his will among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can say his hand, that is, no one has the power to stop him from doing what he's doing, or say to him, what doest thou? That is, no one can say, God, you don't have the right to do that, And no one can question God and say, God, what are you doing? Because God has the right, the sovereignty, to do as He pleases and according to His will, and no one can stop Him, and no one has the right to question what He's doing. That gets to the heart of what God's sovereignty is. And that is the subject of today's message. Let us consider the sovereignty of God. And with that introduction, next we'll look at what does it mean that we say God is in all respects sovereign. This is revealing of the character and attributes of the eternal God. If we think about this in the structure of our articles, first article we talked about who God is, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the one true and living God, who He is. We looked at the scriptures and how they are the authority for us because they are God's revelation. That answers the question, how do we know what God's will is, what He has revealed to us? And now in this next article, when we speak about the sovereignty of God, we are describing what God is like, what attributes does this one eternal, true, and living God possess, and how does He interact with His creation, including mankind, including His people. He is, it says, in all respects sovereign. So we will look at the sovereignty of God so that we can grow in our understanding of who God is, that our relationship to him might be deeper, more profound, and more fruitful to his praise. And then we will look at some practical implications for how we ought to respond to this doctrine. Because as I said right at the very beginning, all the doctrine that we are taught from the scriptures is practical to our lives. There's a reason God has revealed it to us. There's a purpose in our lives. And this, as it did for Nebuchadnezzar, as he came face to face with this doctrinal truth of the sovereignty of God, He was never the same after that. And you should never be the same again after you've encountered face-to-face the sovereignty of God. That should change us, that should transform us in very important ways, and we'll look at that. But coming back to what does it mean when we say God is in all respects sovereign? Well, I wanted to look up and see what is the definition of this word sovereign? Why do we use this? If you go to the dictionary, some of the ways in which it's defined is supreme in power, possessing supreme dominion. You'll hear this word supreme a lot. They're apparently very closely related in language. Supreme, superior to all others, chief. So God is the top, the absolute highest power that exists, and he has the absolute highest dominion. As any other authority on earth is under God's authority. And then also he is superior to all others. He is the chief among all. And then also supremely efficacious, superior to all others, or highest in authority. These all are focusing in our minds on the character of God. Who is God and what is he like? Well, he is supreme in his power, supreme in his authority and rule. So that is one dimension through which to look at sovereignty. When we say God is sovereign, we speak about his authority and his power. So authority, that is to say, his right to do as he wills. And when we speak of his power, we speak of his ability to do as he wills. And so when we have the earthly examples of people in positions of authority, we can see how sometimes there are deficiencies. For example, you may have somebody that's in charge. I can think of an example from my own life. When I was a student teacher, I went to school thinking I was going to be a secondary education teacher, and I spent six months of my schooling teaching students as a student teacher under the mentoring of an experienced teacher. And in general, it went really well. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the teaching. But there's one day that sticks out in my mind. It was not a good day. And this not a good day was when my mentor teacher was away that day, and I was filling in. And most of the classes went well, but there was one class that did not go well. Those students were out of control. But I was the teacher, right? I was responsible for that classroom, and I had the authority. I could tell them what to do. I could tell them to be quiet. I was in charge. But I found out very quickly that though I had the authority to tell them to be quiet and to pay attention, I did not have the power to make them do that. and the class was out of control. So we can see it sometimes that earthly ruler or leader may be in the position where they have the authority, but not the ability to execute their power. On the converse, sometimes people have power, maybe it's because they have the most money or they have the most weapons or they have the most physical strength. to assert their will in a situation when they don't have the right and the authority to do so. And with God, though, with God, God has both the right and the power to perform his will in this earth. He is the absolute authority. So that's one dimension through which to see sovereignty. Another is through the, what I think of as some of the classic attributes of God that people have recognized throughout the ages that are a wonderful thing to meditate on. Three that are often grouped together as a description of God's attributes are sometimes said this way, omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. Coming from the idea of omnipotence, all powerful. Omnipresent, everywhere present. Omniscient, all-knowing. This is a wonderful thing to contemplate, that the God that we worship is a God that has these attributes. He is all-powerful. That is, that there is no limit to God's power, His control, His ability to perform His will over all of His creation. There's no