Attributes of God - Sovereignty

Does God determine all things?  Does He reign supreme over all His creation?  Can anything trouble Him, or cause Him to change His plans? These questions deal with the sovereignty of God.  Notice that within the word ‘sovereignty’ is the word ‘reign’.  Is God on the throne of the universe, reigning over all His creation? As we did with all other attributes, we will look at this attribute of the sovereignty of God in the light of the declaration of Scripture.  First we must understand that the very name LORD, or JHWH, implies sovereignty.  The NASB translates ‘LORD’ 290 times as ‘Sovereign’.  Those scholars thought Sovereign with a capitol S best fit the translation.  So His very name implies He is the Ruler over all.  The Bible teaches monotheism, meaning that there is only one God.  Moses declared in (Deut 6:4-5),⁴ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.  Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  Because He is Sovereign it is a command, not a suggestion.  Our belief in only one God is part of our understanding of Sovereignty.  If there were more than one God what would we have as a standard?  We have seen that right and wrong is based on the very character of God.  But if there is more than one god then which one is the right one?  If they are different then one is not perfect. How would you know which one?  If they are both perfect they are the same. And so round and round we would go with no standard or direction, but the Bible declares He is One.  Since He is One, He can command us – His creation – as He wills. He is the Creator, and we are but His creatures.  The Potter can do as He wills with His clay. Whatever He does will be holy, just, and righteous. No man can challenge what He does because God is Creator and we are mere creatures.  In the attempt to understand His sovereignty we should review the three ‘omni’ terms applied to God. ‘Omni’ means ‘all’. These terms separate Him from the rest of His creation. None of His creatures share these ‘omni’ characteristics.   He is omnipotent or all-powerful.  He can do whatever He wills, but He only wills to act consistently with His character.  If all the angels of heaven and all the sons of men joined together to fight God – He would laugh. (Ps 2:4) says  ⁴ He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. It wouldn’t disturb Him in the least or shake His sovereignty in the slightest. (2 Chron 20:6) "O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you.” All power is His – He speaks things into existence and they remain existent by His power alone – “sustaining all things by his powerful word” that comes from (Hebrews 1:3)

He is omniscient.  That simply means all knowing.  God lives in the Eternal present tense.  He lives outside time and is the Creator of time.  He sees our past, present and future all at once, for He is I AM.  He knows every thought of every creature He has made throughout time.  There is nothing hidden from Him.  Peter realized this after walking with Jesus for 3 years. At his restoration he declared, “Lord, You know all things…”  Everything that ever happened or will happen is visible to God in this very instant and always. (Psalms 147:5) says Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit. He is omnipresent - He is everywhere present at once and always.  He is spirit and is not bound by location.  He is transcendent – beyond physical boundaries and yet He is also immanent, always by our side. His omnipresence and His manifest presence are different. He is everywhere and yet He was manifestly present over the mercy seat in the ball of light known as the Shekinah Glory. Hear how God describes it in (Isaiah 57:15), “For this is what the high and lofty One says-- he who lives forever, whose name is holy: "I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”  Now put these attributes together – all-powerful – all knowing – all present and you have the reasons He alone is sovereign. No man or angel compares with God in these characteristics.  He is the only One who could be in charge.  He is the only One we’d want in charge. He is the One for Whom all things exist.  (Ephesians 1:11b) tells us, “He works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,” And (Rom 11:36) declares, “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.”  As the Creator of everything He has all the rights to determine what will be.  (Isaiah 46:10) says “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.” (Psalms 115:3) says, “Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him”.