limit to His power. There's no limit to His knowledge. God knows everything. We can't even wrap our minds around that because God knows everything, everything that's happening right now, every event that's going on in the world. Our knowledge is so limited, it's limited to what we perceive with our senses, what we understand by the Spirit, but it is a limited understanding of all things. We also have a certain degree of intelligence and wisdom that we use to understand the world, but God's intelligence and God's wisdom is absolute. It's infinite. So that God, and this is really important for us to understand because as God has the power and authority to do what he pleases with his creation, We can also be thankful that in that, God also has the absolute wisdom to do that in a way that is right and good and in accordance with wisdom and truth. God has all knowledge. But not only does God know everything that's going on, but God's knowledge also, God has complete knowledge of the past, and the future. God knows not just what has happened and what is happening, but he knows what will happen, so that you can have confidence that God knows your future. God knows your future. An amazing thing to think about, we think of time, we think of past and present and future, and God knows all of that. We see examples in the scripture, God knows not only the future and what will happen, but God knows what would happen under certain circumstances. We'll see an example when we study Samuel in his time. That there's a time when, I think it's King Saul, he comes and David's held up in a city, and David goes to inquire of the Lord, when Saul comes to this city, are the people in this city gonna give me up? And God says, yes, they're going to give you up. They're going to betray you over to Saul. And so he gets the heck out of there. And they never give him up. God knows what would have happened had David stayed in the city, even though it never happened. God's knowledge is comprehensive. God knows everything, what would happen, what won't happen. God's knowledge is absolute. And therefore, God is using that knowledge and that power to bring to pass his purpose in the earth. God is also all everywhere present, omnipresent. God is everywhere, and that's both in time and in space. God is not limited by time, as you and I are limited by time. We are in this moment, and we are going through life in this path that we are walking, but the past, the future, and the present are open before God. We can't even grasp that concept, but God is everywhere present. Sometimes we say, I wish I could be in two places at once. I'd like to be over here visiting this person and over here taking care of this task and over here. And I can. I can be in one place at one time. God can and is everywhere present at all times. And this is not just an abstract concept. It is a deeply personal and encouraging truth as we saw in Psalm 139. Let's turn there for a moment again. In Psalm 139, King David, who had a personal and intimate relationship with the Lord, King David who had experienced all kinds of twists and turns in his life and his path, he'd been persecuted, He'd been wrongly accused. He himself turned aside from the Lord at times, disobeyed the Lord. He had served the Lord, loved the Lord, experienced hardship and sorrow and betrayal, grief. He knew that God, every moment of the way, every twist and turn of his path, every chapter that unfolded in the book of his life, God was present with him, and there was nowhere he could go that he would be away from the presence and the power of God. O Lord, he says, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and my uprising. Thou understandest my thought afar off. Perhaps there's no deeper thing for God to understand about you than even your thoughts. Even your thoughts, even what's going on in your mind and your heart, before it ever even comes out in words or actions, God is acquainted with it. Thou compassed my path and my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it all together. He goes on to say, If I ascend up, verse 7, whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, thou art there. Behold, thou art there, talking about the underworld, the grave. If I ascend up to heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me up. And here's where we have now the interaction between God's attributes, who he is, his power, his attributes, and his relationship with us. That is, that if you consider these attributes, God is all-powerful, God is sovereign, from our place as human beings, this is either a very fearful doctrine, or it is one that gives us great hope and comfort. And the thing that makes the difference is whether or not we find ourselves on God's side or opposed to God. And we, as the people of God, if we are God's people, if we are the subjects of his favor and his mercy, then this doctrine is a great comfort and encouragement to us as it was to David. As David lays these things out, If he was an enemy of God, if he was opposed to God, this would be a lament. God, anywhere I go, you're there. I can't run from you. And some people hate the doctrine of the sovereignty of God because they don't love the God who is sovereign. But for those that belong to God, this doctrine is a source of great comfort and great encouragement because It is the God we worship that has set his mercy and his love upon us, that is showing himself to be sovereign. Isaiah 46 verses 10 and 11 exemplify the sovereignty of God. These are also actually referenced in our article of faith. I'm going to go back to verse 9, Isaiah 46 verse 9 and 10. Remember the former things of old. This is the Lord speaking. Remember the former things of old for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there is none like me. That itself is a statement about the sovereignty of God. He alone is God. He alone is the one with absolute authority and power. It says, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. Now