Remember He is nothing like man.  In fact, He chides us saying, “…you thought I was altogether like you.” No – He is perfect in all His attributes and acts according to His perfect character.  If omnipotence were in the hand of a man, the world would be destroyed in no time at all. If omniscience were in the mind of a man the world would end up his slave.  But God is not like a man.  He is just and faithful, loving and merciful.  He is holy.  Those attributes are evident in all that He chooses to do. These attributes of God bring us great comfort, if we are walking in obedience.  But they should put the fear of God in us if we are not.  If God were not all knowing He could get a surprise attack.  He would learn and change according to what He learned.  Then He would not be the same yesterday, today and forever.  The God you read about in the Bible would not be the same today.  If He was not all-powerful there would be rebellion within His creation that could potentially overthrow Him.  If He were not omnipresent how could He be omniscient for there would be things going on He was not aware of.  This is the mind boggling God we serve. He is unfathomable because we are mere creatures and He is infinitely greater than His creation.  When we consider these qualities of God we get a glimpse of His supremacy and sovereignty. But here we step into the realm of what is entirely impossible for man to conceive.  He gives man free will to choose or reject Him and yet what He purposes is all that will stand.  Even the rebellion of the wicked will bring Him glory.  I can choose to resist the Holy Spirit and God will use it to teach me.  When men choose to do evil, is God still Sovereign?  How could He be otherwise and remain God?  Then what is this rebellion going on with the fallen angels and the unrepentant men and women? (Psalms 76:10) says Human opposition only enhances your glory, for you use it as a sword of judgment. 

We see the examples in the Word – Joseph’s brothers sinned against God and out of jealousy they sold their brother into slavery – but God is Sovereign and used their rebellious acts as a part of His plan to save the family of Israel.  Pharaoh, in Ex 9:16, is told He is in rebellion against God so God can display His glory in just judgment on the nation of Egypt.  His hard heart was an instrument that made it possible for the fame of God to spread through the world as people talked about the plagues on the Egyptian gods. Did you know they are still finding in the secular hieroglyphic record in Egypt of great natural disasters of literal Biblical proportions, imagine that.  And look at Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednigo.  The King Nebuchadnezzer wanted everyone to worship his image, and when they would not he had them thrown into a fiery furnace.  His demands and actions were pure wickedness, but God delivered them and turned the King’s heart. And if you really want to marvel at the sovereignty of God in the midst of man’s free choice, just look at what happened to Jesus.  Pharisees deliver Him up for envy, rulers condemn Him to death unjustly, horribly murdered, and laid in a cold tomb. Through that tragic event, filled with the ruthlessness of man and Satan, God brought about the salvation of mankind.  Obviously Satan had no clue as to what was about to happen, or he would never have inspired the murder of Jesus on a cross.  What he thought was his ultimate victory over God, was the heel prophesied to crush his own head.  What a mighty God we serve!  God is on the throne of heaven even when man rebels – He works all things together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths says (Psalms 135:6).  He can command the Red Sea to part so that His children could walk through on dry ground.  He can have the earth open up and swallow Korah and the other rebels. He can order the Sun to stand still in its place until Joshua’s army obliterates the enemy.  He can have a sundial go backward to confirm His promise to a king.  He can shut the mouths of hungry lions, and cause fire not to burn, axe heads to float, a dead Almond branch to bud, and food to fall from the sky.  He is the Creator of all you see and He can have His creation do as He pleases.

Most amazing of all His actions He incarnated Himself as a baby in the womb of Mary.  As a man He was no more limited than on the throne of heaven.  He could say to deformed bodies, “Be whole”. He could say to the sin sick, “You are forgiven”. He could feed thousands from just a picnic basket. He could tell demons to leave and quit harassing individuals.   He spoke to the wind and the waves and they were stilled.  And when men killed and buried Him, He conquered death.  He was no less than Sovereign LORD over all then, as He is both now, and forever! And you better praise Him!  You may have thought that your life was a random set of circumstances.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Even the hairs of our head are numbered.  All the days God has ordained for us are written in His book before we were even born.  He picked our parents, the place of our birth, the place we live, the people we meet, and the fact that you are listening to this message this morning at Bethany United Methodist Church in Milton, PA. It is all in the hands of the Almighty Sovereign LORD of all.  He is Sovereign over all His works. The wonder is that He allows us to rebel if we choose.  No other creatures but the fallen angels were given such freedom. I believe He gave us that freedom because He desires our willing love to be expressed to Him as He pours out His goodness on us.  You can rebel, but why would you want to?  We are just allowing ourselves to be deceived if we take that route. Every good thing comes from the unchanging God.  We find our greatest peace and fulfillment when we yield to Him by yielding to the life of His only Son in us.  What peace and joy you should have, knowing this Sovereign One is the God that has called you into a relationship with Himself!  Nothing can thwart His plans, and nothing is too hard for Him.   Whatever happens in and with the world or with those who rise against us, He is Sovereign over all.  One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess to His Sovereignty over all creation.  But you better not wait till then.  Do it now.  Bow your knee in worship for His right to rule your life every day. 

There are many that stubbornly refuse to yield to His sovereignty, thinking that they are the lord over their own life.  The Scriptures declare that we serve God or we serve Satan. There is no real self as lord.  To serve self is to become enslaved by Satan while in our delusion we think that we are “free”.  We know that slavery ends in death – death of the spirit and the body. You can see it throughout the stories of the Bible: Cain, the world of Noah’s day, Pharaoh, the evil kings of Israel, the Pharisees.  All of them thought they were free, when in fact they were slaves to destruction.  You can see it in the people in our society, driven by greed, addictions, and pride, talking about God but not letting Him be the Lord of their lives.  We can see in our own lives in the temptations to do things that we know are destructive.  When we think it through and see clearly, we realize that the momentary pleasure of sin is not nearly worth the cost it will take from our lives. When the early church said, “Jesus is Lord”, they meant He made the decisions in their lives.  He called the shots.  He was sovereign over all they did. He was sovereign over their lives and over their worship together. His Sovereignty is real freedom, freedom to be who God made us to be.

 In 2 Timothy 2:12 Paul wrote that if we endure we would also reign with Him.  How can that be?  Won’t we mess it all up?  Our Sovereign God is able to make us capable of reigning with Him.   Only the Sovereign God could make us capable. He will finish the work He started in us by making us able. He reigns!  That will never change! What a mighty God we serve!

Attributes of God – Mercy

You are here this morning because of an attribute of God – Mercy. (Psalms 5:7) ⁷ But I, by your great mercy, will come into your house; in reverence will I bow down toward your holy temple. Together, as living stones, we are the temple of God, and that is by God’s mercy.  We, by His great mercy have come into His house, the family of God. We are so indebted to this wonderful attribute of God and yet we often take it for granted. Mercy – it’s more than just giving something that is much more than he or she deserves.  It is giving it to them, even though it is very unreasonable for them to have it.  How is that different from grace?  Mercy says you deserve some type of punishment but you will not get what you deserve.  Grace is a gift of something you have not earned.  Do you see the difference?  If you came this morning without shoes and I just gave you a pair out of the goodness of my heart you would be a recipient of grace.  If you threw that pair into a dumpster, but then realized you needed them and I gave you another pair, then you have received mercy. Listen to what it says in (Psalms 41:4) ⁴ I said, "O LORD, have mercy on me; heal me, for I have sinned against you."  I have sinned, and I deserve this affliction, but I ask for something that is contrary to what I deserve. That is asking for mercy. Both attributes, grace and mercy, spring from the goodness of God and are unearned by anything we do.  Yet mercy is only applied in righteousness.  God said to Moses, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion” says (Exodus 33:19). It sounds very arbitrary, but we must remember God’s attributes are all one thing and never act independently of the other attributes.  Let me give you an illustration from Israel’s history. When the Children of Israel defeated certain cities they were to dedicate the possessions to God and burn them as an offering.  If someone kept them  it would stop God from showing mercy to them because God is just and righteous. To reward rebellion is not right or just or even genuine love. (Deut 13:17 & 18) “None of those condemned things shall be found in your hands, so that the LORD will turn from his fierce anger; he will show you mercy, have compassion on you, and increase your numbers, as he promised on oath to your forefathers,¹⁸ because you obey the LORD your God, keeping all his commands that I am giving you today and doing what is right in his eyes.”   Obedience opens a window for God to pour in His mercy. It is not that our being good deserves mercy or earns it, but that sin, and outright rebellion, blocks it. (Dan 9:18) says ¹⁸ Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. Even though we can never earn it, we can close the door to mercy by rebellion.