we see that God is not just aware of the future, but God is also actively bringing the future into existence in accordance with his purpose and his will. That is that God is not merely a fortune teller looking into a crystal ball who can see the future but can't do anything about it, but God is in fact sovereign over the future that his purposes, his will, his counsel will stand and he will accomplish that purpose. The chapter that we're reading in Isaiah corresponds to the time in history of Nebuchadnezzar. You go back to the first verse of chapter 46. Bell boweth down, Nebo stoopeth. Their idols were upon the beast and upon the cattle. Your carriages were heavy laden. They are a burden to the weary beast. There's a lot of context to unpack of that. Israel and the Kingdom of Judah, the Kingdom of Judah in particular, was conquered by Babylon. It was conquered by Babylon during the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar. And Judah, the Kingdom of Judah, was brought into captivity in Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. So there was a great defeat for the people of God, but in fact, this defeat was God's judgment on them. It wasn't counter to God's purpose and God's will, but it was God's judgment on them, God chastening his people for their sin. He allowed them, and purposed for them to be brought into captivity in Babylon. Well, Bel and Nebo, these were gods of the kingdom of Babylon. These were gods that people worshiped. They were idols. And here now we have this image, this image that the prophet Isaiah, by the word of the Lord, is presenting to us, illustrating. Picture this, picture a carriage. And the carriage is being carried off, and on that carriage there's idols. There's an idol of Bel, the god Bel, and there's an idol of the god Nebo. And they're riding along in this carriage because they're going off, into captivity. They're being carried off into captivity because this great kingdom of Babylon, which had dominated the world, had now been conquered by another. And it turned out to be the kingdom of Persia under the reign of Cyrus, who was an earthly king, an earthly emperor, who rose to power because of the purpose and the anointing of God that he would do so to accomplish God's purpose in the earth. Bell says, boweth down, nebo stupeth, the carriage is riding along and it rolls over some rocks and it rattles and these gods, these idols, they fall down and they bow in humility. Your carriages were heavy laden, they were a burden to weary beasts. They stooped, they bowed down together, they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are God into captivity." Now we see the gods of the nations, the idols of the nations, they are not sovereign. They couldn't deliver Babylon from going into captivity, but in fact they themselves, the very gods themselves, were being carried away into captivity to be under the dominion and authority of another. But God is different. He says, he declares the end from the beginning, verse 10, and from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure, calling a ravenous bird from the east, he's talking about Cyrus, by the way, a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country, yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass, I have purposed it, I will also do it. That is an example of the sovereignty of God at work in the earth. You think anybody was going to stop what God purposed here? You think anybody could stop what God was going to do? God had purposed it and he was going to bring it to pass. This does not mean that men or rebellious angels don't at times attempt to resist and thwart the purposes of God, but the incredible thing about the sovereignty of God is that God not only accomplishes his will in the earth, but he does so often and continually in the face of and in spite of the opposition of evil men and sometimes rebellious angels that resist his purpose, evil spirits, evil men, God accomplishes His purpose and overcomes even in the face of their rebellion and their resistance to it. That is one of the most incredible things about it, and that God's sovereignty is used. I'll read another scripture here from Psalm 115. Psalm 115, verse three. But our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. This is a great concise statement of the sovereignty of God. God does whatsoever he pleased. Or we can relate it to what we've recently seen in Ephesians. When it speaks about God's work of mercy and salvation, it says, according to the purpose of God, who worketh all things, according to the pleasure of his will. And that brings us to another dimension about the sovereignty of God, is that God is sovereign in his execution of his grace and his mercy. In one place it says it this way, God said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. That God has a right to have mercy and to show grace upon whomever he pleases. And no one can question him, no one can debate with God about whether he's right to do with what he owns as he pleases, because who are we? to talk back to God, and that's the way it describes it in one place. Paul, in Romans 9, describes a theoretical, hypothetical conversation with someone questioning God. He says, doesn't the potter have the power over the clay to make whatever he wants, essentially? And says, imagine the clay speaking back to God, saying, why have you made me this way? Who are you, oh man, to reply against God? God has a right to have mercy, and the context of that is, among other things, there were many at that time, when Paul was writing the book of Romans, who were unhappy, unsatisfied, or didn't think it was right, or in accordance with their understanding of how things should work, that God had chosen to have mercy upon the Gentiles as well as upon the Jews. God had chosen at that time to be merciful upon all that call upon Him. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And God had a right to do that. And there were some that were not content with that, that were not happy with that. And He says, God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will, He hardened. Because it's not of Him that runs or of Him that wills. It's not of human effort or human will, but it's of God who shows mercy. So we see that God is sovereign in His creation, and He's sovereign in His grace. he has mercy on whom he will have mercy. Jesus told a parable that also was right in line with this same theme. The parable that Jesus tells about the Lord of the vineyard who hires workers, and some he hires and they work 11 hours, and some he hires and they work maybe seven hours and three hours, and then he hires some that only work the last hour of the day. And the ones he hired at the beginning of the day, he agreed with them for the day's wage that he would pay them. And then it comes to the end of the day, and he gives everyone the day's wage, the ones that worked 11 hours, the one that worked one hour. And rather than everyone being grateful that he gave us exactly what he said he was going to give, The ones that worked the longer were grumbling against the ones that received from the hand of the Lord of the Vineyard. And he says, isn't it my right to do what I want with what belongs to me? And Jesus in that is showing that God has the right to do with His what belongs to Him. See, if we think that the mercy of God, we think that salvation, or our status in God's kingdom, our righteousness and our grace comes because we earn it, because we deserve it, because it's something inherent in us, then we will always have the wrong idea. And we will grumble when God seems to show mercy to someone else that doesn't seem fair to us. But if we understand that everything of spiritual blessings He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. If you understand that every spiritual blessing, every spiritual good that you have, the forgiveness of your sins, an inheritance among the sanctified, the precious blood of Christ to cleanse you, to cleanse your conscience from all sin, guilt, and unrighteousness, The ability to be called a child of God, the right to be called a child of God, everything that you have of spiritual good comes by the free gift of God, that it was His riches and His right to give it or withhold it, and everything you have is at His hand, then all that you will do when you see God show mercy to someone else, who might seem to deserve it less, is rejoice, because you know that your heavenly Father rejoices over one sinner that repents. And so we see that God is sovereign in his mercy, he's sovereign that he has mercy on whomever he will have mercy, and he's sovereign in his mercy in that he is unthwarted He is effectual, effective in accomplishing the mercy that He intends to have. As it said, when Jesus was going to be born, they will call His name Jesus. You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. He would come and He would accomplish the salvation of His people. I mentioned before that God's sovereignty is such that not only does God accomplish His purpose among His creation, but He does so in the face of great opposition to His purpose. God is not thwarted by the rebellion of man. or the rebellion of the devil, the resistance of the devil against his purpose, but God in his wisdom and his power and his authority overcomes in order to accomplish his purpose, and even in ways that are mysterious to us, is able to use the wicked in order to accomplish his purpose in a way that magnifies his glory and brings about deliverance from his people. One example that comes to mind is from the man Joseph, back in the book of Genesis, it records his story. Joseph, one of 12 brothers, the patriarchs of the tribes of Israel. Well, Joseph was loved of his father, but he was hated by his brothers. And yet it was God's purpose, it was God's purpose that Joseph would rise among his brethren to a place of honor, and a place of authority, and be a means of deliverance for his people from destruction. That was God's purpose. And it would have seemed along the path that many attempted to thwart God and his purpose. First of all, his brothers. Joseph told him his dreams. God foreshadowed this in dreams of him rising up in authority over his whole family, and his brothers hated him for it. and they were going to throw him in a pit and leave him for dead. They decided instead to sell him into slavery, and he was brought into Egypt a prisoner. Then in Egypt, he rose to a place of prominence in Potiphar's house, and things would have seemed like maybe they'd finally turned around and they were going well for Joseph, but instead he's falsely accused by Potiphar's wife, and he's thrown into prison. And it would seem to the human eye, to the human reasoning that perhaps God's purpose was being resisted, was being thwarted again. Now Joseph, who was supposed to be in authority and be a deliverer for the people of his family, is now in prison, locked away for years. But it says something amazing throughout all of that. It says something wonderful. The Lord was with him. as you're going through the course of your life. It can be hard to see that sometimes. It can be hard to see. I mean, we have the big picture. We can read in Genesis and we can read that story in probably 25 minutes and get through the ups and the downs and we can see, of course God had a plan and a purpose all along. But what do you think it was like for Joseph in prison for one year, two years, forgotten by everyone? But the Lord was with him. The Lord was with him. and the Lord is with his people. The Lord is with his people, and so we can take comfort in the midst of our troubles, knowing that God's plan will not be thwarted, no matter what the resistance of the enemy. And soon enough it came, and Joseph was lifted out of prison, interpreted Pharaoh's dream, was raised up as second only to Pharaoh in all the kingdom of Egypt, and was a means to bring about deliverance for his family from the famine that would come. And so we see how even the parts, even the resistance of the enemy was turned by God to be used to accomplish his purpose. And that's one of the greatest examples in all the Bible of that. But there's an even greater one. And that is with our Lord Jesus Christ himself. There is no one that was more opposed by the enemy than Jesus himself. He was betrayed by his own people. He was hated by his own brothers and sisters, his relatives, his own people, the people of Israel. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. They hated him. They wanted to put him to death. They wanted to turn him over to the Roman authorities. The devil wanted to destroy him. He enters into Judas in order to betray Jesus and put him to death. And they were all united together to try to destroy Jesus. And we might look at that and we might see how all of God's enemies, the corrupt Pharisees, the compromised and corrupt chief priests, the Sanhedrin, Herod, Pontius Pilate and the devil himself entering into Judas to betray Jesus over into imprisonment and death. They're all lined up to try to destroy Jesus and thwart the purpose of God. They would gather together, the Jews, the Gentiles, the kings, the people in authority, the evil spirits, and they gather around to destroy Jesus but in what might have seemed like their greatest victory, God in that was bringing about victory for his people. And the evil spirits and the powers that were united together, it says that Jesus on the cross, he spoiled principalities and powers, making a show of them openly and triumphing over them in it. That what seemed like his greatest defeat was his victory. And Peter would later pray, offer up in his prayer that these were all gathered together to do, but he praises God, he says, to do whatsoever by hand and by purpose had determined before to be done. That even in their opposition, God was turning things around and using it to accomplish the deliverance and salvation of his people through the death of Christ, through his suffering bleeding and death upon the tree, that through his offering we might be saved. And so we see that we have no fear of the plan of God being thwarted by the evil of this world. As we sang in that hymn, though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. is sovereign and he shall accomplish his purpose and we can take confidence in that. Lastly, how do we apply this in our lives? I think there's some very clear and obvious ways. One is to recognize and obey the authority of God. Saying God has absolute authority over His creation is not just some abstract, distant concept that we can stand back and admire. If God has absolute authority over all of His creation, that means you. That means what He says to do, we must do. What He says do not, do not do. That it doesn't matter what people's opinions are. It says, let God be true and every man a liar. It doesn't matter what the spirit of the age is. It doesn't matter what's popular in one generation or another generation. We have a different authority. We recognize the authority of God over all things and therefore we are called to obey Him. I said before, I said the doctrine of the sovereignty of God can be a joyful, encouraging doctrine, or it can be a fearful doctrine, depending or not whether we are on His side or not. To those that are on His side, it is a great encouragement. It says, God, all things, it says, work together for good to them that love Him, to them that are the called according to His purpose. those that are on God's side, those that love God, those that are called by God, we can have peace and confidence that all of these things are working together for our good. All the things God will turn, ultimately, for our good. Though the wrong seems oft so strong and though there are many things that are evil and wrong in this world and that people do to oppose God, that God does not approve of or sanction those things, but God is overcoming them for His purpose, and if we are on His side, then we have reason to be comforted. So we can obey Him, and also, right along that with trust Him. Trust and obey. We can trust in God. We can have confidence in God. We can have peace in the midst of the storm, knowing that we serve a God who has authority and power over all these things. The wind, the waves. He can overcome evil. He can overcome all that opposes us in this life. And then lastly, be humble. We have every reason to be humble. If the doctrine of the sovereignty of God doesn't humble us, then it's hard to see what possibly will. And sometimes it takes a dramatic experience of it. Maybe me just teaching on it here isn't enough to pierce into your heart to bring you face to face with the sovereignty of God and humble you. For Nebuchadnezzar, it took more than Daniel telling him that he needed to repent, which he did. Repent, turn from his ways, turn from his evil. At that time, that wasn't enough to transform Nebuchadnezzar's mind. He might have been spared what he went through if the word itself had pierced into his heart at that time. But in accordance with the purposes of God, God in his time brought him low so that he would stand face to face with the sovereignty of God. And when he was, he was humble. When he was, he knew he wasn't the greatest king in all creation anymore. there was another that was greater. And not only greater, not only a little bit greater, not only just one rank up, but a king, a ruler whose dominion and reign was so high above his own. How much more, you and I, with our little lives and our little thoughts and little existence here, not to belittle it, but in comparison with the greatness of God and His purpose. We're like the grass that is here today and withers tomorrow. How much more should we be humble and look to God, because it says, He giveth grace to the humble, but He resists the proud. And so, let us be humble, humble ourselves before the living God, who is in all respects sovereign.