Repentance also opens a way for mercy to be received. (Prov 28:13) ¹³ He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.   So we see God chooses to have mercy on those who are repentant and are not in rebellion against Him or not disobedient to His commands.   Obedience and repentance open a channel for the mercy of God to flow through.  They do not earn mercy but allow it to flow righteously. Numerous times through the psalms we see this expression of repentance and a request for mercy to be displayed toward the writer of the psalm or the nation. Are you unbolting the door to God’s mercy through your confession of sin, your acknowledgement that you have rebelled against God, and your willingness to change?  Some theological traditions within the church would argue that God is not moved by anything outside Himself and so repentance and obedience have nothing to do with mercy.  He just decides to have mercy on whomever (I do not subscribe to that thought process).  Not only does that contradict the examples I have just given but throws out the other attributes of God. It is saying His mercy can act independently from His justice.   Yet, man cannot find repentance and obedience in himself without the mercy and grace of God moving upon his heart.  This mercy that moves upon the heart of every man is the light that lights every man that comes into the world. When that mercy clearly reveals God calling us to Himself, we become accountable to respond. 

Before we have really received that calling of God  we are undeserving sinners by nature. We need a clear picture of what the fallen human condition is to truly appreciate mercy.  God would be perfectly justified in wiping our sin loving lives right off this planet for all the pain and havoc our rebellious hearts cause. (Lam 3:22) says ²² It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.  Before that revelation of God’s love to us personally // we have not yet received that invitation from God.  We haven’t felt His knocking upon the door of our heart. It is the rejection of that mercy that places us just one step closer to impending justice.  If you look carefully at the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, you will see that the first five times he hardened his own heart.  Then God hardened it until Pharaoh confessed his sin and we see that in Exodus 9:27 and the seventh plague. Then once more Pharaoh had to harden his own heart. God gave Him another chance because of repentance and confession. When Pharaoh spurned that, God began to harden Pharaoh’s heart again.  The mercy of God is sometimes an excuse for an unrepentant life. I’ve heard people say, “What kind of merciful God would send someone to hell.” That ide-ology is a justification for not yielding to the mercy of God drawing them to repentance.  What a sad excuse for remaining in rebellion.  God pleads with each one of us to stop destroying our lives with rebellion, and some would insist on going down that path by twisting the very nature of God.  To say God is merciful without being just is to distort His integrity and make God into man’s image, and to resolutely continue down our path of self-destruction.

God’s wrath on the wicked is mercy.  It is an exercise of His justice to turn them from self-destruction.  Hell for the unrepentant rebels who keep ignoring the love of God in giving His own Son for them is just // and is in keeping with the rebels’ demand to live a life separate from God.  God will not show mercy to those who ignore his holiness and righteousness.  For those who reject the love of God and the gift of His Son, the judgement they receive will be justice for their choices.  What they have sown they will reap. They have sown the wind and they will reap the whirlwind.  (Psalms 9:17) says  The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God.  Since they reject what the Son has done for them, they will be paid in full for their sin – which is separation from Eternal Life. Anything else would be unfair and God cannot be unfair.  It’s just not in His perfect character.  For the redeemed, it is an expression of God’s mercy in that heaven will not be defiled with the likes of the wicked. (Rev 21:27) says “There shall in no-wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither worketh abomination.” Sin being allowed in heaven is unimaginable.  Even the wrath of God is an expression of his mercy for it separates those who insist on darkness from those who have chosen the Light.  A rebel against the goodness of God might say, “Just because I want to do my own thing apart from God, surely, as merciful as He is, He would not throw me into a Lake of Fire.” Don’t count on it.  It may be the perfect expression of His mercy toward the redeemed and an answer to their insistence to live apart from Him. 

Difficulty in life, illness, trouble, and trials can be an expression of mercy as well.  David understood that, Job learned that, and Paul knew it was true.  Jonah was mercifully thrown into the sea, swallowed by a great fish and spit up on the shores of the very place he had been running from.  He probably wouldn’t have described it as mercy at the time, but later when Ninevah repented he could see that it was. In weakness we are made strong.  In difficulty we turn from self and look to the One who is our Strength. This, too, is the mercy of God.  But mercy doesn’t always come in the way that we expect it. As with all His attributes, the ultimate expression of mercy is the cross.  One problem with the Jews of that day is they did not expect mercy to appear in a form so humble. God cannot bless us with saving mercy while the justice for our rebellion against Him is not met.  In the cross, the justice of God was met, so that we could justly be the recipients of His mercy. It is by the mercy of God you are saved. We deserve the justice of eternal punishment for our rebellion against the Creator who gave us life.  But the mercy of God sent Jesus, who took what you and I rightly deserved so that mercy could be poured out on us – justly. “… saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” says (Titus 3:5). It wasn’t because we repented, or because we responded to his grace that drew us, although that unbolted the door – It is because His Son died in your place.  It delights the heart of God to express mercy towards you. (Micah 7:18) reads ¹⁸ Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.  God would love to show mercy to every soul.  It is His delight.  But some refuse to come to Him for His redeeming mercy and grace.  And like all the attributes of God, we are to exhibit this beautiful quality as the life of Christ is expressed in us. (Micah 6:8) says ⁸ He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. We are to love mercy. God doesn’t just like to show mercy - He loves to. More than any ritual we can perform or routine we can go through God wants us to express this attribute of His. (Hosea 6:6) says ⁶ For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. It was one of the three important things Jesus told the Pharisees they were lacking. (Matt 23:23) reads But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. There we see three of God’s attributes together.  (Zech 7:9) says This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.’ If you want mercy from God and others, Jesus said to be merciful.  If you show mercy you will receive mercy.  (Matt 5:7) explains Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.  How does this mercy express itself in our lives? First we are drawn to Christ and convicted by His mercy. When we repent and look to God  we are saved by it.  Then in view of that mercy given to us  we respond by presenting our bodies to God as a living sacrifice. Then through that same mercy, we are given a ministry. (2 Cor 4:1) says ¹ Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. In daily life the opportunities to be merciful are plentiful. It is most often expressed as forgiveness, patience, and endurance. 

To forgive those who wrong you again and again is mercy.  And remember the promise, ‘the merciful will be shown mercy.’  The same measuring cup you use toward others, God will use toward you.  I don’t know how that makes you feel but it makes me want to be the most merciful person in the world.  Where is the biggest mercy cup I can find?  It’s the life of Jesus Christ in me.  We must keep coming back to Jesus as our example.  His mercy is the right kind, mixed with love, yet just and holy, not self motivated, but love motivated.  His kind of mercy is always the right kind.   Is there someone in your life you are having difficulty showing God’s mercy to? You think you’ve scraped the bottom of your mercy barrel. Just when you were sure you used up all the mercy last time, there is more of the mercy of God there to meet that need. The life of Jesus in you will never run empty. It will be in you like an artesian well, flowing up into eternal life!  Let Him express His mercy through you and you will be shown even more mercy than the ocean of mercy you have already received.  If we were a little more in touch with the reality of the Kingdom of God, we could see we are all swimming in an ocean of mercy.  It reminds me of the servant who was forgiven a debt of a great amount by his lord, but refused to give mercy to another servant who owed him so little.  Be merciful – even as your Father in heaven is merciful.  Considering all the mercy He has invested in you, it is only right for you to pass it on to everyone you come in contact with – and especially to those who are close to you.  Right now the Spirit of God has probably brought someone to mind that you need to be merciful towards.  Would you like the same measure of mercy applied to you that you are showing them?  Is that how you want God to deal with you? Then you better get ready to show more mercy by the grace of God. You need to act on the conviction you are receiving right now if you believe the word of God.  I don’t mean just forgiving it, but do what the LORD does for you, in the way He does it for you.  Use the biggest measure you can find.  Determine right now before God how you need to respond to show God’s great mercy, and follow through with that plan with God’s help.  Remember (Deut 4:31) says For the LORD your God is a merciful God; and (Psalm 89:1) says I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.